sp4 dust cap warm

[ncc74656 2]

yes it was bloody loud and set of car alarms. not long after that it was shooting fire into my cab. also durring this loud phase it was also not good at producing high frequencies, it was to powerfull at lows and not enough at highs.

 

i just reconed it yesterday and just installed it today. with gains down and bass boost off it has no power. but turning these up set it on fire the last time...

 

so how do i get power with out using gains and bass boost

Edited October 6, 2013 by ncc74656

[jonbearsmt 919]

i cant read all that...

 

 but ill say that the dust cap should be warm out of design .... the way the cooling works would make the cap warm... even hot ...... use your nose ears coupled with the touch of the cap and you should be fine.

[blakflash 1]

part of my "information" is the white powder from the fire extinguisher that's still stuck in my upholstery of the truck cab... 

 

let me run through this here and see what you guys think, a local car audio shop wants to hire me to do installs so if/when that happens i will have access to more equipment to play with.

 

now let me start by saying that this sub got bloody loud, when i went to the audio shop to show it off there were customers there who had there SUV's full of subs 3 or 4 12's and when i turned mine up they walked over to see what in the fuck was setting off alarms down the block. 

 

now lets go to what my actual goals are - this is where things get complex. i prefer bass in the higher frequencies (45-80hz) but i dont want to be missing the 30-44hz range so i want these to be more balanced. even at max volume the SP4 was not loud enough for me. now it should be said that installers at the audio shop did not want to stand near the truck for to long as it was "to loud for them". 

 

I am looking for bass that is clear and musical while at high volume can shatter my windshield and provide enough air to eject things from the truck cab.  the first box i had for this was to small cubic and to high a tuning. had great high bass but zero low end as the sub was unloading at around 39hz. second box had a messed up port that caused muddy bass. this box is fixed and is tuned to 32hz at 7.2cubic.

 

I have mechman 280amp alt, knu conceptz 0ga and OFC for long runs. 4 group 31 liquid batteries, all cables bolted directly to the battery studs with brass washers and bolts, all wires soldered with electrical solder and copper ends. amp grounds to the frame and frame has been ground down to metal for good contact. wires going into amps have shielding cut back and the strands pushed in and the set screws cranked down. longest wire run is about 12ft.

 

head unit is pioneer with shielded RCA's going to a KX3 and then out to there respective amps. the ZX2500.1 does not go through the xover as i think its got the same xover built into it, no?

 

the alt has 0ga ground and power going directly to the battery. the amps all connect to a 3/8" plate of copper that is a common link between all the batteries and this has sets of ANL fuses coming off it.

 

the box is 1.5" mdf build with 45 corners, a rounded port opening, glue and screws.

 

8ga wire from amp to sub.

 

now i noticed today that when i turn my decks EQ up on the 100hz range that my tweeters distort. why is this? they are xovered at 4.5KH on a very expensive xover. i should be able to push the 100hz up to 50 and still not get any bass to the tweets.

 

Have you double checked the connections from the stereo? Kinda sounds like you might have the wrong singals going to the wrong speakers. Having high frequencies going through the sub would heat it up as it is not cooling itself. And that could explain why your tweets distort when messing with the EQ. A signal issue is all that comes to mind to me. Try running some test tones as well.

[ncc74656 2]

i just downloaded an android app to play some tones. im goin out now to play aorund with things.

[ncc74656 2]

ok.

 

RCA's have 0.7V AC 

kicker amp sits at 1.1v at rest with gains/bass boost down. turning up gains will move this to 1.6 and bass boost will bring it to 2.7V

while playing the amp peaks at 51V ac at 33.4hz

 

my eclipse amp shows 13.3V on one channel and 11.1V on the other at max volume

 

max voltage drop at amps with engine off is .8V and nominal is .34V

 

subs best volume by ear is with gains 3/4 up and bass boost 3/8th up

 

by my math the most this amp puts out is 1300W in its current setup.

