Impious

Not turning the gain "past the 75% mark" and not turning the volume to max doesn't mean anything. If the voice coil is unwinding, then you overheated the coil and the glue failed. What does your system consist of.....HU, amps, enclosure, etc? What are all of your system settings at (bass boost, gain, any settings in the HU, etc)? What is your typical listening material? If you have a DMM, I would first measure each coil to verify there is a problem with the sub and it's not a problem elsewhere in the system. It's possible you might be seeing something wrong with the voice coil that isn't really there. If the coil is truly unwinding, the only fix is to have the driver reconed. But again, one step at a time and verify that it's actually a problem with the coil.

I wouldn't put too much faith into the 94db sensitivity. That's a pretty challenging number for a 6.5" driver to reach. They either rated it using an unconventional method, are lying, or the mids are going to have significantly restricted low frequency output (midbass). Personally I would find one of the first two on that list to be more probable. That's not to say you won't enjoy them. You very well may love their performance. But I think you are putting too much emphasis on that one number, when it's either inaccurate or going to affect the amount of midbass the driver is capable of.....there's no free lunch, it's a trade off. If you want higher (true) efficiency, you will give up low frequency output.

It's been a while, but I think I remember reading on the PG forum that these things were going to be pretty darn expensive?? Indeed. 55% is probably a full power efficiency rating anyways......just about any A/B is going to be in the 30%-40% range for efficiency at normal listening levels. Bingo. Greatly increases system flexibility. That's 30mm one-way. Good, but comparable to dozens of other subs on the market. Though I've been a little leery of PG's subwoofer claims ever since their demonstrated failure to understand Hoffman's Law. Meh. More marketing than anything. The Sony HU in my car right now, that I paid $95 used to purchase, has BB inside it. They aren't necessarily expensive, or unique. Just marketing. Agreed. Even moreso the fact that unless their pots have 0% error tolerance, those charts and the detents aren't going to be 100% accurate. The effect on sound is more important than the exact frequency. Seems more marketing gimmicky to me. With the availability of outboard processing and processing built into headunits......I'd really like to see more of these companies save me money by building simple gain blocks rather than making me pay $$ for the engineering and parts to include these super-duper crossovers and other features that I have absolutely no need for. It's an amplifier. I need it to amplify. That's it.

I don't know what forums or online communities consider it humorous to intentionally or unintentionally annoy others with their car stereo.....but this isn't one of them.

Plug it in and play it like you normally would.

Guys, he needs a 3-way active front stage, plus subwoofer. The only other HU that can handle 4-way active is the DRZ-9255. Personally it looks like a nice headunit if you want an all-in-one solution, more flexibility than the DRZ. For the price tag I don't believe it does anything you couldn't get with a headunit and outboard processor for less expense, so you're really paying for the "privilege" of not having an outboard processor. And personally I prefer having the outboard processor.....it's far less signal wiring to run from the front of the car to the rear, and less wiring to try to stuff behind the unit in the dash. I don't recall all of the P99's processing options, but IIRC a lot of outboard processors have a more flexibility. I've not heard of any real complaints with one though. Until the price of these units drop out of the astronomical range, I'll stick with a HU and outboard processor.

I almost grabbed one a while back. Decided to go back to the Denford instead.

Like Tirefryr said, the McIntosh and Clarion shared some technology (such as Power Guard) since there was some ownership interest there, but they are not the same amp. On the other hand, some of Clarion's headunits from that time are extremely similar to the McIntosh units. The Clarion DRX 9255 is nearly identical to the McIntosh 406.

I'm hoping this staff meeting took place at a titty bar, and the pics will be of the naked women.

If your voltage is dropping that significantly with the vehicle running and it's not loaded down excessively, then the alternator has failed.

Thats only 400rms... Assuming his alternator works his voltage should be in the 13.8-14.4V range when the vehicle is running, which is when most people listen to their stereo. And apparently it even has a green LED for the power as he wants

As long as the output is full range it's fine. If the output is lowpass by the amplifier then it wouldn't work.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_38336_Precision-Power-P600.2.html 600w @ 4ohm bridged. $160 shipped. 4-channel version tested by PASMAG met rated power, I see no reason that amplifier shouldn't. No idea the color of the LEDs though.

