What's wrong with my NEW sub?
What's wrong with my NEW sub? For starters, I already posted this on the Stereo section and no one could help me.... nor tried to....
I built a "stealth" box for a 10" Kicker CVR @ 4 ohms. It turns out the box was too small and I fried 3 subs in less than a year.
So I decided to upgrade the sub to a 10" Kicker CVX @ 4 ohms and had a ported box built that sits on top of the shelf in the trunk.
Well a couple days ago I installed it and I can only turn the volume up about half way before I get this horrible rattle from the sub.
I played with the amp and turned the settings down, etc. I know a ported box has to be tuned differently than a sealed box, but it's NO WHERE near as loud as the small sealed box and I get that rattle noise.
I did the math and the box is .25 ft^3 larger than the maximum vented enclosure for the sub and the port is half as large as it should be.
My thinking is that I could make a brick of wood that would be the same as .25 ft^3 to fasten inside and then open up the port some more. Would that method work and can it make THAT big of a difference? I would hate to do the work for little to no outcome.
Again I was running the amp at 2 ohms (4 ohm DVC wired parallel) and the sub was what sounded like bottoming out at a very low volume. I changed the sub to run at 8 ohms by wiring it in a series and the noise went away, BUT obviously the sound of a sub at 8 ohms is very weak... the system sounds decent at best inside the car but is barely noticable outside the car.
Oh and I'm running a JL Audio 250.1 amp.... not the slash series.
I built a "stealth" box for a 10" Kicker CVR @ 4 ohms. It turns out the box was too small and I fried 3 subs in less than a year.
So I decided to upgrade the sub to a 10" Kicker CVX @ 4 ohms and had a ported box built that sits on top of the shelf in the trunk.
Well a couple days ago I installed it and I can only turn the volume up about half way before I get this horrible rattle from the sub.
I played with the amp and turned the settings down, etc. I know a ported box has to be tuned differently than a sealed box, but it's NO WHERE near as loud as the small sealed box and I get that rattle noise.
I did the math and the box is .25 ft^3 larger than the maximum vented enclosure for the sub and the port is half as large as it should be.
My thinking is that I could make a brick of wood that would be the same as .25 ft^3 to fasten inside and then open up the port some more. Would that method work and can it make THAT big of a difference? I would hate to do the work for little to no outcome.
Again I was running the amp at 2 ohms (4 ohm DVC wired parallel) and the sub was what sounded like bottoming out at a very low volume. I changed the sub to run at 8 ohms by wiring it in a series and the noise went away, BUT obviously the sound of a sub at 8 ohms is very weak... the system sounds decent at best inside the car but is barely noticable outside the car.
Oh and I'm running a JL Audio 250.1 amp.... not the slash series.
It sounds like you have it wired wrong while in parallel. Make sure your jumping from negative to positive when your wireing it in. bring you negative wire in on one side of the speaker and positive on the other side. Did you check the ohms with a digital meter also to verify? If you can post a picture of how you have it wired. You also need to make sure your amp is able to go as low as a 1 or 2 ohm stable.
It sounds like you have it wired wrong while in parallel. Make sure your jumping from negative to positive when your wireing it in. bring you negative wire in on one side of the speaker and positive on the other side. Did you check the ohms with a digital meter also to verify? If you can post a picture of how you have it wired. You also need to make sure your amp is able to go as low as a 1 or 2 ohm stable.
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If your box is too big or too small I'm pretty sure the only thing that it'll effect is the sound...the box has to be the right size to get the right sound outta the sub, someone correct me if im wrong but a box thats too small shouldn't fry a sub....this has def got to be a wiring error....is the sub a dual voice coil???...if so how do you have the voice coils wired together...and +1 on posting up pics of the wiring so we can check it out...
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Verdad Gallardo ok after some research that amp is no where near big enough to run that sub...the 10in is a 600watt RMS sub and ur running off a amp thats only 250RMS bridged....of course ur gonna have a shitty sounding system...when I ran a alpine type S....the sub was a 50-300 watt RMS and peaked at 900watts MAX...I ran it off a pioneer sub that made 1000 watts Max bridged and 300RMS....you need to upgrade ur amp...IMO
I don't think I agree with that last post. If you have an amp that is more powerful than the sub, then you'll be working the sub overtime. If the amp is weaker then the amp will work harder when it's designed to do all the work. IMO. I've heard it go either way tho.
I'm gonna try checking out the wiring cause the amp hasn't been dismounted since I blew the last sub and I might have a wired crossed. It's hard to check tho since I have the wires running behind the mount...
