Hey guys
I have 2 JL 500.1's each hooked up to 2 12's. 1 amd for each 12.
In the past month I blew 3 subs

2 Diamond M6 12's
1 JL W3v2 12"

Do you guys think that it could be from giving it too much power?

I had a shop install it, and 5 guys overlooked the wiring and said it was fine. Looks fine to me as well.

Any ideas?

 

What was the ratings of the subs, most of the time overpowering speakers will not cause them to blow, once distortion and clipping is not present. It may be that the wiring is good however your crossover points and amp settings are not where they should be.

 

Agreed, its not the power causing them to blow its either the user settings or the enclosures that they are in. Or a balance of both.

--Don

 

so is it ok if i push my tens with a little more power than they're rated at?

 

Absolutely. Provided if everything is correct.

--Don


BTW.I have pushed the M612s many times with Kicker 1200.1 as well as DA 1200.1s and zero problem even as far as One M612 with a DA 1200.1 never blew....

 

Well, they are in a fiberglass/mdf enclosure in the spare tire well. The box appears to be pretty symmetric to me. Does the amount of space between the magnet and the bottom matter at all?

I can take a picture of the settings if you guys would like to see them..
Becuase I really don't know what those ***** mean,,
Thanks guys

 

Not the outside that is actually important. What is the internal airspace per sub? Also is the enclosure chambered, meaning does each sub have its own enclosure? Yes it does make a difference of how far away the magnet is from the rear of the enclosure.

--Don

 

Well, i know the airspace matters, and the distance of the magnet matters... But is that something that can blow a subwoofer out.

And no they to not have thier own chamber, from the all enclosures i built, ive never made them chambered..

I dont know the internal airspace, but from my experience building enclosures its in the spec range. I would say by approxamet measureing its about 2.5 in there total..

 

First if you have a pair of subs they should be chambered. Also you had a pair of M6s in the same size box as 1 12w3v2? The V2 works best in a 1.25 enclosure, and the M6s in 1.5 each.....so I dont know how you had that, but that would matter alot.

And yes airspace is one of the main things that will make subs blow. A sub can only perform as good as the enclosure that it is in.

--Don

 

Well I had a shop do the box, I told them the specs of the diamonds and they said not to worry they will make a box accordingly. And they did.

The subs blew a month later and I went back and they swapped them with w3v2's and they said it should be fine..

 

Dont take offense but go back and tell them to learn what they are doing then.....I have only once had a problem with a M6 sub, and that was due to customer abuse. The JLs and the M6s dont use the same size and they should be chambered. The term that they use "should" be fine would make me a bit uneasy.

--Don

 

Thank you Don, He told me to drop my car off during the week and they'll do whatever it takes to make it bump like it should. But I simply dont have the time
People told me that I am overpowering the W3V2 and they suggested me connecting them both to 1 500.1. Do you think that would be better/

The subs werent hitting at the same time usually either. They were misfiring and the amps had to have different settings to make them hit at the same time too...
Do you think I should switch to one amp?
Thanks Don

 

I think switching to one amp would be alot more efficent, but thats just me. As far as them having to have different settings, there would be a problem there... maybe different size/length wiring causeing a delay in one sub. Also keep in mind when your running to amps for subs they need to split the signal downgrading the voltage level going to them and basically making the amps weaker.

--Don

 

ya i saw when they hooked it up they explained somehting to me about splitting the volts or something, i didnt really comprehend.

All the wiring is the same size, I think the problem of the signal is in the RCAs they used. The way they split it into the 2 amps is pretty wierd..

 

well, i went over the wiring and took out all the garbage they used when trying to split the interconnects. I hooked both subs to 1 500.1, and WOW, it bumps MUCH harder and sounds much cleaner.

Thanks for the advise don

 

No problem, glad it worked out for ya.

--Don

 

You need a minimum of 1 inch behind the magnet clear space. That is so that the voice coil can properly cool. It sounds like the shop had at least one voice coil miswired if the subs weren't pushing and pulling together. They shouldn't have needed to split the interconnects (by useing a y-cable) as headunits never have a single RCA output. I would ask for a refund on the install as they fried your first pair of subs. If they don't provide a refund call the police and have them charged with fraud and destruction of property. They are guilty of both. Make sure the court records are in the local paper.

