Last audio upgrade before I call it quits.

[NoChance 10+ year member]

Over the past few years I've had my troubles for one reason or another.

15A ported & sealed. 15A blew out, they sent me back one with a metal support. That blew out. eD got rid of the flatcone design, and I got a 16Ov2. Sounded great, but then something happened with that, blown coil? I dont know.

So I said f-it I'll just get something new. In comes the RE SE 12s. I had a sealed box built to spec. At first they sounded great. Now they sound like poop. Some songs sound really well, others dont. I was told I had my gain set to high, so I lowered it. Now I have no bass. It's matched up with the HU volume I guess because I can get it to 40ish and it sounds clean, but I think thats because of my components, because like I said, the bass just doesnt hit like it used to.

One problem with that... While there are low levels of bass (my only bass option at this point), that volume is cops wet dream. I'd get pulled over in a heartbeat. Surely this cant be the best output of RE subs. Best Buy subs hit harder than mine. I called RE, and they said they could take a look at them. But the costs of shipping both ways, with the cost of a possible recone, isnt going to be pretty.

I have all new wires, and Phil from Woodlawn Cabinetry built my box. I have a Nine1 amp for the subs. My other issue would be the HU (Pioneer DEH 7700MP). It's only 2v outputs, and its lost connection a few times, sparked, and blown a fuse. Could the shorts effect the HUs quality? Maybe a bad preout? Thats why all of sudden my subs dont hit nearly as hard, and they sound like crap doing it?

I basically want to find out if its my HU, or a sub issue. Although from what I've gathered it seems to be with the HU. I'm tired of this. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

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[JohnnyChuttz 10+ year member]

Swap your HU with a friends and try it. My guess would be HU.

 

[bobo244 10+ year member]

get an extension and just plug the rcas from a friends trunk into your amp and match the gains with his HU and see how it sounds. then you can know whether its the HU or you sub/amp

 

[bobo244 10+ year member]

get an extension and just plug the rcas from a friends trunk into your amp and match the gains with his HU and see how it sounds. then you can know whether its the HU or your sub/amp

 

[NoChance 10+ year member]

I'm going to try that later tonight when a friend gets out of work. I have a DMM, so in the meantime, isnt there something I can set it to and the ohms tell me if the sub is blown or not?

 

[SuperTrooper 10+ year member]

I kinda had a situation that you are in. There was just something that just was'nt right with the sound of my set-up. I swapped subs, amps and speakers. It sounded good but not as good as I know it should. I had a Pioneer 6700mp HU 2.2 volt. Well I finally upgraded it to the new 8600mp ( very sweet HU by the way ) 4 volt pre-outs. I did'nt think that the pre-out volts really made that big of a difference but it did. Good luck with it. Hope it works out for ya. Later...

 

[NoChance 10+ year member]

I just ordered an Eclipse 8445. Hopefully I'll get better results.

 

[Vadude 10+ year member]

I think that 15 gave your ears the gift that keeps on giving... hearing loss. If you blew that out twice, and dont think the new re12 gets loud and low enough to your satisfaction (despite its loundess being a cops wet dream), you might have some hearing issues going on. Either that or both your subs blew because theyre wired wrong....

Im just an audio rookie though so lisen to the folks above and below me..............

 

[dkguitarist 5,000+ posts]

I'm going to try that later tonight when a friend gets out of work. I have a DMM, so in the meantime, isnt there something I can set it to and the ohms tell me if the sub is blown or not?

yes. set the dmm to the lowest "ohm" setting. then take each lead and hook it to the corresponding terminal on each vc and it should read close to the ohm rating the sub is. for ex:

my rl-ps are dvc 4ohm. i measured them outta curiosity and iboth read like 3.4 on each coil on both drivers.

my 12L7's were different. 1 was blown (read like .4 on each vc) and the other kept jumping from 3-7ohms (going bad) never staying consistent (but stayed closer to 4ohms).

 

[NoChance 10+ year member]

I'm not at hearing loss yet. I know it's wrong because of my settings.

There's got to be an issue when I can go 40/80 on the volume and still struggle to get bass. Before I never used to go past 20, and it was plenty loud. I could even feel the deeper notes. Only problem was that @ 20, it started to sound somewhat messy because of clipping I guess.

So now that it's lower, it's a dramatic drop off. If thats the best RE subs can do with 1200w in a sealed box, I'll go back to Audiobahn. Because my very first set of Audiobahns hit harder. But like I said, this wasnt the case when I first got the subs, they shined.

For Christmas, I got all new RCAs and a stronger amp kit because I hooked up a smaller amp for my components. When I was testing the HU before I put all the wires back in, the wires touched and sparked. The system shut off, and blew a fuse. My battery also died that day. AAA came out and said I needed a new one, 1 hour later I had a Optima RT put in. Hooked everything back up and it worked.

I thought the cold weather was causing more rattles, so I ignored it. Now that it's warmer, I see that nothings changed really. I hope its because of a faulty HU. If not, I'll send the subs back to get looked at. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crazy.gif.c13912c32de98515d3142759a824dae7.gif