blown sub?

the5.ohh · Feb 26, 2013

Idk for like the past 2 weeks I felt like my car was lacking the bass it had when I first had my system done. Today I went outside, put the radio on and looked in the trunk to see the subs. And boom only one is working, I checked the wires and they were all connected. Idk how I blew one of the subs this is unbelievable. This is most likely a blown sub right?

KillNThrill24 · Feb 26, 2013

Check all of your wiring man. And is your sub box sealed? If so take the sub out. You'll know right away if it's blown. If it's ported you would already know if it was blown or not. The smell is awful. Burnt voice coil is not one of my favorite smells.

What kind of subs and what amp?

the5.ohh · Feb 26, 2013

The wiring all looks good to me, nothin outta place. Its a sealed box with 2 10'' jbl gt5-10 subs. Pretty sure this is the amp.
http://store.arcaudio.com/p/se-4100

the5.ohh · Feb 26, 2013

I'm bringin the car tomorrow to have the guy check it out.

the5.ohh · Feb 26, 2013

When I first got the system up until this thing blew, it hit as hard as mike tysons uppercut. Maybe the AMP is too powerful for these subs, they're not anything high end. Budget subs is really what they are and for the $$ they're really good. This blowsssssss

KillNThrill24 · Feb 26, 2013

I'm tellin ya pull the sub out and smell it lol. If you smell burned voice coil (you'll know the smell) then it's probably blown. I've blown a good number of subs before I learned how to get everything set up right and didn't have an amp too powerful for the subs. The first one I blew up I pulled out of the box and a big cloud of smoke came out with it lol it was BAD

the5.ohh · Feb 26, 2013

Lol I'll check it when it stops raining. I didn't notice any bad smells when I was in the trunk. I think maybe i need more powerful subs for this powerful amp imo.

ttocs · Feb 27, 2013

could be a blown sub, could be a bad channel on the amp, could be a bad channel on the deck. Try swapping the rca's on the amp so the left is on the right and the right on the left. If the same speaker continues to not move it could be a blow speaker but it the other speaker does not work then, its something else. If that is the case(the non-working sub changes) then swap the speaker wires on the amp so again the left sub is playing from the right channel and the right from the left. Now if the non-working speaker swaps, you have a bad channel on the amp.

Truth be told the power ratings on subs and the amps to power them is about the most useless spec to look at and I have never once paid attention to the rms/max power ratings on a sub that I was using for my own and also never blown one a sub. Ny advice is to get the best sub you can afford that matches what you want from it meaning do you have the space for a ported/band pass box or are you going small/sealed? After that spend as much as you can afford to send the speaker as much power as you can from the amp, tune it and then just keep the signal clean and out of the clipping/distortion. Don't be worried if you amp puts out more power then the sub is rated for as you can always adjust the gain to keep the power down but then again honestly I will ALWAYS overpower a sub before underpowering it. You can blow a speaker from an amp with not enough power almost as easily as you can with too much. When you over drive the sub/speaker and it starts to distort no matter with too much power or too little it will "clip" the the top of the nice smooth signal wave with a flat line, and does this sooner with an amp that does not have enough power. When that happens the speaker will drive either forward or back to its furthest distance and then hold the speaker there until the clipping stops. When this happens the speaker will start to build up heat, and also not be able to disapate the heat as fast since it is not moving which is how it is designed to cool itself. When it does that enough times it will get hot enough to start melting something. Like I said now with a lower powered amp you will reach that clipping point much sooner then with a higher power amp so you would need to drive it for a little longer to build the necessary heat but it is possible to blow a sub with too little power just about as easy as with an amp with too much power. Again thow as much power at it as you can affford, listen to the music, when it starts poppin/crackling at higher volumes where it isn't at low volumes its time to turn it down as you are at that point possibly doing damage to your gear.

KillNThrill24 · Feb 27, 2013

^^^^^^ Best answer you can get buddy

the5.ohh · Feb 27, 2013

Thanks ttocs and Kill. Went there today, talked to a guy that worked on the car and he acted like he could be bothered. Man does that piss me off big time. Gonna go back when the owners there, he'll fix the car

trytro · Apr 7, 2013

There are really only a few thing it could be. I have worked at a car audio shop for about 2 years and from what you say it's most likely a bad race cable running from your deck to your amp. An internal issue with the amp causing the speaker to not get powered (witch is testable by hooking up the sub that's not working up to the amp where the sub that is working is wired) or the subwoofer isn't wired up to the box(wire unplugged) the box to the subwoofer wire isn't plugged in, or a problem that I have had where the wire that goes from where you hook the wire up to sub (positive or negative port) has a short between the port and the magnet witch you could test by playing your music and pressing the subwoofer in(if it starts to move that's the issue). If you need a walk through or pictures on how to do any of these steps just let me know and I can post a helpful how to. I know exactly what you mean when shitty workers won't give you the time of day. Most likely if the employees don't care the boss man won't either

