broke something

[Ike]

Ok, so I just installed my amp and subwoofer this past weekend. I'm cruising around last night listening to some music when I notice that my sub is making funny rattling noises. I think I blew my 200 watt Rockford HE subwoofer. Anyhow it was expected--I'm using a 400 watt amp and I didn't set the gains or crossover properly. I don't know if I should be mad at myself or not, but last night it sure gave me a good laugh. Now I can get an even better subwoofer.

So:
Do you think it is really blown? It still makes bass, just some extra noise, too.
Anyone know what the knobs on the PAC SNI-35 are for; how do I know if I have them set right?
What's a good frequency at which to set the low pass crossover on the amp?
How can I stop my hatch from rattling?

Oh, and I had it way LOUD before it went, so I guess I could alway just turn it down...yeah right [img]graemlins/naughty.gif[/img]

Anything else I'm forgetting?

[ March 23, 2004, 11:24 AM: Message edited by: Ike ]

[eDoog]

Ok, man. First of all, you say it still produces bass. Is it the same ammount of bass as before? And this extra noise, if it sounds like a crackeling then it's just the signal from the amp. I have that, but I never notice it unless I put my ear up to the damned sub. If the rattling is really loud like something is physically rattling around inside your box, you might want to just take the speaker out and see if there is in fact anything bouncing around. Also, get some micro fill at a local stereo store (speaker store). Get a sqaure foot of it (that's ALL you need) for like $5. What it does is dampen the inside of your box and get rid of any echoing that could be happening. It looks like a layer of cotton or fiberglass.

Set the low pass x-over to AS LOW as it can go which should be around 50hz or so. You don't want any mid tones coming through your subs (or at least I don't).

Good luck

Oh and NEVER run your amps at full gain. I would recommend going NO MORE than 3/4 what the amp can put out (and that goes for any amp IMHO). If you keep the amp all the way up, it's likely to overheat and just go into powersave mode which is really annoying when your in the middle of stairway (or Ludacris, whatever the hell you listen to) and the bass cuts out.

[96firebird311]

Originally posted by eDoog:
Oh and NEVER run your amps at full gain. I would recommend going NO MORE than 3/4 what the amp can put out (and that goes for any amp IMHO). If you keep the amp all the way up, it's likely to overheat and just go into powersave mode which is really annoying when your in the middle of stairway (or Ludacris, whatever the hell you listen to) and the bass cuts out.

An amp's output isin't completly dependant on the gain knob. Know your RCA voltage and set the gain accordingly.