**** it

[luvinthebass 5,000+ posts]

blew my sub last night playin The Pack-I'm Shinin, my guess is one of the notes in the song wasn't meant for wear my box is tuned(35 hz) and then i smelled a horrible burning and the sub choked to it's death, guess i had the bass boost up to much..18 db's of bass boost, thing is i set the bass boost BEFORE i set the gain, how the hell could it blow? cuz i set it with a -6 tone maybe? my volume was 25 out of 30 and i blew the amp fuse too //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif i only had this setup(box and sub and sub amp) for a week and a half and this happens

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[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

blew my sub last night playin The Pack-I'm Shinin, my guess is one of the notes in the song wasn't meant for wear my box is tuned(35 hz) and then i smelled a horrible burning and the sub choked to it's death, guess i had the bass boost up to much..18 db's of bass boost, thing is i set the bass boost BEFORE i set the gain, how the hell could it blow? cuz i set it with a -6 tone maybe? my volume was 25 out of 30 and i blew the amp fuse too //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif i only had this setup(box and sub and sub amp) for a week and a half and this happens

Playing too low of a note for your box would cause mechanical failure of the sub, not a thermal failure like you aparently had.The only realistic way you did that was with too much power.

You thought you'd get around not using bass boost by incorporating it into your gains settings. I guess you calculated wrong. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif Consider this, if you were able to adjust your gains down to account for a bass boost setting, 1) your over-all sound output would be lower, only higher at the boosted freq, and 2) to reach the same output level you would otherwise acheive with no bass boost, you will have incorporated much more distortion into the signal chain than if you had left BB off. No benefit, added distortion. Not a great plan. Short n sweet, leave BB off.

My recommendation, follow the rules. You've been around, Im sure you've read the how-to gain setting tutorial threads on here a million times.... Set gains with h/u at 80-90% of max volume. Nowhere does anybody say turn on bass boost and compensate with gain settings or tone adjustments. Sounds like your settings were all over the place trying to use that bass boost. Stop it! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif Zero your h/u settings properly, turn ff BB, and set your gains. Once the gain(s) is set by ear to have no audible distortion output, THEN start compensating all your system's gain settings to acheive that sound you crave... in your case, overwhelming bass probably... which might mean turning down front stage, rather than trying to artificially boost sub stage.

Hope this helps, and sorry about your sub.

Keep us posted.

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

-6dB tones = bad idea.

Max bass boost = worse idea.

My guess is that you have no idea what the -6dB tones do nor do you really understand bass boost.

When you crank your bass boost, you add a large increase (18dB increase in your case) centered around a certain frequency. Most are centered around 40-45hz or so. After that point, the increase in output drops. Then you went and probably set your gains with a -6dB tone that was around 50-60hz if you followed that lame tutorial. This means that you could have getting over 20dB of gain around the center of your bass boost frequency. I would bet that the song had a bassline centered near the peak boost point. This 20dB of gain will DEFINITELY send a clipped signal to the sub and you probably laid down a ton of power to it.

Next time, do things right and know your limits. And learn how a clipped signal sounds at all frequencies. There is no way in hell you could not hear the clipping unless your ears honestly **** huge amounts of ****.

 

[skadude016 5,000+ posts]

ya agreed how could you not hear it sounding so bad? and plus you usually get a warning smell. its at that point you turn it way down and change stuff

 

[luvinthebass 5,000+ posts]

Playing too low of a note for your box would cause mechanical failure of the sub, not a thermal failure like you aparently had.The only realistic way you did that was with too much power.

You thought you'd get around not using bass boost by incorporating it into your gains settings. I guess you calculated wrong. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif Consider this, if you were able to adjust your gains down to account for a bass boost setting, 1) your over-all sound output would be lower, only higher at the boosted freq, and 2) to reach the same output level you would otherwise acheive with no bass boost, you will have incorporated much more distortion into the signal chain than if you had left BB off. No benefit, added distortion. Not a great plan. Short n sweet, leave BB off.

My recommendation, follow the rules. You've been around, Im sure you've read the how-to gain setting tutorial threads on here a million times.... Set gains with h/u at 80-90% of max volume. Nowhere does anybody say turn on bass boost and compensate with gain settings or tone adjustments. Sounds like your settings were all over the place trying to use that bass boost. Stop it! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif Zero your h/u settings properly, turn ff BB, and set your gains. Once the gain(s) is set by ear to have no audible distortion output, THEN start compensating all your system's gain settings to acheive that sound you crave... in your case, overwhelming bass probably... which might mean turning down front stage, rather than trying to artificially boost sub stage.

Hope this helps, and sorry about your sub.

Keep us posted.

i will follow that info, and yes i read the gain tutorial, sometimes you just want more bass and you go right for the bass boost and now i will never use it again, ill forget it's even a feature and my EQ was set for SUPERBASS, Lows at +5 40 hz Q factor, mids +3 200 hz Q factor, and highs at 0, looks like i'll use FLAT next time, would i still get the 2.2 preout voltage with it flat or will it clip cuz the volume is so high?

-6dB tones = bad idea.Max bass boost = worse idea.

My guess is that you have no idea what the -6dB tones do nor do you really understand bass boost.

