Second Blown Subwoofer-What am I doing wrong?

[Sherminiator]

So I followed this thread, I have the non-B&O system with 6 speakers.

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/kicker-key-amp-200-4-install-diy-video-do-this-first.38520/

Used the plug and play harness, Kicker Key 200.4 and a 500.1 Amps. I'm using a Kicker 48CWRT84 Sub in a modified Ford sub enclosure. I also have the remote base control that was at 3/4 power.

So when I first got it installed, the it sounded great! I got super low bass that I could feel, then the sub died within a few weeks

I got another sub (this was about 2 years ago) and it was fine till recently-I tried turning it up just a little to get some more bass (was a bit gun shy after it blew out the first time) but it was no near what it was the first time.

I just pulled the sub out again and put a multimeter on it and its no where near its 4 ohm rating, so its blown again.

I'm going to get another sub to replace it-but what should I do differently this time? Is there a way to reset the Key 500.1 and tune it without using the setup they have?

@RagnarKon

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[HighVelocity]

Playing bad music causes speakers to commit suicide.

 

[AzGrayHeritage]

Get one of these...... stinger

 

[Bugkillah]

Forgive my simple math…

3/4 of 500 watts = 375 watts.

Is the sub rated for that?

Edit: just looked it up, RMS 300 watts, 600 watts peak. Maybe go half power. That is a beefy sub though.

 

[Dan-O]

What Bugkillah said……I think that sub is only rated for 300w. Depending on the wire connections(in series or not)is it at 4ohm or 2ohm?
Ohhhh RagnarKon where are you??
Try to message RagnarKon on this site, he’s pretty good with this stuff.

 

[Sherminiator]

What Bugkillah said……I think that sub is only rated for 300w. Depending on the wire connections(in series or not)is it at 4ohm or 2ohm?
Ohhhh RagnarKon where are you??
Try to message RagnarKon on this site, he’s pretty good with this stuff.

I just tagged him in the original post. I think I had it wired in Parallel

 

[Brian_B]

4 ohm sub wired in parallel is 2 ohms to the amp

The 500.1 at 2 ohms is rated at 300W output - so should be ok there

But, if you got the 2 ohm version (48CWR82) - wired in parallel is 1 ohm, and the amp can handle that but it’ll crank out the full 500 watts, and can blow a 300 watt RMS sub if you crank it hard and don’t let it cool down

That said …

It’s also possible that you aren’t running a low pass filter and that treble (basically any frequency over about 200-300 Hz) is causing the coil to over heat. So that’s an easy thing to check out in your amp setup.

The other easy answer is turn down the 500.1 some. No way for us to tell if you are really cranking it too hard or not, but blown speakers do lead to that conclusion.

There are other 8” subs, but fitment in the stock enclosure may be an issue - you might have to look at an external enclosure (like the Stinger) if you want to step up to a more powerful rated sub — the coils are bigger/deeper, and they tend to need a larger box to really shine anyway - and it opens up sizes larger than 8”

 

[MKZoom]

you can use a test tone and a multimeter in your amp to set the gain and in turn the amount of power sent to a speaker.

the power sent in the low frequencies is going to heavily dominate the total power in the signal. so while a Low Pass filter would help in theory, its probably unlikely this is the cause.

there is another question of the input signal, if your source signal is not flat you could be sending an unexpected distribution of power across frequencies.

the Key might be able to correct for some of this but i dont know.

 

[Sherminiator]

So I was checking out RagnarKon installation thread and YouTube channel last night and the one thing I did notice was he was using two wires for the positive and negative posts on the amp to the sub.

On the kicker Sun directions they show this

could this be my problem? This the way I had it wired up with just a single line from each terminal on the amp.

 

[Draughon]

You need.....more.

Just more.

 

[Brian_B]

So I was checking out RagnarKon installation thread and YouTube channel last night and the one thing I did notice was he was using two wires for the positive and negative posts on the amp to the sub.

On the kicker Sun directions they show this

could this be my problem? This the way I had it wired up with just a single line from each terminal on the amp.

I haven’t seen the Rag diagram, nor exactly how you have yours wired, but the Kicker diagram is ok provided you are using appropriate sized wire.

 

[Brian_B]

the power sent in the low frequencies is going to heavily dominate the total power in the signal. so while a Low Pass filter would help in theory, its probably unlikely this is the cause.

The issue with treble in the sub isn’t so much the raw amount of power - it’s that it’s some power and the voice coil can’t move (it’s made for low tones, not high/fast response) to create air flow to cool itself off. Doesn’t take much power at all to melt the winding insulation if the coil can’t move

Same principle if the cone gets restricted (speaker grill impeding it or something) - although you can usually hear that a mile away

 

[MKZoom]

The issue with treble in the sub isn’t so much the raw amount of power - it’s that it’s some power and the voice coil can’t move (it’s made for low tones, not high/fast response) to create air flow to cool itself off. Doesn’t take much power at all to melt the winding insulation if the coil can’t move

Same principle if the cone gets restricted (speaker grill impeding it or something) - although you can usually hear that a mile away

I'm aware of the principle, it's just unlikely that's the cause. From the sounds of it the gain was never set. That's the problem

 

[Brian_B]

I'm aware of the principle, it's just unlikely that's the cause. From the sounds of it the gain was never set. That's the problem

You are not wrong

 

[javelina]

Listening to the Cult knocked out a couple of my systems over the years....

thanks to the folks kicking in with good tech info (truly)

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