Just needing advice

[Hometheaterbasshead]

I had posted in the show off ride about my home theater system that has a ton of bass, I am running 2 TS series audio pipe 15 inch subs, along with 4 TXX-BD3 15s in a seperate cabinet. Recently I decided to up the power to the 4 BD series subs, as I was running a cheap Planet Audio SA-6000D. I ordered a APCL 3000D Audio Pipe amp, installed in replacing the Planet Audio to the BD series. Within about 10 minutes of playing the subs, I could smell them getting hot. I shut everything down, rechecked wiring, made sure all connections were good, in which everything checked out ok. Once again tried playing the subs, and Bam, hot smell, and one of the subs blew. I ordered the BD series from Sonic Electronics online, and the Amp from Amazon.com. Both of the orders were new stuff, not used. I thought maybe I just had a bad voice coil in the sub that blew, maybe a fluke. I turned in a RA for a return to sonic, which the applied, and sent the sub back to them. Not wanting to wait for the sub to get back, I decided to go to my local Audio Pipe dealer here in my home town, and order one from him.

My thoughts of this would be "hey I'll have a spare sub when Sonic sends my warrantied sub back to me" Got the sub from my local dealer, took it home installed it, everything was good. Since the sub was not broke in, we kept the volume at a low setting, and could smell a speaker getting hot once again, just couldnt tell which one was getting hot. WTF was my thoughts, trying to diagnos what the hell was going on, I turned the gain completely down on the amp, and let it play at a low volume, not 7 minutes went by and SCREETCH!!!!!!!!!! All 4 of the BD series locked up tighter than a stuck up rich chick. Started cussing and throwing things as I am at a loss what is going on. Decided to wonder if I received a bad bunch of subs, decided to hook the same amp up to the TS series (that I have had for 7 years) 2 (4) Ohm subs, at a 2 ohm load is perfect for this amp. Now keep in mind the amp is all the way down, minimal volume on the receiver, not 2 minutes later could smell the TS series getting hot. I shut everything down and haven't touched it since.

So at this I call my local stereo guy for his opinion and help, he was shocked at what I had told him of the situation. Considering I ordered all this stuff online, and from 2 different companies, good luck getting my money back. I contacted Amazon in which they told me I could return the amp for a refund, and I have not contacted Sonic Electronics about the other 3 now blown. My stereo guy suggested to call Audio Pipe and tell them the scenario and what happened, in which I talked to Brian at Audio Pipe, told him the whole story, in which he consistently said "there are so many factors that could be happening to the wrong box, to an issue with the system itself, if there was an issue with the amp, then it would have went into protection."

Now am I just crazy here to think that I got a bad amp, one that worked but however had an internal issue that would cause subs to over-heat and not go into protection? I understand that I went to more power, and that in itself can blow a sub, but these subs are rated for this amp, and it did so with the amp turned all the way down, so am I smoking dope here? I am so frustrated with this whole scenario, Audio Pipe said that I can send the amp back, they would test it and see if there is truly something going on with it, if there is an issue "they can work something out with the blown subs". but if they don't find any issues with the amp, then I am pretty much in the same boat as I am now. What I see as a defective amp, 4 blown TX BD 15 s and not a leg to stand on!!!!!! So one, the only thing that changed in the scenario was the amp itself, same wiring, same setup, same head unit setting, same everything that worked just fine, but do you really think that Audio Pipe will be like "Yes Ben, the amp is defective we will warranty 900.00 dollars in subs and send you a new amp right away" or just say the amp is fine you are screwed.

Just wanting to go postal here FFS!!

[n8ball2013]

It's audiopipe. It doesn't really have he most sparkling of reputation man. This is about what I'd expect from a low end company

[kirill007]

I hope you've learned your lesson now..

I'm even suprised someone could pick up the phone at audiopipe.

