Looking for that thump w/o frying the sub

I recently purchased a new Alpine MRD-M605 to run a 12" dual 4ohm sub in a custom vented enclosure designed specifically for that sub. the amp is rated 400rms at 4 ohm load and 600rms at 2ohm load... I was originally running a dual 2ohm identical sub before the Alpine dealer got a shipment of their new subs, so I could exchange it to a dual 4ohm and run it at 600 whatts rms. I have the new Alpine Type-R thats rated 1500 max and 500 rms.

When I ran the amp at 4 ohm load I was putting out 0.2 volts to try to get the full 400 whatts, because running it at 4 volts like the deck shows for its preouts sounded really weak. I enjoy having the quality aswell as the power and deep thumps in my car. Everything worked fine and I was happy overall with the performance and SQ and couldn't wait to get my new sub so I could run it at 500rms and feel the difference. Even when I had the amp turned up all the way I didn't have to worry about melting my voice coils on the sub because it was pretty much dummy proof for people that don't know how to set their gains and besides having it set to full would only be putting out 400 whatts rms and my sub was able to handle 500rms without any problems... I noticed at 0.2 volts at almost full volume I was getting the deepest cleanest bass without clipping. the amp however got pretty hot but I don't know what the max temperature rating for it is... the dealer told me it would go into safe mode at around 170 degrees F (so he thinks), and I've never seen it go over 150.

Everything was fine until my new sub came in... The Alpine dealer swapped the old with the new and I was now running 600 whatts rms.. the dealer told me to set the gain on the amp to 4.0 v like the deck shows... I did that and it sounded weak so I turned it up to 2.5 v and 1 day later to 1.0 v... and I couldn't believe how loud and clean it sounded... I was afraid to turn it up more because I was afraid i'd go over the 500rms rated for the sub with all my eq's set high on the deck ... after a whole day bumping passed by... the next day when I was driving around bumping I noticed the sub get weaker.. and then an electrical smell was coming from my trunk with the seats down... I brought it back and reset the gain to 4.0 v so they wouldn't get wized... obviously he knew I turned it up tho. but he was still kind enough to replace my sub (he told me the coil was in the process of getting completely fried) before when he told me to set it to 4.0 v he said to break in the sub first so not to play it loud at first... I did that before turning it up.

Now to my questions.... Is there a specific time it takes to break in a sub...? I heard from my buddy who has a JL dub7 that I should let my sub break in for a month or two before I turn the amp up a notch.. and another month before I turn it up another notch...  He's running 1000whatts rms.. into a sub thats meant to handle 750rms.. he's also got the amp turned up 3/4 to try to match his sub rating and it sounds awesome... he's never had problems with frying a coil... What do I do? I want the power I've had, before I fried my coil on the sub and had to exchange it... I don't want to fry the coil again... I agreed to have the dealer set my gain and eq's... the guy that set it left the amp gain at 4.0 to match the deck and he switched my eqs on my interiors  through my head unit which wized me off cuz it sounded like crap so I set those back to the way they were... and I left the amp at 4.0 v.  now it sounds good... but its not powerful at all like it was.. I'm afraid to turn it up because I don't want to have to go back there again to tell them I fried another one of their subs haha. Can anyone give me some advice on what I should do?

he said to break in the sub first so not to play it loud at first... I did that before turning it up.

Now to my questions.... Is there a specific time it takes to break in a sub...?

Answer:  when you're sure the system is set up 100% correctly.  You fried voice coils because of improper and inaccurate setup.  Look through past threads on this forum for subjects dealing with setting gain. 

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

Turn the gain back down. This is a simple problem. Your expectations of bass output is greater than the capabilites of your system. Without turning the gain back down, you will indeed fry another coil. What cd player are you using. It sounds like an Alpine with a really weak preout. I would look at a line driver or  a Eclipse 5 volt cd player to try on the system first. Then if that is still not enough, the only option left for you is another sub and a larger amp.

the deck im running is an alpine cda-9855 glide touch: I guess it sounds alright but I don't feel the deep bass that felt good when I had the amp turned up to 1.0v ... and I don't get how my friend has his turned up 3/4 of 1000rms. running the same exact head unit as mine... and his coil on the sub never fried?.... why can;t I turn it up more than 4.0v if he can?

DMM, I'm sure you must have the resources to figure that one out = digital multimeter.  Test tone CDs are readily available retail or you can find plenty of sources online.  Here is a past thread where I believe I might have linked to a test tone source:  https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=75001&PN=1

Since you're on the internet, a good friend to be aquainted with is Mr. Google.  Ask him "test tone" and he will give you answers.  This site's version looks through this forum, and can be found at the top right of this page beside the symbol .

