Is this a blown sub?

Ok my subwoofers cut out recently so I'm trying to figure out what is wrong with them. I pulled off the grills to the subs and looked for any kind of damage and nothing looked out of the ordinary so I messed with my speaker wires a little bit reseating connections (etc....) and got my left sub to come on for about 10 seconds. It then cut out again and I can't really figure out why. My amp has power, no error light, fuses are all good, I get some kind of signal from my RCA if I plug it into my other amp for my speakers up front. So I just randomly pushed into the center of my sub a little bit and the sub gets bass again. The sub seems to play fine whenever I push it down in the middle a little bit but as soon as I let go I hear nothing. Does this mean my sub is blown?

Maybe one of your tinsel leads on the sub itself has frayed or come off. You will need to remove the sub from the box and do a visual inspection.

Can you get a hold of a meter and check it that way, or at least do that first before removing the speaker.

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Please mind my newbness but what is a tinsel lead and what should I check for? I don't have any kind of meter either.

The tinsel lead is the lead on the actual woofer. If you were to pull the woofer out of the box and looked where the speaker wire connects to the woofer, there will be two small pieces of tinsel or wire that is between the cone and frame of the woofer. These can fray, come apart or completely come off.

However a meter will test the woofers impedence, like if it is a 4 ohm woofer, then the meter will show roughly 4 ohms, just a simple test before pulling the woofer.

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I did a little research on that tinsel lead thing through google that could be possible. My box had been unsecured in my trunk for like a week after I took out my spare tire and they did slide around a little bit. I probally could have damaged them that way. They have been running fine for like 6 months up until then. My subs I'm using are kappa 120.3se my friend gave them to me unused for free. On the box it says impedance 4 ohms.

hollow wrote:

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On the box it says impedance 4 ohms.

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Right, but in order to check if a given woofer is "blown" you must check that number with a meter. I suggest this first to avoid removing the woofer. 

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What kind of meter would I use to check it?

Generally any digital or analog multimeter will do the trick. In your case a simple (I prefer digital) meter from radio shack will do the trick here. Usually around $15.00 and are a great investment if you have any interest in the automotive side of things. 

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What kinda multimeter u getting for $15.00?!?

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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

The Shack has some real basic ones that are small, and I believe they are under $20. Like thishttps://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F011%5F008%5F002%5F000&product%5fid=22%2D810

Great for someone who uses it twice a year

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