Can I power two dayton 15" hf subs with 1 oaudio 500w amp?

[josereyna]

I have dayton audio 500w amp and dayton hf 15". I know that the 500w amp is too powerful for 1 dayton. Can I purchase another dayton subwoofer and power them with the 500w oaudio amp?

[Pete Schumacher ®]

I have dayton audio 500w amp and dayton hf 15". I know that the 500w amp is too powerful for 1 dayton. Can I purchase another dayton subwoofer and power them with the 500w oaudio amp?

Well, yes, but you'd have to connect them in series to keep the impedance from dropping to 2 Ohm, unless the amp can handle it. In series, your 500W amp will only be delivering half that power, to the pair, which means each will only be getting 125W. You'd likely need a bigger amp to squeeze the full potential from the pair.

[mdocod]

I know that the 500w amp is too powerful for 1 dayton.

You "know" wrong.

Having clean overhead is a well accepted practice in system design. You will not hear professionals talk about an amplifier being "too powerful" until you have more than 6dB worth of clean overhead above and beyond the speaker rating. and really at that point, it's not that it is "too powerful," rather, it is just underutilised amplification.

Blowing woofers/subs is the result of human error in the operation of the system, not amplifier power.

The 500W amp is a great match for a Dayton RSS HF 15" IMO.

Regards,
Eric

[Pete Schumacher ®]

You "know" wrong.

Having clean overhead is a well accepted practice in system design. You will not hear professionals talk about an amplifier being "too powerful" until you have more than 6dB worth of clean overhead above and beyond the speaker rating. and really at that point, it's not that it is "too powerful," rather, it is just underutilised amplification.

Blowing woofers/subs is the result of human error in the operation of the system, not amplifier power.

The 500W amp is a great match for a Dayton RSS HF 15" IMO.

Regards,
Eric

That 500W will drive the woofer to its stops, even if it doesn't drive it past its thermal rating. In that sense, 500W is more than the woofer can handle.

But, I'd not hesitate to use that amp with that woofer, as long as the low end is properly set up so that extreme low frequencies are not passed to the driver causing over excursion.

[mdocod]

Hello Pete,

It's a popular woofer in small to moderate sized sealed boxes as the driver characteristics and most room gain characteristics and most WAF characteristics favor the sealed box. It needs every last drop of 500W to cleanly run its Xmax in those small sealed box applications.

If it's going into a larger vented, or IB install, then one could save themselves the cash and go smaller on the amp [assuming the full bandwidth down to ~20hz is expected], however, keep in mind, it's always better to push a speaker to it's limits or beyond with clean power, than with clipped, distortion laden power.

Regards,
Eric

[fbov]

In point of fact, both Pete and Eric are correct, but they're talking about different applications.

Pete's speaking in terms of maximizing the system capability, as if you were going to use it at maximum output on a consistent basis. His comments lead me to bellieve he's thinking in terms of ported enclosures with low tuning that work well for large rooms and high SPL; some people can't get enough subsonics.

Eric's speaking from the audiophile's point of view, where average levels rarely exceed 75dB, but a full 30dB of headroom is expected to handle transients in high dynamic range material. His thought is sealed, where excursion at high power are well controlled, and a small box is price of less overall output.

The question is which way do you lean? What other factors are involved - room size, space/placement constraints, WAF, budget, etc? Tell us more about your application!

HAve fun,
Frank

[rkeman]

The O Audio 500 watt plate amplifier cannot safely handle two 4 ohm drivers in parallel connection and would enter protection mode. Power output would suffer substantially if the Dayton drivers were wired in series (8 ohm load). Two amps would certainly be better than one in this case.

[cjmartiny]

Is a Crown XLS amp out of the question? One of those would work better i would think that is if you have a place for it.