Well, I am driving back home today from school for a long weekend and along the drive home one of my 2 audiobahn subs decides to catch on fire. What would cause this? I think my amp was not powerful enough and i had planned on buying a new one shortly, but im not sure if this could cause the problems. And WHY would it catch on fire? god this sucks.
You know its kinda funny, when people post bullsh*it remarks on how great audiobahn products are, how good they sound and all this other crap. But i hope everybody see's what we are talking about, i hope this puts things into perspecive for some people. When we are talking about poorly made subs- Audiobahn is what we mean.
By the way, i am sorry for your loss, next time buy something better. I wouldnt sue if you installed the system on you own, but if you had a shop do it, i would go over there and DEMAND things.
is this what you were wanting to do the ones I was gonna loan you Fishy? this is I am sad to say hilarious. A campfire in my rearview mirror. LMFAO RLMAO ROFLMAO This is JTFGH.
wait a minute What audiobahn costs $700.00? This guy is paying perfectly good money for something I can't give away. I got your replacements David. LMAO still.
lol thanks for all your concern guys. well all together everything was $700, for the 2 subs, the SHITTY Audiobahn amp and the box. But yes. I am driving home and all of a sudden it sounds like I have NO bass at all. So I turn my stereo down for the remainder of the trip. Unpacked my car, forgot to check my subs when i got home. About 2 hours later I checked them. As soon as I touched the sub it was still blazing hot. Couldn't even touch it, thats how hot it was, 2 hours later! I am lucky my car didn't catch on fire. I knew something was wrong, 1) the sub was hotter than hell which shouldnt be and 2) it didn't have any leway at all. If you push on the sub it wouldn't budge. So I took it out and looked at the voice coils. They were all black and only a few yellow spots remained. There were also holes in the voice coils with all the left over debris all over the place. The reason why the sub cones wouldnt move is because they were MELTED to the inner rings of the voice coils. I called audiobahn and they said that they will ship a replacement immediately. Probably because they know that their products arent built very good. They said that they blew because the gain was turned up too high. Hmmm... it was a 150x1 watt amp. I HIGHLY doubt a 150x1 amp that is powering 2 12" subs is overpowering a sub that is built for 1200 watts. I am also stuck with this shitty 150x1 amp. Anyone want to buy it? How I got stuck with this amp I do not know. Sucks to be me.
You guys are mean lol. David, one of two things could cause it. A short in the system (would likely damage the amp too, though), or too much power due to either overpowering the sub or driving an amp into clipping. You more than likely overheated the voice coils, and of course since the cones are more than likely treated paper, they catch on fire, and the chain goes on. Consider yourself lucky b/c there have been people that have been less fortunate (box catching on fire, gas tanks are typically in the trunk, so any fumes can ignite, etc., some people have blown up cars with fires from audio). More than likely the amp was at clipping level and overheated the coils.
(hehe erik yeah i remember sub on fire comment) this is not the first story i have heard about an audiobahn subwoofer catching on fire or for that matter the subwoofer blowing and being stuck in a position
ps....i sold my immortal quad voice coil 12 because of noises i heard from my sub and didnt want to chance losing 234 bucks
(Ryan) mine was from the box size ryan of 4 cf which audiobahn recommended for spl style everyday use tuned to 36hz and i was driving it with 1500 rms and everytime i drove it hard i heard a tapping noise which sounded like it was coming from the dustcap area i assumed it was extending to far so i was like i want this thing for spl competition and its doing this already no way am i going to use this for all out spl...i am not one to distort any speaker and i have a very picky ear but when i heard that i was like nope that thing will break if i push it for spl...time for a new sub...i had maybe 10 hours of use on it and knew the speaker was still ok so i decided to sell it
So does this mean if I have JL 12w6v2 which is 400W RMS I shouldnt get an amp that is the same power rating (i.e. a kicker kx400.1) due to the fact that ill have to have the gain all the way up to get the RMS, and furthermore the fact that JL subs are underrated in the first place?
"due to the fact that ill have to have the gain all the way up to get the RMS"
Gain is NOT a volume knob and it doesn't have to be turned all the way up to get the full output power. This is one of the most common misconceptions in car audio. Gain very, very rarely has to be all the way up, usually it shouldn't be over 1/2 with a decent head unit preout. Gain is simply there to match the input level with the output of the head unit, just because the gain isn't all the way up, it does NOT mean you're not getting the full power capability. If you turn the gain all the way up, all it does is improperly set level and leave more chance to drive the amp into clipping, thus damaging the sub if carried on for too long. And yes, that amp can fry the coil on that sub if it's clipping, the sub isn't invincible.
Oh okay, that makes sense, well I have a pioneer P7600MP which either has 4v preouts or 2, Bestbuy says 4, Pioneerelectronics.com says 2. Which one is it and what effect will the difference have on my desired setup (the 1 12w6v2 and the kx400.1)?
2V I believe. It won't really have a negative affect as long as you use quality twisted pair RCAs, there is more chance of inducted noise, though, compared to a 4V, and the noise floor will be higher (amp will introduce a little more noise into the system b/c the gain is higher). More than likely you won't notice it, though. Keep the RCAs as far as possible from the power and ground, and from other electronics in the vehicle. Gain more than likely won't have to be over half.
elecgenius
Unregistered guest
Posted on
im sorry guys ---im lost here, my 1206t's are working perfectly. i guess it sometimes depends on how u wire a car. using the right gauge wires and stuff. my friend burned an audiobahn but it was because he used a 10 gauge from the box to the amp but an 18 gauge from the subs to the box terminals.