Alright, here’s the problem. I have a 12" Infinity Reference Sub, 300W RMS, 1200W Peak, not sure of the model number. It was being powered by a 500W Jensen amp. On day the sub just stopped hitting, I thought it was the extremely cold weather (was reaching -30 degrees F) so I brought it inside for a couple of months. I brought it back out to my car today and hooked it back up. Now it doesn’t hit, if I push the cone in a little it will bump for a second and sound really crappy, but then nothing. Is there anything I can do short of buying a new Sub? Thanks
Re: Sub Problem
Originally posted by TegJoker
Alright, here’s the problem. I have a 12" Infinity Reference Sub, 300W RMS, 1200W Peak, not sure of the model number. It was being powered by a 500W Jensen amp. On day the sub just stopped hitting, I thought it was the extremely cold weather (was reaching -30 degrees F) so I brought it inside for a couple of months. I brought it back out to my car today and hooked it back up. Now it doesn’t hit, if I push the cone in a little it will bump for a second and sound really crappy, but then nothing. Is there anything I can do short of buying a new Sub? Thanks
Infinity’s usually fairly good with their ratings, so I very much doubt that you could have blown the sub with that amp. This includes even if you turned up your gains all the way. But then it does sound like the VC has opened.
How long have you had the sub for? If it is still under warranty, I’d suggest trying to get it taken care of.
sub is blown(vc)
your amp is the culprit
subs get blown by under powering them
i highly doubt that amp will make near 500W
distortion free anyways
Originally posted by poorwhiteboy
sub is blown(vc)
your amp is the culprit
subs get blown by under powering them
i highly doubt that amp will make near 500W
distortion free anyways
That is an audio myth. They do not blow from underpowering them. I have only 500 watts going to my sub that peaks at 4800 watts which is rated per IEC 268-5. So, could you explain why my sub isn’t blowing if your statement is true?
Now what happens is that usually you have a sub that can thermally handle a certain amount of power. Let’s pick say 400 watts. If you put over 400 watts, then the subs voice coil will get too hot and start melting things. Now let’s say you put a 300 watt amp on the sub. Technically it shouldn’t cause problems, right? Well what happens when the owner wants to really impress his friends? He decides to turn up the gains to make the sub louder, and turns on all the bass boosts. Now the amplifier is clipping. The amplifier can produce 300 watts linearly, but is now being pushed into clipping which in effects doubles the power output. So now our sub that can handle 400 watts, is now seeing 600 watts. Guess what, that voice coil is going to be toast very quickly. So as you can see, the sub is being overpowered, not underpowered.
Well, I don’t think I was overpowering it. I had the gains and bass boost turned up almost nothing at all, I don’t like a whole lot of bass. I’m just calling it blown and buying a new one anyway, damn.
Just as an aside… the “myth” that underpowering a sub will blow it, isn’t really amyth by what Steven is saying. The “myth” fully explained goes like this. A person buys a sub… 500W RMS… then buys an amp… say 250W RMS… hooks it up with the gains turned down (like a good little boy), but then starts to turn the gains up (like most instructions tell you to do) to get the volume they want. Most instructions tell you to “turn the gain up until you hear distortion and then turn it down a little”… most people cannot hear a clipping sub and what they hear is BUMP and not distortion.
Long story short… it is easier to blow a speaker with too little power because the ill informed individual will turn the gains up to make the speaker louder but will introduce distortion which is the real culprit of blowing a speaker with an underpowered amp.
~exhale~… some people don’t know what it really means to blow a speaker by ‘underpowering’ it… but it is exactly as Steven says…