HDC3 noise?

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

Drive around with that sub playing a low tone (22ish Hz) on repeat and make sure that it's not bottoming out. This will help break in the suspension and should rid the noise faster.

 

[Anonymous 10+ year member]

I have had zero problems with my AQ subs and amps, I do have the HD3's, not the HDC3's. But I am sure you just need to break the sub in fully. As stated before play a low frequency and break the sub in that should take care of the problem.

 

[Anonymous 10+ year member]

to OP throw the sub in 4-4.5 net cubes tuned to 38-40hz. 40hz is ideal for the sub and you will hit the lows very good even tuned at 40hz.

 

[liftedcj7on44s 10+ year member]

i just got done with a job i had to finish tonight so i am about to throw the sub in the box and take a few vids for you guys to hear!

 

[liftedcj7on44s 10+ year member]

ok i got a vid but it suks, my camera wont pick up the noise, but when the sub is going through its stoke the noise is like a metallic sound like say you grabbed an aluminium can and lightly tapped it with a pencil tip.



O i forgot to add, it only does this when the bass initially hits each note. so on this song each time it hits you hear the noise! I can turn the gain down or raise the ssf and the noise will go away but then there isnt a whole lot of output!

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

The 2" speakers on my desk aren't letting me hear it //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
I know that on the DD 9500 woofers you can hear the air wooshing through the cooling when you take them out of the box - and sometimes with a very large port you can hear it through the port. Many people don't notice this sound as the bass is generally much louder. This sound freaked me out a bit when I had my first DD 9500 and played it out of the box, but it is simply the cooling system in action. Is it like that sound?

Or, is it more of a whacking sound? That would be more like getting to the limit of the spiders and locking them up. The little 8" driver I'm building will do this past about 14-15 mm of travel one-way - sounds like bottoming out but it's the spider saying "no mo' travel." Much like the AQ there is plenty of room behind the coil so I doubt anyone is really hitting back plate.

The latter makes sense to me since you report the sound then the driver experienced a failure - seems consistent with locking up the suspension too many times and fatiguing the spider at the glue joint (presumably a very hard glue, so it could shear the comparatively soft spider). And Alex had no issues at all with his drivers and did not report a big problem with the sound so he was likely not reaching suspension limits.

If I had to guess that is what I'd say it is, suspension hitting limits due to too much power at very low frequencies. If DJL is around I'm sure he can confirm or correct me on that as he knows how far the spiders are supposed to move.

nope definitely not a wooshing sound.

take a look at exactly at between 31-32 seconds in the video i posted. that noise was AMPLIFIED as a ***** when i first got it. it just sounded horrid. so bad you could hear it from the front of the car, even under pretty measly excursion. it went away to the point where you couldnt hear it from the front anymore, but like i said, when i went back there it was still there, albeit a lot quiter.

supposedly, according to nate (which is who i sold the driver to) said my hdc needed a little bit more break in and the noise went away. he said the other one (he bought BNIB from DJ) was noisy, but after a long while of playing it too went away. so //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif, who knows. all i know is ive never heard it from any other subwoofers ive ever used.

 

[liftedcj7on44s 10+ year member]

ignoreme what do you think. was yours a metallic sound or just a flapping sound?

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

ignoreme what do you think. was yours a metallic sound or just a flapping sound?

look at my above post. you can hear the noise for yourself and decide. IMO, it was almost a "miniature" bottoming out type sound.

 

[liftedcj7on44s 10+ year member]

yea thats what it sounds like to me. like i said i pulled it out today and the coil still looks brand spankin new!

i dont see the vid you posted

 

[Fear Of Theive 10+ year member]

if i was you i'd play a 2hz tone at full wang mode,and see if that helps.

 

[liftedcj7on44s 10+ year member]

yea it would help alright.

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

this noise.

it was REALLY bad at first. ive never heard this from any subwoofers ive previously owned so i was worried as hell. it was so bad on some songs i could hear it over the bass from the front drivers seat, even when it wasn't at full tilt (i was too scared to play it full tilt when hearing that noise). it was so bad, everyone started blaming the box, me included. so i built another one closer to specs. hell, i even started to second guess myself and say "well, maybe the hdc just sounds different when it bottoms out" (which it doesnt, as i did it once a little while ago when the song was way below tuning which was 38hz)

put it in the new box, and it still did it, but it had broken in some so the noise wasnt nearly as noticeable and after a little while i couldn't hear it from the front of the car anymore, just bass. i was interested if it still made the noise, so i would go back and check periodically on it. the noise was there up until the day i sold it.

nate, the buyer, said it only needed a little more break in and it went away. but then again, a little after that, the spider tore on it //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

this video

 

[liftedcj7on44s 10+ year member]

mine sound diff, yours sounds more like its fluttering to me

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Why not if you're listening to a lot of stuff with material in the 20hz area?
After driving around for a while now with a sub system that is flat from about 15hz to 70hz, I have really noticed how much musical content is lost when the 20-30hz range is ignored. Many songs from all genres seem to have more of a realism to them and many songs have much more depth.

Is the HDC3 the best sub for that job? Eh, not really but it could work.

Can we get a detailed picture (or 3D model) of your current enclosure?

If your box is tuned to 34 hz, you should have no real problem extending into the 20's. With transfer function, tuning below about 28-30hz is generally not necessary.
How much music has 20hz material in it anyway? Not much. For HT, sure, tune down to 10hz if you want, but for car audio high 20's to low 30's is about as low as you should ever realistically need to tune. To say that 34hz is tuning too high is just not realistic.

 

[liftedcj7on44s 10+ year member]

Well after doing some song editing i found out that the songs that i am mostly listening too are in the 38-40hz range so there not as low as i thought that they were. So if i can fit 4 cubes at 40 hz then ill have rich build me one. DJ can you tell me about the metallic noise?? The sub never gets warm like not even remotely warm but the sounds is similar to taking the tip of a lead pencil and lightly tapping a aluminum can with it if i turn the gain up more then it gets more noticeable. I dont hear any distortion and like i said the sub stay nice and cool. Today i decided to see what would happen if i removed the ssf and turned the gain up some more, well it got a whole lot louder, my right ear actually was hurting a bit and ridng down the road at 60mph my wipers still dance around a good bit. Should i be worried?