R3aper
Junior Member
I have a Pioneer GM-D7500M amp and Infinity reference 12" SVC subwoofer. I have a new battery and alternator, and 12 gauge speaker wires going to the sub. I also have 8 gauge power wires going to the battery. I got RCA cables going from a 4 volt sub out on the deck. My system used to work great, but about a year ago the subwoofer started cutting out for a second during hard bass at high volumes. Decreasing the volume made it go away. The manual for my amp says there's a safety feature which shuts it off if it tries to put out too much power, or from playing at excessive volume. I checked all connections then researched how to properly set my amp with test tones. I adjusted my deck's EQ and my amp's gain and my system sounded even better. The amp also stopped cutting out. About a month later it started cutting out when playing music with a lot of bass. I readjusted my amp and lowered the gain again. The problem went away for a while, but I had to keep doing this. At this point my amp is set really low and it's not putting out enough volume, but it still cuts out. Also, the bass quality from the sub has gotten worse. It sounds distorted like you're overdriving a speaker, but the amp is turned down more than it was before. Is this the amp failing, or the subwoofer? I don't want to replace one and find out that the other is the problem. I looked up the specs and as far as I can tell my amp puts out 400W at 2 ohm and 200W at 4 ohm. There are so many similar models of these subs so I'm not sure exactly which one I have, but I think mine is rated 300W at 4 ohm. Could an underpowered amp be the problem? It used to work ok but has gotten worse. Do I have both ruined at this point?