Sometimes when I have my music up too loud, it sounds like my subwoofer backfires.What can this sound be coming from? Please help.

 

what you mean by backfires? like a popping at the end of a bass note or what?

I hear if its popping like that, your are over-exerting your subs meaning either suspension is wore out or just toooo damn much power going in

I over powered my Fosgates and wound up cracking the magnet and locked the cone in fully extended so forced to go shopping...found my audiobahns and am really happy with those so far even though typically I wouldn't have bought em because I was unsure of the brandname but they work great and I love their sound so far

 

Yeah its kinda a popping but I know the max of my amp isn't anywhere near the max wattage of the subwoofer. The max of the amp is higher than the rms of the subwoofer though. Is that the culprit?

 

definite possibility and I would check the size of the box as well.

I know the original kicker solobarics 12" couldn't have more than .88 cubic feet of air space or the would over extend the cones and have damage done.....haven't read much on the L7's and such but if the box is too large cubic airwise then that ca cause some damage especially when turned up louder

 

i built my box according to the volume size that was stated in the manual. i also used some program that supposedly calculate the size and optimal dimensions of the box.

 

accounted for all the thicknesses of the wood and all? then we can rule out box size


if the amp RMS is greater than the sub RMS...then constant useable power could be effecting your performance...

like if the sub is rated as 250watt RMS value and the amp is pushing 300watt RMS then yes...it is already being pushed beyond its limits....turn the gains down, frequency down (if your amp has those?) and play around with levels and settings

typically I would set anybodys equipment at roughly 3/4 level and volume on the deck

1 turn everything to zero
2 turn deck to 3/4 volume
3 start with highs/mids and adjust to suit
4 add subs till satisfied

always worked well for me and customers in the past and usually I was past their typical listening threshold so pretty much always satisfied with results and never had any complaints

 

sub's rms is 500w, amp's max is 760w and i cant remember the rms but its not 500w, the gains is set at a mark labeled "normal". there is no frequency controller but it does have a lpf that i had set it to. the sub doesnt suspend well in full frequency. i dont think the amp is strong enough or the ground isnt big enough.

I want to try to take my sub somewhere and test it on a better system than mine to see if its jsut my "system" that is making it sound that way. do you think any of my local audio shops will let me do something like that? my sub and box with their hu and amp? at the moment my system just sucks so i just want to improve it any way possible for the moment. my "system" consists of my 30gb zen vision m connected via a 3.5mm to y rca to my amps. i normally turn up the mp3 player all the way up to try to make up for its lack for a strong output signal that an actual headunit gives. this is usually where the popping happens usually if im listening to hiphop or sumtin strongly bassed.

 

There's your problem! The mp3 player is putting out a crappy signal to start with (compared to a decent voltage RCA from a head unit). Turning the mp3 up past 75% is going to cause all sorts of distortion. You probably screwed up0 the sub or the amp with the distortion. Distortion will cause power spiking and these spikes can exceed the amp and/or speaker ratings. With all of this effort, why don't you spend 100 bucks on a cheap, but decent head unit?

 

well for one im still waiting to start working which im hoping will be tomorrow.

Plusas we all probably already know its never as easy just saying "I'm going to buy a new headunit" because along with the headunit i would have to buy a dashkit and wiring harness and whatever else i would need to make everything work.

but i bet you're right about the distortion and stuff. I'll try to get a headunit whenever I can. Thanks for the info.

 

Is 7th gen the version that has the dash with the climate control and radio built-in? If so, I see your point! Luckily, my gf and I both have 6th gens, so the radio is single or double din with very easy mounting. Mine came with a Pioneer double din radio and I swapped my gf's without any kit at all! The stock screws are in the standard location, so I just screwed in the new unit. The wiring took the most time at 20 minutes because I solder and shrinkwrap all connections. To get into the 6th gen dash, there are only 2 screws on the bottom and 1 behind the clock .... very easy to work on.

I didn't mean to knock you about the head unit, only that it seems that you are spending a lot of time to fix this and money that could band-aid the problem (RCA adapters, ground loop isolators, etc) could be better spent on a basic headunit.