alright guys first off im a newbie and i really really appreciate your help so i can maybe sleep tonight, christ...ive had my system in for a little over a month in my ranger, i have an alpine MRP-M350 amp with a max power of 700x and per channel into 4 ohms 200w x 1...i just got a brand new sony xplod xs-l101p5 subwoofer which is 4 ohms, 1100w max power and 300x rated power i just turned the amp up a little today (the gain and the bass eq) and after an hour of driving around tonight with my stereo about 3 quarters up it just cut out, i didnt have anything on the amp adjusted to max, if anything just a little under, theres no humming or anything its just really hot and totally quiet, some of the cotton melted to the magnet...do these subwoofers kick off when they get hot or did i **** something up and if i did what do you think or is there any way i can figure it out? PLEASE HELP ME THIS IS THE 3RD SUB IVE ****ED UP AND I HAD THIS PRO INSTALLED! AGH!!

 

cotton melted to the sub? im assumming you mean the polyfill in the box.. you're voice coil's probably got nice and hot since you turned up the amp a little and had it pounding for 3 hours. did you happen to notice if the amp itself shut off? some have a safe mode to protect themselves (they'll turn themselves off). do you smell anything weird coming from the box maybe? id take it back to the installer and ask him to take a look at it. sounds like you might have fried it.. either that or the amp cut out.

 

sounds like the amp overheated maybe? does it work now ?

Rand

 

the amps fine i plugged in one of my older subs out of a box after and it was playing fine and i didnt smell anything at all and yes a small amount of polyfill melted....ive looked at the voice coil and nothing looks visibly wrong at all all the fabric is intact...i dont know : (

 

the voice coil sits down inside of the magnet, only a little is exposed at the top (the part you can see). i'd go back to the installer and ask him to take a look at the settings, etc. in your system.

 

i just plugged it in again and nothing god damn.., it was only playing for an hour and not even completely continuously i took another 45 min ride or so today too with it like that i dont get this whole thing my amp is rated for 200 w max? and my sub 300w so how the hell could the sub possibly blow if anything it would seem the amp could or is that just pencil logic

 

what do you think sonys gonna have me do ship it out or take it somewhere?

 

thats why they call them xplods

 

well, if the sub needs to be repaired, yes, they'll have you (or the shop you got the sub from) send them the sub. they'll fix it, if that's doable, then they'll send it back, assumming they'll fix it under warrenty. maybe you'll get lucky and itll be resolved without you having to send the sub out for repair. either way though, it sounds like you've got something set wrong somewhere, probably at the amp. let the installer double check it for you

 

If in doubt, smell it. Electronics have a weird burnt smell when they die, and speakers are no exception.

You should be able to buy a new sub off e-bay for less than Sony will charge you for shipping and repair. Your best bet is to take it back to the place you bought it from, but don't count on getting anything more than a discount on your next purchase.

I've used the same sub with a 200 watt RMS amp, and had no problems.

 

I have two of these if you need one I will sell it cheap, and I have had a amp about the same size on mine and never had a problem. it was 300w x 2 @ 4ohms about that I think. Suxs that you might need another one though. Just let me know if you can't get it fixed under warranty, I will hook you up.

 

alright i appreciate it a lot guys im hoping this pawn shop wont be douches.....one thing, there was definitely never any burnt electronic smell ive smelled that so what could that mean?

 

you're wasting your time with a pawn shop. if anybody knows how to haggle with people, it's them. I think you're better off with a new sub, but good luck anyway!

 

dude i know exactly how you feel...i just put a memphis bell (an $1100 amp) in my truck well it lasted a whole 25 days! i seperated the sub control motherboard from the wires so the amp had to be sent back to memphis and it takes them like 25 days! anyways if the coils had heated up you would have smelled it...its definately a smell you wont forget.

 

Turn your amp down! If you boost your amp up to make more bass but you don't turn your receiver down to accomodate the boost from the amp your gonna blow/fry every sub you get. You've gone through 3 now. Even if you you buy a $1300 sub and put it in you'll do the same thing.

Like everyone has said, I would take it in and see what they'll tell you. I know they're gonna check your amp and they're gonna check your reciver to see what happened and if they see you've turned your amp to crazy amounts of bass they'll say "user error" and you're stuck with buying a new sub. If you got it from Best Buy or Circuit City and got the warranty on it then they will replace it no questions asked: If not your stuck learning a lesson for the 3rd time looks like.

I have a 10" Xplod in my truck and when i boosted the bass i had to turn the bass and cut off down in my receiver becasue it was hittin like crazy....

 

Don't waste the gas money trying to get a pawn shop to replace it. It was probably stolen to begin with...

 

 

no voice coil smell or anything so what could it be

 

GOD DAMMIT you learn your lessons with how not to break a bong after 3 times and now the same with my damn system lol unreal NO ****ING SMELL!

 

so did you figure out what was wrong? or are you just upset still?

 

i have an appointment at bestbuy

 

you may not know it, but you can potentially do as much damage underpowereing a sub as you can overpowering one.

what might have happened is this; what can happen when you turn up the gains too high on your amp is it can overdrive it and cause the voice coils on the sub to melt/burn/get messed up/etc.

sounds like that sub is toast

 

well congrats on that...dont deal with the pawn shops...just out to screw you...also just because it says sony or any other name brand doesnt mean it is good...they make a cheap line as well as there good stuff

 

here's a little more information on what i was describing, and what probably happened to your sub;

Underpowering a speaker is likely to damage the voice coil due to the excess heat created by distortion. This distortion, called clipping, is created when the amp is not able to supply the power demand when the volume is turned up. If you turn the volume up very high without the power to back it up, you'll end up clipping the signal coming out of the amp. The speaker will try to reproduce this clipped signal, and if played under these circumstances for any length of time, the speaker will not last very long.

There is a mis-conception that if you're not giving the speaker as much power as it can handle you won't blow it, but that simply is not the case. The only way to really address this problem is to replace your speaker for one with a lower power rating, and a higher SPL rating, or replace your amp with one that better matches the speaker's power handling capability. An alternative to replacing the equipment is to simply keep your volume turned down!

 

yeah clipping is basically what we said from the beginning.. anyway tho, when you get your stuff back, try not to mess with any of the gains.. they're set for a reason! dont try to squeeze more out of your stuff, things like that happen when you go too far.