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slim142

Couple questions about my sub & amp

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Well first sorry for making a somewhat new thread, I thought it wasnt reasonable to keep my questions going on the Fi Technical zone. Maybe I can get more help here

I have a problem which Im trying to solve. Basically, Im trying to set my gains right, however, I dont have DMM or O-Scope so I have to do it by ear.

For some reason I cant find that stress point [of my subwoofer]. Maybe I have terrible ears or all those screws/tools in my trunk vibrating are not letting me hear the stress point clearly.

I have figured out there are some points (between 1/3 and 1/2 of the way of the bass remote) that bass gets louder but the gains are very very small, and after 1/2 of the way, the subwoofer doesnt get louder at all.

I also tried increasing the remote to the MAX in songs that are not bassy (song didnt sound that good after that though, but was experimenting) and subwoofer gave me a bit of smell, nothing serious though but it was there.

What am I doing wrong here?

Pioneer TS-W3002D4 @ 2ohms 1k RMS 12"

Sundown 2000D @ 2ohms 1k RMS

Rockford Fosgate 4-gauge kit

Factory HU using RCA with Line Output Converter.

Stock amp, no Big 3

No Bass Boost on Amp. No Bass Boost on Headunit. Everything Flat.

Edited by slim142

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If I remember that sub has a plastic cone and you can hear signs of stressing when running it to hard or driving it passed its excursion limits. If you hear the plastic making a knocking noise then your reached its limits, if you keep turning it up and it doesnt getting louder and the sub seems to be moving more than sound being produced then your at its limits.

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If I remember that sub has a plastic cone and you can hear signs of stressing when running it to hard or driving it passed its excursion limits. If you hear the plastic making a knocking noise then your reached its limits, if you keep turning it up and it doesnt getting louder and the sub seems to be moving more than sound being produced then your at its limits.

Well, will try playing the sub and hear any plastic sound coming from the box and/or sub.

Also, is my amp giving the sub 2000watts or 1000watts?

The amp says 1000watts RMS at 2ohms. Does that apply to 2 sub configurations only? or does it work with 1 sub too?

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Whatever your sub is wired at, for example 2 ohms you will see 1000 watts regardless how many subs your running. With one sub, that one sub will get 1000 watts. With two subs, both will share that 1000 watts and each will receive 500 watts.

The plastic will be the cone so you will only hear it from the cone area, not the box. To me that sub only gets so loud and after a while it will just move more while producing less sound, hard to explain but if it were in front of me I could tell you when to turn it down.

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Ok I understand now. So I did a good choice with the 2000D.

Regarding the sub, when you hear the sub playing kinda "rocky" (like ugly bass up-down-up-down) with non-rap songs, those are signs of bass taking over mids and highs, low pass filter too high or stress? (no burn smell here).

And yeah, would like to have a real experienced person to tell me whats that stress point I should go above. Will keep testing and see how things go, but really appreciate your help.

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Yeah that is a good amp for that sub, keep the gains set right and no clipping you should be fine. When I had those subs (or any subs) I would just open the trunk and turn them up waiting for over excursion or like the sub is working harder then it should. When your standing back there you will here the cone knocking (which is mechanical limit for that sub), another reason why you wont always get a burning smell if your over powering your sub.

There are two ways to kill your sub making it reach its mechanical limit and thermal limit. The mechanical limit is when you mess up the former, suspension, etc but you most likely wont get a burning smell but a sucked in cone or when you push the cone in it scratches. The thermal limit is sending to much power to the voice coils and burning them up along other things, that is when you get the burning smell.

What size box do you have the sub in, usually they want smaller than normal boxes if I remember.

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Well considering is a ford expedition, does it make the difference if I open the trunk or not? its not like a sedan where the trunk is "sealed".

Usually, when I stress subs I get the thermal limit sign. Has happened with a pair of subs already. Mechanical I really couldnt tell if I have/am experiencing it.

When a sucked in cone happens, does the sub still work? My pioneer is harder to push in (using hands) than my kicker used to be. It might be the different brand though. My pioneer still works and plays good.

