popping noise from audiobahn sub
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=22131
Printed Date: July 06, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Topic: popping noise from audiobahn sub
Posted By: RFKICKER1
Subject: popping noise from audiobahn sub
Date Posted: November 30, 2003 at 1:04 PM
Im testing an audiobahn subwoofer in my house. well its wired in parrallel so its running at 2 ohm mono. well I have it wired to a rockford fosgate bd1000 amp, which has plenty of power to run it actually enough to blow it if I wanted to lol. anyways when I was testing the sub i would turn it up and it would start making a popping sound. well when i turned it up it wasnt running that much power so i wasnt overpowering it. ive put the sub in a differnet box and everything but it keeps making the noise and im not for sure whats causing it. any suggestions on what could be doing this?
Replies:
Posted By: forbidden
Date Posted: November 30, 2003 at 4:48 PM
Your gain on the amp is too high, what you are doing is running the amp out of clean power and causing a loss of control of the motion of the driver. The popping could in fact be the subs voice coil former making contact with the back of the pole plate. You are running the Rockford amp in the house? What are you useing for a power supply? If you are using a small little power supply or a battery, the voltage and current to run that amp properly are probably not there, bad things happen to speakers (like popping) when you try and do things like this. What are you using to "turn it up" the gain on the amp or a car cd player or a home reciever..... Need more info PS: power doesn't blow a sub, heat does. ------------- Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.
Posted By: RFKICKER1
Date Posted: November 30, 2003 at 8:32 PM
I appreciate the info but I know about that. I know there are people that know more than me about this but I am not a newbie however I am open to learning new things. Anyways im running it off of a trolling battery. its enough power to do what im doing. and its all car audio equipment. Sony receiver, stinger installation kits, running 8 gauge wire for power and ground on the fosgate amp. I would think the sub is blown however the way it still hits leads me to believe otherwise. I am going to try and find someone that has some other subs where i can test the amp on them and see how it reacts however i think the amp is fine. The receiver i have is an old one but it works. I had to replace a capacitor in it but i replaced it with the same farad and voltage rating required. When using the gain i turn it usually about halfway sometimes less and i turn it up on the car receiver with a cd. The only reason i dont have it wired in a car is my car right now is fubar to put it bluntly lol.
Posted By: Alpine Guy
Date Posted: November 30, 2003 at 11:02 PM
sounds like it is "partially blown" the sub will still work fine, just it will make popping noises.
Posted By: nedgeworth
Date Posted: November 30, 2003 at 11:15 PM
Other thing you can look at is enclosure size as well. What sort of box are you using and what size?
Posted By: hightower
Date Posted: December 01, 2003 at 10:49 AM
maybe you should run 4 gauge wire instead of 8 for an amp that size
Posted By: bberman1
Date Posted: December 01, 2003 at 12:05 PM
Dose it only happen at high volumes? It sounds to me like the sub may be bottoming out. I would also suggest a 4 gauge for your amp.
Posted By: RFKICKER1
Date Posted: December 01, 2003 at 12:21 PM
It does the popping at low levels but u can barely tell. also ive tried 2 differnet boxes one was 1.5 cbft the other 2.5cbft. both are sealed. and ill try bigger wire dont know if it will work but i will give it a try.
Posted By: bberman1
Date Posted: December 01, 2003 at 12:27 PM
The larger cable will not stop the popping, but it is the correct size for your amp. As far as the sub goes if you push on the cone do you feel any rough spots? Dose the sub rattle at all? Also how do you have it wired? And what are your gains set at?
Posted By: forbidden
Date Posted: December 01, 2003 at 12:49 PM
Once a sub has been damaged it is a downward spiral for it, eventually you will need a new sub. If the main "popping" sound is coming at volume levels above normal, I would be having a good look at that battery, while it may have 14.4 volts, it may be down quite substantially on current, this will make the amp to some pretty crazy things to the signal. I would also bypass that Sony receiver for now, try a car cd player and see if the noise can be duplicated. The home receiver may have a dirty signal being amplifier which you hear as a "pop", the amp probably has a fairly low output voltage. Imagine if you will a flashlight, when you first put the batteries in it is nice and bright, but one day when you need it the most, the light barely comes to life, time for new batteries, how are you charging that trolling battery? ------------- Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.
