Checking for clipping? Subs still heat up!

[da box king 10+ year member]

Well I'm lookin to recone my hdc3's, this time to 18's. Well dj keeps telling me that I must be clippin in order heat the subs up with 2k a piece like I am. So I'm trying to figure out if I am clipping or how to fix it, before I do build these new subs.

My electricical seems to be fine, at full tilt with my ho alt I don't drop below 13v.

I have a deka g34 up front, 2 g31's in the rear...

2 runs of 1/0 pos and one run of 1/0 neg to the rear

I also grounded the bats to the rear on a seat bolt too.

I set my gain with a dmm at 4000 rms, and the subs still heated up, I then turn the gained down, and they took longer to smell but still would, after about 10 min or so.

My sub amp is a crossfire vr4000d...tryin to figure this prob out. I also figure after rise and all to that the amp should be putting out less then 2k to the sub...tho the amp is rated @12v too

so what can I do?

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[mazdakid 5,000+ posts]

Do they get hot on all songs or what

 

[da box king 10+ year member]

Do they get hot on all songs or what

well I do only listen to them on rap/hip hop

it seems like the songs that are more brutal then they heat up and will smell eventually.

They also seemed to bottom out when gettin real low, but still were not real peaky. Jbizzle says that he can kinda hear his bottom out at certain freq too.

Im not worried bout them bottoming out really, cuz I know they can't play all songs, but the heating up pisses me off, when DJ say "they should not be heating up off that power"

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

seatbelt bolt is usaully always a bad idea for a ground. When you check voltage is it at the amp?

 

[da box king 10+ year member]

seatbelt bolt is usaully always a bad idea for a ground. When you check voltage is it at the amp?

I think I did check my voltage at my amp b4, but I can check it again...not sure what it is at my amp

and it is grounded on my front battery too..we checked the ground in the back with a dmm too and it had very low resistance or whatever so shoulda been good

where should I ground? Not lookin to put a hole in my body really

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

well the frame is best but if you get good voltage at the amp then you are fine.

 

[da box king 10+ year member]

well the frame is best but if you get good voltage at the amp then you are fine.

well my subs are out right now...prolly can't test the voltage at the amp without them ha?

So if I got a good voltage back there, than what else can I check?

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

well you only have about 2 things, low voltage or improper settings. Really everything you have looks good.

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

do you have your ssf set?

 

[MmatsDude 10+ year member]

idk what it could be bro, try another amp maybe its the amp

 

[da box king 10+ year member]

idk what it could be bro, try another amp maybe its the amp

do you think it could possibly be the amp

I bought the amp off orangecounty on roe.com and the amps had just been back from crossfire...The amps play music, so they should be sending the correct signal correct?

 

[da box king 10+ year member]

do you have your ssf set?

I'll have to go look what the settings are at, but I swear I have looked at the settings many times...

maybe I just listen to songs playing too low, esp with the box tuned to 38 hz...idk

 

[thorshammer1 10+ year member]

To me it really sounds like maybe your playing them below box turning. I put all of my 5k to my AQ's and don't get hot, smelly nada.

As for a better place for a ground I use the top of the strut towers to bolt to the body. Works great!

 

[da box king 10+ year member]

To me it really sounds like maybe your playing them below box turning. I put all of my 5k to my AQ's and don't get hot, smelly nada.
As for a better place for a ground I use the top of the strut towers to bolt to the body. Works great!

yeah, but can I safely tune my box to like 34 for them...and I dont have struts bro

I know what you mean tho, was easy in my gp too

 

[Noobtastic14 10+ year member]

You need an Oscope

Setting with a DMM is playing pin the tail on the donkey. turn the gain down till there are no heat or smell issues and bump all day.

I say this because when i had almost 3,000wrms on my 1,000wrms rated woofer i could heat it up and smell it up on command because after setting with my Oscope i knew the exact numbers that were clean, soft clip, and hard clip.

Another thing to look for is voltage drop- if you have solid voltage till some magical point on the gain where you start having severe drops your more than likely in a hard clip. (just something else to keep your eye out for)

-Drew