charmz

All I know is that sub WAS NOT hitting hard and that I was pushing through a an "ideal" amount of watts according to the company website.

This is the chart I used to make my decision on the setup
http://www.edesignaudio.com/elementa...11ov2chart.php

It told me that 250-600 watts was IDEAL....... 600 being on the high end of the spectrum obviously, but how could something within the IDEAL RANGE casuse a sub to blow...... I DOUBLE CHECKED THE AMP CONFIGURATIONS TODAY TO FIND THAT MY BASS BOOST WAS TOTALLY OFF AND THE GAIN ON THE AMP WAS A HAIR OVER HALF!

THIS SUB IS SUPPOSED TO HANDLE 600 WATTS SO HOW THE HELL WAS THE AMP "TOO POWERFUL" ?

AND THE COILS DID NOT MELT (im assuming) BECAUSE THE SUB STILL MOVES.

I called elemental designs they said they have to look at it before anything can be done....... by the time i ship it there and get it shipped back and pay for it to be repaired im figuiring that its going to cost roughly what the sub costed brand new and take 4 times as longer to get back to me. plus the return process seems like a big hassel - they have all types of little things attached to the process such as "if you do not have all of the origional packaging there is an automatic $20 extra fee", and a few other things that seemed to annoy me.

Maybe im just pissed about the whole situation, and probably dont have enough knowledge to fully understand what went wrong.......But I still think that sub should of been able to hold up, going by what their chart states anyways

They also told me the setting I should use on my deck is sub volume cranked all the way up, with no loud options on and have the eq flat.

IM STARTING TO THINK I SHOULD OF JUST GOT A SEALED BOX!

charmz

But I guess I'll have to order another one, and maybe if you could assist me in the the setup Robert that would be appriciated.

krazyl3gz

Like Robert said above, you should set your settings on your head unit first(approx 2/3's or a comfortable volume, subwoofer setting fairly high or maxed out to get the most out of the preouts). Then play your test tone and slowly turn up your gain starting from the bottom up.


I think you can usually set gains pretty well by ear but you need to have a oscilloscope (not a dmm) to make sure you're sending the max clean signal.

Where gain physically is on the amp (1/2 way or 3/4) doesn't matter. An eclipse deck with 8v preouts will have the amp putting out more power at the same setting than say a deck with 2v preouts.

Robert_J

I said earlier, the sub's power handling rating is based on thermal limits and not mechanical limits. When installed in a small box, the air acts as a spring to control the cone's motion. The larger the box, the less control on the cone. Remove the box and teh sub relies on the suspension alone to control cone movement.

There are two ways to blow a speaker. The first is thermal. That is when the voice coil heats up so much that the laquer insulator on the wires melts and the coil unwinds. The symptoms are usually a frozen cone (won't move) or if it does move, there is a scratching sound. The scratching is the loose wires rubbing inside the magnet.

You blew yours the 2nd way - overexcursion. Speakers have parameters associated with them that describe different aspects of performance. On this one, xmax is linear excursion. That is how far the cone can move in each direction and still produce an acceptable tone. A parameter they do not give you is xmech. That is the physical limits a sub's cone can move. Backwards, it can be limited by the voice coil hitting the back of the magnet or the triple joint hitting the pole piece. Forwards, it is the limit before the spider or tinsel leads start to tear. Since your sub plays when you press the cone in, I am guessing that during a loud passage of music, the cone went forward violently and a tinsel lead disconnected from the voice coil. The tinsel is the braided wire between the speaker terminal and the voice coil.

How can you keep this from happening? You can get a sub with more excursion or you can turn it down. By turn it down, that means bass boost, loudness and EQ. You can also implement a subsonic filter that will keep the very low bass from causing harm. But if you are a fan of the rap music you will limit the low bass that is so popular with the kids these days. Also, EQ should be used sparingly. You need to properly analyze your system first with a real time analyzer and then apply EQ to get the frequency response curve that you want. Most of the time EQ is use to cut humps in the response rather than boost the dips in the response.

Since you are a resident of our 51st state, maybe you should buy from a seller up there to keep fees and shipping to a minimum. The Mach 5 IXL 12.2.2 and the CSS SD 12. Of the 2, I like the SD 12. Nice xmax of 19mm (1mm more than the ED) but with an xmech of 32mm. You would have to push some crazy amounts of power to this sub to get it to its physical limits.

-Robert

charmz

Those both seem to be 12" drivers Robert, Im going to need a 10"

How about the SXD10 ?

Any other suggestions?
Price doesnt matter

GSoup

Really good stuff, Robert.

charmz

Well I just spoke to Alex from Elemental Designs and he briefly described the "biggest bad *** IB subwoofer" that would be a custom build and have 30mm of excursion one way and would share a motor structure similar to the 13Av.2, but with 10" moving part.

What do you say about that Robert?
Should this be the route I go?

Robert_J

Have you seen the size of the motor on the 13Av.2? It's huge. And I have some 60 pound motors in my collection. If you can swing the price then go for it. Alex knows his stuff. Also, since it is based on the Av.2 platform, it would be underhung which would have by default very good sound quality (less voice coil windings = lower inductance).

If the price isn't right, then the SDX10 would work. Again, an underhung design but with XBL^2 low distortion technology (Dan Wiggins is an amazing speaker designer).

I've said before that the Haxo LXU 10 has parameters for a great IB sub. And my favorite sub for an IB would be the TC7 from TC Sounds. They aren't available via retail any more but someone at Home Theater Forum has a 10" for sale.

-Robert

Johnag

Next time set your gains with a multimeter and NEVER use bass boost or loud settings. That will get you a clipped signal, which will blow your speaker.