This one was pretty cool when it blew. The volume of the subs had gradually decreased over the last couple of days, then finally hissed real load and started stinking and I lost all the volume. So I pulled over and opened the back hatch to see a ton of smoke coming out of the enclosures port. The sub port smoked for a good 15 minutes before it stopped. Heck, if it's gonna blow at least it blew in style!

Now I am wondering if my amp has to little power for the subs, or to much power. I don't know how to tell.

I will be picking up 2 new subs in the morning, but the amp I'm not sure aoubt, maybe it needs to be replaced to.

 

MTX

 

Get a better setup! Go see ryan over @ chronic in tempe. he's the manager. He said he'll take care of us scion peeps.

 

pm sent. I had a guy offer to sell me the AudioBahn Flame Series subs at 400Watts rms each. He said he could hook me up cuz he works at an audio shop, but I haft to buy 6 subs at $40 a piece. I want them all in the car, but don't know how I'd mount 6 subwoofers and their amps if that is the route I go... He has a similar setup in his Tahoe and his window seal came out in the back side window and the window fell off driving down the road

 

Thanks, the more options I can look at the better!

 

You need to check your settings on your amp. If you have the headunit maxed out on bass and/or the gain on the amp set to maximum, it would not matter how much power your amp puts out. If either of these are the case, you sent a clipped signal to the subwoofer that will cause too much heat to build and fry the sub.

The only other option is if the amp is ridiculously more powerful than the subwoofer, and then that could kill it.

I would check your gain setting on the amp first though. It should be like a **** that uses a flathead screwdriver to be turned. You may have two or more, most likely for a lowpass frequency filter. If it all the way up or 75% there, chances are that is what fried the sub.

 

Good, I am sure it's because I turn the bass setting on the HU up along with the amp volume on the HU so it was probably the amp fried the sub. My amp and sub are pretty close in power so I doubt it overpowered it. Someone told me I might have damaged the amp frying 3 subs with it, if it was caused by clipping. I don't know if that's true or not.

 

DEFINITELY go see Ryan. He's a good guy, cares about the customer, and absolutely has the hook ups. Before you talk to anybody else....go see Ryan.

 

I always thought if your amp wasnt pushing enough power to the subs, the subs have to work harder, hence possibly frying the subs?

 

An if your amp did not turn itself off, then chances are yo did not fry it. Either one of the fuses would have blown or the overheat protection would have kicked the amp off. Both of these defenses save your amp. You have to think like this, all the amp needs to do is amplify a signal and does not rely on movement to cool itself. The sub has to play the sound and if it does not move enough for the heat being generated by the clipped signal, you will melt the voicecoil.

As far as your amp setting and headunit...TURN IT DOWN. The bass for the headunit is for door speakers. The gain on the amp is to amplify the signal it receives, on good headunits you will already get a good signal. You would only need to turn the gain up on junk stereos.

I guarantee (almost) that turning the gain down to half-way and playing with it there, you will find that your sub hits as loud as before AND sounds better. You do not need to keep everything at 0, all speakers have a tolerance range for such things and doing BASS +3 every once and a while may not hurt, depending on the speaker.

Try the fixed settings (Bass 0 and gain around half-way to start) and see how it works out. If it sounds good but you want it louder, it is time to move up in amp power and subwoofer power.

 

Incorrect. Tell me, do you listen to your stereo at full volume ALL the time? You never mute or turn down the radio for phone calls or conversation? You can not under power a speaker to death or speakers (especially in older people's cars who listen to talk radio on medium volume and nothing else) would die quickly.

The reason a speaker frys from an underpowered amp (and even matched and overpowered) is when the gain is set too high, or full. The gain only deals with the signal input. If the gain is set to max, this will create a square wave (think oscilloscope, regular waves are nice and round, clipped signals have squared peaks). When this happens, the subwoofer is basically being told to reach full excursion and stay there. It will not be real noticeable. This in effect means the sub is receiving maximum power and moving very little (compared to normal operation). The slow movement means the sub can not cool itself efficiently anymore and is generating a lot of heat. Even low powered amps can generate enough heat in a sub to melt the voicecoils. And thusly, fried subwoofer. This is why there is smoke when it dies.

 

Looks like I'll be moving up then. Hopefully close to 2kwatts.

Thanks for the info guys!

 

One more question, if i leave the amp and bass volume set to 0 on the HU. Then what if i turn the HU's volume up 85-90% of max. Will the amp peak then to?

 

This is where things start to differ by manufacturer. You have to balance the gain on the amp with the Bass and volume of the headunit. The best thing you can do is, if you "need" your headunit to be at 90%, let it play that loud and set the gain and other things on the amp for that volume. The sub may not be loud enough for lower, say 40% volumes, but then that is when you can bump Bass up and not have to worry about clipping. Just remember that when you want to turn your volume all the way up to turn the Bass setting down.

 

Alright, thanks!

 

set HU volume (and bass, treble settings) and amp gain (this is not a volume ****) to ZERO.

turn HU volume to about halfway--a reasonable listening level.

adjust bass and treble settings so that they are audible and strong, but not too powerful--so you have some headroom to turn up the volume later on.

now slowly turn up the gain on the amp till the subwoofer output matches the level of your HU volume, aka. turn up the gain so the sub bass is loud, but not TOO loud, again leaving some headroom.

If your amp and sub setup is properly power matched, your amp gain should be set at about 1/2 - 2/3...really no higher.

the gain on an amp matches the voltage input level (from the HU) to the amp's output level. aka. tells the amp how much to turn up the bass as you increase your HU volume.

Also, on most HU i've ever had the HU bass setting WILL affect subwoofer output. Even if you have a separate dedicated subwoofer control.

 

yes, on mine when i turn the bass up on the HU it hit harder, than if I turned up the amp volume on the HU so i usually turned the bass up. lesson learned.

 

Hey man,
come by my shop and ill definatly hook somthing up for you.
make sure you dont skimp on quality. Nice thing about a scion is you can get alot of bass out of them without spending tons of cash. I definatly recommend throwing some MTX in there. Also very soon were going to carry the full Orion line of amps/subs. Which will be my choice for people trying to save some cash. MTX you pay a bit more but like anything, you get what you pay for.

And yes underpowering subs is a big factor in blowing them. I have 450w rms going into a 250w rms sub and have never blown it once. Overpowering isnt as bad as underpowering. And whatever you do dont get those audiobahn flame subs.. theres a reason they are so affordable.

 

Good to know about those audiobahn. Thanks, I'll definitely go to your shop when i goto replace them.

 

i don't know what specific model of Audiobahn sub you're referring to, but in general they make very nice subs for the price. everyone i've ever known with ABahn subs has been satisfied. Same with MTX.

polk subs are a bit cheap if you ask me. my buddy had 2 tens in his tc...my audiobahn subs kILLED them. he eventually took them out... i guess, you don't take out subs that pound good bass. So take it for what its worth.