what's wrong with my setup?

[berretta96 10+ year member]

I have a custom 12 from splaudio. It is a dvc 2 ohm. It is in 1.5 box tuned @ 34 hz. I am powering it with a vvme d1500 amp. Power wire is 4 ga with stock electrical. The sub sounds good until i turn it up too much and it clacks like it is bottoming out. The amp is @ 1/4 gain, set on a dd1. The suspension was built for 1k and the vc for 1.5k

Today it started smoking so I turned it off right away. I tested it after 20 minutes and it sounds ok but wtf is going on here? Btw... Until i turn it up to this level it pounds and sq is decent.

Car is a stock electrical 00 civic.

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[sbarber82 10+ year member]

clipping… what are your setting on the HU and what are your other settings on the amp? Also that amp is crap and is prob sending the sub clipped power once you turn it up that high. Get a good amp, why would you use such a crap amp on a nice woofer like that?

 

[berretta96 10+ year member]

Sub output is 0 bass boost 0 bass 0

Lpf 80

If the amp is the issue, i'll uprade

I never had this on my old subs but they were @ 2 ohms

 

[juanmgarza26 10+ year member]

I thought I was on a tight budget, but I myself wouldn't put a cheap amp like that on a sub that good, get a better amp man that's most likely to problem

 

[sbarber82 10+ year member]

Yea it is just very bad power that is most likely clipped and it is killing the sub. I would pull the amp right away and not risk anymore damage to the sub. You can get a great used 1k-1500 amp on here, caco.com, etc.. You will be very impressed when you put real clean power to that sub

 

[berretta96 10+ year member]

And the search begins...... Let me know if you have something

 

[sbarber82 10+ year member]

I have a great little amp that will send very clean efficient power to that sub all day! Made in the USA

 

[sbarber82 10+ year member]

Actually it won't work well since it is designed for 2 ohm load. I just realized!

 

[*Ace* 10+ year member]

Before you buy a new amp make sure the gain is set the correct way. Follow the instructions in this thread exactly. Afterwards let us know if you are still having issues.

http://forum.sounddomain.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/65167/page/1

 

[berretta96 10+ year member]

Is that needed even if gain was set on a dd1 ?

 

[*Ace* 10+ year member]

Is that needed even if gain was set on a dd1 ?

My bad, I must of skipped over that part in the first post. Well an air leak could cause the bottoming out, if thats what it really is, but it wouldn't explain the sub smoking. The only way it's going to smoke is if you overpower it, which means either the gain was not actually set correctly using the DD-1, or the coil being used can't actually take the power being provided by the amp (which I doubt, SPLaudio seems to offer quality parts from everyones reviews and experiences). I would try setting the gain the way described in the link I posted. See if that fixes the issue. Maybe the DD-1 isn't properly working anymore? Did you use it properly, such as the instructions in this link? Maybe you set the gain using a -3dB reference tone, and the media you are playing is actually +3dB and thus causing the amp to clip even though you set it correctly according to the DD-1.

http://www.wccaraudio.com/media/pdfs/Distortion_Detector_DD-1_Ver._1.pdf

 

[berretta96 10+ year member]

Update... I will ohm test it today but i think 1 coil must be burnt because the sub is not loud anymore. Last night was the fitst time i turned it up past 1/4 volume since the smoke.