ok i returned the eclipse amp after i found out my sony amp was working [blown main fuse ] neways since i reinstalled my amp and sub with much better connections there is soo much distortion!!. i mean when i play the volume low, the bass is alrite, but when i play it mid to high the bass waves just die out and distorts. before my previous setup i had very thing turned up all the way except my gain, and it sounded awesome. [this is with the hi low adapter] it also did not matter if the subsonic filter was on or off. now im using the rcas from the HU and im playing around with all the controls and it still sounds like crap! and when i turn the subsonic filter off the sub just goes crazy and makes all these fawkin retarded noises and the sub goes in all the way and out all the way with the filter off. before my sub bearly had any excursion it used to move like centimeters and it used to bass and sound clean, now it justs moves in and out in inches like crazy and so much dam distortion. for some reason [dont ask] i think my amp is pushing 2 ohms instead of the 4 from before. but i dont know how, the sub is wired for 4ohms and the amp is a mono. Need help guys i am so frustrated i am about to burn every fawkn ting

 

hoty crap 2 da max, why you having so much problems? I really haven't had a prob like this ever, I would think the rca are bad maybe. check all the wires that transfer signals to the amp. move them around maybe you will get something. cause if you get distortion not from the bass being all the way up, it might have to do with signal.....

 

i mean when i lower the gain and boost, the bass isnt really there anymore. i dont know man i spent all week rewiring the system. everyting is soldered and heatshrunk. but this is the first time i grounded the amp on the cap. is this why? no cant be. hmm when i raise the lpf up theres better highs. but sounds like crap. and when i turn the filter off the sub looks like its about to pop

 

somrthing I do with all my systems:

I usually hook the system up in my house with a car charger before putting it in my car. try doing a simple set up in your car to see if everthing works together. like redo all the wires like if you were installing for the first time. don't worry about hiding wires yet make sure it works first. maybe you will find a bad wire or the prob itself......

 

i mean with my previous setup, [the same way except everyting was turned up] the bass was deep and the bass waves were longer. now it just makes noise and sounds like shiet. sounds like them dam flea market systems

 

HAHAHA!!! I did mention that last on your DAMMIT MAN. amp making a loud noise through sub, doesnt play no music HELP!!!!!!!!!!! thread.

Ok first thing first, you need to find out your sub's total load (impedance in ohms). Second, find out how much your amp will be pushing at that load and find out if your amp is stable at that load. Most amps double in output when you give it a 2ohm load. If all is ok so far, then follow the input level setting procedure that came in your amps operating manual. If you don't have time to read that, put the gain in the middle (halfway). If your amp is equipped with bass boost (turn it down). You don't need it if your sub box is properly designed to the subwoofer. For low pass filters, set it to 80 or 100 hz. For subsonic filter, set it for 30hz or below (depending on what frequency your sub box is tuned at). The subsonic filter prevents your sub from reproducing frequencies below tuning frequency to prevent over-excursion and eminent failure.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

 

it can't be that cause this is how I had it.

 

i did notice when i looked at the amp the power light was dying, so i went to the main fuse, and shook it, then the amp came back up at full power. what would happen if the fuse holder was cracked?

 

hmm no bass boost? ill do this right now brb!

 

nothing its just a cover. as long its touching on both sides the power still going trough...

 

If you are talking about the fuse holder by the battery then you must take care of this first. If the fuse holder is cracked, your most likely to burn your fuse because it will touch some metal surface somewhere in your car and cause a short and your fuse will pop. Resolve that right away, buy a new fuse holder if you have too. Hopefully, the side that is cracked is the one furthest from the +12v terminal. If its the other one, wrap it in electrical tape and get a replacement right away because you can start an electrical fire in your car.

Lets get to the bottom of your problem: follow steps 1 and 2 on my last reply and post in here what you come up with.

 

you have to undersatnd that the distortion is coming from the spk it has to be the wires or amp. if it was a power prob you would get nothing......

 

If the subwoofer is giving the amp the kind of load that its not designed for, the sound will be just like 2_Da_Max had described.

 

THANKS GUYS!!! i did what you said 2damax about the gains and lpf and boost. yoo my system is the shieittt !!!!!!!! cant wait to take it to school tommorow im going to turn heads. damm that **** is mad loud. i am so happy my work has paid off, and thanks to you guys tooo. man the bass is hard now and clean!!! dam it sounds nice. one thing though. the sub sound like it has a ripped dust cap even though there are no holes. plus the tinsels have something to stop the slapping. btw is the sub suppose to move like a piece of paper? owell ti sounds nice! time to amp my componets!!!

 

Your amp is $400 watts RMS right? How much power can your sub handle in RMS? BTW, what was the cause of the problem? Hopefully, the problems you were having earlier didn't hurt the sub physically.

 

the proble was the bass boost and gains. ok i think when i took the filter off it probably gave the speaker bad hetz, im not sure. the amp is pushing 200rms right now, and the sub is 400rms

 

Well, you can't set the LPF too high otherwise the bass will sound like crap, like mid ranges are trying to play thru it. Keep it at 80hz or below depending on how your sub box is tuned. If your amp sounds loud enough at 50% gain, leave it there so your amp will least likely to start clipping at higher volume levels...your sub will thank you for it. Keep the bass boost off, it doesn't do anything good for your subwoofer, only to push distortions to it. I'd say depending on what frequency the amp is providing decibel boosts for, if your subwoofer system is defecient at that frequency, then that's the only time the bass boost will help. Anyhow, good work and have fun tomorrow at school.

 

now the thing is, remeber when i posted a while back how i thought my amp was fried? well before everyting on the amp was turned allll the way up and it sounded fine, now after that day the amp messed up on me and i rewired it back it sounds like a totally different amp. why would that be?

 

Good question...

Perhaps the amp's fuse was going bad or was bad in the first place. Or maybe its how you wired your amp this time, did you do anything different? Is your cap still wired to the amp? Did you move the ground wires? Perhaps, the terminals were dirty or something? Think of what you did different this time around.

 

Everybody says not to turn on the bass boost for some reason.
I have an older fosgate (1996 or so) and the bass **** acts like a volume control on mine. With it turned down the speaker barely moves and the mids drown it out. When I turn it up the bass **** the speaker cone actually gets some movement going and pushes some air. With the gains up 3/4 (my rca output is 1.5 volts) and the bass **** most of the way up I don't hear distortion either. I mean I don't hear the cone slapping against the back or anything. I even walk away from it and listen to it and it sounds clean to me. At least on my amp if you don't use the bass control you aren't getting the full power IMO.
BTW the amp is 400 watts rms bridged and the speaker is a 15" dual 2 ohm voice coil wired in series. It takes 250 watts rms per coil so I am giving it 80% of its maximum power. It is in a ported box tuned to about 35 hz.

 

hmm lets see, new fuse, heat shrunk connections and terminals, 4 awg power wire, sanded chasis for ground, ground amp to cap, soldered all wires, and used terminals, i carpeted the box. but i doubt these stuff could do anyting that big? btw my lpf is a 100 think i should lower it?

 

Heck......no wonder your amp sounds good now although soldering isn't necessary. But better ground, bigger wire gauge, and good terminals make the difference fo sho! For the LPF, it depends. If you listen to some house/techno or any other types of electronic music, then 100hz is good. Lower LPF setting are for hip hop music. I think 80hz is good for both types of music, I have mine set on 80hz because I listen to both Hip hop and electronic music.

 

Bass boosts are usually used to boost a certain frequency which can be lacking from some subwoofer systems. When the deficient frequency is boosted, it will equalize that particular frequency more to the rest of the music. Perhaps the boost **** in your amp is like a gain **** but in actuality its the bass level! Which lets you raise or lower the level of sub-bass depending on the program you are listening too. Most manufacturers refer to this as remote bass level control.

 

while reading this thread, i was confused, not knowing there are two different 2DaMaxs'. my oh my. anyways, good job on finding out your problem. i'm happy i havent had any problems like that yet, but when i install my new headunit, im bound to run into some.

