New sub sounds horrible. Is it time for a new amp?

[Sonicpilz 10+ year member]

I currently have installed in my truck a 12" Orion P12D2 (1000/500 RMS) dual 2ohm subwoofer. I am powering this with a MTX 1501D amp (not sure the specs).

Anyways the sub and amp is about 5yrs old now and it keeps breaking the wire for the voice coil connector. So I decided its time for a new system.

Yesterday I bought a Pioneer Premier TSW3001-D2 SPL 12" dual 2 ohm (3000/1000 RMS. This thing is freaking HUGE!!! I've been told so many good things about this sub.

Well I hooked it up to the amp today and it sounds ABSOLUTELY AWFUL!!! There is barely any response from the high frequency bass and way too much from low frequency. I can listen to a normal song with absolutely NO BASS at all, then hit a BASS CD and the sub gets loud but distorts like hell.

I tried 4ohm, and 1ohm loads and there's not much difference at all.

So I called the dealer where I bought the sub and they recommended a Cadence amp.

http://cgi.ebay.com/CADENCE-1000w-RMS-1-OHM-MONO-COMPETITION-CAR-SUB-AMP_W0QQitemZ270171895790QQihZ017QQcategoryZ64570QQcmdZViewItem

I compared the specs a little and I don't understand whats the difference with my MTX and the CADENCE. Maybe some of you guys with a little more experience can help me out. Thanks!!

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[alxmlr789 10+ year member]

How big is your box?

What is your box tuned to?

What are your filters set at?

Is your gain set correctly?

 

[Sonicpilz 10+ year member]

The same box was used for both speakers. Its about 1 square foot or maybe a little more. The settings were set for the orion by the dealership but I made some small adjustments for the new one. I didn't check voltage but I did my best to adjust it at full power.

I can play the radio at max power (max what I listen to without distortion) and I get nothing from high notes. I have one song that goes from very high bass to very low bass. For some reason I can't get it to even out at all. The low notes are way too much for the speaker and the high notes are barely even noticeable.

 

[alxmlr789 10+ year member]

I would check the filters..

 

[Sonicpilz 10+ year member]

I don't think the sub has any filters. However the head unit does. It has high and low pass filters but I thought that was only for the door speakers?

 

[tRidiot 10+ year member]

Lowpass filter would be what you want for the sub. Probably start in the 80-100Hz range?

Sounds like a box on the largish side for that sub... no idea why someone would recommend a Cadence 1000W amp over your MTX 1500W amp... you should be able to run those D2s in parallel, get 1500W to that sub, and it should be pretty happy. Certainly not distorting. Unless, as you say, something IS wrong with your amp. But it was fine when you pulled your other sub? Perhaps something shorted in the tradeoff? Who knows...

If it's a sealed box, you're at the upper limits recommended by Pioneer, if it's ported, then that would explain alot of things... 1 ft ported is pretty dang small AND probably not the best for that sub.

 

[Sonicpilz 10+ year member]

I have both filters set at 125hz. The box is sealed and is approx 1sq ft in size. The same box AND amp were used for both speakers. The smaller speaker was wired at 4ohms but this larger sub is wired at 1ohm.

The MTX is a mono amp but it has 4 terminals for convenience. I have the speaker wired in parallel and I'm using the + from one "channel" and the - from the other "channel".

I can listen to a song and my mid-high is NO louder than my door speakers. Literally you wouldn't even think I had a sub in here. Then when it hits the mid-low it sounds "ok". But when it hits the REALLY low notes (not in normal music) it almost throws the sub out of my box and distorts horribly.

 

[jdeaton]

both filters at 125hz? WTF

 

[tRidiot 10+ year member]

Seems strange... maybe toss your other sub back in and see how it sounds... will let you know if the amp was damaged somehow.

 

[tRidiot 10+ year member]

Highpass filter would be what you want for the sub.

Oops, sorry... mistyped here, LPF is what your sub needs.

 

[Sonicpilz 10+ year member]

Yeah I'm gonna throw the old one back in tomorrow to see how it sounds. The only think I can think of is that the old sub was in the back of my 02 Camaro and this one is in the back seat of my 01 4dr Dakota. I know that will make a difference but not like this.

Literally 90% of the music i listen to the door speakers have just as much bass as the subwoofer. If you're standing outside my truck you would never even know I had a subwoofer.

I do have only 1 song that his a really really low note and almost throws the sub out of the box (banging voice coils). It sounds horrible. Its the song by T-Pain called "get low".

I can turn up the amp to make it sound half way decent but I'm scared of what would happen if it ever hits a really low note with the gains up. It would probably blow the speaker.

The old speaker wouldn't go that low for those low notes. But if it tried it would always stay at the same "power" so to speak no matter what range the frequency was. This new one is bangin on the low notes and non existant on high notes. (When I say low notes I mean low enough to where you can't even hear anything-just the woofer going crazy).

 

[Rattlebrain 10+ year member]

What HU are you using?

Did you change HU?

Possible that you HU has a crossover setting and its set at too low of freq.

I had a Pioneer that you could set down to (i think it was) 50 Hz and that would cause what your describing.

 

[RidgelineNate]

did you set your gains correctly? I agree that either a filter is wrong, be it LP or HP, or what frequency its at. Also, is everything wired correctly as far as the sub is concerned?

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Also sounds like bass boost might be cranked up at a low freq, giving you that bloated bottom end sound...

 

[Sonicpilz 10+ year member]

The head unit is a Pioneer DEHP5900. The LP and HP filters are set at 125 hz and the loudness, bass, etc is all zero'd out on the head unit. The amp has a frequency controller which is set at the highest level. The amp also has a equilizer for bass boost and is turned completely down.

I get really bad distortion on the initial "punch" but then the bass wont hold that level. My old subwoofer would "punch" then hold that same decibel level as the bass would hold. This one kind of bangs then lets off completely.

If figuratively someone told me that my old 500rms watt would hit at 100 decibles and the new 15000rms would only hit at like 40, and distort like hell.