How did i blow my 12inch Kicker Solo X?

[TheCandyMan 10+ year member]

How did i blow my 12inch Kicker Solo X???

Setup is 2001 pontiac grand prix gt 2door.

0g wire for power and ground.

Kenwood X990 HU.

12inch Kicker Solo X in a 1inch thick ported box to specs/the size of my trunk so box is pretty good size.

Hifonics 2011 Brutus 1700w amp.

My amp is only @ 3/4s the way up on power level.

One day my sub just started to fade in the bass department til there was no more and my voltage was going from 14.3 to 11.3 and making everything dim on my dash with NO BASS at all.

Then it just stopped working with a burning type smell. The speaker wire was hot.

Then it made a bag of chips being crumbled sound when i tryed putting power to it.

Place i got it from said yeah that ****'s blown.

My question is how the **** did it blow? My ground and power are good.

My box is big enough and i wasen't even putting 1500w RMS to it,when it can take 2500w RMS.

HOW DID I BLOW IT!? WHAT COULDA MADE IT BLOW!?!?!

Next question...

Should i re-cone for $125.00.

Or go for a new subwoofer?

He told me i should go with 12in Sundown Z4.

He then showed me a 12in Sundown sub that is right below the Z4(he had in his honda) and said he was putting a massive 3600w RMS amp on it. HOW IN THE **** IS THAT SUB TAKING THAT MUCH WATTS AND MY **** SOUNDED LOUDER WITH 1500W RMS?!!

Lots of questions. I need your help.

HELP!!!!!

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[4OZGLOVES 10+ year member]

You were most likely clipping the shit out of the sub. The gain is not a volume control , 3/4 could have been well into clipping.

 

[garychoffmann 10+ year member]

Gain is not a louder knob. You clipped the hell out of the sub. With 5you volt head unit your gain shouldn't have been less than quarter up

 

---------- Post added at 10:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:31 PM ----------

 

Beat me to it

 

[cfox10 10+ year member]

Sundown is better than kicker all day. Next time set your gains with a dmm or oscope. Did you have bass boost up?

Your kicker 'sounded louder' because it was clipping to shit

Edit: fuck I'm slow... what they said

 

[bmk6795 10+ year member]

You were clipping, the gain isnt a volume knob. Its to match the voltage of your headunits pre outs. Thats how the sub blew. Your Solo x was louder because those have the cone area closer to that of a 15, and i highly doubt that X was seeing 3600 watts. If you are happy with the way your Solo X sounded I'd get it reconed and fix the gain and you shouldnt have any problems out of it.

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

smoked a good sub. i'd recone it and buy a better amp

 

[cfox10 10+ year member]

You were most likely clipping the shit out of the sub. The gain is not a volume control , 3/4 could have been well into clipping.

Easily clipping on that amp... the gain half way is .5v so 3/4 is somewhere like 800mv? or so... with the voltage of his headunit... should have been set closer to 1/4... Either way, it should have been set with an oscope or dmm...or by someone who knows what they're doing.

smh for people thinking clipped subs are loud and sound good.

 

[cfox10 10+ year member]

smoked a good sub. i'd recone it and buy a better amp

He should put it up here for 30-50 plus shipping. Someone will want to recone it and it'll give him an excuse to try something else.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Solo X is a fairly decent woofer, but only a 3" coil. If you burned the coil you ran too much power into it for too long. Your friend with the Zv4 doesn't blow that because he knows enough to not play it beyond it's limits.

Buy the recone kit for the Kicker and be a little smarter about how you use your gain and volume.

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

recone it, save you making another box

 

[TheCandyMan 10+ year member]

Ok i forgot to say it's wired at 1ohm and i thought that the gain ment how many watts i was putting to it? So i figured it's putting 12-1500 MAX watts to my sub which isn't even close to the 2500w RMS it can take.. and what on the amp is the power level knob if not the level/gain?

I also am probably gonna upgrade my amp after the BIG 3 with a kicker 2000w amp. But this gets the job done for now.

 

[jrdnhsnbrg 10+ year member]

Ok i forgot to say it's wired at 1ohm and i thought that the gain ment how many watts i was putting to it? So i figured it's putting 12-1500 MAX watts to my sub which isn't even close to the 2500w RMS it can take.. and what on the amp is the power level knob if not the level/gain?I also am probably gonna upgrade my amp after the BIG 3 with a kicker 2000w amp. But this gets the job done for now.

If you send a sub a dirty, clipped signal (even if it is substantially less power than the sub is rated for) you will blow the sub.

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

you wear pink fingernail polish?

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Ok i forgot to say it's wired at 1ohm and i thought that the gain ment how many watts i was putting to it? So i figured it's putting 12-1500 MAX watts to my sub which isn't even close to the 2500w RMS it can take.. and what on the amp is the power level knob if not the level/gain?I also am probably gonna upgrade my amp after the BIG 3 with a kicker 2000w amp. But this gets the job done for now.

Better invest in a few extra recone kits if you really believe that sub will handle 2500W for more than a minute.

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

as long as your not a moron they will run on 2500 watts all day everyday. ive seen them play daily on much more than that.