things you have learned and screwed up.

[TwistedMovistar 10+ year member]

well i am still a newbie in most aspects. and i have messed up ALOT of money and screwed up alot of things!!!! here are the subs that i have went thru:

1 12 inch db drive platimun(totally clipped with the gain ALL the way up(1500 watts)(i thought it was all the way down)

1 memphis pr12(sold to friend( he put a hole in the fom and patched it with silicone))

1 12 inch magnum( blew the coils(getting reconed))

1 15 inch brahma (Burned the coils to a crisp)(clipped to death)(getting reconed).

the boxes i have built are:

1 12 inch 1 cube sealed( my first and most solid box))

1 12 inch 1.5 before displacement tuned to 32 with a 3inch pvc pipe( memphis sub)

1 3.4 cube tuned to 30-35 ( didnt do the math right)(memphis and magnum)(sold to friend with the memphis(THAT SHIT HITS IN HIS CAR)

1 15 inch 1.75 (didn't leave enough depth so i had to double the front panel to make it fit( wasn't air tight)

the things that i have learned.

1. with a 6 volt preamp output and a hifonics 1500 TURN THE GAIN DOWN!!!

2. use the subsonic filter for boxes tuned higher than 26hrz!!!

3. clipping on a pioneer 860mp begins at about 28 out of 40

4. loudness, bass boost on the eq, and other stuff just makes the headunit clip earlier.

5. CAR AUDIO IS YOUR FRIEND TO ASK QUESTIONS!!!

6. CLIPING SUCKS

so that is about 800 dollars in subs that i have screwed up with i am sure at least one more to come!!!

what have your learned or screwed up

Click to read more...

 

[bass maniak 10+ year member]

clipping = death of subs

i hope u dont blow the reconed magnum and the recoed brahma.

set the gains right man !!!!!!!!!!

 

[Norcalracer283 10+ year member]

My subs have never clipped, no matter what i have done with my amp and HU

 

[Black_Jesus 10+ year member]

always disconnect the battery ground before wiring amps...

my friend has shocked himself countless times being the dumbass that he is by not doing that, he figures if the car is off its safe lmao

 

[EFFENDI 10+ year member]

Yeah, you should know better though. ALWAYS read Jmac's Gain Tutorial before you start getting crazy with the volume knob!!!

 

[mykeys 10+ year member]

my Brother decided not to disconect the neg. when installing his Cliff Design. So I thought if I can use a test light on a cap to charge it why not an amp? it worked fine.. no sparky!! just thought I would pass that along for you other lazy people..I know i am guilty on ocassion.

Mike

 

[s5pitfire 10+ year member]

i rike shocking myself :-D

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

i learned to research products on this forum before i buy them.

i wasted money on my HU

i wasted money on 2 pairs of 6x9 and 2 pairs of 3.5's (both got blown. rockford and omg- audiobahn. how surprising @ 30 for the 3.5s and 40 for the 6x9's)

i wasted money on an overprice amp that had no logo powering two 10" kenwood subs (all prolly stolen)

 

[jleecong 10+ year member]

i learned to research products on this forum before i buy them.
i wasted money on my HU

i wasted money on 2 pairs of 6x9 and 2 pairs of 3.5's (both got blown. rockford and omg- audiobahn. how surprising @ 30 for the 3.5s and 40 for the 6x9's)

i wasted money on an overprice amp that had no logo powering two 10" kenwood subs (all prolly stolen)

Guilty
I paid way to much for my first system but the guy helped me install everything and helped me learn a lot.

4" Coaxials $20 from a Civic Center Liquidation Sale.

 

[Einzee 10+ year member]

Oh man here come the memories. This is better than 15 yrs. ago. My older bro had an audiovox 2 knob manual tuner w/ cass. The cassette quit working. I volunteered to fix for him. I remember opening this thing up and seeing a bunch of little wires inside. I was careful at first. But after a while of handling this thing the wires were starting to break at the solder joints. I never did figure out why the tape player stopped working. Decided that I fixed it and resoldered some wires where I thought they went and tore the others out. Gave it back to him and he said to two chicks that were with him in his car "Yeah my little bro fixed this for me." As he was hooking it up in their presence the smoke started rolling out from the dash. I was only 14 at the time and still laugh //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/hilarious.gif.02a037aad04aa96f19982b298a3d70a8.gif at his embarassing moment in front of two chicks. Well today it's all different. Hence the name "Einzee" = Einstein. He gave that name to me. Now, if it's electrical, I am able to fix it but I always imagine the look on his face when his car nearly caught on fire. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/pissed.gif.9f665f96bc89e98e708dabd4580bb591.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/furious.gif.fc81ca146dbff91fede3ed290dbc4f4c.gif

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

^^^^ Rofl!

 

[Depression 10+ year member]

THIS IS A GREAT IDEA FOR A THREAD...WE "ALL".... LIVE AND LEARN!!!!

I really have no Terrible Car Audio stories.mainly because with "Installs" I am a Virgin.

The one incident that sort of qualifies happened last December..I had a Fosgate Amp and Pioneer Bandpass sub installed in my Girls 4runner as a suprise for her before a roadtrip we were taking...I went to pick up the car at about 5 p.m..Sub sounded amazing???

but as I pulled away the car WOULD NOT ACCELERATE!!!! At All.....So I go into the Shop and explain my dilemna to the shop..this had never happened before???

They thought maybe they had screwed into a fuel line????

Burned something out in the fuse box???

these poor guys spent all Saturday evening trying to figure out what THEY DID WRONG??

Well, When they disconnected the Battery for the installation...it had reset all the functions in the CPU computer, which is normal

BUT!! When this happened it had caused all the adjustments and programs in the computer to re-boot.and by pure coincidence the car had a Oxygen Sensor go out..so the Computer had made all the adjustments needed to compensate for this failed part, so I never knew there was a problem with the car until they disconnected the battery..

LESSON: if you have a computer controlled car and disconnect your battery...Any mechanical or Sensor problems you have MAY only come up once you re-connect power...OF COURSE..your gonna think it's something you did wrong in the Install that caused your Check Engine light to go on and vehicle to run like crap..

Just a reminder!!

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

1) Always hold your hand/fingers around the screw/screwdriver when screwing in speakers //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

2) Always unhook your battery when installing something, and never let the wrench you are unscrewing the battery terminal with touch the car body (

Other than a screwdriver through a speaker cone (which I got replaced for free....I said it came out of the box with the giant crack in the cone //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif ), I've never damaged any equipment //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/clap.gif.178cba2c538c68e720c727fcb024b19c.gif. Guess I'm lucky

 

[Depression 10+ year member]

1) Always hold your hand/fingers around the screw/screwdriver when screwing in speakers //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

LMAO...I didn't get the "BIG" purpose for that at first!!!!LOL

 

[jlaine 10+ year member]

Never "accidentally" blown any audio equipment to date...

I did however blow out the 'door chime module' in my old Buick Skylark a long time ago...

$180 mistake. (shorted illumination lead to ground when removing a deck, I believe)

This was several years ago - I didn't feel like removing the ground to work on the car, and paid for it. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif