Subwoofer "rattles", don't know if it's blown
 

Hey guys.... For so long I've had this rattling coming from the rear of the car, even after a dynamat trunk kit + fully dynamatted doors. At first I thought my rear speakers were rattling up against the panel, until I stuck paper in between the speakers and the panel (took the covers off), and found that there was plenty of clearance for my rear speakers. I decided to bump my system and pay really close attention. I opened up my hatch, my doors, and wanted to eliminate music sound and be able to pinpoint the rattle as clearly as possible. I then realized it was coming from the subwoofer area. So I went back there, and lo and behold.... my subwoofer is making an awful rattling noise. It even makes it when you don't bump it much at all. I began scanning the sub to see if the cone had ripped apart or something, and found nothing. I have no idea what a blown sub feels like when you push into it (straight down the middle of course). The sub did feel like it didn't want to be pressed into though, I have no idea if that's normal or not.

Do you guys think I have a blown sub? I've got an Infinity Reference 1060w sub, with a 10" zenclosure box.

Spike, where you at my man? I know you can help me lol

Oh and please forgive me everyone, I'm seriously an audio n00b. I've been meaning to buy another amp for my sub.... right now I have a Rockford Fosgate Punch 400.4 powering a set of components, coaxials AND sub... yeah it's stupid, I can't tune anything :( I think this has something to do with why my sub blew so quickly (had it for only 5 months). I'm thinking about powering my rear speakers with just my Kenwood DNX7100 HU, coaxials don't require much power.... use my amp to power the sub and components. I'll be able to tune everything that way. We'll see... I do prefer to have another amp

Mikebit, yeah i think you blew your sub! underpowering it is just as bad as over powering it. subs should have their own amp unless you have a 6 channel amp. good news is the sub should have a warrenty for one year, contact your supplier and see if you can get a new one.

a million and one reasons one could call an engine "blown". Same end result.. needs new engine.

far fewer, but still many ways and levels to have a "blown" woofer.

Time to replace.

Means you have either open parts or dead shorts in areas of your voice coil.. replace the woofer.

Is this true????????? :icon43:

sure, becuase you are sending it a clipped signal which can burn out the voicecoils just as fast

From ym experience it seems like it's blown. But now's a good time to buy aftermarket.

I personally like the sound of the bose though.

Underpowering a driver (subwoofer, midrange, tweeter, horn, ANY DRIVER) will NOT harm it.

Clipping is NOT the same as underpowering. Yes they can be related, but they are NOT the same. Underpowering a driver with a clean signal will NOT damage it. Ever. No matter what. Powering a driver with a clipped signal will definitely damage it.

Clipping is when you push the amp too hard, and it outputs a square wave signal. Imagine taking a 500w RMS amp, hooking it up to a 1000w RMS sub, and turning the gain and bass boost all the way up so it's as loud as a 1000w amp. This is bad. Underpowering is when you drive a 1000w RMS woofer with a 500w RMS amp. If you have the amp set up properly, you won't be clipping the signal. You'll just be putting out 1/2 the power which means 1/2 the loudness from the woofer.

-Matt C

Thank you, Vivid! They scared the hell outta me. I had no idea how, if I'm underpowering my sub, it can blow :dunno: didn't make any sense at all.

I don't blast my system, my max volume settings are 55 and I normally play a maximum of 19, 20/55. So I don't think I'm asking TOO much from my amp despite running components, coaxials and a sub on it. The guy who installed my amp told me the amp has more than enough juice to power everything, I just cant tune it and get the maximum benefits from a subwoofer unless I get another amp.

Anyways, those inifnity reference subs are known to blow in a few months despite them providing such solid and crisp bass. I'll upgrade to a better one. Thinking I'll go big... JL Audio 10w3v3. $180 but should be kickin!