[Hometheaterbasshead]

Yes because I'm sure Rockford, or any of the other manufactures either High priced or Low priced would jump at the chance to admit to a customer that a defective amp blew 5 subs and would just send you new ones. It's not a lost fact that most people on here don't like Audio Pipe, might also not be a lone fact that not everyone can afford to drop a ton of money on their systems, nor want to compete with their systems, some do it as a hobby on a limited budget. That being said, some have to take what they can get, work with it the best they can and go from there, with what they have, I was asking for advice on maybe rectifying the issue, not advice of how I should have dropped 1000s of dollars on name brand product, the obvious stand point would have been that from the beginning. I was wanting insight if any that anyone knew if there was a way to get what I paid for back to me, without costing me a ton of money.

[n8ball2013]

Ok then from the viewpoint of the company what he told you is what I would tell you. The gear is stupid. It only does of it what you ask of it. So the one behind the dials is the weak point and the decisions you make. If you want to rectify the issue and cheaply you have one option rigt now. Take them up on their offer and hope they find something more wrong with the amp than the fact it's a dirty power amp. When that comes back as ok start piecing it all back together.

[Jhunt94]

what are you using to power the amp? if your pulling low voltage you could be clipping.

[kirill007]

Yes because I'm sure Rockford, or any of the other manufactures either High priced or Low priced would jump at the chance to admit to a customer that a defective amp blew 5 subs and would just send you new ones. It's not a lost fact that most people on here don't like Audio Pipe, might also not be a lone fact that not everyone can afford to drop a ton of money on their systems, nor want to compete with their systems, some do it as a hobby on a limited budget. That being said, some have to take what they can get, work with it the best they can and go from there, with what they have, I was asking for advice on maybe rectifying the issue, not advice of how I should have dropped 1000s of dollars on name brand product, the obvious stand point would have been that from the beginning. I was wanting insight if any that anyone knew if there was a way to get what I paid for back to me, without costing me a ton of money.

Rockford's quality control would prevent that from happening.

You said the subs you bought were 900 dollar, you could easily buy quality gear for that amount of money.

For budget builds I buy second hand quality equipment. And obviously don't expect to buy 12 12's and 25kw worth of amps for a buck fiddy.

[Swampy]

So wait, are you using a car amp for home audio that is connected to a dc power supply, or is the amp made ti be used on a wall socket?

[kirill007]

It seems like everyone is calling it a budget build unless the equipment costs exceeds 2k $.

I once did a budget build for a friend, cost him 70 € on equipment and about 150€ in installation material (MDF,deadening,..)

[Hometheaterbasshead]

The system is running off of (2) 12 volt 100 amp power supplies using 3 gel cells to substain power, the system as it sits never drops below 13 volts, so I don't think the amp is clipping from low voltage. We have decided that we are sending the 15 s back to Audio Pipe, and have purchased 4 New sundown audio subs, are going to try the same scenario, if the Sundown subs start getting hot, we are pulling the amp and sending it back for a refund as the subs we have purchased should be perfectly matched to the current APCL 3000.

Rockford's quality control would prevent that from happening.

So you believe that Rockford has never let one thing go from their factory that maybe slipped by quality control? Perfect world he lives in I guess. I was more refering to the issue that it's different strokes for different folks. Some companies make decent products when it comes to some things, other things they suck at. When I bought my TS-PC series subs made by Audio Pipe 7 years ago, I was looking for cheap subs to fill a cabinet. I have driven them hard for 7 years, and they have withstood some punishment, I was impressed with the subs, which prompted me to buy all of their mids and highs for my center channel, and front left and right channels. Love the tweeter, and mid ranges that Audio Pipe makes. I have a friend that has (4) TXX-BD-12s in a suburban which I thought had decent bass response. So if one person likes a certain brand then so be it, after speaking with Audio Pipe again today, they said that the subs power rating was more of a "burp" scenario, and are not designed to be driven at that wattage. My response to this was that they should at least inform a potential consumer of such things before they buy. So after being impressed with the stuff from Audio Pipe that I already had, yes I thought to give their subs a shot, however now, it's at the point that I am installing subs that are designed to do exactly as I want.

You said the subs you bought were 900 dollar, you could easily buy quality gear for that amount of money.

For budget builds I buy second hand quality equipment. And obviously don't expect to buy 12 12's and 25kw worth of amps for a buck fiddy.

I must edit that post I spent a little over 500.00 on the (4) 15's that I had, and I have never had much luck buying second hand car audio in the 15 or so years I have been messing with it.