Why does my subwoofer smoke when it bottoms out?

freehub

As above, some audio expert should know, I wish I could limit it, even my parents ancient sony home theatre has a limiter on, it gets no louder when it starts bottoming out but it's so loud I can't hear anything wrong with the sub, apart from smoke either comes from it or the amp?

It's a Z5500.

Thanks
Will.

Scrumple

can't quite follow you....

try writing that again with some full stops. Do you mean it is getting so loud it goes flat and booms?
If so, its just down to the amplifier being cheap.

Smoke.... most odd. Is something burning, a short circuit???

freehub

Goes flat and booms? No, the bass still sounds normal, just it starts smoking, although, sometimes, if I can try and hear it, say if it's just bass. I hear the sub clicking, even my last set did this, but that set died due to a control panel failure.

redddraggon

Probably the sh!t you listen to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC68MF4cS0o

freehub

Oh come on, I was 16 then!

I didn't even know what a bike was then.

ravey1981

You are putting too much power through the speaker, the coils in the electromagnet are getting too hot. They are smoking because they are burning out. No-wonder you're last set did this if you are consistently putting too much power (watts) through you're speakers.

Always use speakers with a higher rating than you're amp.

It's not rocket science.

_Brun_

A youtube video to demonstrate how good your subwoofer is.

Where to start?

freehub

ravey1981 wrote:

You are putting too much power through the speaker, the coils in the electromagnet are getting too hot. They are smoking because they are burning out. No-wonder you're last set did this if you are consistently putting too much power (watts) through you're speakers.

Always use speakers with a higher rating than you're amp.

It's not rocket science.

I don't play it very loud often. The last set died due to control panel failure, the sub was fine. It's not a proper separate audio system, it's an all in one. The older versions of the system had very high failure rate, I've had this set for years now and it's being fine, it's amazing value for the 200 quid it cost ages ago. Just wish the sub had some fail-safe if it does get too hot or some limiting device on it.

Some guy is bringing his decks down one day and they are only 6" drivers, Rockit or something I believe, and the SQ on those is immense compared to my speakers and the bass is pretty impressive too. I might lay aside 200-300 quid, I'm not rich I can't afford spending like 1000 quid on a velodyne sub. and buy a 2.1 setup, my Z5500 can be for movies.

Would it be possible for me to fit a bigger more powerful 10" sub in it, that would be able to go just as loud, but not bottom out if it's higher rating than the amp? The sub is 188W and the amp is 500W, but has 5 sattelite speakers on it.

skyd0g

I doubt if your amp is truly 500 watts. That figure is probably calculated by combining the Peak Music Power Output (PMPO) from all five channels added together. The true wattage will be much less expressed as a truer RMS figure.

Chances are when it's wound-up the amp is 'clipping' (sending out a distorted signal) which won't help the longevity of the the sub-woofer.

Anonymous

Aaaah. Will. Quantity not quality... :roll:

Wheelspinner

MTFU. Get one of these.

http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/wilson_xs_sub.htm

Anonymous

This...

http://www.rotarywoofer.com/index.htm

Or this...

http://www.royaldevice.com/custom.htm#THE%20REAL%20TOTAL%20HORN

mask of sanity

freehub wrote:

Oh come on, I was 16 then!

I didn't even know what a bike was then.

What's music got to do with cycling?

a_n_t

I'm selling these, for the price of a decent set of wheels

freehub

mask of sanity wrote:

freehub wrote:

Oh come on, I was 16 then!

I didn't even know what a bike was then.

What's music got to do with cycling?

Everything.


And regarding the PMPO, according to Logitech, it's 500W RMS and 1000W max, although they reckon the sattelites are 60W RMS or around that, but the 3" drivers are made by a company called Tangband, and show that the "60W RMS" drivers are actually 12W RMS.

So what is this clipping exactly, why does the amp send out a distorted signal?


How much for those speakers ant?

NapoleonD wrote:

Aaaah. Will. Quantity not quality... :roll:

No.

I was looking at separates before I took up cycling, but then cycling took my money.

I was thinking, BK Monolith subwoofer, some B&W monitors, never decided on the amp.

These Z5500's are undoubtedly amazing value for the money, of course they don't match up anywhere near the quality of proper speakers.

ColinJ

freehub wrote:

So what is this clipping exactly, why does the amp send out a distorted signal?

I was going to explain it myself but you might as well just read this article on Wikipedia.

freehub

From reading that page, seems it points to the amplifier being ****, so it's possible the sub could go further with a decent amplifier and even if I put a new sub in the box, it'd still clip because it's actually the amplifier.

rake

ever heard of tinitus freehub?

greasedscotsman

NapoleonD wrote:

This...

http://www.rotarywoofer.com/index.htm

Or this...

http://www.royaldevice.com/custom.htm#THE%20REAL%20TOTAL%20HORN

Nice Ev3 10 KHz square wave response? :?

freehub

rake wrote:

ever heard of tinitus freehub?

Yes and I don't have it

ColinJ

freehub wrote:

rake wrote:

ever heard of tinitus freehub?

Yes and I don't have it

That's what I said too, but now I do!

I can't hear a phone ring unless I'm in the same room, struggle in noisy environments like pubs and often have to ask people to repeat themselves because I can't quite catch what they are saying.

There are certain frequencies that I just can't hear now and I don't just mean the usual loss of high frequencies with age.

That's what comes of sticking your head into bass bins at concerts and turning amps up to '11'... :?

freehub

I always ask people to repeat themselves, pretty often, but that's only cause I'm not 100% sure what they said and want to be sure, I think that's more selective hearing though.

a_n_t

freehub wrote:

How much for those speakers ant?

500 for the dynaudios and i'll chuck in the 300w samson amp I was using.

I'm guessing you cant afford them tho?

freehub

No, as I need to buy new wheels

il_principe

Meh - you want a decent sub

freehub

I was wanting this some time ago before I discovered cycling:

http://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/Sub_Woofers/monolith.htm

mmitchell88

freehub wrote:

Some guy is bringing his decks down one day and they are only 6" drivers, Rockit or something I believe, and the SQ on those is immense compared to my speakers and the bass is pretty impressive too. I might lay aside 200-300 quid, I'm not rich I can't afford spending like 1000 quid on a velodyne sub. and buy a 2.1 setup, my Z5500 can be for movies.

If anyone actually said this kind of stuff to me in real life, I'd wonder just what was going on - I mean, REALLY going on - in the world. It's this sort of thing which pushes me towards thinking the Daily Mail is actually telling the truth!

And then I remember Will is a student and we nearly persuaded him to do something bad in his flatmate's handbag. He's one of the good guys