Question about Icon 15 smell

[mwoehr 1]

I have an Icon 15 in 3.5 cubes tuned to 34hz. It is being powered by a JBL GTO 1201.II amp that puts out 1100 watts at 2ohms. When I turn it up I get a smell that almost smells like paint. The gain is set a lil past half way. I notice some people on the forum are powering pairs of the 15s with like 1500 watts from a Kicker amp. Am I setting the gain too high? What could that smell be? Should I turn down the gain on my amp and turn up the sub setting on my deck? The deck I have is the Alpine CDA-9886.

Edited July 12, 2008 by Jysoe

[shizzzon 461]

The way it sounds, you should get some money together and take your car to an audio shop and set it up with an o-scope. Ask if they setup amps with one. If they don't then they can't help you.

You are guessing where settings should be set at and that will most likely damage the ICON and any other sub that gets thrown on that amp.

[mwoehr 1]

The way it sounds, you should get some money together and take your car to an audio shop and set it up with an o-scope. Ask if they setup amps with one. If they don't then they can't help you.

You are guessing where settings should be set at and that will most likely damage the ICON and any other sub that gets thrown on that amp.

I called the place I usually go to and he said that high class competitors only use those. Does that sound right to you?

[carbonmonoxide 0]

no, most shops will tell you anything so youll go home, blow your speakers, and get you to come and buy some more from them. listen to the guys here, and youll be set.

[shizzzon 461]

What does most competitors using your sub or amp have ANYTHING to do with tuning your amp for daily?

See where i am getting at... If they don't have an o-scope then they don't have good service... That's ridiculous if that's true.

You can't set an amp's gains with hopes and dreams.

State what state you are from and it's likely that someone on here may live close enough to you with the right equipment to set it up for you.

[mwoehr 1]

What does most competitors using your sub or amp have ANYTHING to do with tuning your amp for daily?

See where i am getting at... If they don't have an o-scope then they don't have good service... That's ridiculous if that's true.

You can't set an amp's gains with hopes and dreams.

State what state you are from and it's likely that someone on here may live close enough to you with the right equipment to set it up for you.

I meant he said only competitors use O-scopes. I live in Long Island NY

Edited July 12, 2008 by Jysoe

[mwoehr 1]

no, most shops will tell you anything so youll go home, blow your speakers, and get you to come and buy some more from them. listen to the guys here, and youll be set.

Dude, that is soooo true. A local shop fried my ED Audio NiNe.1 amp. I bought the wrong voice coil Kicker CVX 12s for the amp. So they wired it at 4 ohms and had the bass boost and gain turned up all the way and like an idiot I believed them that there was something wrong with the NiNe.1 and bought the GTO 1201.1 II off them, lol. I don't regret buying the amp, it's a good amp. Seems like most of the shops around here are shady.

Edited July 12, 2008 by Jysoe

[shizzzon 461]

if u cant find a shop or someone to do it for ya, buy an HPS10 velleman oscope and we'll help ya set it up.

[todd.brust 29]

no, most shops will tell you anything so youll go home, blow your speakers, and get you to come and buy some more from them. listen to the guys here, and youll be set.

Dude, that is soooo true. A local shop fried my ED Audio NiNe.1 amp. I bought the wrong voice coil Kicker CVX 12s for the amp. So they wired it at 4 ohms and had the bass boost and gain turned up all the way and like an idiot I believed them that there was something wrong with the NiNe.1 and bought the GTO 1201.1 II off them, lol. I don't regret buying the amp, it's a good amp. Seems like most of the shops around here are shady.

That sounds shady.

Just get your gains conservatively and you will be fine. Just listen for any distortion and if you smell anything, you have your gains set way too high!

[Adrian_D 520]

That amp is decent. You will be fine setting it with a dmm.

There is a gain setting tutorial posted somewhere.

[sick6ness 1]

Where on Long Island do you live? I live in suffolk county.

[shizzzon 461]

you cant properly set an amp via dmm to it's full potential and this is why-

Let's make an easy example-

Let's say you have an amp that can do 1,250w @2ohms. That's 50v and 25A output = 1250

You wire your sub to 2ohms nominal. You whip out the dmm and set it for 50v. Who's to say what the actual impedance currently is at the given note you are using? IF you had an ammeter, you would see.

The impedance rise may be at 5ohm! If that's the case, then that 50v is only going to be ouputting 10A which is 500w but again, it's at 5 ohms after rise.

Since rise exists, DMMs won't give you full potential output from an amp.

Now, amps that output the same power over varying ohm loads is different. As long as rise stays in the range that it is stated for, you can set those amps up with a dmm as, from what i am told, all register ~8ohms regardless of actual rise value. Don't ask me why but that's what i've been told about those types of amps.

[Adrian_D 520]

Let's take for instance 4 amps that I tested recently on the same subwoofer, on a 1ohm nominal load.

1. Ground Zero GZNA 1.2500 (same as the soundstream PCA 2000D, Lanzar Opti 2000D IIRC) : 44v unclipped.

2. Helix competition (rated at 1700w @ 1 ohm) : 50.3v unclipped.

3. Viper D2500.1 (rated 2500w @ 2 ohm) : 59v unclipped.

4. Lightning Audio Storm x2000d (rated 2000w @ 1 ohm) : 53v unclipped.

You can see each amp had a voltage output over what the regular dmm gain setting formula dictates.

Setting the gain with a dmm would actually be a more conservative method which I think it's a bit better for somebody that isn't extremely experienced in this sport (no offence intended to anyone).

[shizzzon 461]

it's not about any amp, it's just general knowledge about any amp that outputs different power at different ohm loads which is almost every amp out there.

This amp i just recently tested that is rated to do 1300w @2ohms, on a dmm, it would be suggested to set it at 36v for 2 ohms but when the o-scope seen it and was set before clipping, it produced 46.9v but was no where near 1700w of course.

I'm just showing that if you used the method of -

1300w@2ohm, set it at 36v because 36x36 = 1296... it's not accurate.

I got 46.9v because the actual rise read 5.39 ohms, not 2 ohms. From what you say, i'm sure you know this so i dont understand why you would suggest someone to use the DMM method after reading this?

EDIT - i just reread your edit too, hehe, which shows what i am saying.

My point is just a dmm won't give the user full output potential. I look down upon that because i have read a number of threads where people buy these amps such as Sundown or any other internet based company in place of a local shop's brand and the output is either no better or worse because they are not getting their full potential out of their setup and so many people who reply with only knowledge of the DMM starts naming off ideas that are so far fetched from the problem that that companies product gets looked downed upon as either being defective or makes the user feel like he\she has attained absolutely no knowledge from doing research online.

I'll stand by this and say if you use the dmm method as stated above in one of these posts or in this tutorial that was referenced earlier. IF you are unsatisfied with the output, this is clearly an indication but do NOT just turn it up more and more because it may be underpowered.

Someone just called me so i lost what else i was about to say...

[Adrian_D 520]

To keep things safe

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Got your PM. Could be a little excess glue burning off, or you are clipping the amp to the point the sub is starting to absorb that clipped signal. Either way, back off the gain and see if the smell continues.

[///M5 2,833]

Before backing off the gain, I'd see where it is set WITHOUT going over it's rating. A DMM will be fine for that. My guess is you are clipping the hell out of it.