Thread: Blew my sub. Thanks to fools.

So, when getting my sub for my wagon, the idiot at bestbuy tells me that overpowering the sub is good, and isn't going to kill the sub as fast as underpowering it will. I really didn't believe it, but did quick research, and just went with what he said.

I initially wanted a Type R/R.F. P3, but ended up buying a Alpine Type E. Stupid. It was rated at 250watt RMS, and that's exactly what my amp put out, so I should have known there I was pushing it. Last week, I noticed it started to distort slightly, so I let it go. Today, it does it again, and I purposely turned out the loudest base song I had, just to blow it. Ended up ****ing the voice-coil, as planned, went to bestbuy, returned it, got a store credit, and am going to pick up my Rockford P3 tomorrow!

Found this after:
http://www.optimabatteries.com/audio_electronics/ask_pro/

hey Brett,,, your gonna love the P3,,, thats a great sub from rockford,, BTW I'm going on vacation this friday and will be in Fl and I'll get you that P3 at cost if you can wait till I get back... I'm also bringing back a big load of dynamat and some of it is yours... let me know if you can hang on and wait...

haha, I'm getting it tomorrow. I have the warrenty on the E, so I'm using the money I have from that (164) and getting the P3. So it's all good. Plus the E was a gift, so the P3 is only costing me about $50. Let me know about that dynamat though!

sweet!! I forgot about the Alpine, lol.... how much dynamat you want?? I can carry up to 140 sq ft,, it'll come in a bulk pack which is 36 sq ft each .. that will alot of your sweet spots in your wagon,,, retails for about 250-270.. I think I can get each for around 80


http://www.dynamat.com/products_car_audio_sheets_and_bulk_paks.html

I think one should do me well. haha, Just plan on doing the rear in dynamat, seeing as the front and all is just fine with rattles/road noise. So that should easily cover it.

yeah, I noticed when I got my MTX's from circuitcity the guy tried to convince me that underpowering them was the worst thing you could do, but I just ignored him and stuck with the plan

I have 2 P3s in my blazer now. I have 2 Fosgate 2400s pushing them. I love them. They hit so hard and are not muddy at all. I had them in my last car and had 2 packs of dynamat in it. It still broke stuff loose. Have fun with it.

how many watts RMS did you push to each sub?

Also, I don't quite get the "wiring wizard". My P3 has the voice coils with the terminals opposite on each side. I'm wiring both to one amp, to create a 2ohm load. How do I go about that? Positive lead to #1 voice coil positive, and then Negative lead to #2 voice coil negative?

Wait... so you shouldn't match the subs rms to the amps rms? I have also heard that it is better to power the subs a lil more than their rms rating. Is this not true? Is it better to stay below the speakers rms rating?

Well, I'll dig out my old audio background here...

Actually, having an amp rated at a higher RMS output than the sub isn't that big a deal if you set your gains properly. Many people overlook the tuning phase of a system, and too many use gains as volume knobs, which is the worst thing you can do.

Two things will kill a sub:
1.) Distortion
2.) Mechanical disruption due to too much power (it's actually cool to see this happen, but you need to have waaay too much power for the sub for this to occur)

These two issues can only be resolved with a quality amp with a higher RMS rating than necessary (the higher the gain is set at, the higher the distortion rate), BUT you need to set it with a low gain setting AND never touch the gains again.

Your amp was most likely not tuned properly, and the gains were set too high. Distortion killed your sub. The guy at your shop informed you well, but did not include all of the info, so yes, he is still somewhat responsible...