Keep Blowin' Type-R's

[MrBade]

I have now been through two.

I'm still pretty fresh to this stuff and was hoping someone could advise me well enough to keep me from accidentally blowing the two Type-R's I just got today.

1.I have access to a DMM but not an o-scope or a tone generator.
2.What is a tone generator and how is it used?
3.Any other advice about finding the right gain on my brand new Rockford Fosgate T-500-1 BD Power Series amp as perfect as I'm able.
4.What about the Infrasonic Filter on it?
5.What frequency do I set it to?
6.Whats the right way to use the bass boost/punch eq?
7.Are there any concerns about my relativelt new Sony Deck as far as the equalizer goes? Specifically about avoiding the quick death of your quality subs?
8.What the hell's going on with the equalizer settings anyhow? I'm used to low/mid/high kinda stuff and not.......rb enh, DM+, SW Phase, Bands 1-7. How can I be expected to understand abbreviations which I never learned about at all?


ANY other advice for avoiding blown subs is appreciated. Thanks guys.

[BlactimusCrime]

you can burn constant tones on a cd and use them. or there are free tone generator apps for ipod touch if you have on/ can hook it up to your h/u. They are used because they cause your amp to put out a constant ac voltage to your sub, giving you a good base line to set your gains with.

Try to use as little bass boost as possible, preferably none.

read your user manual. should explain all the abbreviations used in your deck.

[DoesDad]

Weird. That T500 is probably around 700 watts or so (depends on the birthsheet). So about 350 a sub. Even if they're the older ones that are500-600 you shouldn't be blowing them. What gauge amp kit are you using?

[BlactimusCrime]

hes prolly only running 1

[DoesDad]

hes prolly only running 1

I'm still pretty fresh to this stuff and was hoping someone could advise me well enough to keep me from accidentally blowing the two Type-R's I just got today.

Think it might be two...

[MrBade]

The amp is running two of the older type-r's at 2 ohms right now.

Thanks for the iphone tip blactimus, I'll definitely be able to make that happen.

At first I had one of the newer type-r's in a ported box in the trunk of my 01' Mazda Millenia. But I'm aware of why I blew it. At the time I wasn't aware that you could blow a sub by underpowering it. I got it replaced with another and got the fosgate amp and everything was running fine for quite some time.

However, I came across the Help 101 topic here about using a DMM and figured I'd try a CD. Not having much clarity beyond "CD" I thought I could just use the one already in there but the reading was bouncing all over the place. So I knew I was missing a step/piece of equipment or something. I tried turning most of the settings on the deck to a sort of neutral state and turned everything on the amp all the way down.

Is it possible that my fooling around with the settings on the deck that I didn't/still don't understand could've causeed it?

Could the low pass filter on the amp cause it? Maybe I turned that up to high? What should I have it on anyway?

[BlactimusCrime]

You cant blow a sub by underpowering it. how big is the box and what is it tuned to?

[alec14]

The amp is running two of the older type-r's at 2 ohms right now.

Thanks for the iphone tip blactimus, I'll definitely be able to make that happen.

At first I had one of the newer type-r's in a ported box in the trunk of my 01' Mazda Millenia. But I'm aware of why I blew it. At the time I wasn't aware that you could blow a sub by underpowering it. I got it replaced with another and got the fosgate amp and everything was running fine for quite some time.

However, I came across the Help 101 topic here about using a DMM and figured I'd try a CD. Not having much clarity beyond "CD" I thought I could just use the one already in there but the reading was bouncing all over the place. So I knew I was missing a step/piece of equipment or something. I tried turning most of the settings on the deck to a sort of neutral state and turned everything on the amp all the way down.

Is it possible that my fooling around with the settings on the deck that I didn't/still don't understand could've causeed it?

Could the low pass filter on the amp cause it? Maybe I turned that up to high? What should I have it on anyway?

were you messing with the gain? That definitely could've caused it. Or too much bass boost. turning every one of your settings down probably wasn't the best.

[MrBade]

I only messed with the gain initially and then put it back. Can you blow subs by setting the frequency to high?

[nu2spl]

buy better subs junior

[jungstah]

possibly clipped to death?

[skylineTT]

As stated, you didn't blow it from underpowering it, you blew it from distorting it.. Keep your SW phase at 0 (subwoofer phase is something you can easily search or google, but you definitely want it at 0 unless it is inverted, which I doubt). The bands 1-7 describe the tunable frequency range. Your old "Low Mid High" meant 3 bands of tunability. Low end starts at Band 1 and goes higher until you reach 7. I always keep the lower bands somewhat flat (close to 0) to make sure my mids aren't distorting and to keep the sub from distorting if it affects the subwoofer signal..

As far as your sub amp, only tune with the gain. Keep bass boost at 0, keep the frequency pretty low, and only turn the gain up until you reach the voltage you are trying to achieve.

[MrBade]

nu2spl....not here to be talked down to because I'm new to this.

But I think your probably right in part jungstah. The gain couldn't possibly have been put in the right spot. But I think I'm worried about the frequency lvl(i don't know much about it yet) and the bass boost being max.....on the HU and amp.......and the loudness setting on on the HU being on and.......anything else...lol.

Dude at Cartoys is the one who said I could have my bass boost up that high too. But I've been looking around online and it seems he was completely wrong.

[jungstah]

nu2spl....not here to be talked down to because I'm new to this.

But I think your probably right in part jungstah. The gain couldn't possibly have been put in the right spot. But I think I'm worried about the frequency lvl(i don't know much about it yet) and the bass boost being max.....on the HU and amp.......and the loudness setting on on the HU being on and.......anything else...lol.


Dude at Cartoys is the one who said I could have my bass boost up that high too. But I've been looking around online and it seems he was completely wrong.

there's your problem. bass boost maxed out means your signal is distorted and most likely clipped. keep the bass boost low or off preferrably. use gain knob only. ill assume frequency is the LPF on your amp, put it to like 60-80hz as a guideline and adjust according to your own music taste.

[MrBade]

So I messed with it a bit. I don't have a DMM and until just a few hours ago didn't have a test tone so I still don't have my gain spot on. It's sitting at around 6/11 at this point. But I'm a little unsure of the bass boost thing. My amp doesn't say bass boost, it says punch eq(which I was told was bass boost). It actually seems to have a much larger impact on the subs then the gain honestly.

So if it's best practice to not use the bass boost at all, is my unsatisfaction with the sound without it indicate my amp is two small 2 run 2 of them? Type-R's are rated 600W RMS each but I kinda thought that was max RMS. So I'm thinking that my situation now is that since I bought that fosgate amp with running one in mind, now that I have two, it's either going to blow the subs with the bass boost up, or I'm going to not be running them nearly as hard as they can supposedly run. They slam when the boost is used.

So my setup now is:

Gain - 6-7(Will adjust when I go to a buddies whos got a DMM)
LPF - 65
Punch EQ - ......still nearly fully up.

Is it a bad idea to adjust those type of settings while blairin' it? I always turned the HU down to zero to be safe but I think it would be easier to to find the right settings while it's slamming rather than silent.