[kkaufman1992]

I have a 12" earthquake sub and a 250 watt amp connected to the factory radio. First off if i turn the sub up it makes like a bad humming noise on the bad window and really doesnt hit too clean- any idea how to fix this? ALso the music is not really super loud, would this be because its connected to the factory radio? I know the F radio puts out 10w and aftermarkets put out 50w so would my radio really be that much louder if i swap out radios? or do you guys think its the speakers? Please let me know your input !
Thanks

 

[arinesmith]

if by "turn the sub up" you mean you are just turning up the gain on the amp, then this is likely your issue. Turning up the gain does not mean "make it louder". It is there to tune up and down to give you the best sound for the input given. Since you are on the high inputs from the factory radio, then your gain needs to be set fairly low. If you were using low inputs then you could turn the gain up more. Odds are you will get better results by turning you gain down.

 

[Deuce-Koup]

^^^^ I agree.
Not only that but most 12" subs can't run properly off 250 watts. Even xPlod's and pioneer's need 300 watts or more to run properly. If your sub is underpowered, then it won't sound as loud as you hope and it certainly won't be clean. My very first system ever was an xPlod 12" running off a 200w MTX mono amp. It added bass to the stock setup in my truck, but when I cranked it way up it just sounded like crap and wasn't very loud at all. I would suggest a bigger amp. A 500w mono should do it depending on what the sub is rated for. You want your amp to be capable of producing at least as many watts as your sub can handle at RMS.

Deuce