Dual HALF-ohm JL W6??

[noob with an RS 10+ year member]

hey my buddy came to me with a problem where the fuse in the engine bay kept blowing everytime he put one in. so i knew right away there was a power short to ground somewhere in his system. so i took my DMM and after testing various points, i found the problem to be IN the amplifier itself. when i took the DMM leads to the negative and positive terminals of the amplifier, i got a beeping sound from my DMM, confirming there was continuity between the two. so apparently, there is a short between the + and - terminals INSIDE the amp. also, if i test the speaker outputs of the amplifier, i would get continuity if i touch the LEFT positive and RIGHT positive with the dmm. i would also get continuity if i touched the RIGHT negative with the LEFT negative. weird? well anyway i replaced that amp with one of my kenwood amps and everything powers on OK now and the fuse is no longer blowing.. but now we have a different problem..

my buddys got a crappy *** ghetto Bandpass box and in it is a single 10 inch w6.. the first version i believe. i took the W6 out to check its voice coils to se what kind of configuration it had. well when i check the resistance on each voice coil i'm getting about 0.5 ohms on each side.. one side reads 0.4 ohms and the other voice coil reads 0.6 ohms.. is this subwoofer defective or does JL really make a dual HALF-ohm version of the 10-inch w6?? the weird thing is i took the sub out of the box to test it and it barely even moved. i wired it in series to give it a nominal load of 1 ohm and hooked it up to the monoblock in my car... it barely moved when powered.. it was getting around 400 watts but was BARELY moving. my idMAX would've definitley been audible with that much power. i cranked the gain on my monoblock to about halfway to see if it would get louder but it was still barely moving. so i turned everything off wondering why it barely even moved (i was expecting the w6 to BOOM) .. then i noticed the voice coil smell. not good. well the resisitance still shows about 0.5 ohm on each voice coil still so im guessing the sub isnt blown.. or is it?? someone please give me some info on this my friends looking at me like i mightve blown his sub //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

could the amplifier power shorting to ground within the amplifier (as explaiined above) damage the subwoofer and lead to this subwoofer problem?

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[Thieroff 10+ year member]

The w6 is probably blown bro

 

[Twistid 5,000+ posts]

the coils are fried

 

[noob with an RS 10+ year member]

the coils are fried

noooooooooooooooooo... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif its not my fault though is it? im positive his power and ground were shorting on the amp.. if the speaker terminals were shorting out would it cause damage to the w6? could the fact that he had a piece of shit kenwood powering the w6 be the reason it blew? could it be because he had the coils wired in paralell and the amp couldnt handle the load? the install was so ghetto i cant help but wonder if something the installer did contributed to the blown sub.. so for sure theres no such thing as a dual half-ohm 10-inch w6?

 

[Twistid 5,000+ posts]

well im not an engineer but i assume it was a thermal issue caused by severe clipping

edit:

also i dont see how a short inside the amp would fry the sub, the second it happens the fuse blows protecting whats left of the amp and sub... although i could be completly 100% wrong...

also going from the above logic the reason the sub blew was your friend, so your safe //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[dkguitarist 5,000+ posts]

teh sub is teh fuxored. the amp did it.

 

[noob with an RS 10+ year member]

teh sub is teh fuxored. the amp did it.

but whats a common/valid explanation for the amp doing it? like twistid mentioned above i would guess the moment the power shorted to ground the fuse in the engine bay blew, so where could power come from to blow the sub? if the speaker terminals shorted, the fuses on the amp itself would've blown right? because the fuses on the amp are not blown so this indicates the speaker terminals never shorted out (or had the chance to) right? wheres an experienced electrician when i need one?//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/furious.gif.fc81ca146dbff91fede3ed290dbc4f4c.gif

 

[Twistid 5,000+ posts]

your friend did it most likely... just turning the volume up to high //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

show him this thread if he dosent believe you

 

[noob with an RS 10+ year member]

im not worried about convincing him. he has to trust me; when i was checking his stuff out i was using big words and he knew i knew what i was talking about LOL. seriously though, i dont want him to let his w6 go to waste how much would it cost to have the coils re-done? can another company besides JL do it?

 

[Twistid 5,000+ posts]

tc sounds, although i dont think it would be worth it... at all

 

[dkguitarist 5,000+ posts]

jl subs will cost you a couple bottles of lube, and you bend over and grab your ankles all night cuz it's gonna hurt.