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Chris Duncan

New Q 12 barely plays and bottoms out on low volume

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Hello. I recently ordered a Q model 12". After about a 2 month wait I finally received it. First off the packaging was damaged when it arrived, the foam on the bottom had broken and the sub was slightly sideways in the box. I ignored this because I figured the sub was probably fine, it didnt appear to be too sideways in the box. I had the sub installed today in a 1.7 cu. ft. sealed box, and I must say I am very disappointed. It literally seems as if there is almost no output coming out of the sub (running at 2 ohms on a Sundown Audio 2500, so about 1200 watts RMS amp). I understand it needs to break in, but I mean that the volume is literally almost on off it seems. Also, I'm not sure what this could be, but I've heard it before in a sub with a blown voice coil, but if you turn the gain up enough to where the sub actually starts producing volume, and only flexes about an inch, it starts to make this sound as if it is bottoming out. It should't be bottoming out when it is only flexing this much, so I don't know if one of the voice coils is damaged and perhaps that is why it is also not very loud. The installer is Lakeside Audio in Montgomery, TX, and they have won top 100 installers in the country a few times. I have done several systems with them before and their quality is top notch. I don't know what to do at this point. I had a 10" kicker (really low model, not even L5) on about 200 watts in a tiny sealed box that came with the car, and this thing is barely louder than it. Help please.

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what config/options does your Q have??

 

Hello. I recently ordered a Q model 12". After about a 2 month wait I finally received it. First off the packaging was damaged when it arrived, the foam on the bottom had broken and the sub was slightly sideways in the box. I ignored this because I figured the sub was probably fine, it didnt appear to be too sideways in the box. I had the sub installed today in a 1.7 cu. ft. sealed box, and I must say I am very disappointed. It literally seems as if there is almost no output coming out of the sub (running at 2 ohms on a Sundown Audio 2500, so about 1200 watts RMS amp). I understand it needs to break in, but I mean that the volume is literally almost on off it seems. Also, I'm not sure what this could be, but I've heard it before in a sub with a blown voice coil, but if you turn the gain up enough to where the sub actually starts producing volume, and only flexes about an inch, it starts to make this sound as if it is bottoming out. It should't be bottoming out when it is only flexing this much, so I don't know if one of the voice coils is damaged and perhaps that is why it is also not very loud. The installer is Lakeside Audio in Montgomery, TX, and they have won top 100 installers in the country a few times. I have done several systems with them before and their quality is top notch. I don't know what to do at this point. I had a 10" kicker (really low model, not even L5) on about 200 watts in a tiny sealed box that came with the car, and this thing is barely louder than it. Help please.

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Pull out the sub and check it the terminals with a dmm. I'm sure all the wiring is right then.

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It is dual 1 ohm (actually .8 and .9) run in series, I don't remember exactly but I put all the best options on it. I don't have a DMM :/

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It is wired incorrectly.

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It is dual 1 ohm (actually .8 and .9) run in series, I don't remember exactly but I put all the best options on it. I don't have a DMM :/

 

 

honestly, you spent money on the sub you should have a record or some idea about the options you picked.... especially if you didn't pick the High QTS option.... then you need to port your sub as well.... 

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I did pick high QTS because I planned on it being sealed. Here I was just being lazy: (D1/D2: Dual 1 Ohm, Cooling: Yes+30, Dust Cap: Blue, P Chamfer: Yes, High QTS: Yes, Spider: Yes +$5, I Heat Ring: Yes +$20, Internal Lead: No)

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It sounds like the coils are wired out of phase, double check the wiring before you fry it.

Also, not having the High-QTS option does not mean it must be in a ported box, it only means it won't sound as good as a High-QTS woofer.

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I was reading about the out of phase thing, but it would be weird if this place made such a dumb mistake. They are really high quality. Is there anything else it could be? Broken or blown voice coil?

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No, it won't be broken, they are tested before they ship out, if the coils are reading about 0.8 ohms DCR they are not broken.

Everyone makes wiring mistakes, it needs to be checked.

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Should I not play it AT ALL until I can get it checked? Or is low volume ok without hurting it?

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Please don't play it 'till you know what is happening, if it is wired incorrectly it WILL fry.

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It sounded bad when you got it back from the shop? They released it to you and didn't notice there was a problem?

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what kinda shop allows it to leave with that issue,

   something is wired incorrectly im almost 100% sure,

 

 i bet if when you were playing it and you would have felt the dust cap it would have been very hot, sounds like the coils are directly shorting out,  or  one is out of phase.

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With the sound of bottoming out with low gain i'd venture to throw in the fact that you mentioned damaged shipping and make a theory that there could be possible former separation and the cone is smacking against it. Maybe even spider landing separation. Then again out of phase sounds good too. Either way I wouldn't play it until I had it outside of the box and checked each coil individually and test the functionality of the sub thoroughly before putting it back in the box at this point.

Edited by nadcicle

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Went to the shop today, and saw with my own eyes. The coils are ok (he checked the polarity of each voice coil to make sure they were labeled properly), they are not wired out of phase, and there is no apparent damage that can be seen with the naked eye. Put the sub back in the box, and it still makes the bottoming out sound with fairly little oscillation. Then when it starts making the noise, it seems as if the actual bass dies off. Am I left with it maybe being damaged internally?

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Something sounds like it is broken somewhere...

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make a video of this.  

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I highly doubt a video would do it any justice as I'm sure the audio would be miserable. But it is pretty much the same sound as when I had a burnt voice coil before, except this time the voice coils seem to be fine.

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A video would give them a better discription of what sound your getting. Instead of having everyone go off "your experiance with a older sub that had a burned vc"

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What happens when you physically push on the driver in the center of the cone with your hand when it's not in the enclosure?  Any scraping/etc?

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