altoncustomtech

Playing it full blast when it's cold wouldn't be good for any sub, they should always be played at low volumes for awhile until everything warms up a little. You really need to check the other coil while moving the cone and see if you can get a reading AND you need to send an email to Fi (Nick directly would probably be best) and tell them what's going on. If you bough this new 6 months ago its still under warranty, and the guys are right about figuring out what the cause is, be it a blown coil or a messed up tinsel lead. If you discover its a tinsel lead problem, playing it hard in the cold could have helped cause the failure. If you can't get a reading while moving the cone then the coil is blown and it would most likely be due to driving the amp to clipping. There's some more checking to do on your end to be more sure what's going on with it. On a side note, before you had problems with it, how did it sound? I love my Q's!

The DMM is fine... The "right" coil appears to have a lead messed up somewhere, push or pull the cone a little and see if you can get it to read. If it does then that almost certainly means there is a connection problem with the tinsel leads on that coil. The thing to do is Email Nick about the problem, if you bought it new and it's only 6 months old it's under warranty and will be repaired no problem I'm sure. If you didn't buy it new he would probably still give you a break on repair as this is not a normal problem with these subs. Best thing to do is get a hold of Nick about it. Fi is renowned for their excellent customer service, I don't believe you'll be disappointed.

Lithium..... Years of experience told me this, the sub working when you push on it is a VERY common sign that there's tinsel lead problems. A DMM won't tell you anything about a problem such as that except that when you push the sub in, or pull it out to a certain point that it gets a connection and therefore a reading at that moment.

i have a 2006D and I can tell you that, while it is fairly powerful and does a good job, I'm sure it doesn't do rated power and it's DEFINITELY NOT the cleanest sounding amp either.... I can hear distorion in it before it's up to full volume and I've had two fairly cheap 300wrms speakers hooked up to it at 2 ohms, which is supposed to be delivering 1300wrms to them and it never even seemed to stress them.... so... yes you get what you pay for, okay place to start for a first system but there's definitely better to be had out there for only a little more money.....

sounds like there's a failure somewhere in regards to the tinsel leads.... hard to believe considering the # of them in these things... I'd email Nick and let him know what's up, could be a cold solder joint, shit happens sometimes...

when is the sale over? I'd love to order my 2000D finally, and I don't wanna miss that price for a new one!!!! but I'm limited on funds atm because of Christmas, tell me the sale runs to the new year?!?!?!!

I've got to get the pics from my lil bro.... My lil bro put an 18 SSD into the trunk of his 08 Grand Prix.... we built the front of the enclosure like you were mentioning but build the rest of the enclosure into the trunk of the car, it will be a ROYAL PITA to ever get out and he only had enough trunk space left to mount the amp..... but it wurkz GREAT!! Takes alot of work and some enginuity to pull it off, but it's doable.... I would imagine the trunk of that Grand Am isn't that much smaller than his..... it should be doable.....

Thanks Denim for explaining.... I love this site and when it slowed down on me I was affraid the Spammers/Viri or something else bad may have affected it like the problems CA is having so bad anymore... I was just fretting at the very thought of even attempting to find another site comparable to this one...

the auto loading feature was working fine for me before it started running slow......

Is it just me or has the website been running REALLY slowly lately? I'm on here and CA.com at the same time most days and suddenly about a week ago I've had a hard time with this site loading completely and being EXTREMELY slow... the little green box in the top center of the page that says "Loading..." never goes away anymore either.... I've been through everything in explorer and its just as slow in FireFox and on my other two computers.... just wondering if it's my going crazy or if anyone else has had problems....

The Phoenix Gold's can be had for ~$80 a set and the PPI's can be hard for ~$140 a set so both will be under $300 for two sets.... The ID's are about $180 a set, but well worth it....

One set of components would most likely not be able to keep up with a 15 BTL if it's being run even close to it's full potential...... but, to answer your question, there's alot of sets available that could do well, if you're budget limited, Image Dynamics CTX65CS components are really nice, Phoenix Gold RSD6.5CS, PPI 365CS to name just a few.... all with pretty good SQ and get fairly loud too... it would be best if you could listen to some before you buy to see if you can find the ones that sound best to you.... also, make sure that you read up on proper installation practices, just sticking them in the factory hole and calling it a day IS NOT proper installation.... Sound deadening, acoustic damping, MDF baffles and more make up the recipe for a proper installation....

may be a repost.... but I still think it's funny... **** COMMON SENSE DIED TODAY **** Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: Knowing when to come in out of the rain; Why the early bird gets the worm; Life isn't always fair; and maybe it really was my fault. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (such as adults, not children, should be in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition. Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their ill-behaved children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student, but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion. Common Sense took a beating when it was decided you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault. Common Sense began to lose the will to live as organized religions became businesses, and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense finally gave up the will to live after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason. He is survived only by his 4 stepbrothers: I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized Common Sense was gone If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing

by yourself it's not easy to do, need a DC clamp on meter and a way to load the alternator to its full output..... if you know your system can pull more amps than the alternator is rated for then put the clamp meter on, turn on everything you can (i.e. headlights, AC, etc.) and crank it to see what it will do..... without the proper test equipment I'm not sure how else you'd do it....

Thanks for the recommendation, I hear alot of comments from people who like Fi saying the BTL is musical, then comments from people who like other companies (AQ, DD, DC, etc.) saying the BTL isn't musical at all it's quite frustrating and difficult to discern who's more correct.... which is why I'm asking on here as I can hopefully get some input from fella's who've used them both.... I have spaces to fill there, and like I said they'll only be played when demoing the vehicle but it would still be nice if they sounded fairly good when they did play. If I went with the Tang Band's I was going to simply pass band them from 60-350hz to help reinforce that range of midbass since their given response is 35-350hz. But that was just one idea and I wasn't crazy with it to start with. I was trying to think of a solution that may work without pulling the sound stage rearward too far even if it was only for demoing...