 

thanks 2damax. btw eckohb, if you already have a system and a Hu you would not have to worry about running into this mess

 

Some amps have a remote 'bass boost' and others have "bass gain". From the sounds of it, yours is a gain.

--Don

 

Well I just looked in the manual and it states that it provides a 0 to 18db gain centered at 45hz. But I swear with that **** turned down the mids (50 wrms each) totally drown out the sub. The sub barely moves with that **** turned down too. Turn it up, and the sub jumps. I have heard alot of people saying never to use it because it is "dirty" power but I don't hear distortion. Im not sure what to do, really.

 

Without knowing what kind of power your amp is pushing and the power rating of your subwoofer. I'd say that if your system is seriously lacking bass and you have to boost the bass lets say 50%, then you either have inadequate amp power or wrong subwoofer box. If your looking for more "BOOM", perhaps a vented box will suit you better.

 

No, once I turn the boost up it shakes like mad. I was in my garage and it was shaking the tracks for my garage door so much that you could see them moving. That is once I turn the bass boost up though.
The amp is a Punch 200x2 rated (conservatively I have heard) at 400 watts RMS in mono at 4 ohms. The sub is a Punch p3 15" dual two ohm voice coil in a ported box tuned to 35 hz.
So my point is that for me bass boost is a good thing. I don't believe that I am hearing any distortion with it configured like this. Well, distortion on mids is so easy to hear, on subs not so easy. But the cone isn't slapping against the frame or anything. And on a 15" the bass is a little muddy anyway but it sounds clean to me.

 

Your mids and subwoofers are totally different things, you can't guage distortion between both of them. The subwoofer can move way more air than the mids. Distortions are harder to detect from subs that big. I had a 15" sub once which I'd blow every 2 months or so because I was running the bass boost up. The sub is a JL15w3 and the amp is a JL500/1, both good quality products.

 

Well I hope my sub doesn't blow up. I actually turned the boost down just a little yesterday and played several tracks to try to hear any stress from it. I played "late night tip", some Tupac, and basically everything I could think of that I had in my collection that would test it. It sounds clean so Im going to keep the boost up. When the bass boost is off excursion is nonexistent, but with it on the sub jumps out of the box like it is supposed to . Well not all the way out but you know what I mean.

 

Cone excursions are ok up to a certain extent. You have to actually watch it that over-excursions do not happen a lot otherwise your sub will eventually die due to mechanical failure. Hopefully your sub's XMAX is adequate to handle all the excursions you seem to want it to do.

 

Well it can take 250 watts RMS per coil and I am only giving it 200 per coil. That would make me relatively safe from over excusion right? I think the xmax was 12mm or so.

 

I have an RF HX2 10" sub that handles 500w RMS and I'm pushing it with 300w RMS and I can make the cone jump like crazy when I turn up the bass boost! But it looks like I'm pushing the sub to its limits by doing that. I have seen guys boasting about how much excursion their subs are making and then later on when I see their system again, their subwoofers are making all sorts of noise and pops probably because the voice coils are bottoming out or an impending mechanical failure on the sub. After that, its just a matter of time and it will die. Anyhow, I can still make the cone jump w/o the bass boost but the excursion is not as crazy. Without the bass boost, the bass doesn't kick as hard and I know for a fact that it is because of the enclosure. Right now, I am using a sealed box which was intended for a 10" Xtant subwoofer (greater driver displacement) that I used to have so this box is too big for my current subwoofer. Also, I realized that this new subwoofer performs better in a vented enclosure so a vented (port-thru) SPL enclosure is in the making. Based on what I have seen around, wattage has no major influence in cone excursion. You can be pushing a sub with 1200 watts and you won't see much cone movement when the headunit's volume control is low. However, the cone will jump as you give it more volume or in this case your amp's bass boost. The bass boost will tend to drive your sub to its limits sooner as you turn up the headunit's volume control.

