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Frying an hcca12


Lowki

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I have a hcca 122 black coil. It's wired to a t2500bdcp at 1 ohm with a xs3400 battery and a mechman 320amp alternator all wires are 1/0 etc. Anyways my gain is turned up about 25 30 percent I have the remote bass knob turned all the way down. Infrasonic filter is turned on. My voltage stays about 14.6 to 14.0 even with the amp all the way turned up measured at the amp. So the problem i think may be with my box. According to spec its about .7c.f. too small it's a vented box. What happens is the clipping light on the amp becomes burried in the red when the sub isn't even turned up that much id say it's about 1500 watts it starts hitting the red zone. Now I can keep turning it up and it gets wayyy louder but then the amp is constantly clipping throwing the thermal light eventually after 20 minutes. Is this sub just not loud enough for me or is the culprit the box. Will a box that's .7cf too small cause the amp to clip alot sooner. Is this what I'm experiencing? Like I said the sub sounds about like it's half way up when the amp start clipping there's sop much more volume I can get if i keep turning it up but I know it's going to smoke the sub. What's going on here!!! Lol thanks

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I’m not sure I understand entirely. Are you saying you tried turning the gain on the amp all the way up? Or did you turn the head unit all the way up? 

The first thing you might check is if your head unit is the type that has a subwoofer level on it. Mine is an alpine and until I figured out I had to set it to +15 I had all sorts of trouble. Hope it’s something simple. Good luck.

oh yeah, and disconnecting my battery will set the sub level back to zero so I have to remember to go back in and set it back again.

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The gain on your amp isnt a volume knob. Its there so you can match the input signal coming from the headunit. Your sending shit tons of distortion to your sub and will kill it eventually. You need a dd1 or oscope to properly set your gain on the amp. Your headunit sub out should be 0. As well as any bass boost.

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Mathewyocham I have to disagree that sub out level should be set to  0  on all head units when setting gains. Maybe this is true for some, but with Alpine if you don't set it to +15 you won't get much of a signal at all. I have read this in countless places, which I know doesn't prove anything, but in my experience I can't really hear my subs unless I set the gain with the sub level maxed out.

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Also bret are u talking bout those rockford 10s u have in a cheap prefab box? The reason you have to do that is because of your box. Build a properly specd ported box and your output will increase alot.

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5 hours ago, Lowki said:

I have a hcca 122 black coil. It's wired to a t2500bdcp at 1 ohm with a xs3400 battery and a mechman 320amp alternator all wires are 1/0 etc. Anyways my gain is turned up about 25 30 percent I have the remote bass knob turned all the way down. Infrasonic filter is turned on. My voltage stays about 14.6 to 14.0 even with the amp all the way turned up measured at the amp. So the problem i think may be with my box. According to spec its about .7c.f. too small it's a vented box. What happens is the clipping light on the amp becomes burried in the red when the sub isn't even turned up that much id say it's about 1500 watts it starts hitting the red zone. Now I can keep turning it up and it gets wayyy louder but then the amp is constantly clipping throwing the thermal light eventually after 20 minutes. Is this sub just not loud enough for me or is the culprit the box. Will a box that's .7cf too small cause the amp to clip alot sooner. Is this what I'm experiencing? Like I said the sub sounds about like it's half way up when the amp start clipping there's sop much more volume I can get if i keep turning it up but I know it's going to smoke the sub. What's going on here!!! Lol thanks

The box would need to be 2-2.5 cubic feet net with about 40 square inches of port area, post dimensions of the box, port etc., a sketch would be best.

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No I mean the gain On the amp is barley turned up. Its about 25 percent. It's not turned up that high the headunit is a atoto a6 pro which I kinda hate. I just feel like the amp is saying the output is clipping way too soon. I mean the sub gets 3 times louder if I turn up the bass boost on The punch as remote. I understand the gain setting that's not what's going on here. I feel like this sub is not handling that much power I wondered if maybe it's due to the box. The box I have is 2.5cf od and with the sub I assume it's much too small

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A smaller box will help a sub handle more power. 

Clipping has NOTHING to do with the sub.

Also how much the gain is "turned up" is unimportant.

It's about matching levels with the source unit so that clipping doesn't occur. That may be with the gain turned up little bit or a lot depending on the source.   The higher voltage output from the head unit usually means less gain.

Like was said above, use a DD-1 or O-scope and properly set your gains.  You are sending you amp into protect likely from clipping the heck out of it by jacking the bass knob up. 

If that sub isn't hitting hard with that much power then your box is built wrong for it.

 

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