About the box size, it was ~1.75-1.80 with outer measurements so I heard true volume should be ~1.40 minus sub displacement ~1.30. Pioneer recommends 1.20 for ported so I should be good there, but my box is bought from a shop and Im pretty sure I can get a lot more performance if I build my own but right now im not in a situation to do so.

I want to mention, I burned a CD with 20 of my favorite currently most-played songs and made sure I checked "Normalize songs volume" in Nero Express. Went to the car and played the CD. I made sure to include some songs that used to give me burn if too loud. Surprisingly was my reaction of how everything sounded WAAAY cleaner and better!. I think normalization did a great job here (also considering the fact of a music CD instead of Aux-in from iPod with regular 3.5mm audio connector). There was no "rocky" bass-feeling and notes sounded way more accurate, punchy and detailed. Really bassy songs played great. I also made sure to keep my gain at or below 1/2 of the bass remote (usually with iPod even 1/2 gives me burning smell).

At this point, I think it will be better if I play it safe and just burn CDs. I will also lower my gain a notch more so I have more control on the bass.

Any opinion on this?

Yeah that is a good amp for that sub, keep the gains set right and no clipping you should be fine. When I had those subs (or any subs) I would just open the trunk and turn them up waiting for over excursion or like the sub is working harder then it should. When your standing back there you will here the cone knocking (which is mechanical limit for that sub), another reason why you wont always get a burning smell if your over powering your sub.

There are two ways to kill your sub making it reach its mechanical limit and thermal limit. The mechanical limit is when you mess up the former, suspension, etc but you most likely wont get a burning smell but a sucked in cone or when you push the cone in it scratches. The thermal limit is sending to much power to the voice coils and burning them up along other things, that is when you get the burning smell.

What size box do you have the sub in, usually they want smaller than normal boxes if I remember.

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I like Pioneers. Good starter subs, never gave me any problems other than with an AQ2200D on a pair of 150rms subs :shrug:

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You have talked about this up-down almost random movement of the cone a number of times. Can you take a video of this occuring so we can see it? Hard to tell from your description.

What is the box tuned to? If it was bought from a shop chances are it's tuned around 40 hz. Not too great for everyday listening.

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Ok yes I think it will be better to take a video with some songs playing.

But I can tell Ive almost got my gain right, Im starting to have more control over my sub.

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Hey guys

Sorry Ive been kinda busy and didnt really have time to make a video of the sub. Will definitely try to make it tomorrow and hopefully show you my set up.

On the other side I have one question. My ford expedition came with a factory 8inch sub (which is where my 2000D is getting the signal from with a LOC) and it is located above the rear-left wheel. My question is, should I unplug the factory 8inch sub and just play the 12" pioneer?

I have seen threads where people wanted to mix 12s with 15s and 10s and the answer was NEVER DO IT. I would like to know if I should unplug my 8inch sub. I havent disconnected it since its factory, I didnt think it would affect my system sound, but just want to hear some feedback from you guys. The 8inch is nowhere near my 12 and is mostly covered by my tools and materials that I have in the trunk.

Edited by slim142

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Ok so Back again

I have a story to tell and I need recommendation ASAP.

So I have my subsonic on what looks to be 20Hz on my 2000D (half is 25Hz so a bit less), so I decided to see how good can my subwoofer handle the low note on Put On by Jeezy. For my surprise....

As soon as I played the song (from a normalized volume CD with 75% volume) the very begining has this low frequency that made my sub make this super strange noise!

Im going to try to describe those 2 seconds of HORROR because I thought I could have killed my sub in just seconds.

I had my bass remote up. Started playing song. Sub started going up and down like crazy but this time it sounded as if the cone wanted to just launch to the roof and separate from the spider and this sound that came out of INSIDE the sub was.... imagine a huge piece of plastic (or thick paper) bending as a parabola up and down. I hope Im giving a clear idea of the sound.

Now, I did bring up my subsonic even more this time. Its almost on half right now. But Im pretty sure my gain has to be decreased a notch too.

I just want to know, is this song really suppose to make your sub make weird noises or movements?

I know is hard to explain without a video, but I really wouldnt like to record it playing this song at least for now.

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