 

My question is why in the world would amp manufacturers put a bass boost on their amplifiers if it was gauranteed to blow up subwoofers? People on the various audio forums talk about bass boost like it is satan Maybe it is just the maxima or the fact that my sub and port are pointed upward but without it the bass doesn't slam like I want it to on metal/rock stuff which is most of what I listen to. But I never use the loudness function on the h/u and I keep the bass controls reasonable at +2 out of 6 on the h/u. Maybe I will turn that boost down a little more tonight and see how I like it but I imagine it will just make me use the loudness or crank the bass up on the h/u. I wish there was an easy way to tell or not if my sub was distorting at all with the settings like they are now or if the amp was clipping. It sounds clean but I maybe wouldn't know what a clipped signal was if I heard it.

 

For the type of music you listen to which is metal/rock stuff, your subwoofer system is tuned too low, 35 - 45hz is mainly for hip hop stuff. You did meantion in one of your other posts that you listen to some hip hop, ie: Tupac. Unfortunately, those types of music are way opposites when it comes to bass. I found that most people who mostly listen to rock/metal tend to use a small sealed enclosure tuned for tight punchy bass. Subwoofer systems like yours are tuned mainly for hip hop. It will be hard to find a medium between the two. Your subwoofer system will never be punchy enough for the types of drum bass that metal/rock produces. And since your subwoofer system is tuned that low, you'd have to cross your mids low enough to play the midbass frequencies which are common in the type of music you listen to most. If not, then you have a whole in your music spectrum which then you will try to compensate by boosting the bass from the sub, at its expense. By the time your subs play, its mostly just a louder humm or a thump from the drum bass sounds. I know how this sounds because when some friends of mine would ask me to play their rock/metal CD in my system, their music just don't sound right. I mainly hear, over-emphasized thumps and the rest of the music sounded like they are singing thru an aluminum can. The impact of the bass drum isn't really there and the midrange sounded too narrow. Again, all this points to properly tuning your system for the music you listen to. If you can adjust your low pass filter to cut-off at a higher frequency ie: 100 or 120hz, you might be able to get a better sound off of your subs without pushing your subs too hard with the bass boost.

As for your question? I don't have an exact answer but at least now you are informed of what it can do. Now its up to you to make the choice. I would say this, bass boosts can compensate for poor box design but its not an ultimate solution. The real solution is proper system design and tuning.

 

Ok I turned down the boost to about half, maybe a little less. I listened to it for a while tonight and realized that with the boost cranked up the woofer moved more and was louder but didn't necessarily sound great. I think it is balanced out with the rest of my system now. Before it may have even been too loud compared to my 6 3/4s.
The box is designed well, maybe a tuned a bit too low for what I listen to 75% of the time but I wanted to be able to get some spl going when I listened to rap. That's why I built a ported box. 3/4 mdf, screwed and glued, sealed with silicone, flared 4" port ect. I built the exact box design that my subwoofer manual layed out. I had a sealed one and it just didn't move enough air for me
My sub amp is cut off at 100hz I think. It is an old punch that takes what is called an "x" card for its crossover and a 100hz card came with it from the factory. I have never even touched it to tell you the truth because I have always used it for subwoofer applications. I think it actually sounds good with rock/metal even with my boomy box lol. My four channel amp that I use for my coaxials cuts off the bass at 80hz to them. I wish it had a variable crossover to play with on that one but all well.
If I could just solve my alternator whine problem I think I would be ok now

 

the altenator whine is because the alt is trying to spin quicker to produce enough volts. correct me if i am wrong. i notice without my cap, if i play the music for awhile with the car off, when i start the car the alt whines a little then goes away

 

Whoa....yer amp is seriously old school! If your headunit comes with a low pass filtering section with dedicated sub pre-outs, you can then dial in the sub's cut-off more precisely. Maybe it would be a good idea to get a pair of good mid-bass drivers so that your metal/rock music would really come alive. I know I don't appreciate that type of music when all I get is deep booming bass from it. If you were to actually listen to rock/metal live, you don't get that hip-hop bass. You actually get that jabbing bursts of punchy tight drum bass that can almost rattle your skull.

 

Yep!!! That is your alt trying to play "catch-me" with your battery. Get a deep cycle gel battery, I'm getting one soon myself even though I am not drawing serious currents yet. Perhaps a Stinger (yellow) battery which I had in my truck before. I am about to switch to a bigger bass amp soon.