Remote turn-on (ohh lala)

try wiring the subs in series, heres a diagram. If your subs are 4 ohms, which i think the Perfect 12's are, then you will drop the combined impeadence to 2 ohms. Providing your amp can handle it, it will sound much better. Also you must bridge the amp.

Your stock headunit is connected to a factory amp isnt it? if it is, then the signal is them speaker wires will be amplified, possible too much. Now most Speaker to RCA convertor have a gain dial on them, try turning that down a touch, because RCA inputs are only supposed to be maxium 4 volts, anymore and the amp will only amplify distortion, which sounds like what happening here.

P11GT,
Im pretty sure that wiring in parallel is the one that would give you a 2ohm load. Wiring in series would give me an 8ohm load..

The RCA convertor also doesnt have any gain controls or anything that I know of..

yea the way that P11GT showed you gives an 8ohm load
may i ask what kind of amp it is that you are running?
there could be many reasons that causes shitty quality sounds...
but i can say it is usually 99% the installation which stuffs things up...
the earth is THE common problem with audio installation...make sure you have a DAMN good earth...
the actual audio signal too is very important...if you feed a signal into the amp that is distorted or shitty already.... it is only going to amplify that shitty signal into bigger/shitty music...you see my point?

Ya, I see your point.. That's exactly what I was saying.
Converting amplified signals from speaker-level to RCA and then amplifying them AGAIN is probably what's wrong.
My ground wire is fine.. mounted directly to chasis

My amp is a Rockford Fosgate bd1000d

Oh so you are using the BD to run the perfect subs?? that's good man
good gears...
hm...i think you mentioned that your gains are turned right up??
hm....
this is probably a signal problem then.....
this is what you can do to try to test it...
leave everything alone....just unplug your rcas....run another signal source into it....make sure your amp is still on tho....you will have to keep your stereo on inorder to keep the amp on... (remote signal from the head unit)
listen to it..observe...and see if there any change in quality...

What kind of <other> source would I run to it??

any other source that has RCAs output i guess
like a VCR or even a home CD player
something that you can guarantee gives a good & clean output signal
this way..if it still doesn't work..that means it is not your head unit's signal which is stuffing things up....
you see?
we call this "Debugging" in software :p :p :p
trying to eliminate down where the cause of the problem is
:)

Yes I know all of that, I'm just wondering how I am gonna get something like a VCR or a home cd player out to my car and connected.

AHahaha you a software person too aye?
em...
you dun really need to get the actual machine inside the car..
just get a long as rca cable... and maybe a long as power extension cable too'
turn on your car stereo...and make sure the amp is on.. (just look at the lights on the amp)
connect the signal cable from your home cd player to your amp...turn on your home cd player.... press play
there you go
:) heheeh

Hah, that RCA cable would have to be about 300 ft long :)

haha that's right...you ppl in america have MEGA HOUSE don't you?
:p :p
:D
well or you can even try with a discman...like the right cable is needed
i think it will be the 3.5 to rca
it should still be better to running a convertor

My bro brought out his laptop and he already had a RCA convertor thingy for it. We hooked it up (no music, just bass :) ) and it sounded like butt still.
It sounds like air is escaping or something and it doesn't pound at all.
This box me and my friend built is turning out to be shit :) heh

hahahah :D
ok..now that you know it is not the head unit's fault
well as you said it could well be the box, or may be the subs are out of
phase...so that they are canceling each other out
what size is the box? vented or sealed? it's not bandpass is it ? :D
if it is a vented box...Size of the port and the box is VERY IMPORTANT..wrong size boxs or ports could end up killing your subs...built it to the recommanded spec in the owner mannual

otherwise if it is a sealed box, the size of the box is not AS important, but still is of coz :D one thing you have to make sure is that make sure there is no air l
leakage AT ALL...tiny wholes you have to fill them up....

try to play around with the phasing of the subs...swap the +ve and the -ve around....see if it makes any difference....

OH...one more thing...you speaker wires may well be SHORTENING OUT!!!!
i remember i had that once..... it's probably in the box or something...when you short circuited the amp... the impedence will drop to (close to) zero, no amp and handle zero impedence!! the rockford amps are the tougher ones around...
your amp was probably still trying to output music at (close to) zero impedence...this will demand (close to) infinity current...which i don't think anybody's battery can supply..... that's why it will sound like as if the amp is not making the power....because of the "weak" power supply of what it is wanting....

do go and check this out.... i personally reckon it probably is shortening out something in your speaker circuit
find it b4 you blow anything up :D :D :D

:)
keep me informed

How do you short circuit the amp?

My box is sealed.
Anyways.. the box has so many freakin' holes its unbelievable.
My friend built the box for me awhile ago and it's not carpeted.
He used sealant stuff on some of the holes but there are some big ones that I found. I'm seriously thinking about buying a box or waiting until my friend comes back into town..

Also, this person I met today went on about how Rockford Fosgate amps are not real amps and are "chip amps"!??
Then he started sayin Infinity speakers and subs sucked and all this shit and to go with MD Quart and another brand I can't think of which totally pissed me off because he was so biased. I bet you anything he has never heard or used the Infinity brand..

Anyways..

he was probably talking about "Boston Accoustics" ...
yes they make some damn good speakers too
but yea...that guy does sound VERY biased!!
he has probably heard of some bottom line infiniti products and used them as the standard for comparisons

when he mentioned about RF amps are chipped amps...i really don't know what he is going on about...probably neither does him...

there are so many different kinds of RF amps out there anyway..that's just generalisation...
Your amp is a class D amp... D stands for Digital? i can't quite remember what it stands for now, but class D amps are ultra efficient... their efficiency is quite a bit higher than conventional class A or class AB amps
they produce alot less heat than the conventional amps does.... this means that they need less battery power for its output
you probably don't know what this means or what the benifits of this is...but once you have had experienced with building multi amps system...you will know why some people spend so much money on batteries :p

anyway, it sounds like the quality of the box is way out.... you are wasting the subs with this kinda quality box man.... get it built to the right size....

I understand the battery issue.. I'm going to have to buy another amp soon and I'm worried it might drain my battery. The 1 amp I already have now dims my lights so..

Also, that box was built to the specifications of the Perfect 12's ..
I just dont think my friend put very much effort into it like he did his own box. I was thinking maybe just sealing it up first then seeing how it sounded. If it sounds better I might just keep it.

Yep that sounds like a solution

Lemme know what happens :)

Originally posted by pche059
yea the way that P11GT showed you gives an 8ohm load


True, but the amp will give you 2 ohm output when bridge, and it will run at that. Dont know all the ins and outs but it does work better than parrallel in most cases. It really depends upon the equipement.

How would I bridge my amp though? It's a mono amp..

simple............... you can't. i didnt realise you had a mono amp. i tend to use 2 ch amps and bridge them, so i guess you should just laeve it parallel.