Alpine Type X

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

I've got a question regarding a sub I recently acquired for a new build I'm going to be doing. I've got an Alpine 10" Type X 1042D sub and I'm a little concerned about it's health. The sub meters fine as far as the impedance goes on both coils (4 ohms) and sits almost perfectly at 2 ohms with the jumpers in place. My issue arises when I power it up. The sub heats up when I give it anywhere from 600 to 1000 RMS. I played it today in my car (Alpine MRD-M1005 that benched at 1035 @ 2 ohms and 14.4 volts). Since my car doesn't sit at 14.4 volts, and the impedance will not be exactly 2 ohms after impedance rise, I figure the sub isn't getting anywhere near 1035 watts. I also had it wired to a Cadence amp that is rated at 700 watts, but I had the gain turned down rather low. Both amps heated up the sub, the cone, and the speaker wire terminals on the box. The sub also has somewhat of a "burned" smell to it. Is it dying? Any help would be appreciated.

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[Twista89 10+ year member]

loose connection??? I know my Rs get warm now off of a additional 250 watts over RMS....

 

[kr15 5,000+ posts]

The cone on my Treo gets warm occaisionally...Its getting about 4-500 over rms tho..

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

I'm not going over RMS though on the sub. Does anyone else have this "issue" with the Type X? Plus, it does have an odd smell to it. I'm hoping that all is well. I'm going to be installing it sometime into my new daily driver and I'll see how it's going to hold up then. I'll be running it off approximately 650 RMS at that point, so well under what it's rated RMS.

 

[Twista89 10+ year member]

probably clipping it then...or bottoming it out...

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

It's definitely not clipping. Well, I guess I can't say definitely, but I do set me gain with my DMM. It's no where bottoming out. The sub sounded fine. Oh, all my connections are tight too, or at least they were tight. I pulled the sub out of the box to test the impedance of the coils.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Well, I pulled the polyfill out of the box and played it again. It still got slightly warm, but not nearly as warm as it did before. I did notice that the sub has a raspy sound at some frequencies. I'm going to move on and get another sub for this build. I think this one is done. To Craigslist it goes...

 

[______ 10+ year member]

Any sound out of the coil if you just push on the cone?? like scratching or rubbing?

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

With a 1000 watt amp I've got to assume the sub is getting somewhere around 200 watts of real average power..... now, go run a 100 watt lightbulb for a few minutes and tell me if it gets hot? The point being there is going to be some heat building up and it's quite normal for a sub/motor even the cone to feel hot... on the otherhand if the coil is starting to stink you might be pushing it too hard...

With all that said, the terminals on your box should not be heating up... you don't have a good connection...

 

[blazin504boy]

Hold on!!! before u go selling that alpine lets see whats going on.. i recently purchased my first alpine type x 12 a couple months ago.. hooked it at 2 ohms to a jl audio 1000/1 and it was very nice.. sounded a lot like 2 type r 12's just deeper. i played it low for a couple days then decided to really crank it the third day and what do u know.. smelled like it was burning. i thought maybe it was the amp but it was the sub. when i felt it, it was pretty warm.. i turned the gain down on the amp and it was better. able to play it a lot longer before i smelled the burning.. took the sub out of the box.. (sealed box which was way way too big) then noticed a loose wire.. hooked it up again and cranked it.. no problems for awhile then the smell came back. turns out the wire was loose again. so.. for some odd reason i ordered another one and kept the one i have. built a sealed box for both that is a little bigger than specs. 1.25 cu ft for each chamber and put the jl audio 1000 in the garage. ordered an mb quart dsc2000.1, did the big 3 upgrade, dry cell battery, 0 gauge wire, 8 gauge speaker wire and what do u know..... im beyond impressed. i believe the burning smell can possibly have to do with the speaker wire being to small for all the power pushed.. not clipping of the amp. anyway thats just my input.. hope this helps some...

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

My connections are tight on the sub and on the inside of the speaker terminal. The wire is 12 gauge wire, which is fully capable of the power I'm putting through it. I did use some silicone around the speaker terminal but that's not a conductor, only a semiconductor. I did this to ensure an air tight seal around the terminal. There may be a little on the wire, but nothing that would cause any issues, I think. To answer the other question, the sub doesn't make any rubbing or grinding noise if I move the cone. I'm wondering if the previous owner did something to it, which may be the reason he sold it.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Is it possible that one of the leads on or inside the sub is loose causing the noise I'm hearing at certain frequencies and causing the sub to heat up? I know I'm not pushing the sub too hard. It heats up with anywhere from about 600 to 1000 watts. 1000 watts RMS is what the sub can/should handle. I know I'm not clipping it either. I know how to set my gain properly on my amp and how to use an EQ and a crossover properly. Also, I don't believe the design of my box has anything to do with it. My box is 1.3 cubes net tuned to 30 Hz. The sub will go in a box all the way up to 1.5 cubes so I know I'm not too large there. The sub should perform very well in this type of box.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

600-1000 watts is A LOT OF POWER (what the other guy said about a 100W lightbulb). A conventional loudspeaker is terribly inefficient (typically around or under 2% electrical energy in to accoustic energy out). Much of that energy is being lost to heat.

The cone and motor getting warm is pretty normal and if it's still playing and normally not smelling it's a good sign that it can handle what you're throwing at it. When things start getting smelly it's probalby time to back off a bit, that's typically the glue/epoxy/shellac/etc. on and around the coil heating up. If you do this too long that stuff will burn off then your woofer will fail. Some subs can be pushed to smelly a lot and hold up, some once they start smelling you're nearly dead. I haven't personally pushed an X so I can't say which way they go, but I'd say getting warm/hot is normal, but when it smells, back off a bit.

I'd also suggest if you feel you need to push it to smelly often you're probably in the market for bigger or more subs.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Even with 600 watts, I don't believe I'm pushing it too hard and it does smell with a lower power going into it. I'm believing that the previous owner pushed it too hard and it's on it's last leg right now. It did have a funny smell when I originally got it but I thought nothing of it because the coils measured to be the correct impedance. The coils still measure where they're supposed to be, but if I barely touch the sub, they go all out of whack. I'm guessing that one of the leads going to the voice coil is shot and that the glue/epoxy/shellac/etc. is pretty much shot since it burns off at even low power and volume.

 

[SPLaudio 5,000+ posts]

600-1000 rms is NOT alot of power. the type x soft parts are junk.