way to keep subwoofers from blowing?

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b1kshad0w

Member - Posts: 11

Joined: April 05, 2007

Location: United States

Posted: April 09, 2007 at 8:08 PM / IP Logged

I had an idea for a design for subwoofers where you could prevent people from overheating/overloading the coil and overdriving a subwoofer so that you could keep people from blowing their subwoofers. It is very simple really. Just put an automatically resetable breaker in somewhere like part of the basket where a user cannot access it. Basically before the woofer has enough power to reach the point of it's excursion or power handling the circuit breaker will blow, then say reset in 10 seconds. The woofer coil still might overheat and melt if the amplifier is clipping, but this would have to be tested..

Simplified = Automatically reseting circuit breaker to protect subwoofer that a user cannot access.

Seems like a very simple yet affective idea that could save a lot of money. The only downfall is less blown woofers equal less woofers sold. Someone could actually just make an addon module with a automatically resetting circuit breaker that is = to a subwoofers rating that you could hook up to protect older subwoofers.

jeffchilcott

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Posted: April 09, 2007 at 8:28 PM / IP Logged

I cant rememeber what company tried this, I think orion in the late 90's but they had fuses on thier woofers. Maybe one of the elders will remember.

Either way that was more or less before you had all the adustments we have now on amps, and decks, to prevent clipping.

I think the companys stopped this, and started enforcing, if he equipment is not installed by an authorized dealer, then no warranty.

If you dont know how to set up equipment then it shouldnt be done by yourself, if people would learn that they might not blow woofers.

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b1kshad0w

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Location: United States

Posted: April 09, 2007 at 8:49 PM / IP Logged

Well, that is in an ideal world. Truth is a lot of kids do it themselves or go to say Bestbuy and have them installed. I couldn't even count how many times I have had people show me their systems and turn it up way past the point of distortion. Even at the "authorized dealers" a lot of the time the installs are very poor. A long time ago I went to an autherized Eclipse dealer and had my deck hooked up. I had the rca's labeled sub/front/rear. I even wrote them a diagram on how to wire it up to my system. They had my vechicle from the time they opened to the time they closed. I went out there to see what was taking so long and they were all drinking. Well, they cracked the cover around my stearing column and the worst part is I had one working speaker and not even the antenna was hooked up. (Redmond Automive Saginaw, Michigan.)

Anyways, not everyone is going to an autherized dealer to have their system installed. For some people this is a hobby or some just want to save money. IMO if you had to buy say an Alpine sub with a fuse that had a warrenty on the coil/cone compared to say a Kenwood that had no warrenty which one are you going to buy? I think the only reason that is not implemented is because blown woofers = more money. I don't know if you have bothered to read any of the warrenties but all of them have an exclusion for burnt coils in subwoofers installed by autherized dealers or not.

stevdart

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Posted: April 09, 2007 at 8:51 PM / IP Logged

jeffchilcott wrote:

Maybe one of the elders will remember.

As the tribal dancers undulate to the rythmic beating of the drums, the elders gather to try to remember back to the day...
Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

coppellstereo

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Posted: April 09, 2007 at 8:57 PM / IP Logged

also, some subwoofer boxes have fuses built-in to the terminals

haemphyst

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Posted: April 09, 2007 at 9:17 PM / IP Logged

There would never be any way to prevent a woofer from reaching it's mechanical limits by a fuse... The fuse is an overcurrent device, and that's all... And yes, Jeff... It was Orion. They were still POS woofers.

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."

DYohn

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Posted: April 09, 2007 at 10:30 PM / IP Logged

The way to keep subwoofers from blowing? As a tribal elder (literally, actually) I can tell you kids it's easy: just set them up and use them correctly. If some idiot whippersnappers want to crank the grain or max out the volume, fine, let 'em blow. That's what keeps our retail friends in business. Just don't honor any warranties if your "as-installed" gain and crossover adjustments have been changed. Fingernail polish on the adjustments works wonders to prove changes...

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coppellstereo

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Posted: April 09, 2007 at 11:45 PM / IP Logged

I hate when customers come back with broken equipment after they have messed with an install's settings. What is this fingernail polish trick?

jmelton86

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Posted: April 09, 2007 at 11:50 PM / IP Logged

The new Boston Acoustics G5's have (2) 7.5amp fuses built into the VC, right by the terminals. BA states, like haemphyst, that it doesn't protect against overpowering. These fuses are very convenient for impedance changes, just switch the fuse around!

My two pennies.

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stevdart

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Posted: April 10, 2007 at 12:00 AM / IP Logged

I used fingernail polish to mark the settings on all the gains just so I don't screw my OWN stuff up. Dab a little spot on a point where the screw line meets the surrounding area. A dab on the end of the screw and a corresponding dab where the screw line terminates.

way to keep subwoofers from blowing? -- posted image.

Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

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