Questioni am new to car audio, i'm have a few things maybe you can tell me if they go well together. Two power acoustik stw 12 1000 peak 500 rms, one power acoustik pcx-5f (5 farad) capacitor, and i have one power acoustik ov2-1250 amp. i have an 05 jeep liberty, im thinking of making a horizontal platform at window level to place everything, and using the truck as the box. what do you recomend? do i need a second amp of the same, or will that one push the 2 twelves ok? is the 5 farad cap dangerous for my car, should i stick with something smaller? fyi, im sticking with the factory radio because i dont want to rewire all the doors."
AnswerWow Rich, that's a lot of power/sub!!! It will be very bass heavy, especially if you're keeping factory power up front/rear. I would recommend you look into picking up an amp for the front/rear speakers, and use a line level adapter if you are retaining the factory head unit.
In regards to using a horizontal platform, I would definitely opt for a full subwoofer enclosure instead. The performance would be quite undesireable with a simple platform. Subwoofers need some type of an enclosure to isolate the front sound waves from the rear in order to build positive sound pressure. A flat deck panel would surely leak air from front to back, resulting in a loss of pressure, not to mention all sorts of potential for phase variances etc.
A single amp shoud be adequate to drive your subs, and it's not a problem to have the 5F cap. It's no more dangerous that a 1 farad as long as it's hooked up properly. The rule of thumb for capacitors is 1 farad per 1000 watts... so 5 farad is more than you'd need, but honestly, in my opinion, when it comes to power storage, too much is just right. It will be good especially of you're planning on expansion in future.
Happy building!
