Jump to content

b0r

Members
  • Content Count

    42
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by b0r

  1. I had my box custom made and shipped to me. I asked for a 15" birch box to be made. The specs are 31.25 inches wide, 16 inches high and 19 inches deep. 3.25 inch wide port with 47.25 sq inches of port area. 3.55 cubes internally after displacements and tuned to 31.8Hz. All of these numbers appear to be within the specs posted by Nick for a BL 15....this is the only size box that will fit in my trunk. And taller, wider or deeper and it will not fit. Obviously a bit bigger would be great but is this not an efficient box? And if not, how, when it is built within the specs posted for BL 15 enclosures? Thanks.
  2. If you don't want to read my rant: Can someone explain how setting an amp with a DD-1 on track 5 with a 40Hz -10db can still cause me to overdrive my sub with STANDARD music. If I play my sub at 40 out of 47 volume for 1 hour, should the dustcap be warm? Hot? No change at all? 40/47 is less than the rated 1500 watts of the BL (at least at my best guess, especially at 13.8V instead of 14.4V). I want to protect my $1,000 investment in my trunk. I have had a blast with my new Fi BL 15. My head unit's "unclipped" volume is 47 out of 50, and I have never had it past 40. It is very loud, and with a 1500W RMS rating, it is probably getting 1200W at Vol. 40 hooked up to a Rockford T1000-1bdCP. I worry about the sub too much to enjoy it, though. This is my most expensive car audio purchase at over $400 for one subwoofer. Over $400 for my amp and a custom made Birch box at $190 shipped. Every time I get out of the car, I feel the dust cap for heat. I'm almost too nervous to even enjoy it. I have set the gains with a DD-1, which has been paired up next to Oscilloscopes and there's no denying that it detects distortion at the SAME time a $5,000+ scope does. But that's only with the 40hz -10DB tone. I mentioned to Nick that I didn't know whether or not to get the integrated leads, and he said the regular leads handle abuse better and are more tolerant to an incorrect setup. I said I'd be setting with a DD-1 and he said "A DD-1 will not help you from burning something up, if you put music through the system that is boosted higher than what the reference volume that is used on the DD-1 to tune the amplifier you will still clip it and over drive it." Put simply, I don't necessarily know what this means? Does this refer to music that is chopped up or poor quality music? I only use 320kbps tracks in my vehicle. I don't listen to anything chopped/screwed/transcoded etc. So, can we actually even prevent overdriving and/or clipping a sub? Well the answer is yes, because people slam $10,000 systems all day without a problem. My friends amp just started leaking DC into the speaker channels, melted the cup terminal on the box and nearly blew the sub. I am hoping my amp has protection from this issue, because we had no idea it was happening. Should subs ever be hot after playing for a while? My box is so big that I can't get to my amp under the false floor to feel it, so I just set the gains and hope it doesn't blow? That doesn't sound like something I'd do with a $1,000 investment...it sounds silly to me. So the ultimate question is: HOW in the world do you setup a system that will not put the $400 subwoofer at risk of damage? There's no straight answer anywhere. Anytime I say I set it with a DD-1, people say that doesn't matter and it's still capable of blowing...how? I think I need to learn more about the 40Hz tones. My head unit has everything off. No EQ, no boosts, the 4.1 settings are all turned to -6 so I can turn it up higher without being so loud on the highs. The Bass Boost is OFF at the amp, Infrasonic filter is on set to 29Hz and the box is tuned to 31.8 Hz according to my builder. The only thing that is up is the Subwoofer level is +6. Gains were set AFTER all of these settings. Strangely, I could HEAR the distortion from my amp. As I turned the gain up, this weird static sound came from the Amp as soon as the DD-1 detected distortion. So what is the fool-proof system? Should I review ALL of my music in Audacity to make sure nothing is going crazy with the tracks? I thought the LPF set to ~80Hz and the Infrasonic at just below box tuning was enough. I have been installing car stereo systems blindly since I am 15. NEVER had a sub blow on me, but also never had a setup that flexed doors and windshields. I think I listened at a lower volume and never tried to push the limits of my woofers. I want to with this BL because it's such a beast, but I don't want to be reconing every few months. Over paranoid maybe? I don't know. I installed my system in a Charger and did all the wiring and everything for the headunit and amp. Everything is wired correctly, sub reads 1.3 on my voltmeter for Ohms so I should be good set to 1 ohm. I checked my amp for DC at the speaker channels and it went into the negatives or showed zero, so that was reassuring. I am not new to this, but I am new to understanding how there is no sure fire way to make a sub last as long as it's build quality. Thanks in advance for any advice from anyone in this area.
