Sub started smoking?

[edavis.j 10+ year member]

Alright..I redid all the wiring with 4awg, great connections now, put in a new LOC, put in a capacitor...

So there's two scenario's here...

Scenario 1: Sub blew

- MMats amp - 1150w rms @ 2ohms

- Fi Q12 - 1000w rms dvc 1ohm in series

- shitty prefab sealed enclosure

- 0awg with marginal connections

- no capacitor

- JL LOC

Scenario 2: Sub going to blow

- MMats amp - 1150w rms @ 2ohms

- Pioneer w3002d4 - 1000w rms dvc 4ohms in parallel

- good ported enclosure

- 4awg with great connections

- 1farad capacitor

- MobileSpec LOC

So everything changed except for the amp and the second sub is still going...so that must mean that there's a problem in the amp correct? The amp is putting out too much power for the subs to handle?

Also can I get some questions answered, I'm a dumbass and clueless when it comes to this and no one seems to have a definitive answer...

1) Is it okay to overpower a sub? Everyone had always told me it was a great idea to overpower subs and that 1150w would never hurt a 1000w sub.

2) If my amp is only 1150w RMS isn't that going to be the most power it puts out regardless of how high I turn the gain on the amp or headunit volume? So even if I have the volume at max and gain at max, the amp will only put out 1150w correct? If not...how does it work..?

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

anyone ever think to make sure the amps output is ideal? its possible there is some DC on the output terminals.. its not hard to check for.. other than that your most likely clipping the **** out of it..

 

[edavis.j 10+ year member]

anyone ever think to make sure the amps output is ideal? its possible there is some DC on the output terminals.. its not hard to check for.. other than that your most likely clipping the **** out of it..

so you want me to check to see if there's any DC voltage on the output of the amp?

and i'm stupid...what am I doing to clip it?

 

[edavis.j 10+ year member]

Alright..I redid all the wiring with 4awg, great connections now, put in a new LOC, put in a capacitor...
So there's two scenario's here...

Scenario 1: Sub blew

- MMats amp - 1150w rms @ 2ohms

- Fi Q12 - 1000w rms dvc 1ohm in series

- shitty prefab sealed enclosure

- 0awg with marginal connections

- no capacitor

- JL LOC

Scenario 2: Sub going to blow

- MMats amp - 1150w rms @ 2ohms

- Pioneer w3002d4 - 1000w rms dvc 4ohms in parallel

- good ported enclosure

- 4awg with great connections

- 1farad capacitor

- MobileSpec LOC

So everything changed except for the amp and the second sub is still going...so that must mean that there's a problem in the amp correct? The amp is putting out too much power for the subs to handle?

Also can I get some questions answered, I'm a dumbass and clueless when it comes to this and no one seems to have a definitive answer...

1) Is it okay to overpower a sub? Everyone had always told me it was a great idea to overpower subs and that 1150w would never hurt a 1000w sub.

2) If my amp is only 1150w RMS isn't that going to be the most power it puts out regardless of how high I turn the gain on the amp or headunit volume? So even if I have the volume at max and gain at max, the amp will only put out 1150w correct? If not...how does it work..?

so you want me to check to see if there's any DC voltage on the output of the amp?
and i'm stupid...what am I doing to clip it?

those

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Dude, Mmats makes a very strong amp. There's very good odds that your amp is capable of well over the "rated" 1100W. I've personally got some beefier subs than the Q to smell funny with less powerful "1200W" amps. Also if you are clipping the amp the effective heat of the square waves you're feeding the subs is MUCH higher than a clean signal.

Are you crossing over the sub properly? If you have the LPF set to high you're getting extra heat you don't need. If you only had one coil hooked up you'd probably smoke the sub, if you had it wired in parallel you'd probably smoke the amp.

Were you playing things at moderate levels when these subs failed or were you cranking some bass heavy tracks?

 

[IMOVeCHICKENS! 10+ year member]

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

*****z retarded obviously

 

[IMOVeCHICKENS! 10+ year member]

show us how you wired your sub i bet you put it at .5ohm

 

[IMOVeCHICKENS! 10+ year member]

and moving to 4ga will supply you with less power and you'll ending clipping the **** out of it from low voltage 0ga for 1000rms+

 

[edavis.j 10+ year member]

show us how you wired your sub i bet you put it at .5ohm

i'll go take a picture one - give me a couple of minutes

Dude, Mmats makes a very strong amp. There's very good odds that your amp is capable of well over the "rated" 1100W. I've personally got some beefier subs than the Q to smell funny with less powerful "1200W" amps. Also if you are clipping the amp the effective heat of the square waves you're feeding the subs is MUCH higher than a clean signal.
Are you crossing over the sub properly? If you have the LPF set to high you're getting extra heat you don't need. If you only had one coil hooked up you'd probably smoke the sub, if you had it wired in parallel you'd probably smoke the amp.

