Smell coming from Subwoofer. What's it mean?

I've got two Polk DB212 subs and today I was listening to the stereo, and I noticed I could smell like a sweet almost tangy (if that makes sense) smell coming from the ported enclosure. The subs play fine still and everything seems to be working normally. I immediately turned it off and let it sit for awhile. Now the smell is still lingering, but it doesn't seem to "regenerate" for lack of a better word when i turn the subs back on. Did I blow something, or could it just be that the sub got a little too warm but is still fine? I'm new to the whole subwoofer thing so any explanation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. :)

are they new? usually when they're new sometimes the excess glue is burning off. If not, You might have got the coils hot.

are they new? usually when they're new sometimes the excess glue is burning off. If not, You might have got the coils hot.

Yeah, they are fairly new. I did have the volume turned up at the time, but not any more than I have before. Is it possible to get the coils hot without causing damage? I mean it plays fine, and doesn't sound any different. The OHM reading is the same too.

yes, they can get hot and smell but not cause any damage. But I would not suggest doing it often. What amp are you using? what are the gains set to? did you set them with a DMM or just turn them up till where you thought was good.

yes, they can get hot and smell but not cause any damage. But I would not suggest doing it often. What amp are you using? what are the gains set to? did you set them with a DMM or just turn them up till where you thought was good.

What is a DMM? Sorry to sound like an idiot. I honestly set the gains about 1/4 of the way, and just have gone with that. No distortion, so I'm assuming it's ok. I rather have them turned too low than too high...

They smelled that once, but I've had it cranked up that high since, and I haven't had an issue with any smells or anything. Could the speakers have just been burning off the extra glue or something?

DMM = digital multimeter. You can go thru a little math to set your gains to the max output of the amp at the full setting of the headunit. Fortunately, since music is not all digital 1's you can turn up the gain some with no bad effects

DMM = digital multimeter. You can go thru a little math to set your gains to the max output of the amp at the full setting of the headunit. Fortunately, since music is not all digital 1's you can turn up the gain some with no bad effects

So how would I go about doing this math?

multiply the RMS power of the amp times the impedance load you have th sub(s) wired to, then take the square root. This will be the AC voltage on the dmm, remember to measure this with the sub(s) disconnected. You will need to play a CD with a say 50 Hz tone recorded at 0 dB.