  3. 0Ga on both power and ground into 4Ga reducers. I have a 4 foot run of ground into a reducer and about 2 feet of 4 ga ground so it fits into/reaches the amp. Should I consider a 4 ga only ground and try to find a spot close to the amp which is in the back seat? Stock battery is in the trunk btw and currently grounded to that. get rid of the reducers. Always use the largest cable you can use. You ALWAYS want a straight run for your ground cable, don't splice it or reduce its size in the middle somewhere. What amp do you have again? Always use the largest wire your amp can fit and always use the same size ground cable as you have for your power cable. If you have larger wire it is okay to use reducers, but make sure they are as large as the amp will allow. Make sure after you do all of these things that your ground cable is no more than 3ft long and ALL of the paint is stripped away from the mounting point. Make sure that your ground is connected SOLID to the chassis of the vehicle.The amp can take 4 Ga. It's a Rockford Fosgate T1000-1bdCP. I used reducers because when I bought the car, I didn't know the stock battery was in the trunk, So I found myself with 20 feet of power wire in 0 ga that I didn't need. I went the reducer route in the event I got an amp for my mids and highs. Just a simple connection with 4 ga wire. I think the only thing within 3 feet of my amp is a seat bolt so I'll have to mess with that idea next week when I paint the car. Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.
  4. 0Ga on both power and ground into 4Ga reducers. I have a 4 foot run of ground into a reducer and about 2 feet of 4 ga ground so it fits into/reaches the amp. Should I consider a 4 ga only ground and try to find a spot close to the amp which is in the back seat? Stock battery is in the trunk btw and currently grounded to that.
  5. I want to get the temperature after an hour and ask Rockford if it's okay, lol. The power and ground wires are not hot so I'm thinking this amp just runs this way. Gain turned down, volume barely up it basically stays the same temp. its like alton said. There are even amps today that you can cook and egg on. The amp WILL go into protection if its too hot. People who have a ton of experience with this stuff are all telling you the same thing and you still don't want to take our word for it. There is nothing wrong with an amp getting hot, but IF it goes into protection then you have to troubleshoot any problems. When an amp goes into protection it doesn't kill the amp, its just letting you know that something is wrong. Your setup is just fine, now stop babying it and play it how you really want to.I hear that. I reiterated for this specific amp, and not because I didn't understand any particular answer. It has been my experience since 2002 that amps heat up as they play or if there is a problem. This amp will get to 135F in twenty minutes whether it's playing a sub or not, which was more my concern. I did test it, turned the sub down to -3 at the head unit and low volume, counted how long I could hold without being burned and then again with +6 and playing loud and there was no noticeable difference. Just strange to me that the amp is roasting with no gain or heavy playing, just power.
  6. I want to get the temperature after an hour and ask Rockford if it's okay, lol. The power and ground wires are not hot so I'm thinking this amp just runs this way. Gain turned down, volume barely up it basically stays the same temp.
  7. I've heard these Rockford power series just run hot, but I don't know for sure.
  8. My sub is barely showing signs of temp but my amp is getting hot...if I had to guess above 110F for sure, maybe hotter. Solid ground at the battery, 0 ga power and ground wires into 4ga reducers. I'm not sure if this is normal for 1 ohm but the gain is barely up and I'm playing at 50% volume so it's strange.