When you play a tone and adjust gain (or volume if it's the deck), the tone will change slightly in pitch and change in its purity.  It will become static-sounding.  That's the tell of a beginning square wave...in other words...clipping.  If you continue to turn the gain up, it gets downright nasty.  That, believe it or not, is what most people listen to when they play their music loud.

I'm with forbidden on this one - your expectations are too high for your current setup. If you do not set the gain correctly, you are asking for nothing but trouble. Bank on it.

The shop you took it to seems to know what they are doing from your explanation. So just don't mess with it. And learn to like it the way it is.

If you can't do that, then you can always buy exactly what your friend has and then you'll have what you want. I think. I guess. Maybe?

haha you guys are hilarious... and I'm sad... because If my amps gain is set at 4.0 (the way I have it now) which is a notch forward from 8.0v .. and then theres a bunch more clicks after that before it reaches 0.1v at which point the amp is turned up to full power where it sounds like crap at volume 32 (max 35) because the bass is so heavy at volume 3-10 that you can't even hear the words from the songs... what I guess I'm trying to say is... if my amp is cea-2006 rated to run 600w rms at 2 ohms and my sub (4ohm dvc) is rated at 500w rms... then running my amp at 4.0v would only be running it at half power of what the amp is capable of running, and only 300w rms are being pumped into 500w rms that my sub says it can handle without voiding a warranty. .....

I want it to run at peak performance and running it at 4.0v like the output of my deck tells me to run it isn't sounding loud like it used to when I had the original type R 12" 2ohm dvc running 400w rms at 4 ohms... with the gain on the amp set to 0.2v and the settings on my deck eqs set to high where it was pushing almost a whole 400w (minus the fact its not really putting 14.4v into the amp) so it wasnt running at 400w rms but lets assume it was... which in turn caused my sub to still not work at peak performance because the whole setup was dummy proof but it sounded loud and clear and deep and beautifully breath taking... and I guess the reason I'm afraid to turn it up now is because I'm still not sure if there really is such a thing as "breaking in a sub" where the coil can handle more after its broken in....

I did an experiment today... I threw in an old bass tester cd...  and put on a repetitive track ... turned up the volume to 24 with all eq's set to 0.... I ran the amp at 2.5v instead this time to see if there would be a difference... I turned off the interior speakers to hear just the sub running... it sounded clean and clear and deep when I started to play with the EQ's.... .. Does setting the EQ's on your deck for example instead of on your AMP increase the power (whatts) going into your sub? which can in turn cause the sub to start clipping if its crossing that limit where it can't handle the power from the amp you control through the deck???? is that why they tell you that 4.0v output on the deck should be set to 4.0v gain on your amp? my friends deck is the same as mine but he's not running his amp at 4.0v hes running it at 1.0v maybe even 0.9 or 0.8v... he said he has it turned up 3/4 ... its a 1000w rms amp running a JL dub 7 meant to handle 750w rms.. so hes running his system at almost peak performance... ofcourse once again minus the fact its only putting 13.5 v into the amp (w/ car started) instead of 14.4 v like its rated to run at.

During my experiment I noticed that at 2.5v with my trunk open looking at the speaker with my eq's set high with bass eq on the amp set to +16db etc... the movement of the sub was always shaking even at high hz tones and expanding farther when the lows hit but it still sounded clear... compared to when I ran it at 4.0v with the same eqs it sounded weaker... but the movement of the sub was smaller.,,, and at high hz tones u didnt really see the speaker moving so much until the lows hit... but it was also weaker... is also normal? that when the power on the amp is turned up the loud speaker is more sensitive to hz outputs?

I JUST WANT IT TO RUN AT PEAK PERFORMANCE WHERE IM ALMOST RUNNING 500W rms

Where the amp handles 600W rms at full power, but me running it at close to 500W rms which i think means just having the gain set to 0.8v... or do E.Q. settings affect the amount of whatts being put into play? for example if I was running 0.1v 600w rms and turned up an eq on the amp or on the deck would that 600w turn into 602w maybe? does eq have an affect on that? ... I want my eq's to be set almost at high with the sub running at almost peak performance like I had it with my old dual 2ohm running 400w at 4ohms with eq's high and amp set to 0.2v... WHERE IT SOUNDED LIKE THERE WAS A CONCERT IN MY TRUNK AND WHERE MY FRONT WINDSHIELD FELT LIKE IT WAS GOING TO BLOW OUT...

and one more question... does having the gain on the amp set higher then the output of the deck in turn cause the interior speakers that are being powered from the headunit to not sound so loud at full volume anymore... since the amp is sucking more juice than the output of the deck is designed to handle? for example... having my amp set to 1.0v and my output on the deck is 4.0v. ............. THANK YOU ALL FOR READING... SORRY FOR THE LONG POST