Cadence S1W12 getting really hot with low power

[BassJunkie27]

So it's been a long time since I've used this forum and I couldn't find a specific topic for asking non-idea related questions about subs, so I thought I'd try in here. If this is the wrong place for this question, please redirect me.

Anyways, this is my dilemma. There's been a long going debate on whether or not subs need to go through a break in period. I believe they do, but regardless, I have a Cadence S1W12 here that my friend ordered. I'm installing his whole system and what not and I told him I'd initially break the sub in for him so he has less to worry about. I understand it'll take longer than a couple days just to break in a sub, but at least it's not totally fresh when he wants to crank it. It's a dual 2 ohm ran in series to give me 4 ohms. I have it hooked up to a Crown XLS1000 in my house, which is rated to do only 350wrms at 4 ohms with one channel driven. I don't know what my amp actually does, so lets just say it does around that number. The Cadence is rated for 450wrms. I have it in the box it will be going in, which is a prefab 1.3 ft^3 and tuned to 34hz. Cadence recommends 1.25 ft^3 tuned to 50hz for the flattest response, but I don't have the resources to build him a custom box and this prefab is really close to the recommended size, plus it's pretty decently built. The sub/box combo sounds absolutely fantastic. It's deep, punchy, clean, accurate, and can even handle the higher notes no problem. It's not boomy or anything at all, sounds awesome. The problem is, I'm giving the sub around 300-350wrms, and it's getting way hotter than it should be for it's rating. The dustcap gets a lil warm, but the pole piece vent walls are really hot, and I'm not even giving it its rated power! Is this just cause it's going through it's break in period and will eventually go away? Or can this sub not actually handle 450wrms? Cadence specifies its xmax as 16mm as well, but doesn't specify whether that's one way or not.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[purplesyrup]

Maybe your clipping it.

and xmax means excursion one way. Not total peak to peak

[BassJunkie27]

Maybe your clipping it.

and xmax means excursion one way. Not total peak to peak

I actually know for a fact that I'm not clipping it. The Crown has a clipping indicator light, and I'm purposely keeping it beneath that lol.

And thanks, never fully understood that.

[SnowDrifter]

Does it smell? Some heat is normal. In fact, most of the power you put to a sub is turned to heat.

How did you set gains?

[BassJunkie27]

Does it smell? Some heat is normal. In fact, most of the power you put to a sub is turned to heat.

How did you set gains?

Depends what you mean by smell. It's not smell in the terms of slightly burning resin or anything, but it does smell of heat, if you know what I mean.

I set the gains as is:

But it's pretty complicated. Basically that's what the amp is seeing and putting out. The receiver has the "sub" output set to +15dB, but the sub output on the receiver is extremely small apparently, because in order to get the amp to put out good power, that's how much I have to turn up the amp. It's a very good amp though, there's no buzzing or anything coming from it even though the gain is set so high.

[CleanSierra]

How are you feeling the pole piece with the sub mounted in the box. And you're saying that that walls of the inside of the port are getting hot too? Im going to venture a guess and say that you only set the gain by ear then, our just left it in the position it was originally at, correct? You have not O-scoped or actually CHECKED the signal to make sure it's clean right, you're trusting a light?

[CleanSierra]

And we all know the Crown is a legit amp, your method of setting the gain might be the problem. But this pole piece has me seriously intrigued. Do you play the sub, then yank it out of the box really quickly? Are you unscrewing the sub out of the enclosure to do this?

[BassJunkie27]

How are you feeling the pole piece with the sub mounted in the box. And you're saying that that walls of the inside of the port are getting hot too? Im going to venture a guess and say that you only sweet the gain by ear then, our just left it in the position it was originally at, correct? You have not O-scoped or actually CHECKED the signal to make sure it's clean right, you're trusting a light?

I'm feeling the pole piece because I do not have the sub screwed into the box because the sub cutout isn't big enough so I'm still in the process of sanding it to make it big enough. Oh I never said the port walls of the box are getting hot, that'd be a seriously big problem haha! Yea I've only "sweeted" the gain by ear, but I'm pretty good at that. There's no distortion coming from the speaker at all. I also don't know what you mean by left it in the position it was originally at. No I have not O-scoped it or actually checked the signal, I have no means of doing so, so yep I'm trusting a light lol.

[BassJunkie27]

And we all know the Crown is a legit amp, your method of setting the gain might be the problem. But this pole piece has me seriously intrigued. Do you play the sub, then yank it out of the box really quickly? Are you unscrewing the sub out of the enclosure to do this?

I'm pretty sure the gain isn't set improperly, as I'm pretty sure there's no way of me doing that in this setup. Could you explain what you mean by that?

I play the sub, and then turn down the volume really far or mute it completely as to make sure I'm not overextending it by free-airing it with way too much power when I pull it out lol. So I make sure I don't damage it in that sense.

[CleanSierra]

Sorry for my horrific Swype autocorrections, they were bad. Port=pet, sweeted=set, our=or.

My bet is that what you're smelling is nothing wrong. It could be excess glue burning off, and as Snow mentioned, Heat is what most of your energy is converted into with a subwoofer. If the dustcap was too hot to touch, then you may have a problem.