Rattle from inside the sub box? [UPDATE: Tinsel Slap Issue fixed with Felt Pads]

[twalker182]

I had the exact same problem with a Sundown SD12. Still hit hard but would rattle the more I turned it up. I also thought it was something loose in my box. I sent it back to Sundown. Four days later had a brand new sub on my porch. I never did get confirmation from Sundown what was actually wrong though.

[Kyblack76]

Bubbled coil/dinged/bent former. Triple joint failure of some kind.

Take driver out. Push on it. Free air it. Listen.

Cody has forgot more about building boxes than most on here know. I highly doubt anything is wrong with the enclosure. Just my .02

[moh.vze.com]

UPDATE: Looks like a portion of my Tinsel on my DC Audio XLM2 came unstitched and is slapping the cone....








See Vid:

How do I stitch that Tinsel Lead back to the spider?

[audiofanaticz]

How do I stitch that Tinsel Lead back to the spider?

With a needle and thread, unless you have a shrink-ray and can make a sewing machine fit.

But really though, without being to access both sides of the spiders it will be hard to push the needle back up and through.

Might be able to use some dabs of glue, but that would most likely fail rather quickly since the spiders are moving and you wouldn't want to make them stiff in some spots because that could cause the coil to become uneven and possibly rub.

So best option for a temporary fix is get some adhesive backed felt pads (even the soft/furry side of velcro would work) on the bottom of the cone where the tinsels slap the cone.

Similar to what Fi use to do on woofers before they had integrated leads to soften the tinsel slap.

Ideally your best option order some recones up so you have them when the current tinsels fail.

Which doesn't look like that will be too long from now judging by their condition and showing signs of heat, which is mostly caused by a weak connection due to the tinsels fraying from the slapping.

[Skullz]

Curved Upholstery Needles, and some very strong upholstery thread and use some needle nose pliers to help thread it.

Good luck cause there ain't a helluva a lot of room in there, but it can be done with some time and patience.

Make sure you lift the cone up as much as possible to give you all the room you can get.

[audiofanaticz]

Fighting your way through 4 spiders, and having to fight the magnet shall be fun indeed. LOL

[moh.vze.com]

I've inspected it some more and there appears to be a tiny tear on the spider where the coil came apart. It's about a 1-3 centimeter tear.

I think the best solution for now is to do:

"So best option for a temporary fix is get some adhesive backed felt pads (even the soft/furry side of velcro would work) on the bottom of the cone where the tinsels slap the cone."

Where can I buy this stuff? Can you link me to it so that I buy the correct items?

In addition, I probably will need a recone at a later time and am wondering if any certified DC Audio reps in the Portland Oregon area?

Also, how the hell could this even had happened? My second sub looks good and barely has any tinsel slap...

Edit: Just bought these felt pads from eBay:

FELT PAD 4" SQUARE 1/16

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3x-BLACK-4x4in-FELT-PAD-4-SQUARE-1-16-THICK-SELF-PEEL-STICK-100mmx100mmx1-6mm-/250988687237?hash=item3a70176f85:m:mBXvn7x7UupMAWaV45_p1Zw

In case the adhesive is not good enough is there a recommended glue to be used on the sub cone with the felt pad?

[audiofanaticz]

It depends where the tear is.

Would almost have to see a picture.

Sometimes around the triple joint glue it looks like the spider is torn but its just the glue bead that has broke away from the spider around the edge is common and not really a tear.

If its a tear that goes across the rolls of the spider it is typically from over excursion which can be caused from a number of things such as too much power, playing below box tuning, etc.

If the tear is where the tinsel was stitched its kinda common again since the spider is somewhat weaker do to the stitching and over time it just weakens from the abuse.

As for how it could happen, could be many things, it would be fairly hard to pinpoint why.

For all you know your box could of been unloading 1 woofer more than the other because you frequently drive with 1 window down, or it could be a simple case of those tinsels being slightly shorter than the ones on the other woofer and over time of them being pulled slightly tighter during when the woofer was moving and wore out the stitching, its really hard to tell.

As for glue, something simple like contact cement would be fine, just make sure you coat the pad and the bottom side of the woofer where the pad is going.

Allow the glue to dry to the touch before mating the two together, then press the pads on firmly.
Or even a rubber glue

When you do recone, I would recone both woofers at the same time as well.

[moh.vze.com]

Updated: Added Felt pads and no more tinsel slap flap noise on sub!

I didn't add any to my second sub though because there were 0 signs of any Tinsel slap problems on that sub.

I also bought the Second Skin Audio Trunk Package and got a free Speaker Tweaker!

I sealed off my trunk like everyone suggested with some of that Second Skin Sound Deadener and now I feel like I have 1/4 more SPL inside my cabin than before!

[Kyblack76]

Figured it was something with a driver. You've gotten those leads hot. I would get recones comin if was you.