Sub started smoking?

[edavis.j 10+ year member]

I swear, I am trying to do this the right way, and I just keep having problems ugh.

MMats 1600.2 - 1150W RMS @ 2 ohms

Fi Audio Q12 - 1000W RMS - dual 1 ohm run series @ 2 ohms

.8cu ft sealed enclosure - shitty prefab

I ran this sub for 3 weeks with no problems, sounded great, amp was at maybe 15% gain and frequency at like 110 or 120. Then the shitty prefab box started to fall apart and I made a thread about the sound I was hearing and I had no clue what it was. Anyways, so I added some extra screws to the shitty prefab and the sound stopped so it infact was all the loose ends on the box.

So nothing has changed, and after 3 or so days, I smell smoke, my sub shuts off, I get home and smoke is pouring out of my box. I really don't know what happened but since I have an extra sub and my real box I had custom built came yesterday...2cu ft ported @ 32 hz, and the extra sub is a pioneer W3002D4 - 1000W RMS - dual 4 ohm in parallel @ 2 ohms. I hook it all up, and it ****ing sounds amazing ( now that I have it in a good proper box)...it pounds and is clear, I'm loving it, I start smelling smoke again...so I shut off the car and take the sub out...check all the connections, looks good, the two positives together with 12awg speaker wire, the two negatives together with 12 awg speaker wire, positive to positive terminal, negative to negative terminal. All very good connections.

I looked around the net for a while for some answers. I set the frequency as low as it will go on the amp ~ 70Hz, and I set the gain to as low as it will go. I hook everything back up. Doesn't start smoking right away, so I think great. Then 10 minutes later, starts smoking.

What changed in 2 days that made my Fi blow, and now is making this sub smoke/blow?

Is there anything I need to check?

Click to read more...

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

its an fi what did you expect //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

the biggest question is how does smoke pour out of a sealed box ? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crazy.gif.c13912c32de98515d3142759a824dae7.gif

 

[snoopdan 5,000+ posts]

the biggest question is how does smoke pour out of a sealed box ? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crazy.gif.c13912c32de98515d3142759a824dae7.gif

well duh, it was a shitty prefab sealed box...it was self ported over time //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

 

[edavis.j 10+ year member]

Lol yes it was a shitty prefab and that's how I could see the smoke. Now I have my very nice ported box and its smoking as well...I mean could the amp be putting out too much power? I'm clueless and lookin for help lol

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

It's not hard to roast most woofers with 1200 watts. You are simply exceeding the thermal limits of those woofers. You might want to consider a stronger sub if you're smoking your subs to get the sound you want. I'd say a larger sub as well, but if you have a box built for a 12, find a 12 that'll handle 1200-1500W continuous that'll play well in your box.

Dunno what your other sub is supposed to handle, but the Q is only rated at 1000W. It's like if you have a sports car and run the engine red-line constantly and wonder why you blew the engine. Run it up to max here and there and you're fine, do it for 10-20 minutes and you're likely to have some problems.

Gain up or down has nothing to do with nothing, if the sub is smoking you are driving the sub past it's limits period.

 

[snoopdan 5,000+ posts]

You're clearly cooking the coil, turn down the bass boost on the amp.

 

[edavis.j 10+ year member]

Okay...I was always told to go over with the power which is why I went with that set up...why is it that it took the q12 over a month to go and the pioneer which is 1000w rms started to go in 10 minutes?

And the guy at fi audio...said that the sub should be fine even on or above 1200w rms, so I figured 1150w rms wasn't so bad...is there any way to test the amp and see what its putting out?

 

[snoopdan 5,000+ posts]

because low level pioneer **** is, well ****. wait, no all of pioneer stuff is ****. The FI stuff is built to take a bit more punishment. Just recone the FI, recones are cheap.

 

[ltr450racer690 10+ year member]

was bass boost on?

 

[edavis.j 10+ year member]

The amp doesn't have bass boost...well iim gonna get the first fixed and keep the first and new box...but you're saying I need to get a weaker amp?

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

The amp doesn't have bass boost...well iim gonna get the first fixed and keep the first and new box...but you're saying I need to get a weaker amp?

Get a stronger sub or be more careful about really pushing things. Obviously the Q can take the power for a little bit but if you get really rough with it it'll cook.

If your desired listening levels are killing the subs you need subs that can get to those levels without dying.

From my experience with a good sub there's a small window between where you can start to smell the sub and it actually roasting. When you smell it turn it down by about half for 10-15 minutes to let it cool off. Seriously though if I were you I'd look into a sub that can take what you are trying to throw at it because if you're killing subs at this rate you obviously want more than the woofers you've tried are capable of delivering.

 

[edavis.j 10+ year member]

No I'm quite fine with 1000w of power...I only got that the amp at 1150 because everyone had said its better to overpower than underpower...I'm guessing that's not true then? But honestly...bass on headunit is as low as possib le, volume is low, gain is low...its not like I'm jacking everything up here

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

No I'm quite fine with 1000w of power...I only got that the amp at 1150 because everyone had said its better to overpower than underpower...I'm guessing that's not true then? But honestly...bass on headunit is as low as possib le, volume is low, gain is low...its not like I'm jacking everything up here

IF your sub is smoking you are trying to get the sub to do more than it can handle.

What you're looking for is a certain volume level right? When you listen at the volume level you like you smoke woofers. Your Fi sub will handle 1000 watts. If you are blowing up the woofer you're most probably giving it more than 1000W or feeding it a clipped signal. Thus the listening level you want to acheive is greater than the 1000W your sub can handle and or the 1100W (or probably more) that your amp is putting out. Q.E.D.

If you were happy with say 800W to the sub you'd never push things to the point of killing the Fi so turning the gain down or otherwise limiting sub output will probably not make you happy either.

I suspect you have enough amp to get you where you like, now you just need to buy a sub that will handle it.

 

[mclerico83 5,000+ posts]

IF your sub is smoking you are trying to get the sub to do more than it can handle.
What you're looking for is a certain volume level right? When you listen at the volume level you like you smoke woofers. Your Fi sub will handle 1000 watts. If you are blowing up the woofer you're most probably giving it more than 1000W or feeding it a clipped signal. Thus the listening level you want to acheive is greater than the 1000W your sub can handle and or the 1100W (or probably more) that your amp is putting out. Q.E.D.

If you were happy with say 800W to the sub you'd never push things to the point of killing the Fi so turning the gain down or otherwise limiting sub output will probably not make you happy either.

I suspect you have enough amp to get you where you like, now you just need to buy a sub that will handle it.

not if he got the cooling option and extra spiders like i think he did, he should be fine. are you sure you have the sub wired correctly check all your connections, i remember you shorting out power wires iirc