I'm gonna try checking out the wiring cause the amp hasn't been dismounted since I blew the last sub and I might have a wired crossed. It's hard to check tho since I have the wires running behind the mount...
the smaller amp is why the sub sounds like ****....and its really the reason since the amp is THAT small with that big of a sub...thats my opinion...i've hooked up countless system including a 3grand alpine system in my old truck and never have had any probs with sound or performance....but its just an opinion...take it as you may
Well not to put you down or say you're stupid or anything, but I used to work at a stereo shop and have installed many systems. In my opinion I think the JL Audio amps are seriously under rated. I may end up getting a more powerful amp tho. First I'm going to try fixing my box...
they are underated....i agree with you on that...also I did some research on the sub u upgraded to and the only version I could find was a dual 2ohm voice coil version....but you said that you had the dual 4ohm right?? maybe I just couldn't find it but anyways...like I said before, Im just giving you my opinion, you were asking for them so I gave you some..hope you get it figured out
Well not to put you down or say you're stupid or anything, but I used to work at a stereo shop and have installed many systems. In my opinion I think the JL Audio amps are seriously under rated. I may end up getting a more powerful amp tho. First I'm going to try fixing my box...
I killed the 3 subs out of pure laziness of building a box. I admit that. I knew the box was too small and just heated the subs up. Every time they did burn up was when I had them running for longer than an hour at high outputs. Again stupidity on my end...
I've never run accross this problem with a sub "bottoming out" tho.
Postman: I appreciate your help. I looked in the owner's manual for the sub and it is a 4 ohm per coil.
And I checked the sub wiring and I currently have it running 8 ohms without the rattle noise, but the volume isn't what I would like. When it was running at 2 ohms it did the rattle, but showed definate potential at lower volumes. I'm gonna try hooking a JL Audio 500.1 up to my box tomorrow and see if it will run at 2 ohms without making the noise...
I've never run accross this problem with a sub "bottoming out" tho.
Postman: I appreciate your help. I looked in the owner's manual for the sub and it is a 4 ohm per coil.
And I checked the sub wiring and I currently have it running 8 ohms without the rattle noise, but the volume isn't what I would like. When it was running at 2 ohms it did the rattle, but showed definate potential at lower volumes. I'm gonna try hooking a JL Audio 500.1 up to my box tomorrow and see if it will run at 2 ohms without making the noise...
Wait... You worked at a sterio shop and have a good amount of experience (assuming this from your post) But you killed 3 subs and are now coming on LS1Tech asking for advice as to what the hell is going on? I may be drunk (check that... definately drunk) but I would be taking every bit of advice I was given. I've got a decent amount of experience with audio equipment as I've installed several multi-thousand dollar systems and encountered this problem a couple times, both times the box was swapped with no results and both times the problem was fixed with a new (more capable) amplifier. Again I am definately not an expert and I never "used to work at a sterio shop"... But I would check the amp and wiring before the box... JMNEO
I killed the 3 subs out of pure laziness of building a box. I admit that. I knew the box was too small and just heated the subs up. Every time they did burn up was when I had them running for longer than an hour at high outputs. Again stupidity on my end...
I've never run accross this problem with a sub "bottoming out" tho.
Postman: I appreciate your help. I looked in the owner's manual for the sub and it is a 4 ohm per coil.
And I checked the sub wiring and I currently have it running 8 ohms without the rattle noise, but the volume isn't what I would like. When it was running at 2 ohms it did the rattle, but showed definate potential at lower volumes. I'm gonna try hooking a JL Audio 500.1 up to my box tomorrow and see if it will run at 2 ohms without making the noise...
I've never run accross this problem with a sub "bottoming out" tho.
Postman: I appreciate your help. I looked in the owner's manual for the sub and it is a 4 ohm per coil.
And I checked the sub wiring and I currently have it running 8 ohms without the rattle noise, but the volume isn't what I would like. When it was running at 2 ohms it did the rattle, but showed definate potential at lower volumes. I'm gonna try hooking a JL Audio 500.1 up to my box tomorrow and see if it will run at 2 ohms without making the noise...
when you say rattle, are you talking about like a bad vibration or a high pitched rattle? first off, i would check to make sure that the sub is completely sealed into the box. i had a diamond d6 sub in my old camaro and it was making a terrible noise. kind of like the noise a sub makes when the seal is busted. i couldn't for the life of me figure out what was wrong, so i took it to a guy i know that owns an audio shop. he immediately figured out that there wasn't a good enough seal around the rim of the sub and box. so he took the sub out for me and put sealant around the edge of the whole, then screwed the sub back down. worked perfectly after that. he said it will sound like a sub is rattling when a tiny bit of air is escaping under so much pressure.
