My sub isn't as loud... what's the problem?

[chargers 10+ year member]

15" avalanche sealed powered by a t1200.1, set by dmm, been running this setup for about 3 years

Last week, I noticed that my sub is nowhere near as loud as it used to be. This morning, I checked through my system and there are no loose connections and the voltages are normal. I can't figure out what's wrong.

It isn't one of those situations where I am just too used to hearing the sub, because I'm not the only person to notice that it is not as loud.

Is the sub just dying?

I'll try any suggestions.. I also haven't taken the sub out of the enclosure yet, probably won't do that until later or tomorrow because I'm tired as hell right now.

Thanks.

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[skateboardkid 10+ year member]

Is it dvc, maybe one coil went out and so your amp is seeing twice the impedance it was and sending it half the power. thats my best guess untill you give more info.

 

[chargers 10+ year member]

Is it dvc, maybe one coil went out and so your amp is seeing twice the impedance it was and sending it half the power. thats my best guess untill you give more info.

I checked the resistance and it is at 3.9. Sub is wired at 4 ohms.

I'll take out the sub tomorrow and check it out, but I am really lost as to why this happened. I can't figure out anything.

 

[bass-aholic 10+ year member]

Head unit settings get messed with maybe?

 

[chargers 10+ year member]

Head unit settings get messed with maybe?

I wish that were it... but I checked through those too. I swapped in my yellow top and had to redo all the HU settings, so it wasn't the HU.

This might be key, but when I first had this setup and I set the amp with a dmm, I barely had to turn up the gain knob to reach 56.56v... now I have to set the gain knob nearly all the way to get 56.56v. What's the reason for that?

 

[stopdrpnro 10+ year member]

that would only mean the preout voltage of the hu somehow got lowered . i would double and triple check the hu settings and if that doesn't help ur hu may be dying

 

[jbizzle 5,000+ posts]

I wish that were it... but I checked through those too. I swapped in my yellow top and had to redo all the HU settings, so it wasn't the HU.
This might be key, but when I first had this setup and I set the amp with a dmm, I barely had to turn up the gain knob to reach 56.56v... now I have to set the gain knob nearly all the way to get 56.56v. What's the reason for that?

thats strange also, happend to me too when I set my gains again last week, I turned the gain down almost 1/4th to get the same gain i had before..

 

[chargers 10+ year member]

that would only mean the preout voltage of the hu somehow got lowered . i would double and triple check the hu settings and if that doesn't help ur hu may be dying

It can't be the HU settings, nobody touches those except for me and I never changed them. And like I said, it just randomly happened that the sub isn't loud anymore. It was fine up until a week ago, when it just wasn't as loud.

It can't be the HU settings, but could it be the HU?

I'm thinking the sub is just dying. I have no other subs to hook up and compare though until I get my new 12" ssd's in a few weeks.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

It can't be the HU settings, nobody touches those except for me and I never changed them. And like I said, it just randomly happened that the sub isn't loud anymore. It was fine up until a week ago, when it just wasn't as loud.
It can't be the HU settings, but could it be the HU?

I'm thinking the sub is just dying. I have no other subs to hook up and compare though until I get my new 12" ssd's in a few weeks.

Use that DMM to check output signal voltage from the h/u. You seem to have a mental block that your sub is just 'dying', when a sub simply does not fail by becoming quieter... unless one coil fails as mentioned before, and already eliminated as a possibility here.
99% likely the sub is fine. The problem most definitely sounds to be in the signal chain, probably the h/u. If you have not changed any h/u settings as you say, and yet had to adjust your gain higher to acheive the same output voltage, the problem is either with the h/u (more likely) or the amplifier (less likely). This is assuming no other signal processors in the chain we do not know about.

Err wait, no... your Ava is broken. Better sell it to me cheap.

 

[chargers 10+ year member]

Use that DMM to check output signal voltage from the h/u. You seem to have a mental block that your sub is just 'dying', when a sub simply does not fail by becoming quieter... unless one coil fails as mentioned before, and already eliminated as a possibility here.
99% likely the sub is fine. The problem most definitely sounds to be in the signal chain, probably the h/u. If you have not changed any h/u settings as you say, and yet had to adjust your gain higher to acheive the same output voltage, the problem is either with the h/u (more likely) or the amplifier (less likely). This is assuming no other signal processors in the chain we do not know about.

Err wait, no... your Ava is broken. Better sell it to me cheap.

Yeah, I think you're right.

I tried to check the HU voltage earlier but I don't think I was doing it right. I'll just check it tomorrow, I'm tired of going in and out of the house.

One thing to note, I noticed that I can hear static sound through my speakers if there is nothing playing and the HU is on--i.e. if I set the HU to CD mode and there is no CD in the HU, I can hear static with at volume 1/4 and higher.

 

[babaganoush123 10+ year member]

hey its enough already 3 years of pounding it money was worth it lol.

 

[BrianChia 10+ year member]

hearing loss?