My sub blew tonight!!

Well, I was just about to pull into this guy's driveway, my friend was standing outside his car already in the driveway, and all the way going to this dude's house, I heard this weird sound, but I hadn't put the carpet in competely, so I had that metal flap that goes up against the rear seats just sitting around and I thought that the sound was just that metal vibrating against the plastic. Well, just as I was pulling in, the sub blew, and distorted terribly, and my friend heard it from about 50 yards away. This really sucks because I wanted to make a fiberglass sub box/amp rack for this sub and my current amp, but it looks like I am going to have to get a new sub. I may try to see if the guy I bought it from (online company that sold it to me on ebay) has a warranty for it, since I have only had it for about 4 months. The amp I was using was an MTX amp and according to the manual it pushes 400Wx1 rms @4 ohm mono, so I don't think I was underpowering the sub, and I beleive the enclosure was the right size. I am really upset now because I have to buy a new sub, but I also wanted to make that box, GEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZZZ! Any suggestions on a new sub to get? I may get a new amp (and sell my current one) with about 600 wattsx1 @ 4ohm. Would a Kicker L& be better? I was also thinking of a kicker 15"? My friend has one in his 4runner with a kenwood 400-600 watts amp and it sounds great. Well, I am going to e-mail that guy to see if I can't sort all of this out. Thanks

Hey Rock,

Sorry to hear about your sub. Forgot, but what kind was it?

if i remember correctly, you have an infinity kappa perfect 12" sub, right??

if so then you were giving it too much power. the MTX amp is rated at 400wX1@4ohms mono @12.5volts. the explorer's electrical system usually runs between 14-15volts. this means your amp was probably putting out around 700-800watts. the perfect 12" is rated to handle 350watts rms. the rms rating is how much power the voice coil can handle continuously for 8 hours before it melts. by adding more power, it just means more heat. this drastically shortened the life of the subwoofer.

i'm always surprised to see people talking about watts on amps.

Most people think that you need huge ammounts of watts to steer an woofer wich is not true.....i can tell you this though , and i could have backed this up if i just could remember the website....

lab tests have shown that you can't blow an woofer by underpowering it, 99% of the people will dissagree with it but it's kinda rational explanation for this, less power means less heat....the only thing you will blow is your amp if it's way to low...nowadays you can't hardly underpower it anyways due to all the protection that are currently available in amps....

uhm an great example of this is my system....i have an 3.2 dual voice coiled Earthquake 15" Magma and it's hooked to an Zapco 200*1 @ 2 ohm RMS

the sub is rated at 750 RMS , and the zapco can handle the sub just fine....i can't even turn the amp wide open....it's on about 75% of it's power...and i can't turn the HU past 80% of it's power before the bass gets too much....

truth is that it definatly matter wich brand AMP you buy or have...higher quality amps deliver closer to what the are rated then cheaper ones.....

the easiest way to figure out how much you amp can have is to take this calculation

P = U * I
P = 13.4 (voltage at the amp) * 30 (fuse rating)
P = 402 watts

if you would run your amp wide open then hook up an Amp meter to the system you could figure out what wattage you are playing with.and then you would also know how much the amp would rate at compared to what's printed on the housing of the amp.

heh i know i'm going to have some replies to this concerning the woofer underpower , so i will try to find that site again so you can read it for yourself....

This is not quite true - it's more because of a misunderstanding. It has to do with the common misconceptions with underpowering the subs. It's not really that you're underpowering the subs, it's that you're overworking a low level amplifier.

http://go.to/bcae explains...

http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/2ltlpwr.htm

Although I think it doesn't happen to most people who even think about these issues, cause anyone who does probably has a decent system. I think this comes more from really cheap stuff, where there's barely a magnet to control the cone's movement, and powered by a cheap amp that's overworked. It'd send a weak burst of power that wouldn't control the cone movement as well, and with a small magnet structure and cheap voice coils, I'd figure it's possible. Moreover, the cheap ones usually have crap voice coils.

A prime example of a poorly controlled sub is the Cerwin Vega Stroker made only for SPL. It sounds like crap and has have a centerpin to keep the cone/spider centered.

The above site, as well as many others argue that part of the culprit are subwoofers that don't move enough to cool the voice coils. This seems like a valid idea, but then it doesn't explain ported subs, that can play very loudly and due to the mechanical nature hardly move at all. Low power does mean less heat, but poor voice coils and little ventilation will allow the motor structure to continually build up the temperature.

If it isn't the voice coil being damaged, it's poor cone control and grounding out against the magnet structure I think.

This is my understanding of the situation, the only thing anyone knows for sure is to just get reliable equipment and you can't go wrong!

I talked to my friend today and he said hecould hook me up with 2 brand new audiobahn 1200x 12"s for $160. He has 2 in his truck, my other friend has 2 in his truck, and another friend of mine has 2 in his van and they sound really good. I am going to try and make a box/amp rack for them and my amp. He said he only has 400 watts going to them too. But I am still going to see if I can get mine returned for a warranty, then try to sell it and then buy the audiobahns with the money I get from the infinity.

sounds like a plan...
i hope everything works out and they dont give you any B.S. with the warranty.

let us know what happens.

Well, I think my mom just threw away the order receipt from them just yesterday. But I e-mailed the company and told them that I bought it on (whatever the date was, I checked my bank statement), and told him what bought, and told him I blew the sub and I had only had it about 5 months, and he e-mailed me back just saying "Please call us for an RA#." So tomorrow, I will call them to ask them questions. But I still am going to go therough the trash tonight to see if I can find that receipt, just in case.

THE REAL DEAL

REALLY MOSTLY WHAT PEOPLE DO WHEN THEY BLOW THEIR SPEAKERS IS THAT THEY PUT TO MUCH DISTORTION THREW THEM. HO DO I KNOW THIS? BECAUSE I DO. I REALLY DONT SEE HOW THE AMP THAT GUY DESCRIBED CAN BLOW THAT SPEAKER UNLESS HE DOESNT HAVE THE RIGHT POWER CONNECTIONS AND THAT GUY WHO SAID THAT AMP WAS PUTTING OUT 800WATTS HAH. ARE YOU SAYING THAT MY 1400 WATT ORION IS PUTTING OUT 2800 WATTS TO MY SUBS, WELL THE XPLORER MAY RUN AT 14-15 VOLTS BUT THE ALTERNATOR CAN ONLY PUT OUT SO MANY AMPS AND WHEN YOUR SUBS HIT HARD THE VOLTAGE DROPS SO ITS NOT PUTTING OUT 800 WATTS MOST LIKELY YOUR X OVER IS SET WRONG OR YOUR AMP IS STRUGGLING AND DISTORTING.

i'll explain some of the wattage thing since you dont understand...

i dont know what MTX amp he has. he said it is rated at 400 watts RMS. MTX rates their amps at 12.5 volts.
an example of how the wattage will increas with voltage is :
MTX Thunder 81000D - 500X1@ 12.5volts, 850X1@ 14.4volts
MTX Thunder 6152 - 150X1@12.5volts, 325X1@14.4volts

thats why i said his amp probably puts out between 700-800watts. it might only put out 550-650, but that was still too much for the sub rated to handle 350watts.

i dont know what Orion amp you have, but i had the HCCA 250G4. it was rated at 800watts @1ohm. mine put out 1250 when it was in my Daytona.