burnt out 3 subs in a week

[vs-6]

ok i redid my stereo last week, i had amps under the seat. i moved them into boot nice and neat out of the way and after i did that i went fro a drive and blew a 18 sony xplode sub (just a peice of shit but had been going alright for a while).
i am running a jaycar response amplifier at 500w rms at 4 ohms the other 2 subs i blew were pioneer subs rated at 400w rms at 4 ohms (dual 2 ohms coils bridged out correctly).
i got the second pioneer sub for nothing as i took it back to jb and they just replaced it as guy said it definatly should have been able to handle 500w rms long story short ive blown up 2 $180 subs and a $70 sub.
please any help im thinking that it may be my amp either putting out too much power or not putting out enough impedence.

[arrow224]

Recheck all cabling. Make sure all connections are of good quality. Power, earth, remote, even speaker cables.

Also recheck all your gains, possibly need to retune it.

[StoneX]

Subs blow from too much heat... This is either caused by too much power or amplifier distortion (clipping).

I'd say you're just expecting too much from the subs and cooking them. JB shouldn't be replacing burnt subs, that just shows how retarded they are.

[acarmody]

I'm probably gonna say gain set too high, kills subs.

[StoneX]

Gain set high just means you have less range of volume on the head unit until the speaker is overpowered or amplifier is clipping.

You can have the gain on max and still use a head unit bass control to adjust the bass to correct levels. People just don't know when they've turned their sub up too far.

The user needs to know when to turn the volume back a notch.

[VPplayer]

As everyone else said, the gain on the amp must be to high.

[west-side]

the subs you are buying are peices of shit, no offence but.. sony xplod are hopless go for something that you know can handle a bit of extra power such as kicker or alpine type-Rs .
peace out

[holdenboy]

What type of subwoofer enclosure/s are you using, ported...sealed?

Its either clipping from the amp which is heating up your voice coils and burning them or if the box is ported then its tuned wrong.

Clipping from the amp can be caused by a few things:

* Volume / gain set too high, amp puts out a distorted signal and fries the sub.
* Power / Earth connections at the amp / battery are loose or making a poor connection, causing the amplifier to receive a lower voltage than normal and clipping the signal.
* Power / Earth cable to small (same outcome as above).

Check all your connections at the amp and battery, then check your earth connections at the amp and earthing location. Possibly get another sub and put a multimeter on the amps power / earth terminals, check the voltage as you turn the volume up.....should stay above 11.5v at all times (with the car running).

Its also possible your simply wanting more bass and have either cranked the gain to max and / or are turning the volume up too high. Maybe go into a car audio store and get them to set the gains properly when you get a new sub, if the outcome isnt what you want then buy a more powerful amp and get the new amp tuned.

[vs-6]

ok i know sony xplodes are shit i said this to start with and i have prevously found that alpine type r's are shit as ive had a 10"



gain was set to full on first 2 second pioneer sub was set 2 3rds and all of these were blown while bass boost was set on 1 or 2 out of 10 i like to be able to control everything from the head unit.

i have my battery in the boot and i am running 8guage cable to the amps direct its only like 1m 2m run at very most barely any volt drop in that and the cable should be able to handle up to about 60 amps

jb has done righty by me they are even going to replace again but i am going to spend an extra 50 bucks and go to a 500rms sub.

i am using a sealed box but the new one im getting will be in a box made for the sub.

[StoneX]

You're blowing your subs... Stop turning them up so far and they won't blow.

[holdenboy]

Honestly, you could go with a 1000wrms sub and still blow it with 500wrms if you turn the gain or volume up too high and send the sub a clipped signal. When you get this new sub, get the installer at JB to set your gain properly.....Ive used plenty of those Jaycar amps and have found they dont power subs all that well, theyre great for powering speakers but fail for subs.

[bezz]

Honestly, you could go with a 1000wrms sub and still blow it with 500wrms if you turn the gain or volume up too high and send the sub a clipped signal. When you get this new sub, get the installer at JB to set your gain properly.....Ive used plenty of those Jaycar amps and have found they dont power subs all that well, theyre great for powering speakers but fail for subs.

but it sounds so hectic with it cranked bro!

[vs-6]

ok so well jb just gave me my money in a voucher "jb youve done it again"
well yer i think im gonna get my amp checked out as the gain was on half and the guy rekons that it should have been ok still.
so yer i might just get amp cheked the buy a decent sub around 250 mark

holden boy
i have found you the most helpful about where should i have my gain and wat about bass boost. and you say response amps arent the best for bass why is this is there anything i can do to make them better ect i dunooo
and yer i may have just had gain and bass boost turned up too much but just to make sure im gonna get amp cheed out and yer shall let every1 know how i go

[HCVP]

Let me get this right, JB replaced your sub, not once, but twice, and then gave you a voucher on your 3rd visit?
Bend over JB HI FI lol

[StoneX]

Bass boost should be zero. Read: Tutorial - Amplifier Gain & Crossover Adjustment

You're not listening either, your gain can be low and you can still kill your sub if you turn the volume on the head unit up too high. The reason they blew would be because you just had them playing too loud.

Yeah, JB are morons. Ripping off the distributors because customers damage their own gear. I see this nearly every day and it's extremely frustrating when distributors are nearly going out of business. Which JB HiFi store is it?

[holdenboy]

^^^ Agreed with StoneX. It dosent matter where the gain is set, it is primarily a "tuning" tool so you can intergrate it with the rest of the system (so all speakers get to their maximum output at the same time on the head-unit volume).

Im not quite sure why the Response 2 x 150 dosent power subs well.....i think it has something to do with the frequency response of the amp and it has a dip in this response throughout some of the sub-bass frequencies, but dont quote me on that one

As i said before, when you get your new sub......get a pro to tune the system for you, and let you know the maximum volume (on the h/u) you can turn it up to. If that output dosent meet your requirements, get a better (more powerful) amp. Simple as that.

[vs-6]

jb replaced it once then gave me voucher

[StoneX]

Yeah, but they're not meant to do that... If a speaker is blown, they're meant to send it to the distributor to be assessed. They will determine if it's cooked (user error) or a manufacturing fault that has caused it to fail. They have the distributors by the balls and rip them off flat out.

Anyway, be careful with this one... Don't turn it up so loud and it probably won't blow