Nasty distortion (old subs)

[cheebah 10+ year member]

Hi guys,

New to the forum. I came here as a last resort because I've exhausted all other resources. I recently bought a pair of rockford fosgate p2's (2 ohm dual voice coil) and installed them in my 1990 civic. I am running a kenwood KAC-900 monochannel amp and a clarion head unit. The subs are rated for 250w rms and the amp is rated at 900w rms for speakers configured for 2 ohm. I have both speakers wired according to the rf owners manual for 4 ohms a piece. When wired according to the amps manual the load is 2 ohms. The issue I am having is that the subs do not get very loud without sounding very muddled. I have a box that meets the volume requirements almost exactly and is brand new. I was wondering if these subs simply can't make very much volume or if it's because they are used and old.

Click to read more...

 

[cheebah 10+ year member]

OH, forgot to mention that the subs play a very limited frequency range. Even with the lpf set as high as possible on both the HU and amp the sub only plays the lowest of tones.

 

[azphat12 10+ year member]

Is there a crossover in the radio?

Can you turn the crossover on the amp off?

How exactly did you wire your speakers? Perhaps the wiring is wrong...

If you press "lightly" on the subwoofer, do you hear any scratching or any noises?

 

[cheebah 10+ year member]

Haven't tried pressing on them, will try soon. There is no crossover on HU and crossover can not be adjusted on the amp. I would like to add that I have run these subs on a separate amp, HU and box with the same issue

 

[Heeltoeclutch 10+ year member]

I had a 90 Civic hatch back in the day... lol I'm sure your system has more power than my car ever had. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[VWBobby 10+ year member]

If you have your amp wired to the Sub Out on the head unit, you might have the volume too low. Some Pioneer and other brands have a volume control on the sub preouts and it can be turned down pretty low from the factory. Try turning it up and if that doesn't help, try wiring to the front channel preouts and see if it makes a difference.

If you were having the same problem with another box, amp, and the same subs....its possible they are blown or partially blown. Check the coils with an ohm meter if you're not sure.... Should be about 3.1 - 3.8ohms for subs wired to 4 ohm.

 

[cheebah 10+ year member]

^This is a very ignorant thing to say, especially considering you have no idea who I am or what my background is. Suffice it to say all equipment is installed flawlessly (no electrical tape).

I'll go ahead and take a look at the coils. I didn't think a coil was burned because they actually work but then again I don't really know how a dual voice coil sub works. I'll measure resistance and get back to y'all.

 

[VWBobby 10+ year member]

Yeah there's a lot of unhelpful people on here that want to spew ignorant BS. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

Did you do the "push test" and the ohm test to see if your coils are blown? I had one box that had a sub blown, just working as a passive radiator and the only way to tell was with an ohm test.

 

[SicAudio 5,000+ posts]

It is almost worthless to even TRY to answer questions in threads like this. This dude is most likely driving a 1980 Ford Pinto with electrical tape everywhere trying to get sum tunes for da bitchaz.

yeah I reported it

the rest of you should as well...

 

[cheebah 10+ year member]

I went to grab my multimeter for the ohm test but it seems I misplaced it. I'm going to go ahead and conclude that these subs have lost a coil. I bought these used to try and save a buck but looks like I've learned another lesson the hard way. Now I'm going to just dish out some dough for 2 alpine type r's. It seems that from what I've read the p2's are kind of a disappointment even when running properly when compared to type r's.

Well thanks for the tips guys, you forced my to face the truth I've been avoiding.

 

[akheathen Premium Member]

i have also seen this more than once happen on shared-chamber. check out the tinsel leads. if one is getting intermittent contact, then it will work as a passive, but kick in at times and make noise, at highest movement, or if you push/tap/punch the cone.. i would hook one sub up at a time, and see what happens. if one is good, and the other not, then do one coil at a time on the bad one. sometimes it's obvious, sometimes not, but usually repairable pretty cheap.... of course, i'll assume you checked that one is not hooked up with a coil reversed, but still asking to make sure. it's the simple stuff that gets the best of us