i have an Orion H2 12 inch sub

its rated at 2000 wrms

my amp is rated 1200 wrms

i've had it for quite a while now and im starting to get some mechanical noise, sorta sounds like its bottoming out, but i know thats not the case b/c it has like a 4 inch travel, and its def. not moving that far.

i took it to the shop i bought i from and the guy promised that the sub was not blown, but said there might be something wrong with the leads. he said he wont send it in to Directed without the original reciept, which after like 7 months i of course dont have.

its not that huge of a deal cause i think im gonna get a Fi BL pretty soon, but do you guys have any idea what could possibly be wrong?

ps. i know im underpowering the sub, but i really doubt that i was clipping it b/c my gain is at 50%, no bass boost and i really never pushed the sub to its mechanical limits

sounds like you only got 1 coil playing.. did you meter the ohm load....

How much power are you actually sending it? There's really no such thing as "underpowering"...

The Orion H2 I played with had awful build quality, so if you've got one that falls apart after a while I can't say I'm very surprised...

dont know exactly how much power is going to it, i know there's no such thing as "underpowering" i just say that cause my amp doesnt have the power to give the sub what it really wants

and i havent metered the load, but that sounds like a good idea....exactly how would i go about doing that, multimeter on the VC terminals?

if only one VC is running, is there a fix for that? or should i buy myself a new sub?

My buddy had 4 of those H2's 3 of the 4 started sounding like something was broken. His ended up being a loose dust cap(on all three).. you may want to start your investigation there.. it'll make it rattle at higher volumes....

You can destroy that sub, or almost any sub for that matter, with 1200 watts.

The RMS have nothing to do with what a sub wants, needs or requires. It is a thermal rating of the voice coil former, wires and adhesive.... Nothing else. Box alignment, compliance, Xsusp, No and Mms have everything to do with how much power a sub needs......

Jim is 100% correct saying there is no such thing as underpowering. This is one of the stupidest terms that gets thrown around.

It doesn't matter where your gain is set. Any amplifier on earth can put out full power at 1/2 gain setting, or even 1/4 with most head units these days. This is a GRAVE missconception....

A few causes of nasty noises like this are dustcaps and tinsel leads as mentioned, additionally triple joints can go bad, poorly aligned motors/coils start scraping and "clacking" when the spiders get a little worn in.... Spiders can come unglued in part from the basket and make wierd noises... I have experienced every one of these problems at one time or another.... Just start poking and proding (carefully!) until you find something broke, bent, loose or charred....

Edited October 10, 200816 yr by 95Honda

thanks for the suggestions.

ok. well the dust cap is definitely NOT loose.

and i cant really see much more of the sub cause there is a big plastic shroud covering the voice coils and leads...

screw it all.

i need a new sub!

does it have the sound when it's playing free air outside the box as well? What box is it in?