Senvae

Hey guys! I bought a used 09 Ralliart last May and I found out after the sale that the stealership withheld information from me about the condition of the stereo. I made the mistake to buy the car without testing to see if the stereo was in good condition, but it's not. The subwoofer is completely shot.

So now I finally have the money to replace that subwoofer. As far as I am concerned everything in the car audio is stock. I need to make this happen now. I miss driving with my music.

I looked up some info online and read 4-5 different forum posts from various forums across the net, but that info just confused me. Apparently (i think I got this right), the RF AMP has 8 channels, two of which are dedicated to the sub, and both channels have only 1 ohm on it...? Which means I can't just use any subwoofer, since most of them are 2 or 4 ohms. Right?

So I am asking for help from fellow RA owners (or EVO or Lancer... anyone with the Rockford Fosgate system installed stock). I would like to know the ins and outs of what to expect from this subwoofer swap. Is it really a headache, or has the online reading made things more complicated than needs be? Would it be better for me to swap out the amp as well? I have a budget of 500$ but I would rather only spend half of that. I was happy with my stock Rockford Fosgate system in my previous Lancer GT, except I wanted a bit better quality sub. So what are your recommendations?

Please help me!

Senvae

I would also like to know if it's worth bringing it to a pro audio place (or maybe even best buy). Or if that will jack up the price too high.

Veronica

iTrader: (2)

First - troubleshoot to either the speaker or the amp.

I would remove the speaker and hook up to the home stereo. Sound good? Amp bad. Let us help you continue troubleshooting from there...

Speaker bad? Just replace the driver. Pretty much any car audio speaker that fits is fine. You can always use a 4 ohm speaker in a '1 ohm output channel' (it just won't be quite as loud. No damage to the amp.) This you can all do yourself.

Not the same if you wire a 4 ohm stable amp in a speaker configuration of 2 ohms or less. [puff! smoke check bad! ]

neogeo64

iTrader: (3)

I can't find the thread on the walk thru on how to wire the aftermarket sun into the stock enclosure but I beleive you need to buy a 2 ohm dual voice coil sub.
Then wire it like the first diagram in this link as the output from our amp is 1 ohm.

I wish i could find the walk thru as it was pretty clear with pictures.

Senvae

So should I go with a dual 2 ohms? Would that work better than 4 ohms? I'm not bad with home theater systems, but I never touch car audio. So the whole thing makes me a bit nervous. I'm sure I can do the work myself, but I just felt like I was poorly informed about whether or not the resistance is a major issue, and which way I should go. All I know is that my home system and sound receiver can only work with one ohm setting. (Be it 4, 6, or 8)

As for the amp vs speaker issue, I'm pretty sure it's the subwoofer itself. It sounds like the sub still has a bit of punch to it but the low end sounds are just farts.

I have a friend who has a little bit of car audio experience, and he seemed to lean on the side of "your subwoofer is shot, dude".

Senvae

Does anyone know what the RMS and power is for the stock RF subwoofer?

neogeo64

iTrader: (3)

The stock sub woofer is rated 75w x2 (Dual Voicecoil).
The amp output 1.1 ohm mono to the sub


More information about our sub can be found in the Evo X and 08+ lancer threads. Just do a search for "subwoofer"

CRooKeDCoP

Why don't you just replace both ? There are some pretty cheap amps out there that will crush the specs on the stock one.