Subs - How hot should they get

[hcivic91 10+ year member]

I'm just getting back into car audio and have a simple question.

I know that electricity causes heat but I'm not sure hot to tell if I am over doing it with my new DD2512. I am powering it with an MB Onx1500.1, about 1k RMS.

The sub/amp combo are new and when I arrived at work the other day, after taking the long way to enjoy my new set-up, I noticed the dust cap was pretty warm and there was some odor coming from the sub. I would say the dust cap was around 100 degrees, a result of playing it really hard for about 30 minutes.

I turned the gain down for the ride home and the dust cap wasn't nearly as warm but the temperature was still elevated from ambient. I haven't been in the car audio game for quite some time but I can't remember subs getting very warm back in the day. Of course there were very few subs much less amps that did 750w/RMS.

So how much should I worry about heat in the subs, it seems if the dust cap is getting warm the motor/voice coil must be plenty warm.

Thanks all,

Joseph

Click to read more...

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

that 2512 should be taking 1k no problem. its fine if the dust cap gets a bit warm especially after running it hard, but if you start to smell the voice coil then back off the gain a tad. do you have all bass boosts, both on the amp and your headunit, off? do you listen to music that drops below your box tuning quite often? over excursion of the sub when dropping below tuning would def. heat it up

 

[Bassin Buick]

pull it outta the box , look at the coil. if its getting black you are either clipping or sending too much power.

 

[Bumpin' Goalie 10+ year member]

A "clipped" signal is notorious for causing heat build up. This can happen if the amplifier is being told to produce more "clean" power than it readily can. Bass boost, gain too high, head unit too high can be culprits.

If you think one of those things may hold true to your settings, do a little research on gain settings, etc and it may help.

 

[hcivic91 10+ year member]

Excellent suggestions. The box is tuned a little higher than I would have liked due to space constraints ~35. This isn't particularly low but I like Rap so I'm sure I go below this from time to time. I did set the subsonic filter but I'll revisit it too. Pulling the sub out and looking at the voice coil is a super idea. The sub was not that hot so I figured/hoped the smell was from break in.

Negative on bass boost.

Though I would welcome some suggestions on better ways to set the gain. The DMM method in which the sub is not hooked up seems to leave a lot to be desired.

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

Excellent suggestions. The box is tuned a little higher than I would have liked due to space constraints ~35. This isn't particularly low but I like Rap so I'm sure I go below this from time to time. I did set the subsonic filter but I'll revisit it too. Pulling the sub out and looking at the voice coil is a super idea. The sub was not that hot so I figured/hoped the smell was from break in.

when you set your gains did you use a multimeter? if youre not careful when setting it by hand you might accidently introduce clipping into the mix. the 35hz tuning should be fine, if you had like a 40hz tuning and playing stuff in the high 20's then that would be an issue lol.

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

Excellent suggestions. The box is tuned a little higher than I would have liked due to space constraints ~35. This isn't particularly low but I like Rap so I'm sure I go below this from time to time. I did set the subsonic filter but I'll revisit it too. Pulling the sub out and looking at the voice coil is a super idea. The sub was not that hot so I figured/hoped the smell was from break in.

when you set your gains did you use a multimeter? if youre not careful when setting it by hand you might accidently introduce clipping into the mix. the 35hz tuning should be fine, if you had like a 40hz tuning and playing stuff in the high 20's then that would be an issue lol.

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

over excursion of the sub when dropping below tuning would def. Heat it up

over excursion causes heat ? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

a "clipped" signal is notorious for causing heat build up.

Power causes heat. 1000 watts of clipped power won't cause any more heat build up then 1000 watts of clean power.

OP, if the voice coil continues to smell you might want to back off the gain a bit.. beyond initially using a driver, that can be an indication that you are going to cook a coil...