 

Hey jmax, Thanks for the advise,
They said they built the enclosure to the spec of the Diamond M6, and there was magnet clearance on that of about 1-2 inches. You may be right about the voice coils, I dont know if they knew that each f the subs were 8 ohms.
They split the interconnects becuase I had to split it into 2 500/1s, 1 for each sub.

He actually gave me a really good deal that I couldn't pass on for new subs, What I originally wanted...only for 100 each brand new so that wasn't such a bad idea for me. Then I could either keep and swap the diamonds every now and then, or simply sell them.

Im not really ready to take legal action against them, he's hooked me up well.
But thanks for the advise

 

No, they screwed you delibrately to sell you new subs. No questions about it. It was deliberate. Were your diamonds dual 4 ohm? If so they must have hooked them up in parallel to give the amp a 2 ohm load. Even then they should have been fine with that amp. It may have been a combo of them setting it up to blow and your not knowing the difference between clean bass and distortion.

 

hmm...You have a point there....But this guy doesn't need busniess..I was there saturday and over 30 cars came in...He actually turns people away...

They were dual 8 ohms subs

 

Not to throw salt in the wound, but it would have been better for you to have seperate chambers as Don stated. This way you could definately have 2 seperate amps one for each sub. Also as far as both subs not being played simultaneously, this is defenately a problem. I am not bad mouting your shop, but for them being pro's at this they should never turn over the system to you with this problem.

So you currently have only one amp?

 

Well the problem was with the interconncts, they kept splitting it in different ways until they were hitting close enough and then they adjusted the amps to hit at the same time.

They told me one amp would be much better, and it is, Its hitting harder then ever. The bass was very faint and muddy with 2 amps. Now its tight and loud.

 

The bass would sound muddy and faint if both subs were not hitting at the same time. Did they give you a refund on the other amp? Also I am not sure why they would even split the signal because the amp could be used as a master and a slave. Basically you plug the RCA's into one amp and on that same amp there is a set of Pre-amp outputs that could have carried over to the second amp. Anyway just giving you some advise, if you are happy with the way it sounds now, thats good.

 

I have to ask now....What did they end up doing with the M6s? Did they warranty them for you at least, so that you have an extra set laying around while using the JLs?

-_Don

 

30 cars in line doesn't mean that they do good work. When you bring in equpment that they don't normally install a lot of guys don't know what to do with it. It's like takeing your Maxima to a Ford dealership.

Hmmm, I didn't know diamond or anyone in car audio made a dual 8 ohm sub. It's not very usefull and has a much heavier coil. Did you actually test the sub to confirm dual 8 ohm? The old MacDaddy 8 ohm sub had dual 4 ohm coils. It was labeled an 8 ohm sub but that was it's series resistance. Having the RCA's wired wrong should not have inverted the phase on either amp. Only haveing the speaker wired incorrectly or haveing a phase switch turned the wrong way could have done that. Then they would have been 180 degree's out of phase, not somewhere in the middle. They could have also had the coils on each sub revered createing a net 0 movement. This could blow the sub after a month because of heat build up. It is so easy to test if the coils are wired properly, about 10-15 seconds.

Dohcser is right, that amp should have a pre-out RCA terminal.

 

An 8ohm coil would be heavier however it's not that much heavier that a user would notice. As you know some manufacturers make 8ohms subs for different configuration purposes.

 

i never technically checked...They were both labeled 8 ohms and took the sub's word for it..

Ya there is a preout and I have no clue as to why they didnt use that...

As for the subs, I actually bought those from a different place down the street because this place isnt an authorized diamond dealer..

The subs are being shipped to the manufacture as we speak to be swapped. I might sell the replacments..

Thanks guys

 

a trick i learned is if ur even think that u might blow a speaker due to ur wireing or what not , fuse the speaker so if something happens it blows the fuse(about a $1.00) and not your speakers($100-500)