I have had my ascendant havoc 12 for about a month. Recently I decided that it was broken in enough to see what it could do. I set my gains again, this time with the dd-1, but when I turn the volume up a little it sounds like it is bottoming out. I have a t1500-1bdcp that's rated at 1900 Watts rms at 1 ohm. I thought for sure that the havoc would take that much power and not bottom out. Could the noise be something else? or is it really maxed out?

i had a screw let loose on an enclosure one time and it sounded like the subs were bottoming out. what are your enclosure specs? and this is for one 12in Havoc right?

it's 1 12" havoc and the internal volume of the box is 2.3 cubic feet. it's tuned to 33 hertz, with a slot port that is 2"x13.5"

for that cubic footage and tuning the sub shouldn't be bottoming out. what is your SSF set at? what type of music do you listen to? what is the gain on the amp set at and also what pre-out voltage is coming from your head unit?

The ssf on those RF amps is fixed at 12db @ 28hz which might not be high enough if he's tuned to 33.

Does it do it at all frequencies or just low notes?

It will do it on all frequencies if i turn up the volume. It will also do it even when the gain is all the way down on my amp, if the song has loud bass. Most of the music I listen too is rap or dub step. The pre-out voltage on my head unit is 2 volt.

so if you have your gain on the amp set at half the sound is still there? where is the gain usually set at on your amp? what head unit do you have and what are the settings set at on it?

my gain is usually turned up 1/4 and the sound is very loud, louder then the sub, and only starts when i turn up the volume to 45 out of 60. If i turn up the gain at 1/2 then it sounds like it bottoming out or popping at around volume 30. My head unit is the DEH-7300BT. The bass is set at 0 if thats what you were wondering.

Something is blown or almost blown. Is the sub secured to the box well? The box may be leaking/not fully sealed.

but would I be able to hear the leak all the times? also the sub is secured well. I noticed that the sub did this the third day after I bought it brand new.

try puting the sub in another enclosure and see how it performs, like a sealed enclosure that way you can eliminate that from the equation. i think it may be your enclosure

ok I will have to build one. I will post the results in a couple of days

i usually free air the sub on low power to see if i can hear anything mechanically. you can try that first if you want, just turn the volume up a little bit till you get the cone moving on a low frequency test tone.

ok I will what exactly am I listening for?

Scraping or tapping metal.

(The coil scraping the gap or hitting the back plate)

It will probably sound sloppy and chuff-y or airy but that's normal.

So you have 1900 watts on a 1250 watt sub and wondering why it is bottoming?

An obvious question would be does the cone look like it is moving 2" peak to peak? Based on your box, SSF, amount of power, and description of when the problem occurs, I bet you are just pushing it to the mechanical limit.

Brian

could I build a different box to where it won't bottom out? I have heard of people putting 1500-2000 Watts on a havoc daily with no problems.

You did not answer the question - Does the sub cone look like it is moving 2" peak to peak when you hear the noise?

so 2 inches total? if so then yes.

Then you are definitely pushing the mechanical limit.

Lower tuning. Possibliy a little more port area if you have room. It would be nice if you had an adjustable SSF to control things a little better.

so keep the box at 2.3 cubes and lower the tuning to 28-30 hertz? would a 6" aero port be sufficient? or should I go with another slot port?

Turn the gain down a bit.

check your box for any leak.

You have that noise on all songs or not ? It could be the records. I had a noise problem on my btl , I thought I had. But it was only on one bad recorded song !!!! It was scarry.

Good luck

2" ? Wow ! that's a lot. I don't like MY sub to move so much. Bad sign for me !

so I took it out of the box and I noticed when I press on the dust cap on the side it sounds like metal is hitting but when I press in the middle is is fine. I also played it in free air and it sound like it has a little high pitch whine when it plays. the whine gets louder as the frequency gets higher.

That is normal. There is only a small gap between the pole piece and the voice coil former. If you don't press straight down in the center, you are rocking the two pieces together.

The whine is air moving through the gap that cools the coil.

I am pretty sure nothing is wrong with your sub, you are just over drivIng it.

Post up detailed dimensions of your box and I will make sure it is correct.