Subs crackle when bass knob turned up

[michigancapri92]

ok so i just replaced my to p1s for two t200 12s and they are in the right spec box and running on a p300-1, everything on my system worked perfectly and sounded great and i changed the subs and now it seems like the subwoofers are distorting at low frequencies, the cones get warm rather quickly and the last thing i am noticing is that when i turn my Rockford punch knob up my subwoofers kind of crackle while i turn the bass knob up ... any ideas what it could be ? am i clipping the subwoofers ?? i went from two 150rms 10" woofers to two 200rms 12" subwoofers but the box specs are in spec for the t200-12s so i dont know what it could be.

Edited July 18, 2011 by michigancapri92

[DRauck]

Sounds like clipping. Lower your gains

[michigancapri92]

should i re-adjust the amp? would changing the subs change the way the amp works? old subs and new subs were both 4ohm VC and i have them wired to 2ohms, any idea why the subs would crackle with the bass knob ?? doesn't matter what level volume

Edited July 18, 2011 by michigancapri92

[kickass audio]

It sounds 100% like you are clipping your subs. When speakers get warm or hot, they are almost always being clipped which is very bad for them. Back down your gain some and see if you can get them to run cooler.

Now for the crackling with the remote knob, sometimes its just an issue with where the knob conducts its current and adjusts its power. The easy fix is to look for just a new knob, no wire needed and swap it out, or you can do the hard part and try to take it apart and see what is causing it to crackle. Really old knobs that i used to fix way back in the day had issues where the conductive surface wore down and wasnt conducting well so i just took some graphite and put it on the surface and it worked fine after that but again this shouldnt be what you need to do.

My bass knob for my 3sixty.2 (it is set as a volume knob right now though) when i have the knob set directly in the middle, i noticed that the volume is jumpy and will go up and down a lot unless i turn the gain up or down a little more on that same knob.

[kam311]

2 ohms each or 2ohms all together?? (because 2 dvc4's dont wire down to 2ohms together) unless they are single voice coil subs... maybe you dont really have them at the ohm load that you think you do?

[Platinumzs1k]

mine crackles too man its the punch EQ. i think it only does it when you turn it up when no bass is hitting.. just turn it up slow

[michigancapri92]

2 ohms each or 2ohms all together?? (because 2 dvc4's dont wire down to 2ohms together) unless they are single voice coil subs... maybe you dont really have them at the ohm load that you think you do?

the subs are 4ohm SVC parallel i checked the ohm rating at the amp its 2ohms ( i have a cheap ddm that only goes down to 2000 ohm reading so i cand see 2._ readings :-( ... ) im going to recheck my gains tomorrow and re set them ... does anyone know how to set the gains on a rockford punch amp .... i have never understood how to set the amp with the punch knob and the punch EQ .... any help on setting that would be awesome !!!! and whats a good test tone to set the gain with 50hz ??

kind of confused that with my 150rms subs they worked prfect and then i switch to 200rms subs and change nothing but the subs and they start clipping .... uhhh car audio will never stop confusing me

[kickass audio]

To set the gains, most of the time a -6 or -4db tone will be good for most songs. I went above and beyond and used a pure 0db tone so i will NEVER have any clipping in my system at all as i have never seen a song go over 0db for the level. As for tuning the amp gains, try to turn down the punch eq (not the freq but the actual gain part for it) and only use it very slightly, you dont want to use boost as it can screw up your stuff bad and cause more clipping.

[michigancapri92]

To set the gains, most of the time a -6 or -4db tone will be good for most songs. I went above and beyond and used a pure 0db tone so i will NEVER have any clipping in my system at all as i have never seen a song go over 0db for the level. As for tuning the amp gains, try to turn down the punch eq (not the freq but the actual gain part for it) and only use it very slightly, you dont want to use boost as it can screw up your stuff bad and cause more clipping.

and thats what confuses me ... the rockford bass knob controls the punch eq so its quite hard to set the amp to have low bass with knob all the way down and high bass with bass knob all the way up .... where can i get a good 0db 50hz test tone .... want to make sure its a good one that i know is 0db

[kickass audio]

I just make my tracks on audacity. its a totally free program and i never had issues with it.

Honestly, if it was my setup heres what i would do. Disconnect the wire that runs the remote knob when you are setting everything so that it isnt put in the mix of screwing things up. Then turn the punch eq all the way down and if you have a scope (which is really the only good way to set a gain unless you have meades dd-1 tool) then set the gains just right and adjust the punch eq after that a little bit. NEVER I REPEAT NEVER use the punch eq as a way to make the bass punchier sounding or louder as it is going to clip your shit and fry something. I would turn it up so far and then when its to a level you like, plug in the remote knob and call it a day.

For the crossover points, i think you have some confusion and maybe a misconfiguration on it. For lowpass, i like setting them to 80-90Hz TOPS, i usually stick with 80Hz for lowpass, and for highpass, you want it to be just above the tuning of your box. For example if your box was tuned to 30Hz like mine will be, then i will set the highpass to 30-31Hz. The reason for this is so that you dont feed a tone lower than what your box can reproduce and bottom out your subs and wreck them (and thats one thing i KNOW how to do from past experience, learn from my dumbass mistakes) So if you know your box tuning, set the highpass around that tuning and you will be satisfied with the results.