Sub starting to smell

[MillerSHO 10+ year member]

My W3 12" for the last few days has started making a horrible smell when pushed.

I'd had the sub for a few months now and this just started.

Running 4v out from the kenwood HU, gains on MRX-M50 amp are around 55-60% mark, max volume on HU is 35 but I never go over 30.

Birth sheet on the amp says 545watts so I don't think I could ever be in a situation where the amp feeding too many watts.

Any ideas other than just turn down the gains?

The sub and sub amp are the only things I've bought in my system from a shop and they said just keep pushing it until it blows and they'll give me a new one and send my current one back to JL.

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[s3th 10+ year member]

How many ohms is your amp wired to ?

 

[MillerSHO 10+ year member]

Sorry forgot that info, it's a W3 2ohm so the amp is running at 2ohms.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

60% gain with 4v preouts.. You are killing it quickly

 

[s3th 10+ year member]

You could be clipping your sub, the gain might be set to high

 

[MillerSHO 10+ year member]

Wouldn't the gains be too high if I was running the volume to max of 35?

Never over 30 though.

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

Wouldn't the gains be too high if I was running the volume to max of 35?Never over 30 though.

if your HU only goes to vol 35 and you turn it up to 30, you may be clipping the HU signal

 

[MillerSHO 10+ year member]

No kidding?

Man I need to rethink all of this.

I thought I needed to be at around 80-85% of the max volume # on HU to avoid that?

I wonder if I'm getting used to the sub and I'm pushing it too much not realizing it.

I guess I need to get more scientific about this and use some tools to get this dialed cause my ears are failing me.

 

[Chriszle 10+ year member]

Only way to know exactly where your h/u clips is with a scope or dd-1. My kenwood is clean at 32/35. Very light clip at 33. My brother has a different model and his is clean up to 28/35. If you have bass boost on, turn it off, also turn down the gain. Depending on the amp, I would guess between 1/4-1/3 of the way up, would be close. Again no way to tell, without seeing the waveform though.

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

[quote name='MillerSHO']No kidding?

Man I need to rethink all of this.
I thought I needed to be at around 80-85% of the max volume # on HU to avoid that?

I wonder if I'm getting used to the sub and I'm pushing it too much not realizing it.
I guess I need to get more scientific about this and use some tools to get this dialed cause my ears are failing me.[/QUOTE]

yea the whole 80-85% vol thing is more "rule of thumb" then anything. not all HU's will allow you to go up to 85% some may go to 60%. its like @Chriszle; said you wont know with out a scope or dd-1

 

[oldschool4me 10+ year member]

with no equipment to measure i always used 70% rule. and no bass boost and flat eq.

 

[MillerSHO 10+ year member]

If the amp gains set to 1/4 to 1/3 and headunit set to no more then 70-75% then there would be hardly any bass coming from the sub, something doesn't add up here.

If this is true then I guess I bought the wrong sub to get any kind of bass out of?

I didn't realize I had to buy a higher end sub and amp to get a hint of bass out of a sub, I thought 500w rms and a Dub3 would do it.

I don't even like alot of bass, it was bought mainly to fill in the lower HZ that my 6.5's and 6x9's can't fill.

 

[Lowflyin 10+ year member]

Use a DMM and quit guessing...........

1/4 of gain on one amp of a particular model and brand could be 5/8 gain on the same model and brand amp..

 

[MillerSHO 10+ year member]

I will start looking into that.

 

[av83 10+ year member]

The sub level makes or breaks the sub channels' cleanliness on a kenwood. If you like to crank you sub level up, set your gains for 28/35.