Were you playing things at moderate levels when these subs failed or were you cranking some bass heavy tracks?

If I play heavy bass songs - it will start to smell/smoke in 5-10 minutes, if I play moderate to low bass songs it takes 20-30 minutes to smell/smoke, but yes mostly heavy bass tracks.

Also I'm not the best with the technical terms...trying to learn...whats my LPF? I have the Frequency set at 70Hz. Also I understand what clipping itself is, but how is it caused? What would I have wrong that would cause the clipping?

 

[edavis.j 10+ year member]

here's a pic of how the sub is wired

sorry about quality, shitty camera, but I labeled it for ya lol

 

[edavis.j 10+ year member]

here's a very crappy diagram of what I have

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

i'll go take a picture one - give me a couple of minutes


If I play heavy bass songs - it will start to smell/smoke in 5-10 minutes, if I play moderate to low bass songs it takes 20-30 minutes to smell/smoke, but yes mostly heavy bass tracks.

Also I'm not the best with the technical terms...trying to learn...whats my LPF? I have the Frequency set at 70Hz. Also I understand what clipping itself is, but how is it caused? What would I have wrong that would cause the clipping?

LPF = Low Pass filter 70hz is fine.

Clipping is trying to get the amp to put out more power than it can. Typically by over-driving it or dropping voltage.

Cap is worthless at best, remove that ASAP, IMO 4 guage is really pushing your luck with that amp unless it's a really short run from the battery.

You really are just in the market for a bigger or more capable sub. If you have to push the sub to the point of smoke with your normal listening you need something bigger.

 

[teamquakecelica 10+ year member]

OK... advise

#1 ditch the capacitor all it does is take up room.. it does you NO good at all

#2 the sub is wired correctly to 2ohm so we are good there

#3 the "volume" knob on your amp is actually a "gain" knob.... and is used to match input voltage.. depending on the voltage output of your LOC determines where you need to turn the knob, this is done correctly with an oscilloscope or you can get pretty close with a multi meter

#4 an 1100w amp can put out double or triple its power for small spurts when driven into clipping(incorrect voltage matching)

#5 you ARE having a clipping issue(that is the ONLY thing that could be causing the "blown woofer" problems) due to incorrect gain settings or an issue with

the output voltage of your LOC

If you want to come to Akron Oh I'll figure it out and fix it for you for free...

 

[edavis.j 10+ year member]

LPF = Low Pass filter 70hz is fine.
Clipping is trying to get the amp to put out more power than it can. Typically by over-driving it or dropping voltage.

Cap is worthless at best, remove that ASAP, IMO 4 guage is really pushing your luck with that amp unless it's a really short run from the battery.

You really are just in the market for a bigger or more capable sub. If you have to push the sub to the point of smoke with your normal listening you need something bigger.

alright...thanks..just these questions again, i'm curious about

1) Is it okay to overpower a sub? Everyone had always told me it was a great idea to overpower subs and that 1150w would never hurt a 1000w sub.

2) If my amp is only 1150w RMS isn't that going to be the most power it puts out regardless of how high I turn the gain on the amp or headunit volume? So even if I have the volume at max and gain at max, the amp will only put out 1150w correct? If not...how does it work..?

OK... advise#1 ditch the capacitor all it does is take up room.. it does you NO good at all

#2 the sub is wired correctly to 2ohm so we are good there

#3 the "volume" knob on your amp is actually a "gain" knob.... and is used to match input voltage.. depending on the voltage output of your LOC determines where you need to turn the knob, this is done correctly with an oscilloscope or you can get pretty close with a multi meter

#4 an 1100w amp can put out double or triple its power for small spurts when driven into clipping(incorrect voltage matching)

#5 you ARE having a clipping issue(that is the ONLY thing that could be causing the "blown woofer" problems) due to incorrect gain settings or an issue with

the output voltage of your LOC

If you want to come to Akron Oh I'll figure it out and fix it for you for free...

thank you both for the help...

okay, well there's no adjustments to be made on the LOC, I can't change anything on that, so the only thing I can adjust is the gain on the amp...I can get my hands on an oscilloscope but how would I go about matching the voltages using a multimeter?

 

[edavis.j 10+ year member]

^^^