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Someone please explain the correct break-in period for a new sub. Just got an alpine type x 12 and alpine mentions the break-in in the manual but doesn't give any guide lines. is 5 hours enough or 10 or 20 I've heard all of the above. Also should I not push it at all or at medium levels or a mix of the two? I've never actually broken in a sub before. Usually just pop em in and crank um up. Never blown a speaker that didnt have just way too much power to it. And was dumb on my part. Anyway help would be appreciated.

break in is a myth, i assume it is an installer's excuse for a poor sounding system. if you feel more comfortable breaking it in, go ahead, 5 hours should be plenty. the only breaking in that will occur is the surround will soften up a bit.

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Pioneer PEH-9660mp
Mb Quart PCE-216 biamped
JL 12W6v2
Sony XM-4026 amp for tweeters
Kenwood KAC-7251 amp for mids
JL-4100 amp for sub

break in is not a myth, but is not nessasry on most subs. I am also guessing that 5-10 hours will be enough. THe point to a break in period, from my understanding, is that since the surround is so stiff on them, if you push them real hard outta the box you put a lot of stress on the joint between the surround and the cone, which could cause failure. If you let the surround loosen up then that solves that concern.

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double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer

Ya, you definately should take it easy for the first couple hours. That suround is hard as a rock out of the box. Even for the next few weeks its going to be slowly breaking in the surround. The sub wont be at its top for at least a month.

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2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.

I usally tell customers to break in their subs for about 12 hours

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Yea I can tell that this speaker definatly needed to be broken-in but just didnt know how long. Thanks guys

Aight the speaker only has about 2.5 hours so far so I haven't turned it up LOUD but I have turned to louder than say, what my mother would listen to. It is not very loud at all. Quality is nice. SPL is not there. I know it aint gonna be nothin to compete with but for the money I expect more. once its more broken it will the performance increase much? Also its powered by an MRD-M1001 and that thing has many features that I have only begun to explore. The box is sealed and built to alpines specs. 14.5" x 14.5" x 11" I have just begun a fiberglass project but I'm not sure I want to continue untill I know I want to keep this speaker. Any help?

After "break-in" the performance will not change.

Paul

Then I hope my problem is with the amp settings. Cause if the speaker aint gonna be loud at all then Alpine owes me an explaination. I have had two wal-mart pioneer 12s with 200 watts apeice since I bought the jeep. They stomped the shiznit out of this speaker. I'll give it a few more days before I crank it. And I'll mess with the settings some but unless I have done something wrong somewhere I don't see it getting much louder. Hmmm...

Two and a half hours of low volume = still stiff. You obviously know that woofer is SPL through excursion. Take your time, let it loosen up. Keep setting the bar a slight bit higher, especially in the warmest part of the day.

Pay attention to Alpine Guy "The sub wont be at its top for at least a month."

(Impatient!...lol)

The break in procedure i always use is 12 hours at maximum excursion using minimum response frequency, with the woofer in free air. (i.e. the most movement with minimum power). I ran in my audiobahn 15"s for 12 hours at 20Hz. that was three years ago and they still give consistant 148dB readings. The running in process softens up the woofers suspension allowing it to drop to lower frequencies without being over driven, and so gives a much smoother tone.

oonikfraleyoo, give it time, especially since its winter, unless its scorching hot outside, its going to take forever to free that thing up. once you start getting it broken in, listen to some really low bass beats....i bet you will sh#t ur pants.

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2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.

plug it in the wall if you wanna break it in quick posted_image

, but I am not responsible for the results posted_image

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double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer

Ok I plugged it into the wall and it sounds great now!!! Just kiddin. I have no patience guys. That’s my biggest downfall. It is quite warm outside (Alabama) but regardless I wasn’t expecting much. I have messed with the amp and gotten a lot of results. The problem was obviously with me not the speaker. Too quick to point fingers at Alpine. It seems that this speaker likes low bass much better than higher bass but with some volume that might equal out some. I just wanna go outside and crank it soooo bad. Anyway thank you all, it’s great to have all of this knowledge in one place.