I've never blow a speaker, but the following things will do it:
1) Clipping the signal (Vivid explained that)
2) Driving a speaker outside its frequency range (IE: sending bass to your tweeters = instant death)
3) Running subs in ported boxes without subsonic filters (same as #2, but most people don't realize there is such thing as going too low)
4) Running subs free air when they are designed for an enclosure
5) Over powering speakers, driving them too hard and causing them to overheat

Under powering them can't hurt, but under powered systems tend to clip very easily. Generally if you turn it up and hear distortion then you need to dial things back. The problem with bass is its so hard to identify the point at which that occurs.

Op.. your taking bits n pieces of different replies and creating your own answer.


This is why I hate carcaudio..everyone has an different answer even though thebanswers lie in physics. No offense to anyone..just speaking generally.

Take a multi meter and hook it to ur voice coils.. test for impedance..slowly move the cone up and back down...w your hand ( no homo).. the impedance will fluctuate. But if you are areas with either extremely low impedance or none at all..there's your issue.
Its not a physical rattle sound he's talking about..happens to subs alot..im not a hobbyist.I worked in that industry for a long time as a young man.

Thank you so much for all of your replies guys, been a great deal of help.

How the HELL do you send bass to your tweeters, anyway? The hell? And can someone please explain to me what exactly "clipping" is?? So many things I don't know :o

I have no idea how to identify the distortion JMII is speaking of. Honestly, I didn't think I was pushing the sub too hard. The Infinity Reference sub hits really nice and hard for what it is, I was so impressed with it. But now its making all kinds of noises... bmccann101, I really do believe it's blown :( it never used to make the noises it makes now. Besides, the sub isn't hitting as hard as it used to....

Man, it's going to be a ROYAL pita getting that rear panel off with all that dynamatt back there.... the clips are stuck real good ugh. I want to get my rears to be powered by my HU now, I have no idea why the hell I didn't do this in the first place. Set up a front stage, and power components + the (new) sub. I can channel more power to the sub and tune my system the way I want it.

Oh and one quick question that one of you might know....... Ok so I've noticed that when there's a really high frequency sound wave while I'm pretty much bumping my system, my rear speakers (including my tweeters at one point, before I added rear fill) make a very odd distortion sound. I have no idea how to explain it. It's like, the speaker is struggling to create the sound, the vibration is totally off. This only happens with very high frequency noises, on loud volume (18+/55). Anyone have any ideas? I'll try and get a video up of everything to show you.

Mike, You probably don’t want to hear this, but my guess the rattle is a panel near the SubW or one of its mounting components. :(

I realize it’s a pain to pull the sound deadening for inspection, but that would be the easy fix in the long run.

--Spike

Hey Spike, nice to hear from you! Honestly, I really pinpointed the noise and it's definitely the subwoofer. I stuck my head back there and everything, none of the panels made any noise. You know how the zenclosure box comes with the amp mount rack that you stick on top of the box itself so you have that nice sleek look? It sounded like it was coming from inside that area (in other words, inside the box/around it). So I opened my hatch and sure enough... that god awful noise is coming from the subwoofer. It has gotten progressively worse over the past two weeks. I don't think the panels would make more rattling noises at the same volume levels. Tomorrow I'm shooting a video and posting it up here, so you can see what I mean. Thanks for your .02 though man! Goes for all of you :)

Multimeter.
Measure umpedance as u push on woofer cone..I feel like im talking to a wall....im trying to tel u what to do man. :)
Humor me for gods sake... im not a ruhtard w this stuff..im.no kid.. im 34.. just do it and post back

Push evenly on the cone if you hear a scratching noise thats the voice coil and its most likely blown

One has nothing to do with the other. A person can safely send 100 watts to a 1k watt sub and be just fine. Just like a 2k watt amp can safely be used on that same 1k rated sub. The clipped signal is in relation to improperly setting the gains not the power output of the amp. if A low wattage amp sends an unclipped signal it will never blow a sub. Whether the sub has the desired output is another story. If the gains are set properly the amp would not be responsible for blowing the sub.

Hahaha no no no! You are not talking to a wall.... I took that into great consideration and will do this when I get the time for it. Sorry about that dude! lmao

I'll report back when I've got the results :)

Duro thank you for the .02!

^forgot to unsubscribe. Got 5 million reply emails while I was out having drinks. Hence my cranky post. :)