Need some advice on phase switch setting

[Sir-Lancelot 216]

I am using two of these from 2003 or 04. They are the silver heat sink with the blue light up logo.

Here is my set up, I have 1 ea. dual 1 ohm woofers wired to 2 ohm on each amp.

I installed the 2 15" SSA xcons in the enclosure that Quentin built for me and I have spent most of the afternoon trying to tune this. I honestly have been very dissappointed as my output has been very modest for most of the day, but I switched the phase switch to 180 on one amp and WOW it woke up big time. So, I did the same thing on the other amp and my stuff is banging really hard now. This is more like it.

My question is, why is this making such a BIG difference? And, do I risk damaging my xcons by running them with the phase set at 180.

The two amps are not linked and I am running them one to each woofer. I split the sub out from my head unit with Y cables and run rca's to each amp from there. The subs are rockin now and to go back to phase at 0 would break my heart, cause they are NOT loud, but I dont want to F up anything.

I really want to keep it like it is, but I dont understand why it is working and I do not want to mess up anything. Anyone can help me understand why this is working?

I want to be able to give a fair review to both SSA and Quentin so thanks in advance for all replies.

[dtcharneski 0]

did you maybe connect the - to the + and + to the - ??? maybe the polarity was reversed

[Sir-Lancelot 216]

It is highly possible I made a mistake, but I am pretty sure I wired them correct. I know the Ohm is right cause I checked them both with the DMM. 2 ohm at each amp.

Am I doing any damage leaving it like this until the weekend? Got too much to do tomorrow and wont have time to check it.

[KU40 173]

The way it sounds, you won't damage the speakers at all. If the subs are in separate chambers, there is no way to damage a speaker with any phase setting. If they are in the same chamber, you just want to make sure the phase is the same on both. If they both move outwards at the same time, you're fine.

How do you have the wires ran through the box? Is it possible you grabbed like the positive from one sub and the negative from the other sub and hooked them to the same amplifier? Or have the positive and negative wires switched around at the amp for one sub?

It's kinda strange that by switching both to 180 it works better, since that is essentially the same as having them both set to 0 with respect to how they perform relative to each other. The only problem with output should be when one is at 0 and the other at 180.

[bobonit 5]

Easy way to check if your speaker wires are connected properly is to disconnect them from the amplifier and connect a AA battery across the leads. If you connect the positive terminal of the sub to the positive terminal of the battery and negative to negative you should see the sub "pop out" or show some outward excursion. If it goes "in" instead, its wired backwards.

[alvitae 0]

I think you should be fine, I have a powerbass bass accelerator, one of the knobs is a variable phase. 0-180. I have it set at about 160 as that is what was loudest on the meter, Been running fine like that for several months now.

[Sir-Lancelot 216]

Thanks guys I appreciate the replies. Good tip on the AA battery. I wish I had a garage.

I will dig into it some more Saturday and hopefully get it all sorted out. If everything is wired correctly I will leave it be. Who knows, I am sure it's something simple because I have good sound and volume right now. I just want to be safe and not screw something up since I wont have time tomorrow.

I dont want to say too much right now because I feel that I owe SSA and Quentin a proper review for thier efforts, but this box with the xcons POUND like crazy!! I will make sure all is good with my set up and post up some goodies for everyone to see over the weekend.

Thanks again.!

Edited May 22, 2009 by Sir-Lancelot

[Sir-Lancelot 216]

The way it sounds, you won't damage the speakers at all. If the subs are in separate chambers, there is no way to damage a speaker with any phase setting. If they are in the same chamber, you just want to make sure the phase is the same on both. If they both move outwards at the same time, you're fine.

How do you have the wires ran through the box? Is it possible you grabbed like the positive from one sub and the negative from the other sub and hooked them to the same amplifier? Or have the positive and negative wires switched around at the amp for one sub?

It's kinda strange that by switching both to 180 it works better, since that is essentially the same as having them both set to 0 with respect to how they perform relative to each other. The only problem with output should be when one is at 0 and the other at 180.

Sorry I missed your post.

The box is ported in the middle for both subs and it has terminals on each end, one for each woofer. I have run the wires from each terminal to my amps. The amps are laid out with 1 1000bd on each side of my RF 450.4 and I am positive I didnt run the wires wrong to the amps. Now I could have wired it wrong to the same amp, but not to different amps.

Thats what I thought. Why would 180 make a huge difference? It would be the same. I simply must have something wired wrong, but it sounds really good right now. I will check before I go to work that they are both moving in the same direction. I believe they are, but will check again. Both amps are now set at 180. Think I could have screwed up the wires on both chances. lol I hope not, but you never know.

[wenn_du_weinst 1]

all that the phase does is reverse sound from the affected woofer did you switch both amps or just one if it was both I have no idea why it is louder

Edited May 22, 2009 by wenn_du_weinst