After two years of selling Alpine Digital woofer amps, I would almost bet money that your lack of SPL is due to faulty input settings. You said you had just begun to fool with the settings. The digital input section sometimes leaves the input sensetivity way low if not adjusted correctly. Pay a visit to your local independent ( not circut ) Alpine dealer and have them help set the amp up. Good Luck.

I wish there were a local Alpine dealer. And the manual is no help at all. Never having owned an amp like this before I understand some settings and am lost on others. What is the diff. between the 3 bass compensation modes? Is 0 a bad setting for the input level? What eq fequency would be best for most of my music? (I only listen to rap in the car and thats the only time I listen to rap. It helps with the road rage.) I had to go to Atlanta today to meet with a drug dealer (I work at a pharmacy) and that helped speed up my break-in as the speaker now has like 11 hours on it. I guess I'm gonna hold out and give it a few more days though.

ok, here is how I would recommend your amp input settings. input level 0db. Low pass btween 63hz and 80hz. subsonic filter @ 20hz. parametric eq @ 50hz/ Q factor @ 3 / gain @ +6db, bass comp on, time correction on and adjust 0.1ms steps until it sounds the best. and just try outphasing to 180 degrees once to see if there is a big differance. Good Luck

Thats not far from where I had it except the eq freq. and I haven't mess with TCR at all. I'll give it a shot. Thanks

Turn off all that crap. Adjust the gain and crossover right and you should be fine. Don't set the gain based on the voltage of the preamp outputs of your cd player. You might try setting the gain by ear but that isn't very easy usually, so you might want to try the tutorial on setting gain with a multimeter by JL. https://www.jlaudio.com/tutorials/index.html#

The gain doesn't quite work like that on this amp. It only has 3 settings either 0, +6 or +9. I'm wondering though why the level under the input menu is not called gain? Is this different? The "gain" is under the PEQ menu. Are Alpine and JL using diff. terms? It seems what Alpine calls gain JL calls bass boost. What JL calls Gain Alpine simply says input level. Am I correct?

Jl amps and Alpine digital amps are about as differant setup wise as possible. My recommendations for input settiings are from the designer of the amps himself. the parametric eq is as important as the input level when it comes to max performance of the amp. Alpines input level is nominal at 0 db. The -6 and -9 settings are for higher voltage RCA outs.

i know that you said that the manual wasn't much help but read it anyway...and this time try not to look for the easy answer...like tcss stated...these alpine amps are very different from a lot of other amps set up wise...sounds like you spent a lot of money on this bad boy...do it some justice and read the manual...yes you heard me...read...don't just look for pictures and a quick fix...if you do this i would venture to say that you wont be dissapointed with that amp

The manual that comes with the amp is almost useless. It gives no recomendations it just tells what button does what. I did however find a setup guide for the MRD-M501 that has proven quite helpful. I think I've got it close to where I want it but still some songs sound great and others have much less SPL. I'll figure it out though. Should I set the EQ on my Alpine HU to the same as the amp?

No, this would put way too much stress on the inputs. Use the head unit EQ to fine tune after you have adjusted the amp inputs.

This is how the manual says to set the gain I think.

(it says to do these three steps before anything else)

1) Gradually increase the volume until the display starts flashing.

2) Decrease the volume until it stops flashing.

3) Gradually increase the volume control again until the "over" indicator starts flashing.

Adjusting the Input Level

1) Press the input mode button left or right or up and down until input is displayed.

2) Press the ENT button

3) Press the < or > mode button until Level is displayed

4) Press the ENT button

5) use the < or > buttons to adjust the input level (it can either go from .1 to 2 volts or .5 to 8 volts).

Those directions were on pages 9 and 10 of the manual...

I'm pretty sure you were looking at the "gain factor" instead (I have no idea what that is). I'd set it at 0. Turn the parametric EQ and Bass compensation off also.

I'm wonderng if there is another manual that I don't have cause that is not on those pages of mine. Also I see no "Over" indicator. I have however set it to tcss's recomendations and I really think it is set properly. The speaker now has over 15 hours of low to moderate play and some higher play. I have only pushed it once. And I started getting some cone noise before it got loud enough. I'll give it awhile longer and I also think that alpines box could use some improving so hopefully my fiberglass box will sound better. It really sounds like it needs a ported box but I would hate to take up the extra space. I will though if neccecary. Anyway thanks for the info. You guys are great.

