Hopefully all you knowledgable audio enthusiasts can lend me you some of your wisdom. Here is my problem: I keep burning subwoofer voice coils
I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing wrong so I'll tell you my most recent setup. 1) Sub = JL 12W3v3-2
2) Amp = Alpine MRP M500
3) MTX Req-5 Sound Processor


I had the gains on the Alpine amp at the 3/4 mark and the crossover set at 120. I had the subwoofer gain on the Mtx Req 5 at the 1/2 mark and the crossover also set at 120 and the bas enhancement switch set to " after amp"


I had been riding with this setup for about 6 days when my sub cut out on me today and I could smell something burning/smokey. I stopped and checked the trunk and smoke coming from the sub box port. What am i setting wrong. This is about the 3rd sub that I've smoked. I'm not even pounding the sub. I had the sub setting on the factory radio at -5 and the bass setting at -3.

Please help and educate me on what I may be doing wrong

 

Your clipping the amp which in turn sends a distorted signal to the sub frying the coil. The main reason of this sounds like your gains are set too high and your using some sort of bass boast(from what you said about the bass enhancement). That amp is a bit powerful for that sub also so it would be more inportant to be cautious with the gains.

 

Thanks for the response. I thought I was underpowering the sub. I was under the impression this was a 600 watt sub and the amp is pushing 500 watts. I assume turn the gains down to 1/4 or 1/2 on the amp or go for a more powerful sub if I chose to keep the gains high? What JL sub is a capable of receiving 500 watts ? Also what does clipping mean ?

 

It looks like your sub is meant to handle around 300 continious watts:

http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_s...p?series_id=25

Your amp is rated at 300 at 4 ohms, 500 watts at 2 Ohms:

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/prod...model=MRP-M500

I think Jiggy2dmax got it right. Your gains are too high and your frying your sub. The MTX is adding to the problem.

If you want more SPL go with one of these bad boys:


12W6V2
http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_subs.php?series_id=4


12W7
http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_subs.php?series_id=9


What is Clipping:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipping_(audio)

 

Sorry about the half-baked answer, I was on my out of work. King ^ has a lot of useful information. There is a large difference between the Max and RMS rating....you can pretty much ignore the Max rating as it holds very little value. Your Sub is rated at about 300 watts RMS. Your amp is giving it about ~500 watts RMS. I would say that in Music applications your more than safe with this setup as long as the gains are set properly. Its not the power that kills the subs, its the distortion from clipping. There are many ways to properly set your gain, most popular are using a DMM and the old fashioned way of using your ears. However, if your unfamiliar with either I would suggest just taking it to a shop and have them set it for you. Also, I would turn off the bass boost as all its doing is adding more distortion.

 

King of Pain and Jiggy thanks for your help, now I just need a new woofer. Do the gains on the amp control how much power is being output to the woofer? Hence me having it set at about 1/2 way to max results in 250 watts being output to the woofer since the amp is 500 watts max. Is this assumption correct or am I totally off

 

gain is only relative to the amount of signal being input into your amplifier... half gain doesn't mean half power...


-Jason

 

surprised it blew...

Get diff subs.

 

just use a digital mult meter to set your gain next time. i know it might not be as loud to your ear, as just turning up the knob, but it will be set correctly,