WTF kickers!?!?

[purplesyrup]

Well, this thread is a mess isn't it.

[T.A.G. Audio]

Yes it is. People just hating because its about kickers. People thinking their own ways are the best. I just hope this guy gets his stuff sorted out and just forgets all the bs that has been posted. Don't get me wrong I am not at all a fan of kickers but its what he has to play with.

[notorious97200]

Volume up to 50-60 on your head unit may be a little high. I know lots of Pioneer decks start playing bad after 45/62.

try to set your gain at volume 45, or lower.

You could already clip your w7 without hearing it, like some have said.

Kicker makes solid products. And I've always set my gains by ears, without destroying anything, for years. It is not the best way to do it, but it can work very well.

Good luck OP.

[Trey_Dog650]

Look at the tools map in the damore section. See who has a dd1 or oscope near you.

Tell us what the settings of your HU and where your amp is set at.

Pretty disappointed with all the people talking shit about it being kicker and saying that's the problem.

[WillPwn4Food]

Man you will be good to go if you just have someone set your gains. Just look up a tutorial from a credible source to do so if you want to try and do it yourself. Go out there take a look at put the subsonic at about half and put the gain at like 1/2 to 3/4 until you have time to get it looked at. Just to be safe you may want to stay closer the the half way on the gain. And the reason I say half on the subsonic is because that box is probably tuned pretty high.

I giggled.

no i am saying to turn it down until he has time to get it looked at that there is no clipping... Or just don't listen to it at all. You risk damaging your equipment more.

Then I giggled more. 1/2-3/4 Gain? Clip Clip city b****. My old head unit caused my amplifier to start clipping at about 1/4 gain. You won't know where it clips till you check for certain. Everyone's setup is different. First you say 3/4 gain and someone calls you out then you say don't listen to it at all? Uhhhhhh wut? There's a huge difference between trying 1/2-3/4 gain and not listening to it at all. 1/2 gain could easily burn up those subs with an inexperienced person like the OP (No offense buddy. We all start somewhere.) If you don't want to risk burning your stuff up, don't use your system till you get it checked out. If you've got money to blow and don't really care, take this dude's advice. he's 1337.

[T.A.G. Audio]

All I am saying is the gain is probably all the way up right now back it off so that it will hopefully prevent clipping. Keep the hu down and get someone that knows what they are doing to tune it. Good luck man hope you get everything working for ya!

[kickass audio]

OP, I know its a shit storm of post dumping and nonsense in here so I hope you read this.

I didnt read that you checked the temperature of your cone or the motor on the sub. If you could take the backside of your hand and put it on the middle area of the cone after the sub starts to get a faint smell to it. It should barely be warm for a good sub. Also do the same thing with your backhand to the motor as the motors get hot too since the heat of the voice coil transfers to the motor for dissipation. Also the CHP cd does clip a really good amount on songs so that is deff a problem you are facing. If you have a remote knob for your subwoofer amp Id recommend turning it down to about 1/4 to 1/2 from minimum when playing the CHP album. Again some songs have hardcore clipping in them and some only a minimal amount and when it comes to clipping you cannot play clipped songs very long as the heat build up on the voice coil will rapidly get hotter and will eventually melt down the epoxy on the voice coil that holds it together and then will make the coil either blow or split apart. Sometimes if you are not clipping and have a good signal newer subwoofers have a smell to them as the coils were never heated up before from daily use so they will sometimes smell for the first few weeks of normal unclipped use.

Either way I really think you are clipping the sub too hard and thats what is causing your problems. Turn down the gain on your amplifier a little bit and see how much that helps. And before you come back saying it, turning the gain down will decrease the power going to your sub and make them get quieter the further down you turn it but the gain knob is not a volume knob. The gain knob is made to match the voltage level of the signal going into the amplifiers RCA inputs. An O-scope or dd-1 are the best tools out there to help protect against clipping. Also on your amp if there is a bass boost knob, turn it completely off. Bass boost is the killer of all subs if you do not know the limits of it. Finally you should take the subwoofers out and look at the voice coils on them. On your sub depending on the age of it there are usually little vent holes in the basket where you can move the subwoofer up and down and you will see the copper voice coil. Pull the subwoofer upwards WITHOUT ripping the surround or spider and inspect the coil. If the coil is black then you are clipping and your voicecoil is on the verge of failure. If its like an oxidized copper look where its tan then thats fine. If you were near me Id setup your stuff for you free of charge but im in NY and you are way down south lol.

Let me know if you have any other questions about this.

edit: I noticed your picture above. If that is how yours is setup try reversing them in the box so that the motor is in the box instead of being out. I have heard from plenty of people and also noticed it myself when I tried it that the air flow around the voice coil and the coil gap is better when the motors are in the enclosure as opposed to being out of the enclosure in vented box situations. Either way you will still smell it but it can help a little bit with cooling. Id still check out what I said and go from there.

[P4killer_]

yea i was gonna say start with the h.u 50-60 on the vol kinda sounds pretty high. what about loudness or bass boost or your sub level what are all those? you could be boosting the bejezuzz out of the signal = insta clip

[Crandis16]

Volume up to 50-60 on your head unit may be a little high. I know lots of Pioneer decks start playing bad after 45/62.

try to set your gain at volume 45, or lower.

You could already clip your w7 without hearing it, like some have said.

Kicker makes solid products. And I've always set my gains by ears, without destroying anything, for years. It is not the best way to do it, but it can work very well.

Good luck OP.

mine clips around 54-56, I've put it an o-scope 3 separate times and got different results each time lol

[Crandis16]

let's help this guy out, he asks a question and instead of helping him, they bash his choice in brand

what you want to do is use an o-scope to find the volume that your HU clips at... pick a reasonable frequency tone and play that full tilt on the HU, at the same time turn the gain up on the amp (starting at 0) until your o-scope detects distortion to the subs