subwoofer clicking

hi all I have a question about a kenwood 10" subwoofer.  I actually have two of them in a sealed box running at 250 watts rms and they are rated at 300 watts rms.  My question is that while these things are playing especially low notes one of them would make a very distinct clicking noise when moving.  Upon removing it from the box i found no visible damage as far as the outside of the spider being torn or separated from the cone.  Now when I would physically push the woofer cone all the way in I would hear this click.  It seems to play perfectly fine and when I turned down the gain on the amp a little bit it would stop clicking and play just fine.  Now I guess I am wondering what the noise could possibly be and if it really isn't terrible sounding should I just keep playing it and see what happens.  My fear is that the inner spider is separated due to over excursion.

You are overpowering that woofer. "What?" I hear you ask... Yep. That 300 watts is the ELECTRICAL power capacity of that device, not the MECHANICAL power capacity. The mechanical power capacity is GREATLY determined by the enclosure, and for THAT woofer, the enclosure is wrong. What is the volume of your enclosure, currently? What is the recommended volume? Stick with me here. That woofer is 1) manufactured, with all of it's associated manufacturing processes and supply chains, and 2) mechanical. Kenwood CAN NOT test every piece of every woofer that comes into their assembly plant, they simply can't afford it, either monetarily or from the time standpoint: they have to take THEIR supplier's word for it. Just because a manufacturer states a set of parameters for a given set of devices, that doesn't mean that there are SOME of those devices that can and do fall outside of the specified parameters, and it's possible that more than one given parameter can fall outside spec... If they fall the same direction, one way or the other, those errors can stack, further throwing the final product off kilter. I can't say absolutely this is the case with your clicking woofer, I am posing a hypothetical to you. You'll still likely need to replace the woofer, or somehow spec the driver exactly, and re-build your enclosure for it...It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

you have spearker wire touching or a bad set of rca wiresboxead78

boxhead78 wrote: you have spearker wire touching or a bad set of rca wires

Ummm... No.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

The manufacturer sheet call for a optimal sealed enclosure at 1 cu. ft.  The box is 1.05 cu. ft.  The sheet also says that it is allowable from .75 to 1.25 for a sealed enclosure.  Now I am not doubting at all that I had my gain set too high by a little bit.  Now with that said I am also running approximately 250 watts to each sub that is rated at 300 watts,  if the amplifier is actually a 500 watts rms like it claims.  Now I also believe that with the gain set a little to high I think it may have been overextending the driver and that may be what it was from.  now that i turned the gain down the sound has stopped.  I do understand your hypothetical though that not all will be exactly the same.  I think I might even go as far as to say you would also agree with me that some manufacturers will under rate their drivers wattage handling while others will be a little too generous with them, way to generous.  Anyway I appreciate the help and as far as the woofer I think I will just keep running the woofer and if it dies it will die and  if not I will continue to use it.

On a lighter note what do you think about the JBL 12 inch subwoofers for using in a ported box in a boat.  I want one that will give me descent sq but if i want to pound a little it will do that too.  I was looking at the GT-5 series and all the reviews I've read on the JBL subwoofers says they are under rated for power handling.

My conclusion is that the woofer is over excurting itself and the former is bottoming out on the magnet. Keep the gain down. Also some amp manufacturers under rate their amps greatly I have seen rockford amps that are rated at 500rms and put out over 1300rms.