What's your actual budget? Your idea of decently priced and my idea of decently priced could be very different.

I still use CD's. Don't own an MP3 player/Ipod/etc myself. And yes, high quality CD players are still available.

If you set the gain with a -5db test tone and then played a 0db test tone, you would be asking the amplifier to output approximately 3.25 times the power with the 0db tone compared to the -5db tone. This can lead to clipping and possibly a release of the magic smoke depending on the situation. The reason this isn't as big of an issue with music is because music will only reach that level during very brief transient dynamic peaks (tenths of a seconds) and the distortion is largely masked. But with a test tone being played for a (comparatively) long period of time it's possible heavy clipping from the amplifier can occur, which could potentially overpower the driver. As for setting the gain by ear yes, about the only thing you can do is listen for audible distortion, driver stress, and desired output levels. With a test tone distortion is much more audible than it is with music, although your ears are less sensitive to the subbass frequencies. The "tone" of the test tone should change a bit when distortion levels are higher as the harmonics will be more audible.

FWIW, guy on DIYMA had the faceplate to his Denford anodized and he suggest talking to the shop to see if they can include the item you want anodized in a larger run of the color you want to save on cost. He said they only charged him $50 to anodize his faceplate in a run of a larger job, whereas typically they'd charge $120 just to turn on the machine for you. Just an idea.

If you are using a 0db test tone with the DMM method of setting a gain (the "JL Audio" method), then yes, output will suffer. It's an extremely conservative gain setting because (ideally) you would only be able to obtain full power output from the amplifier with a 0db signal.....which rarely ever occurs in actual music. If you feel more comfortable with the DMM method, you can use a test tone recorded at a lower signal level, for example -6db. This will allow for higher average power output with music while still providing a reasonably low level of clipping during musical peaks. The other method is, of course, to set the gain by ear. I normally still use a test tone so driver stress is more apparent.

Then it sounds like what you are hearing is the sound from the roof flexing. Mine sounds the same when I go through an automatic car wash with the blowers. As was mentioned, if you are getting enough roof flex that it's making that sound, the best method is to structurally brace the roof.

Don't worry, the data I would like to see wouldn't be anything you would be able to obtain I wouldn't. Even if they improperly stated it as 2-way instead of 1way, it would be a stretch.

I've always been surprised by the pricing I've seen for them based on appearance (and appearance only). I'd be interested in seeing more details on the actual performance of the drivers.

I've seen threads about them on DIYMA but have zero knowledge about the products. How do you like them?

So Stephen is a college kid trying to raise money for college by selling his preordered Skar amplifiers and some Sundown amplifiers he purchased from you, but also appears to operate an ebay business selling car audio installation accessories, which is coincidentally a line of business you were involved in, and is located in Tampa, FL which also happens to be the location of EastCoastCarAudio.com you co-founded according to your signature and ECCA's facebook page? It's also interesting that your old ebay business (1800Woofers) and Mr. Stephens sell extremely similar accessories....Raptor, Tsunami, etc. I don't think you can deny it's not a far leap to draw the conclusions that have been drawn. Either it's just a giant coincidence that you & Stephen have the same supplier and just happen to operate(d) extremely similar businesses selling similar products and happen to share atleast one common location (Tampa), or there is more of a connection than you would like to lead on. You know what else is really interesting? 1800Woofers last feedback was left in April '11. Guess when the ebay user zaffiriiuno became active selling on ebay again? No feedback as a seller from Nov '10 until April '11, a couple feedback left in April for sales....then in July the user starts selling Sundown, Skar shortly thereafter and in August '11 he starts selling the exact same install accessories that 1800woofers was selling. ECCA, that business you co-founded that's located in Tampa according to facebook, was founded in what year? Oh, that's right.....2011 (according to that facebook page). It looks to me that the business from 1800Woofers was simply switched over to a different username. It appears you are undercutting your dealers by selling your products on Ebay at below MAP pricing. But I'm sure it's all just a giant coincidence, we're all just reading way too much into it, and you'll have an excuse for everything.

Is it maybe the edges of the headliner bouncing off of the roof?