b0r

And my immediate assumption is that's a bad thing? Would you want to tune everything with a 0db or -5 db instead? Are all types of music variable with regard to db? Don't use any tone, unless that is all that you plan on playing. Use your ears and brain. And as to the heat question? For those of you that have been slamming the same setup for months or years, any noticeable heat? Or just a general warmth to the cone?

And my immediate assumption is that's a bad thing? Would you want to tune everything with a 0db or -5 db instead? Are all types of music variable with regard to db?

Your typical standard recorded bass tracks young jeezy etc. I just meant that the song itself had no alteration. What I need to do is read up on the -10/-15 tones and how they work with music. The DD-1 manual is vague in that it states "Use -5DB for SQ, -10DB for an "in the middle" and -15DB for a louder system" but doesn't say you could potentially be causing any damage.

Lol. I get it. And it currently sounds fine. Dust cap has never been much over my body temp at the hand and as I said, I smell the paint from the port and the sub is a week old so probably some glue and other things warming up for the first time. *EDIT* And the only problem with "sounds like shit, back it down" is, my friends RE 12 hooked to a JBL BP 1200.1 sounded just fine, was slamming and sounded great, but also heating up to the point of nearly melting because the speaker channels were pushing DC voltage. But it didn't sound bad while it was thermally reaching failure.

I can respect that, and I'm only semi-gullible. You have someone with a 30,000 watt system pushing a product that will keep your system running without damage and it's sort of a done deal. Comparison videos next to scopes, the whole 9. It FELT legit, but in the end, I want to KNOW and LEARN this stuff, and I'm the last person to think that 1 product is the end all, but it was pitched solidly to the uneducated. I KNOW and UNDERSTAND how the physical setup works, I've done it over and over to friends' vehicles and my own. But once we get to the amp and head unit settings, I pack up my stuff and leave, that's up to them. My ONLY recommendation is to NOT use bass boost, but let's face it, they turn it up a hair and they're hooked. My interest is not blowing/setting on fire/damaging a $400 woofer in ANY way. Do you at least assume that NEVER playing at max volume can accomplish this? With the DD-1, my gain is BARELY up. My goal is to show off my Fi as I am really impressed with the woofer. I haven't really owned many "non-household named" subs such as Fi/DC/Sundown/DD or whatever else, primarily Rockfords, JL's and MTX's back in the early 2000's is what everyone rocked. And then came the Kicker L7's that people jumped on, but this sub is obviously impressive by comparison and much louder and sturdier than my RE SXX I replaced.

Well, they did a great job advertising it as something that would end all of your worries as far as clipping your subwoofer. Smells work, but right now I am getting paint from the port in my box only, and I imagine with the windows down and sub and port facing in vehicle I may never smell anything, which is why I always give a touch to my cone after an hour or so to make sure I'm not burning anything up.

Excellent. So can we explain why?

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.

In other news, my order for my shirt is still awaiting payment, lol. I wish they would've caught it and threw it in the sub box.

Perhaps it was an option or the sub itself? I got a BL, and I can tell yours is not a BL due to the QTS option which is not on mine. Mine left Arizona today and should be here Thursday or Friday.

Oh god! E-mail from Fedex states that it was PICKED UP and will be here on FRIDAY, which is RIDICULOUS! That's less than a 10 day turn around from order to delivery........../dead.

I have 10 foot of it to go from the box to the amp, and while I haven't seen the sub yet, I'm having a hard time seeing 8 gauge in a 1ohm configuration on the coils. Will it fit? Or should I use 12 gauge for inside the box? (This isn't really a question about power...I already have 10 foot of 8 gauge so it's more availability. I'd have to go buy anything but the 8 which I have)

I WISH I had another sub to use on my Rockford T1000 til the BL got here. I'm screwed for like 10+ days :/ just do what i did and distract yourself. run all your wires, upgrade your electrical system etc. im pretty much plug and play ready now just need to hook the power wire to the battery and plug all the wires into the amp when it gets here. i spent pretty much every day i had off for the last few weeks tweeking all my wiring and speakers and stuff, it made the days just fly by. anyways ill let you know when the q gets here so youll know what to expect, your about 80 orders and 13 days after mine. im still in the 10-15 day range though actually on second thought your only 9 buisness days behind me i forgot you dont count sat and sun My order was just updated today to reflect "Shipped", but there is no tracking information or anything like that. Probably just the pre-shipment phase to get me a tracking number and what not. It did get my hopes up for a minute, lol. All of my wiring was already done, I unhooked my amp and sub to give to my friend. My car is in the shop (someone keyed it) getting painted and new control arms/ball joints for my 20's. This did remind me to unhook my fuse before I plug the new amp in, though. I just unhooked the amp power and ground, taped them off to wait for the new install.

Does it take longer if you put a few options on it? Like cooling and hight qts. From my understanding, they are 10-15 days out on orders, regardless of the options. I imagine that an option or 2 could increase the time by a day, but that's WITHIN the 10-15 day window. So, if your sub would've shipped stock with NO options at 10 days, it may ship at 11 or 12 days fully loaded. This is just an assumption, but my Fi BL 15 is fully loaded and Nick was very helpful in informing me that they are 10-15 out regardless.

I WISH I had another sub to use on my Rockford T1000 til the BL got here. I'm screwed for like 10+ days :/

It says estimated 10 to 15 business days. So it might take longer but is worth the wait! Not even for a second am I doubting that it's worth the wait. I went ahead and ordered my 2X Fi black tee. Knowing me, I'll order 2 or 3 more and wear them when I go on my nightly drives.

Order #2627 Order Date: 19th Aug 2013 This order is marked as Awaiting Fulfillment Your Order Contains: 1 x BL15 (Ohm: Dual 2 Ohm, Hyper Pole: Yes+10 , Cooling: Yes+30, FlatwindCoil: Yes+20, Daily or SPL: Daily, Universal: No, Dust Cap: Red, Internal Lead: No) So far, they've been great and quick to respond to my inquiries. (They could probably use a webmaster or someone to comb the site and fix errors or add content that I asked about. I'da done it for a discount on my $410+ sub, lol. Obviously not in house because it seems like they're busy making quality subs). I CAN'T wait more than the rated 15 business days. That's already too long. I have a Rockford T1000-1BDCP and a custom box just staring me in the face (both got delivered today). **Scratch that, I'll fix and update all the content on the technical side or make an entire tech page for a Shirt and all the stickers :X**