Alpine Type S Sub, issues

[m3ntAL_l2]

woooaha??? why would it be teh box?? :S :S
i hav a type s sub with a 400w clarion mono block no prob so far... :/

[DANMAN]

If the sub is in a sealed enclosure it will only be able to compress the air in the box so far.If it has a lot of back pressure and you try to force it to run louder (more excursion than the box will allow) or there is not enough air to circulate through the subs cooling ports/vents the voice coils will burn.That would have to be an extremely small box and your box looks big enough in the pics.Check the settings on the amp.Don't take the gain past 2/3 or the x-over past 120Hz and make sure the low pass filter is switched on. Also if there is a subsonic filter switch it on also. Make sure the sub is a dual 4 + 4 ohm sub with the coils wired in parallel. If it is a 2 + 2 in parallel then I'd be surprised your car hasn't burnt to the ground yet.By the look of the install the guys who did it know what they are doing so it may just be a dud amp. A faulty transistor or power supply in the amp is all it takes to send DC through the coil and burn it. Although the clarion amps are rated at decent power I would be more inclined to use an Alpine MRD-M450.

[jeffske]

If the sub is in a sealed enclosure it will only be able to compress the air in the box so far.If it has a lot of back pressure and you try to force it to run louder (more excursion than the box will allow) or there is not enough air to circulate through the subs cooling ports/vents the voice coils will burn.That would have to be an extremely small box and your box looks big enough in the pics.Check the settings on the amp.Don't take the gain past 2/3 or the x-over past 120Hz and make sure the low pass filter is switched on. Also if there is a subsonic filter switch it on also. Make sure the sub is a dual 4 + 4 ohm sub with the coils wired in parallel. If it is a 2 + 2 in parallel then I'd be surprised your car hasn't burnt to the ground yet.By the look of the install the guys who did it know what they are doing so it may just be a dud amp. A faulty transistor or power supply in the amp is all it takes to send DC through the coil and burn it. Although the clarion amps are rated at decent power I would be more inclined to use an Alpine MRD-M450.

sweet, thanks for the info
they said theyre going to call me later next week once they run some diagnostic shit so see what happens
certainly not impressed for the money i spent though

[theseven]

huhu... got the same problem as you.. the subs keep popping after along drive though... a long drive and bumpy road... not sure still what's wrong with it... changed the HU to go with the better ones... still got that kinda problems... although not that often anymore... it's wierd...

please keep posting what's the result from ur end it's gonna be really helpfull to me...

i'm running clarion subs with response 2 chanel 300 wrms... match up power according to the specs teoritically... hehe

[DANMAN]

Impedance matching is generally the biggest killer for amps. It's not just a case of adding more and more subs to one amplifier. That will usually result in a fire. Make sure the Jaycar is 2 ohm stable in bridged mode (not likely) if you are running 2 Clarion 4 ohm subs in parallel. Most amps that are 2 ohm stable are single channel mono blocks. If you want to run 2 subs off a mono block amp you will need 2 x 4 ohm subwoofers wired in parallel as a 2 ohm load. If the Clarion subs you have are 2 ohm, they can be wired in series bridged off your Jaycar amp. For power matching you are better off going over board. For example, to run a 300 Watt RMS subwoofer you should be using a 400 Watt RMS amplifier. That's RMS not boss audio "peak" 8 billion watt bulls@#t ratings. That way you can run the sub to it's full potential without worrying about the amplifier clipping or shutting down from thermal overloads.
Alpine, focal, eclipse and AVI amplifiers are among some of the better units as it comes down to a lot more than sheer power to make a real amplifier.
As the saying goes, "oils aint oils" same as amps aren't amps. Check for THD (total harmonic distorion) levels, signal to noise ratio's, damping factors, frequency response, x-over networks etc. Holy poo! I just realised how much I've written. I can go into more detail as to why these features matter if anyone is interested.

[jeffske]

the guys at the caraudio place are baffled, they told me they've done heaps of installations with the alpine sub/clarion amp combo and im the ONLY one who's come back at all
they deducted that it has to be the box
p.s. my head unit isnt a cheapy either (well cheap compared to the lcd screen ones) it was $470

[theseven]

@danman

so u mean most likely that my amps is finish?!?

[DANMAN]

Thats what it sounds like. Could also be dodgy RCA leads. We have seen a few Jaycar amps here at work for repair. Some with dud capacitors and some with dry joints on the PCB. In most cases they aren't worth repair seeing as they aren't a particularly good amp in comparison to what else you can get for a few more dollars (No offence). We generally just replace them with Alpine amps since they start at $199 these days and are a hell of a lot more reliable.

[theseven]

but fyi, it doesn't happen all the time... it happens after a long drive ( audio on for so long) and the road is bumpy... i feels like more to the connection of the rca's or something... but i tried to swap and try everything but it still like that... might it be the internal parts that's loose or something??

[DANMAN]

Sometimes faults are heat related. After the amp has been on for a while components heat up and their tolerances change. For example a 2500 ohm resistor will change in restistance as its temperature gets hotter or colder. This is why you will see on electronics items spec sheets "do not operate under 2 degrees or over 60 degrees for example. The amplifier obviously has a faulty component which is playing up when it's warm. Which is probably the exact same problem we have found in them before. The electrolyte inside the capacitors can dry up causing heat related problems and dry joints can cause the same. Unfortunately any heat related dry joints are usually time consuming to find hence an uneconomical repair.

[theseven]

hmmm make sense... shaa***tt... i need to save up to buy a monoblock then... thx for the info... i'll see how it goes first... but it's nothing to do with the subs right?!?

[DANMAN]

I doubt it. If you get a chance try another amp in it. Wherever you get the new amp from, make sure they know the impedance and power ratings (in RMS) of the subs you have and how many you are running.