Posted By: RFKICKER1
Date Posted: December 01, 2003 at 1:57 PM
The cone feels fine, however cant really feel it to well since its inverted. I have it wired in parrallel. Its a dvc 4 ohm audiobahn sub. Its running 2ohm mono right now into the bd1000 amp which will make the amp run 1000 watts rms, 2000 max. I know this is more than the sub can handle since its rated at 700 watts rms 1400 max. I keep the gain at safe levels. Ive tried it from barely up to almost all the way up. When i have the gain that high up i ease the volume up gently when i do that so i dont melt the voice coils lol. I have a slow charger that charges it, however this type of battery is made to go a long time before it needs charging. On the amperage thing now thats a big possibility that i never thought about. I do know the signal coming from the receiver is clean because I have another amp i use for sound speakers and they come out perfectly clean. I would use this amp for testing on the sub however its not nearly powerful enough. the most wattage i can get out of it is bridging it in 4 ohm mono which is only 280 watts rms. and also if you wondering why i havent did it at low volumes with this amp however one minor problem , the subwoofer is a 4ohm dvc which means each voice coil is 4 ohms, since i only have one of them kind of hard to get a 4 ohm mono load unless i build some device to do it which i really have never did nor do i know how to lol.
Posted By: Alpine Guy
Date Posted: December 02, 2003 at 9:13 PM
its inverted eh,,,,humm.....did you reverse the polarity on the wires?? when you invert a speaker, what noramlly would be the + terminal, becomes a - , so be sure to reverse your wires. It sounds like that is all the problem is, because subs do make that sound when they are inverted and they arent wired properly.
Posted By: hightower
Date Posted: December 03, 2003 at 10:12 AM
just run 4 gauge wire and if it is an ampreage problem that will take care of it....doesn't matter what kind of battery you have if your only flowing the amount of electrons through the wire. the more copper in the wire the more electrons, more electrons more amps getting to the amplifier. thats why they make different size wire. when you amp runs out of power to turn into watts it makes a distort signal like what you're hearing. run 4 gauge
Posted By: Stevolon
Date Posted: December 03, 2003 at 12:33 PM
ok lots of ideas but no solutions. First its got nothing to do with the fact that it might be inverter as alpine guy suggests. as long as the coils of the sub are in phase the phase at the amp is not relevant. increasing the gauge of the power wire although it is true that amp wants a minimum of 4 gauge is also not the problem . it is going to be one of 3 things . 1 the sub is damaged. 2. The battery is not providing enough current and is causing your amp to clip very even at lower volumes. (this is likely the case) or 3. your bax is too big. you said you were going to try a bigger box? do not... as the box gets bigger the power handling goes down as the box exerts less controll on the excurtion of the sub. try a smaller box. That amp you have is a sub killer . it has huge current draw so i am not surprised that your sub is popping the way you are testing it.
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Steve@A.E.S
Posted By: forbidden
Date Posted: December 03, 2003 at 1:26 PM
I agree with Stevolon, it seems hea has drawn the same conclusions as me.
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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.
Posted By: RFKICKER1
Date Posted: December 03, 2003 at 3:46 PM
well i said nothign about trying a bigger box i just used 2 boxes i had laying around. I was doing that to see if one of them had any leaks in it. Also i know about using the cbft size for subs and i know what they are to. for this sub for sealed boxes it is .7-1.4 cubic feet. for ported it is 1.4cbft. anyways i think the sub is partially blown but first chance i get im going to try it on differnet subs. that will let me know for a fact weither its the amp or sub. I do appreciate everyones help and advice , and i am 99 percent sure the sub is about fubar as i like to say. but when i find out ill post it on here but like i said i believe its the sub. anyways once again thanks for all the suggestions and help.
Posted By: bigjerman
Date Posted: December 04, 2003 at 1:32 PM
What kind of audiobahn sub is it?
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1998 Volvo S70 T5 - It's Swedish isn't that weird?
Posted By: Stevolon
Date Posted: December 04, 2003 at 2:53 PM
Rfkicker1, dude you wrote It does the popping at low levels but u can barely tell. also ive tried 2 differnet boxes one was 1.5 cbft the other 2.5cbft. both are sealed. and ill try bigger wire dont know if it will work but i will give it a try. so if these are the boxes you tried they are both tooooo big. the smaller you go towards the .7 cube the more of that bd1000 it will take without bottoming out. trust me put it in 1 cuFt and i bet it dont pop. Those specs dont seem correct either on the sealed box volumes the range is quite big for a sub. |
------------- Steve@A.E.S
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