subwoofer help

why does my sub stop working when i put it to a certain volume level. i am not really boosting the volume level that high. to turn my sub back on i either turn off my deck and turn it back on. but then again it does the same thing.

Sounds like your amp is going into protection mode. That can happen from the speaker impedance being too low or from your power and ground wire being too small. Could also be from low voltage. First thing to check is speaker impedance...what kind of subs, how many,what is the impedance of those subs,how are they wired,and what amp are you using on them?

most likely its your amp clipping from heat try turning your gain on your amp down if it set kinda high if that doesnt work try bridging it a different mine did the same thing on a rockford fosgate 400watt 4 channel and i turn my gains down and ever since it hasnt cliped yet

its your amp going into protection mode mine does the same thing cause my amp is to small. If your are shutting off your Cd player and turning It back on it is telling your REM line to power up the amplifier. The amp then shuts itself off to protect itself when you want it to send more whats then it has to give(volume). You simply need a higher watt amp, less speakers, or just run it below where it shuts off (could also fool with the gain if you have it).

I love how everyone jumps to conclusions (other than SickVette)....

Your amp is shutting off during operation? Well it must be too small and you're pushing it too hard. It couldn't possibly be low voltage, a loose connection, or low impedence.

When the amp shuts off, do all the lights turn off? Does everything stay normal? Does a protection light come on?

im having the same problem. i dont have any gain controls in my headunit though.
there is a switch on my amp, either high current or high voltage. so maybe ill switch it to high voltage.
i have 1 alpine rtype 12' sub, and a sony amp.
http://www.carsound.com/reviews/amps/xm1002hx.html
is a link for the amp, and the sub info you can find on ebay. the sub is bridged to either 2ohm or 4, i cant remember. i read the amp was 8ohm but it is bridged the same way you would make a 4ohm a 2ohm so... im unsure. if you could help id appreciate it

the alpine type r has a dual 2ohm sub and a dual 4 ohm sub. your sub can handle 300 watts and your amp puts out 280 watts bridged 4ohm load. try making sure your sub is wired for 4 ohms. if you have the dual 4 ohm vc sub just use one side of the sub. if you have the dual 2ohm sub wire from the amps + to one + on one side of your sub and from the amps - to the - on the other side of your sub. then connect the remaining - from one side to the remaining + from the other side. now your wired the way you should be for using your amp in it's bridged mode. or you can just test the resistance with a fluke. either way just make sure your amp is seeing the right load from your alpine

oh yeah put the switch on for high voltage, the high current is for 2ohm loads

if you have the dual 4 ohm vc sub just use one side of the sub.

Bad for your sub to only run one side...

It will cause misalignment almost certainly

I thought the idea of DVC was to give you the option of...say, 2,4 or 8 ohm loads to fit your particular situation

it won't misalign anything, the coils are wrapped together, they're "intertwined" so to speak, so only running one, or both, or having the polarities backwards on one so they fight each other, it won't do anything to the alignment.

Only running one coil will, however, drop the thermal power handling of the speaker in half, so keep that in mind (if it's rated at 400 watts, it can now only take 200 watts).

thanks for the help navy, just want to check again before i go through and possibly hurt my sub. right not my sub has 2 +, and 2 -, prongs sticking out of it. The way it is wired goes as follows:
the 2+ are wired together, and the 2- are wired together. one of the + and one of the - is what is connected to the amp.

what you want me to do is connect 1+ to 1- on opposite sides of the sub. then take the remaining + and connect it to the + on the amp, and the remaining - to the - on the amp.

ill give it a shot tomorrow. thanks for the help.

thanks for the help navy, just want to check again before i go through and possibly hurt my sub. right not my sub has 2 +, and 2 -, prongs sticking out of it. The way it is wired goes as follows:
the 2+ are wired together, and the 2- are wired together. one of the + and one of the - is what is connected to the amp.

what you want me to do is connect 1+ to 1- on opposite sides of the sub. then take the remaining + and connect it to the + on the amp, and the remaining - to the - on the amp.

ill give it a shot tomorrow. thanks for the help.


yes right now you're wired in parallel, which will either show the amp a 2ohm load or a 1ohm load (depending on whether you have the dvc 2ohm or dvc 4ohm model). Your amp isn't stable at 1ohm or 2ohm, which is why it's going into protection. You need to wire the sub in series exactly like you just described, and then you'll be running at either 4ohm or 8ohm where your amp will be very happy.

wiring in series will give you a 4 ohm load if you have the dual 2 ohm model. If you have the dual 4 ohm model then series wiring will give you an 8 ohm load. Check your specs. to see what model you got then go from there. A 8 ohm will give you twice the resistance and half the output of a 4, but it won't hurt nothing

ive also noticed when the amp does turn off like that, the light for offset protection turns red. (instead of green). so im guessing that its an offset issue. but i have no idea what that is. any insight? thx

the offset issues i know off have to deal with imaging and delay

but what you suggested should work right?

yeah if it was a low z (impedence) problem you should be good

but if its some offset problem i shouldnt? i dont even know what offset does lol. im just saying i dont want to rewire it for nothing, because of some offset bs.

you dont have to rewire your sub, put a multimeter across the positive and negative wires going to your speakers. and just set it for resistance. if you dont have one use one at a local stereo shop.

offset is a signal riding between two halves of a signal when the postive and negative are amplified using two different IC's. This setting is done by the factory ... and DC offset is bad for the speakers - probably good that your amp is shutting oof instead of burning up your speakers.

the only thing that i can think of from what i know about offsetting issues is when you delay parts of a sound stage to enhance imaging, like in stereo and mono settings or surround sound.
I heard off thermal and overload protection, but offset is a new one for me. I'll ask about it on the ship tomorrow and see what I find out.

the only thing that i can think of from what i know about offsetting issues is when you delay parts of a sound stage to enhance imaging, like in stereo and mono settings or surround sound.
I heard off thermal and overload protection, but offset is a new one for me. I'll ask about it on the ship tomorrow and see what I find out.


you're thinking about the wrong kind of offset

With a speaker, it sits at equilibrium and has equal (or close to equal) room on both sides for the cone to move correct? When you feed an AC signal the cone moves the same amount in each direction, say out to 5mm and in to -5mm. When you have a DC offset, just sitting there doing nothing the cone is moved out or in a bit, and current is constantly flowing through the speaker. So now your "equilibrium" is at say +2mm, so when you feed this AC signal, the cone moves out to 7mm and then back to -3mm. It's much easier to bottom out the speaker with a DC offset, since your excursion in the direction of the offset is hindered, and it's also easier to fry the voice coil since there's constantly current flowing through the speaker even when sitting at rest, which never really gives the speaker a chance to cool off.

okay, whats a multimeter, and how can i set it for resistance

oh okay, i have a multimeter. im just not keen on how i would use it in this situation, or how i would be able to adjust anything on the sub.