pg xenon 600.1, pioneer ts-w2502spl 10

Okay...I have a Phoenix Gold Xenon 600.1 mono amp.  It's birth sheeted to produce 612 watts x 1 @ 4, 2 or 1 ohms.

I purchased a Pioneer TS-W2502SPL 10" sub w/dual 2 ohm voice coils rated at 800 watts rms.

I wired the sub in series to run a 4 ohm load at the amp and loaded the sub into a sealed box of .85 cu. ft. (as recommended by Pioneer).

My signal orginates from my Pioneer FH-P4200MP head unit.  I set the subwoofer crossover at 100 Hz and left the volume at '0'.  At the amp, the input sensitivity is about 3/4 of the way up, the bass boost is set at about 10 dB, the subsonic filter is turned all the way down as the sub is in a sealed box and the low pass cross is turned all the way up since I have it crossed at the head unit.

Initially, the sub played wonderfully with the volume of music only getting up to 10 since I was rolling with windows up.  One nice day, I was able to roll the windows down and crank the music up.  Turned the volume up to about 18 and after about 10 minutes of play...the sub fried!!!

Ready for the kicker?  I contacted Pioneer and they told me that I fried the sub because it was under powered.  They also told me that the nominal power rating of 800 watts means that the minimum amount of power that should be applied to that sub and that the 600 watts I have isn't enough.  He then said that the reason it fried is my amp clipped, sending a distorted signal to the sub and the voice coils paid dearly.

Immediately, I jumped in and said that the RMS wattage is merely an average continuous power that the sub can handle to operate efficiently, but nowhere in any literature for the sub does it state that 800 watts is a minimum wattage.  If that were the case, I wouldn't have bought the sub to begin with.

After some back and forth with a supervisor in the warranty department, I was authorized a replacement sub.  I can't believe that the folks at Pioneer would try to push that B.S. on folks.  Anyway, I just want to know if I was right or do I need to shop another amp and get one that's pushing 800 watts. 

Thanks!!!

I agree with aznboi3644. I allways turn up my HU till I hear distortion, then back a couple of notches. Then slowly turn up the gain (no boost) till the sub reaches it's limit, then back an 1/8 of a turn. This should be where you want to be. Distortion, deadly. But mor-so over power is the ultimate killer.

Hope that works for ya,

David

Gentlemen...thank you, thank you, thank you...I will definitely take this approach when I get the new sub.

Recap:  Make sure the gain and bass boost is all the way down on the amp, then turn the head unit up as loud as it will go before distorting, THEN set the gain on the amp until distortion is heard in the sub and back off a bit. 

What is the purpose of bass boost if it shouldn't be used???

Mike

purpose of bass boost?  so you say " oooohhh, it has bass boost, i will buy that amp because the other one doesn't have it!"  lol- it is almost completely unnecessary in todays world of car audio.  it usually just overloads the amp.

anyway- i had 2 tsw 1302spl (12") subs, and 2 tsw 2504 spl(10") subs, in custom sealed box. the 10's were great- i threw 1200 watts ppi power to each one and they loved it- still slammin in my buddies car today.  however, i burned up three pairs of the 12's last summer within 2 months.  (fyi: i have been doing large stereos in all my ride for over ten years, and haven't blown up a sub in over 8 years. )  then, pioneer gave me the hardest time on warranty.  not for any reason.  they just took 3 months to return EACH pair!  and i work part time for and authorized pioneer retailer.  of ten pairs we sold last summer, 8 pairs of them have come back. 

That would explain the hard time I had.  I guess he could have said my amp was clipping and therefore it was my fault since I didn't set it right, but he had the nerve to tell me that the 2502's needed a minimum of 800 watts.  In all my years, I've never heard RMS equate to minimum required power.

However, I guess you're saying now I will be waiting for a very long time to get my replacement, huh?

Tell me...how big was the enclosure you had for the 10's?

the 10 box:  approx. 1.1 cu ft.  i ran sealed for a while, sounded pretty good, nice and deep.  then i added a 3"x9(?)" port to each box-it hit much herder, the sub moved less, but it lost the deep rolling notes.  i left it ported, and ran them bandpass from 40-100hz, with about 500 watts to each. and i just ran the twelves low pass at about 45-50hz.  it hit every note.

yeah, you might be waiting a while for replacements like i did.  I run B.A.'s now because of this incident.  

Okay, cool...I'll put it in a box approx. 1.25 cu. ft.  I think I'll still go with the sealed box as I like the deep rolling notes the sealed box gives.  I'm not much for wanting the sound to be heard down the block. 

Surprising enough, Pioneer called me back the next day to inform me that my replacement sub is being sent to the service center and I should allow 7-10 business days for shipping.

I'll see how this one goes...if I have any more problems, Pioneer will not be featured in my trunk!!!

Thanks for the input, it's greatly appreciated!!!