[95Honda 486]

How did you measure current (or impedance)?

[ncc74656 2]

i measured with a volt meeter on VAC and divided by 2ohm as thats what the sub is rated at.

[shizzzon 461]

lol.. no.. to calculate impedance, you must measure voltage and current.  Impedance changes with frequency.

 

Now, we will allow you to measure these with a dmm and ammeter in real time, not with peak hold..  Even though it's not 100% accurate, it will not be off by a factor that would be the conclusion of 600w vs 3,000w.. it's far from being that inaccurate.

[ncc74656 2]

i dont know what to divide by as it changes every frequency

[shizzzon 461]

You need an AMMETER to measure current.

 

If you are going to do math on paper then you will never get real world results and your troubleshooting will be flawed.

 

I am now curious how you are doing other troubleshooting if it's based on paper as well.

[ncc74656 2]

so i should measure the amps being drawn by the amp at the power wires while i measure the voltage coming out?

 

right now most of the trouble shooting is done with a mix of box building programs, win isd, and by ear tuning in the truck.

 

i did some reading on the remote volume knob on the ZX2500.1 last night. i had thought it was a bass boost knob but it seems that it is rather a min/max gain knob via the settings on teh amp. so in many of the posts when i referred to bass boost being 1/3 or 3/8 i was referring to this remote gain rather than the bass boost on the amp itself. 

[kj4jaq 5]

easiest way to measure current is with a clamp on ammeter, dont have to worry about blowing your fuses in your meter by making it inline

[muddybass 13]

what I don't understand is if you don't like low freq why did you purchase an sp4 when it is specifically made for a low end monster

[jcarter1885 995]

what I don't understand is if you don't like low freq why did you purchase an sp4 when it is specifically made for a low end monster

Because it has a 4" coil

Edited October 7, 2013 by jay-cee

[ncc74656 2]

I wanted more volume than the BL offered.

since I fixed my boxes port the frequency range is much better.

[Joe Chen 1]

Sounds like you're setting your gains too high or something. It should get warm when playing, but if it's hot to the point where you can't touch it.. something's wrong.

[Notorious97200 339]

OP, you're in good hands !

I set my gain by ears and then I plugg in the remote gain (at max). So this remote can only be used to turn down the gain, it won't go higher than what it was set to.

I have no bass boost, LPF is widely opened on the amp, as I only use the head unit LPF (at 80 Hz).

 

You have good equipments and a good install from what I've read

Good luck

[Notorious97200 339]

Oooh sorry, it's an old thread  

[cloud77 28]

Sounds like you're setting your gains too high or something. It should get warm when playing, but if it's hot to the point where you can't touch it.. something's wrong.

his enclosure is fuel for a future Thursday night camp fire. .

[ncc74656 2]

ha, the box didnt burn to much, i still use to today. i tried my hand at upgrading my kicker amp and it worked for a while before poping and catching on fire agian so i sent it off to kicker this time round. i picked up 4 busted amps from craigs list and im trying my hand at repairing these. i really want to learn how to build and repair amps so i can understand better exactly whats going on in there.

[cloud77 28]

kicker is bad IMO

[ncc74656 2]

idk, i had a ZX1500.1 for 7 years with out issue and it was great. this 2500.1 is just a jinkx i guess but i think a good part of it is how things are wired and used. i blew all my kicker subs ive ever owned so i dont care for there subs much.

[shizzzon 461]

Kicker amps are not bad.  Their subs is what lack potential.

[jcarter1885 995]

idk, i had a ZX1500.1 for 7 years with out issue and it was great. this 2500.1 is just a jinkx i guess but i think a good part of it is how things are wired and used. i blew all my kicker subs ive ever owned so i dont care for there subs much.

So you don't care for their subs cause of user error, makes sense.

[ncc74656 2]

it wasnt user error on all of the subs. there round subs had ok sound quality but the sqare ones were just shit. Fi subs easily have better audio quality and frequency responce