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View Full Version : Sub-Sadness


SteveXs2
01-26-2006, 09:27 PM
Here's the deal:

About a month ago now, I dropped $400 for a new amp, sub, and box. I got a Pioneer 2ch amp that puts out 380w RMS bridged at 4ohms, Phoenix Gold R10 sub (200w RMS), and a bassworx box.

It sounded alright at first, not nearly what I was expecting, but better than my kenwood to say the least.

Well, for a while I put the kenwood back in along with the PG and ran both off one channel, 190w @ 2 ohms. It sounded good but the kenwood is so bagged that, although the overall sound was louder, it was a bit "slappy" in a sense.

So, I took the Kenwood out, bridged the channels again, and am running just the PG. I noticed, wow, does this ever suck now. I checked everything: ground, speaker wires, power wire, cd deck settings, gains, bass boost (0), and everything was as it was before, but now the sub is like a floppy pancake. When I was running it off 190w I was NOT pushing it hard, I'd turn it up a bit for maybe a couple seconds but I'd never hear the sub distort and was far from amplifier clipping, but since I left just the PG in there the performance has sure dropped.

Anyway, I FINALLY finished putting in my Type-R components and, after adjusting all the settings on the deck, I noticed that I can no longer even hear my sub. It's playing all-right, but man is it ever weak.

I feel so jacked right now, I've owned a sub for a long time and know I was not pushing the sub beyond its limits, and I also know friends who push subs 2x past their limits and nothing ever goes wrong. The reason I feel jacked is because I originally bought a ZR10 (300w RMS) but had to trade it in for the R10 (and some cash-back) because a coil was dead.

I feel like **** right now because I'm really lacking on the low-end and it's just been a slow death for the sound quality of the sub.

So anyway, is there any way to check and see if it's actually something wrong with the sub? I don't think I can return it or anything because I didn't buy it from an authorized dealer (authorized dealer gave their stuff to a guy to sell) and I would never want to try and sell the sub without knowing that it's perfectly Ok. I'd rather know that there's something wrong with the amp because that I can return.

Please comment.

Mr_Diesel
01-26-2006, 11:50 PM
Dang man... It sure sucks when something breaks... especially expensive equipment like that... Failsafe testing method would be to hook that sub up to a friends amp... If ya got buddies with systems it should be too hard to con them into letting you test your sub.

SteveXs2
01-27-2006, 12:52 AM
Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

I opened it up today and checked it with a multimeter and the voice coil is fine, still 3.3ohms, as it was when I bought it and as it's stated on the user manual. I turned the bass boost to +6 after that and I can hear it now, but it's still not like it was when I bought it. I think this sub was actually designed more for a ported box. Either way, I'm regretting not buying what I really wanted to buy. I wanted to support the guy who was selling the subs because he does great custom work... but turns out he's actually getting out of the whole car audio thing and going with commercial buildings and all that, and that he was only selling the subs for a local computer store which I don't really like all too much.

Argh... should've just gone with the local audio shop. Had I gone that way I'd probably be enjoying this more. Now I'm thinking of just trying to sell the sub and sell the box and see where I go from there.

Oh yeah, and I'll try the different amp thing.