Cone sounds = distortion = turn off bass compensation and other stuff. Another problem you might be having is that if you used Alpine's reccomended box it might not be the best. You might want to download winISD and play around with different box sizes for your sub.

Again turn the time delay, EQ, and bass compensation off. Once you have adjusted the input level right then you might want to mess around with those settings. I wouldn't use time correction unless you know how to properly set it either.

Btw those directions for setting the input level (Alpine's term for gain) should work. Page 12 on the manual...

https://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/Manuals/500/500MRDM1.PDF

I'm waiting for my fiberglass to dry right now but I will give that a try once the fumes are down to a standable level.

When we started selling Alpine digital D block amps in 2003 we always had problems with lack of gain. These problems disappeared after I spoke to the person at Alpine who designed this group of amps ( yes they are US designed ) He said that the Parametric Eq, the bass comp, the low filter AND the time correction are all needed to get max performance out of this very unique amp design. As far as I know still the only ones that process in a digital format. The time correction helps with slight out phasing problems these amps tend to have. If you have an Alpine AI net headunit you can get the Alpine KCE-510M amp link and adjust the time correction while you listen. When bass sounds the best you have the right setting. As far as turning off all that "crap" Alpine had even released a amp setting bulliten in 2004 that recommends just the opposite.

My glass has dried and I've messed with the amp again. It definatly sounds better with the crap turned on. I still haven't messed with the time control at all. I have never seen a low pass filter that has a "Slope" setting. Think I understand what this is but can you clarify?

You said you had distortion when you had the "crap" on so if you have the Parametric EQ boost set at +6 DB you might want to lower it down to 3 or so.

I would seriously give it some time because your sub needs to be broken in still probobly. Those "accordian" style surrounds are really stiff so they defnitely need some time to loosen up.

Thats what I think the problem is. Even though it has like 16 or so hours it has only been a few days. AlpineGuy said it wouldn't be up to its best for like a month so I'm tring my hardest to be patient. I would hate to blow the d*mn thing. The surround still feels pretty stiff. I don't know if it will change to a point the I can feel it by hand, but nonetheless it still feels stiff. I also hope I my expectations aren't too high. I didn't pay retail for it but a sub that retails at $449 it should make my ears bleed. D*mn, maybe I'm going deaf. Maybe it aint the amp or speaker. Maybe its my ears.

I've felt the surround on the Type X sub and it was stiff but it will always feel stiff because of the design of it. I don't beleive it should take a month to break in but probobly another week or two. Good luck with it.

Breakin is def. not a myth. If you notice when new subs are turned up too loud at first before they are broke in, they will pop. I let mine play for like a week long. Just like 1-2 hours a day. Let them warm up for a while and they'll be fine.

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01 extreme

Nope, I have to disagree... If "breaking in" a woofer were really doing something, the physical parameters of the driver would change, right? Well, I am here to tell you they DON'T CHANGE ENOUGH TO MAKE "BREAKING IN" WORTH ALL THE HUB-BUBB. I have NEVER broken a single driver in, and I am a fan of TREMENDOUS overpowering of a driver - read some of my previous posts. The Eclipse Ti 12 in my trunk right now has been run as loud as I could stand it since the day I installed it, and I am using the Eclipse DA7232 4000 watt amp to drive it - for almost two years now...

Also, I have an engineer friend who works for Harmon in Northridge Ca, and he himself has NEVER been able to see a difference in physical parameters, even after YEARS of running a woofer.

It's a waste of time... open that bad-boy UP!

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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."

I'm not an engineer but it seems obvious that the surround on at least this speaker needs to strech its legs a bit before being blasted. Both the design and the material (santoprene) offer room to strech. A foam surround probly doesn't need to be broken in as the foam will not change but santoprene will strech. Alpine also makes mention of the break in among the other things that they give no recomendations for and they do state that the given parameters are after break in. But like I said earlier in this post, I too have never broken in a sub before and have never blown a speaker unless I was just asking for it. But I have also never had a sub with a vulcanized rubber surround.

Alpine Break in