Hi there guys. I'm working on deciding what I want to buy for two door 2001 Jimmy. I have a Kenwood KDC-X492 headunit installed already, along with Phoenix Gold RSD 6.5" components in the doors. My goals for the system is to have a setup that will get plenty loud while maintaining good musical balance. Now, I'm no noob to the car audio game, this truck will be getting the full treatment of sound deadening, HO alt, 2-3 batteries and more so it will handle about anything I want do with it much like I did my van. My questions are for those with experience with both the 10" SSD and 12" BTL series subwoofers from Fi. My original design for the truck was to use two 10" SSD's in a 2.4 cuft enclosure (after displacements) tuned to 33Hz per Fi's recommendation, this is as big as I want to go with the enclosure since I do use the rear of the truck for hauling and stuff. However, for almost the same amount of money I can get a single 12" BTL which will run in the same size enclosure and tuning. I planned on running the same 2000-2500 watt amp on either choice. So what I'm wanting to know is which choice in this setup will be loudest WHILE maintaining a good musical balance, the pair of SSD's with the edge on surface area or the BTL with the higher sensitivity and excursion capabilities. Keep in mind that while it will be no SQ system I'm still looking to notice note shifts and transients in the music, not have a one note wonder. I just have no idea if the BTL is designed to be that musical and me and my brother are the only ones in at least a 50 mile radius that I know of who is even running Fi equipment so there's no one around to go and listen to a BTL personally. My other question is in regards to the rear speakers. This truck has 6x9's on each side of the rear seat. I am more of an SQ oriented listener than this thread gives the impression of, so I'll explain the point of this question. I plan on putting a 100x4 amp on the highs, however, when listening by myself I have the fader turned all the way forward and listen to only the components, even now. I would like to get a fairly nice set of 6x9's to keep up with the substage when demoing the vehicle ONLY. I wanted to buy the PG RSD 6x9's originally but it seems that no one has them anymore and I was thinking of just getting some of the Tang Band 6x9 subwoofers and letting them help reinforce the midbass. I'm open to any suggestions on 6x9's that will do well on 100+ RMS without breaking the $100-$120 barrier since they'll only be used when demoing otherwise the components are all I need. Thanks in advance for the suggestions guys, I know that rear speakers aren't needed and I don't listen to them regularly, so no need for that bashing. If possible I'd prefer suggestions on the subs from those of you who have real personal experience with both. Again, thanks guys for the help, my mind is starting to turn into jello from reading all about these things and I keep going in circles on the info I find.

lol..... damn them loose nuts.... although when it comes to high powered car audio i think just about every one of them has nut that's at least slightly loose.... lol @ 4 ohms on that 1000/1 using test tones you'll be looking for around 63 volts with the DMM.... make sure its a True RMS meter too...

most likely the enclosure is just fine, it's tuned to the Fi recommended specs..... you should set your gains and subsonic with 0db reference test tones and a DMM to get the settings much closer.... and don't use the BASS BOOST on the head unit or the amp.... those are settings befit for failure..... what was your sub wired to? 4, 2, or 1 ohms??

if you're confident of the specs on that enclosure then you need to take a DMM and check the coils on the sub.....

This brings into light the questions..... what size of enclosure is it in? what is it tuned to? what kind of power are you giving it? with answers to these questions we can give you a better idea of may have happened..... like Nick said though, if your coils are burnt then the problem was the power it was recieving not the woofer unloading... it sounds to me more like a burnt coil problem giving the fading in and out problem..... but no matter what happened to it, there should be no problem with putting in a recone and getting back up and going again.... just make sure that you make the appropriate changes to keep it from happening again....

unloading is what happens when the woofer (in a ported enclosure) plays below the tuning frequency.......... above the tuning frequency the air inside the box is "loading" the cone of the woofer and controlling it's movement much the same as it would in a sealed enclosure..... but when the frequency falls below the tuning frequency of the port the air exchanges at a much more turbulent rate through the port and is no longer controlling the movement of the cone...... This can cause overexcursion where the cone of the woofer can move farther and it's designed to do.... this can lead to ripped spiders and/or surrounds and on some woofers the voice coil itself can smack into the back plate of the motor causing physical damage to the voice coil former..... all in all its not a good thing to do to any speaker...

if you're building a box with a 4cuft target size multiply the 4 by anything in the range from 12-16 for the total port area you need to calculate with..... 4 x 16 = 64......

here's a formula for use with multiple ports: Lv=(((2.35625*10^4*Dv^2*#v)/(Vb*Tb^2))-(0.614*Dv)) where: Lv = Length of port Dv = Vent Diameter #v = Number of ports Vb = Volume of box Tb = Tuning Frequency only problem I've found with this formula is it came out of "The Loudspeaker Cookbook" and I'm not sure the numbers come out right unless the measurements are metric which means all the inches need multiplied by 2.54 for centimeters and the volume needs multiplied by 28.316846592 to convert it to liters.... then the resulting Lv needs multiplied by 0.3937007874 i hate the metric conversion but Lance's formula is the only one I know of that works for figuring multiple ports.....

that amount of space is just too small for the 12 Q ported.... no matter how you do it its below the recommended ported enclosure size..... unless you can sacrifice some more room you'll have to run it sealed....

sure, it should work well...... the calculations i'm seeing puts the 36x18x18 at a little less than 4.7cuft though, right around 4.4 after all displacements..... that won't hurt anything though as it's still well inside the range.... I should add that this is if you're using a slot port @ 12sqin of port per cuft.... if you're going with a 6" aero then its just right..........