  9. I assume so. My amp is cooking...on volume 25/47 with gain barely up it's hot...not insane hot but hot enough to wonder why at such low gain and volume. Grounded to the battery so the ground is solid. 0ga power and ground into 4 ga reducers. Voltage on my radar detector doesn't drop below 13.7. Is this just the cause of a 1 ohm wiring? It's on the back seat so I can feel it and it's slightly concerning. No thermal light yet though.
  10. An F1? I need a new head unit anyway, this thing is 2 1/2 years old. Any double din recommendations? Has to be touch screen. I'd like a capacitive screen instead of this resistive type as well.
  11. My concern was 100% in not utilizing my equipment. I just wanted to make sure the box was legit, the amp was enough and the sub was not burning up. The thing is, with cheap equipment, who cares? $120 sub blows? Buy another one and turn the gain down. Blowing a few $400 woofers is enough to turn me off completely. I'm going to set gains by ear tonight and let it go. I'm just picky with my electronics. Everything I have, no matter how old, can be sold as if it were brand new. I don't like the risk variable, but I have to accept it.
  12. Bummer, you have to be confused completely. That site is full of bullshit. Sorry Rofl. I see what you did there. Actually, I'm learning quite a bit and I honestly appreciate it. I don't plan on running any competitions or having a big dick contest, I just find value in promoting a brand such as Fi, regardless of the made in America part. I still enjoy the market and I think more people can benefit from the knowledge on this forum and from the workers at Fi like Nick, who takes the time to respond to customer inquires, no matter how juvenile the question.I moved my amp today, drilled it into the back of my fold down back seat so I can easily adjust the gain and monitor it's temps. It was hot, but not hot enough to burn me or make me pull my hand away. I need to get familiar with my equipment so I know what is acceptable heat wise. It should get better ambient cooling being in the cabin now as well. I have not yet adjusted the gain. I think I'm going to play my deepest bass song, adjust at my preferred listening volume and monitor temps over a few hours to see where I'm at. I've used this method on tens of subs before the DD-1 and only ever blew a pair of Visonik's back when I was 15. My last question, my head unit has 2 subwoofer options. One appears to be the general subwoofer level, which is +6. And then there's another subwoofer option in another setting where I have it at +6 as well. Should I just make both of these 0 and adjust gain only? Does the EQ crossover options such as vocal or xplod affect the woofer? One of the frequencies in the curve is 65Hz or so, but is that only for the mids/highs? Thanks again everyone. Zero everything. No bass boost, do not EQ to the + side, always attenuate (dial the EQ down). You claimed you were clipping the HU at 47 out of 50 and you have the sub outs dialed to +6? Bullshit. Not bullshit on you, but it is proof that the DD1 is a complete pile of shit. Not only that, but there is no way in hell an Xplod unit is clean to 94% of it's total output at 0... no way in hell. In all fairness, it's a $500 7 inch in-dash, but I get it, lol. I should just buy an excelon in dash.
  13. Money wasn't an issue, but I didn't buy an SP4 because I don't have the power to ever run it to max potential or even slightly near rms. Never looked at the Xcon, but it looks like a beast. Perhaps I should've went that route. Maybe if I accidentally blow this up I would. 18mm is less than an inch if I'm not mistaken..so wow. Perplexed.
  14. Just referring to YouTube videos of BLs on the same type of power in the same type of box give or take a .5 cubes. Their subs are flexing like jello and mine hits hard don't get me wrong, but it barely moves. It is still "New" with roughly 10 hours or so of play time.
  15. Yeah that's what I've learned here and what I did for over a decade prior to the DD-1. I just fell victim to a device claiming to get rid of any potential damage to my sub. Fool me once.