if that subwoofer was blown it would still move but would sound/smell like shit

ttocs · Apr 7, 2013

trytro said:
There are really only a few thing it could be. I have worked at a car audio shop for about 2 years and from what you say it's most likely a bad race cable running from your deck to your amp. An internal issue with the amp causing the speaker to not get powered (witch is testable by hooking up the sub that's not working up to the amp where the sub that is working is wired) or the subwoofer isn't wired up to the box(wire unplugged) the box to the subwoofer wire isn't plugged in, or a problem that I have had where the wire that goes from where you hook the wire up to sub (positive or negative port) has a short between the port and the magnet witch you could test by playing your music and pressing the subwoofer in(if it starts to move that's the issue). If you need a walk through or pictures on how to do any of these steps just let me know and I can post a helpful how to. I know exactly what you mean when shitty workers won't give you the time of day. Most likely if the employees don't care the boss man won't either if that subwoofer was blown it would still move but would sound/smell like shit

what shop did you work at? That little copper lead that goes from the speaker terminal to the voice coil(inside the magnet) is called the tinsel lead. A blown sub may or may not move depending on how bad it was smoked and what happened.

OP - Did you just randomly stop by the shop and expect the guy to drop everything and pull the sub in the parking lot? I am not sure how busy the shop is, what their appointments looked like that day or how many installers were there but he might not have been able to do it right then. When I was in the bay and a former customer stopped by I would try to do as much as I could to satisfy them but there were times when it was just too busy taking care of the appointments to help the walk-ins.

In all seriousness though try swapping the rca's and see what happens. If nothing happens and you feel adventurous then swap the speaker wires well(assuming that it run in stereo and not mono).

the5.ohh · Apr 7, 2013

ttocs said:
what shop did you work at? That little copper lead that goes from the speaker terminal to the voice coil(inside the magnet) is called the tinsel lead. A blown sub may or may not move depending on how bad it was smoked and what happened.

OP - Did you just randomly stop by the shop and expect the guy to drop everything and pull the sub in the parking lot? I am not sure how busy the shop is, what their appointments looked like that day or how many installers were there but he might not have been able to do it right then. When I was in the bay and a former customer stopped by I would try to do as much as I could to satisfy them but there were times when it was just too busy taking care of the appointments to help the walk-ins.

In all seriousness though try swapping the rca's and see what happens. If nothing happens and you feel adventurous then swap the speaker wires well(assuming that it run in stereo and not mono).

I got this fixed like a month ago, forgot to post in here. He took out the sub, messed with a few wires and I was good to go. Nah ttocs I didn't expect him to drop everything @ the moment but I felt like he could be bothered when he asked me what I needed. All good though since he fixed it and no charge either. I know he didn't really do anything but some places over here would charge for what he did. Thanks for the input guys

trytro said:
There are really only a few thing it could be. I have worked at a car audio shop for about 2 years and from what you say it's most likely a bad race cable running from your deck to your amp. An internal issue with the amp causing the speaker to not get powered (witch is testable by hooking up the sub that's not working up to the amp where the sub that is working is wired) or the subwoofer isn't wired up to the box(wire unplugged) the box to the subwoofer wire isn't plugged in, or a problem that I have had where the wire that goes from where you hook the wire up to sub (positive or negative port) has a short between the port and the magnet witch you could test by playing your music and pressing the subwoofer in(if it starts to move that's the issue). If you need a walk through or pictures on how to do any of these steps just let me know and I can post a helpful how to. I know exactly what you mean when shitty workers won't give you the time of day. Most likely if the employees don't care the boss man won't either if that subwoofer was blown it would still move but would sound/smell like shit

It wasn't blown, nor did it smell so thats a good thing lol. Just a wire was loose or somethin. The workers are good but sometimes this one guy can have a shitty attitude, the owner is sweet as pie seriously. Guy will hook you up with anything and treat you like family. I'll always go to him for anything like stereos, hid's alarms etc..

ttocs · Apr 7, 2013

yea I understand. could have been a bad day, could have been a bad attitude, could have been both.... Myself I would have been happy to do all the tests I told you about in the parking lot just to isolate what the problem is and if I could not fix it then I would know how long it would take to fix it.

the5.ohh · Apr 7, 2013

ttocs said:
yea I understand. could have been a bad day, could have been a bad attitude, could have been both.... Myself I would have been happy to do all the tests I told you about in the parking lot just to isolate what the problem is and if I could not fix it then I would know how long it would take to fix it.

Gotcha lol. I would've tried those things but I'm not electrically inclined at all besides changing lights & bulbs in the car lol. I went back and it took him all of 5 minutes, took more time for him to get a power screwdriver than to fix the sub lol. Thanks again ttocs!

trytro · Apr 8, 2013

really didnt try to rag on everyone. a shop in sioux falls sd. there are a few little shops around here that talk alot of smack about every other shop and sometimes it just gets to you. didnt mean to step on toes. but ya the tinsil.....it was 5 am when i posted that lol couldnt think of the word. glad it was a simple fix and didnt have to run you up on costs.