When you crank your bass boost, you add a large increase (18dB increase in your case) centered around a certain frequency. Most are centered around 40-45hz or so. After that point, the increase in output drops. Then you went and probably set your gains with a -6dB tone that was around 50-60hz if you followed that lame tutorial. This means that you could have getting over 20dB of gain around the center of your bass boost frequency. I would bet that the song had a bassline centered near the peak boost point. This 20dB of gain will DEFINITELY send a clipped signal to the sub and you probably laid down a ton of power to it.

Next time, do things right and know your limits. And learn how a clipped signal sounds at all frequencies. There is no way in hell you could not hear the clipping unless your ears honestly **** huge amounts of ****.

well i know what a clipped signal sounds like at 100 hz, below that idk really

ya agreed how could you not hear it sounding so bad? and plus you usually get a warning smell. its at that point you turn it way down and change stuff

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

After downloading the song, I see that I was correct... The song's main bassline is right at 45hz and I bet that is also where your bass boost is centered at.

If you want to know how it sounds at other frequencies, download a set of tones ( http://files.filefront.com/Toneszip/;6431032;/fileinfo.html ) and then listen to them in Windows media player. Set the visualization to Bars and waves: Scope. Then, slowly increase the EQ in the bass region until you see the signal start to clip. Play through all the frequencies doing this and get an idea. Make sure you're using a decent set of headphones or computer speakers to do this. Also, don't have the volume at max while doing this....

 

[SQBubble 10+ year member]

After downloading the song, I see that I was correct... The song's main bassline is right at 45hz and I bet that is also where your bass boost is centered at.
If you want to know how it sounds at other frequencies, download a set of tones ( http://files.filefront.com/Toneszip/;6431032;/fileinfo.html ) and then listen to them in Windows media player. Set the visualization to Bars and waves: Scope. Then, slowly increase the EQ in the bass region until you see the signal start to clip. Play through all the frequencies doing this and get an idea. Make sure you're using a decent set of headphones or computer speakers to do this. Also, don't have the volume at max while doing this....

cool info here, does clipped signal can burn voice coils also?

oh da*mn i tried the test tones YAY, now i know what clipping sound like THX, are these at 0db?

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

would i still get the 2.2 preout voltage with it flat or will it clip cuz the volume is so high?

You should not need to use bass boost or any other setting to get the max out of your h/u's low-level output voltage.

 

[luvinthebass 5,000+ posts]

After downloading the song, I see that I was correct... The song's main bassline is right at 45hz and I bet that is also where your bass boost is centered at.
If you want to know how it sounds at other frequencies, download a set of tones ( http://files.filefront.com/Toneszip/;6431032;/fileinfo.html ) and then listen to them in Windows media player. Set the visualization to Bars and waves: Scope. Then, slowly increase the EQ in the bass region until you see the signal start to clip. Play through all the frequencies doing this and get an idea. Make sure you're using a decent set of headphones or computer speakers to do this. Also, don't have the volume at max while doing this....

thanks //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

i'll train my ears

 

[prochobo 10+ year member]

You should not need to use bass boost or any other setting to get the max out of your h/u's low-level output voltage.

I believe the subwoofer level controls the output voltage of the sub-out.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

I believe the subwoofer level controls the output voltage of the sub-out.

I was talking about bass boost, bass adjustments (what he called tone), EQ settings, etc. Those types of settings should be zero'd out. But yes, if your head has a sub out that is controllable, it needs to be adjusted properly. Many times they have a neutral setting.
Even bass boost and EQ adjustments affect signal voltage. That's exactly how those functions operate, by artificially boosting (or cutting) signal voltage for a specific freq, or freq range.

Good point. I should have clarified further I guess.

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

cool info here, does clipped signal can burn voice coils also?
oh da*mn i tried the test tones YAY, now i know what clipping sound like THX, are these at 0db?

The extra power delivered by the clipped signal can damage the coils, not the wave itself. For example, my amp is rated at 300rms and I can max out the gain and play the subs for hours on end without damaging the sub (well until the amp overheats and shuts off). That is because my sub can thermally handle power greater than 500rms. I don't do this because it sounds like **** but I could.

Now if you're running your subs on an amp that puts out close to the same power that your subs are rated at, there is a strong possibility that you can damage them by sending them a clipped signal because the power starts to increase real fast.

And yes, those are all 0dB tones as the file description says.

 

[luvinthebass 5,000+ posts]

thank you for those tones Imma

 

[jeremiah 10+ year member]

The extra power delivered by the clipped signal can damage the coils, not the wave itself. For example, my amp is rated at 300rms and I can max out the gain and play the subs for hours on end without damaging the sub (well until the amp overheats and shuts off). That is because my sub can thermally handle power greater than 500rms. I don't do this because it sounds like **** but I could.
Now if you're running your subs on an amp that puts out close to the same power that your subs are rated at, there is a strong possibility that you can damage them by sending them a clipped signal because the power starts to increase real fast.

And yes, those are all 0dB tones as the file description says.

so I have a maw-12 (350Wrms) and a crape 150Wrms amp if I max out the gain

the sub sounds the same just louder and it's at 8ohms and the amp dos int Evin

get worm so can I keep the amp gain up and it be OK

 

[Fast1one 10+ year member]

so I have a maw-12 (350Wrms) and a crape 150Wrms amp if I max out the gainthe sub sounds the same just louder and it's at 8ohms and the amp dos int Evin

get worm so can I keep the amp gain up and it be OK

Whats a crape? I thought it was breakfast...
Nonetheless you can still be clipping the amp which gives you a degraded sound quality and strain on your amplifier and woofer. Set your gains correctly...