  16. Sub is wired to 1 ohm following the crutchfield diagram. Pos to pos, neg to neg jumper and left pos going to box and right neg going to box. Tested at the speaker wire before going into the amp with a volt meter showing 1.3 which I'm pretty sure is the 1 ohm reading I'm looking for. Gain is up maybe 2 centimeters or less based on DD-1 tuning.
  17. Caraudio.com. all head unit settings are off or flat except for the subwoofer level which is +6. Infrasonic filter is on@28Hz and the low pass is set to 80Hz.
  18. Dodge charger, Rockford T1000-1bdCP wired down to 1 ohm. I have the BL15 D2. I may not have my gain up enough, but people jumped on the box and "fi= fail" as being my problem. I just noted that I wasn't seeing any massive excursion at high volume, but my gain was set real low with a dd-1 and I think that's the problem I have to address first. Seats always down in back of my charger, sub and port firing backwards.
  19. They replied "some people don't know how to build boxes" and "Fi=fail". Maybe I'm just dealing with the wrong crowd.
  20. Based on the graph, it looks like they pulled the middle score of 1640 from 80Hz, but still shows 1500W at 20Hz.
  21. At the bottom of the birth sheet, there's a graph. 20-200Hz and at 20 it's around 1500RMS and sweeps up to over 1700RMS at 200Hz.
  22. Ah, I just assumed my 1000w rated at 1 ohm but a birth sheet showing 1640 @ 1ohm and 14.4V was conservative.
  23. Right. Unfortunately, I found this site 2 years after my DD-1 purchase. The good news is, plenty of people on that forum will buy it from me. No, I don't want the world to hear my music, I just want to see what this thing will do. I'm pretty sure I have great hardware, with the exception being a Rockford amp, I just took the get what you pay for route. Plenty of 1500W amps at half the cost of my Rockford and I didn't want to power my new sub with an amp I tried to save some money on.I'd pay for a rockford monoblock before I'd pay for just about any other amp on the market.This was sort of my feeling on the amp subject, and I settled on Rockford because of the very conservative amp ratings based on other users. I almost bought a Sundown or a Sounqubed but I saw too many woofers burning up while connected to those amps and none about Rockford. I kind of winged it, but I'm happy with my purchase.
  24. Bummer, you have to be confused completely. That site is full of bullshit. Sorry Rofl. I see what you did there. Actually, I'm learning quite a bit and I honestly appreciate it. I don't plan on running any competitions or having a big dick contest, I just find value in promoting a brand such as Fi, regardless of the made in America part. I still enjoy the market and I think more people can benefit from the knowledge on this forum and from the workers at Fi like Nick, who takes the time to respond to customer inquires, no matter how juvenile the question. I moved my amp today, drilled it into the back of my fold down back seat so I can easily adjust the gain and monitor it's temps. It was hot, but not hot enough to burn me or make me pull my hand away. I need to get familiar with my equipment so I know what is acceptable heat wise. It should get better ambient cooling being in the cabin now as well. I have not yet adjusted the gain. I think I'm going to play my deepest bass song, adjust at my preferred listening volume and monitor temps over a few hours to see where I'm at. I've used this method on tens of subs before the DD-1 and only ever blew a pair of Visonik's back when I was 15. My last question, my head unit has 2 subwoofer options. One appears to be the general subwoofer level, which is +6. And then there's another subwoofer option in another setting where I have it at +6 as well. Should I just make both of these 0 and adjust gain only? Does the EQ crossover options such as vocal or xplod affect the woofer? One of the frequencies in the curve is 65Hz or so, but is that only for the mids/highs? Thanks again everyone.
  25. Right. Unfortunately, I found this site 2 years after my DD-1 purchase. The good news is, plenty of people on that forum will buy it from me. No, I don't want the world to hear my music, I just want to see what this thing will do. I'm pretty sure I have great hardware, with the exception being a Rockford amp, I just took the get what you pay for route. Plenty of 1500W amps at half the cost of my Rockford and I didn't want to power my new sub with an amp I tried to save some money on.
×