A car subwoofer is a type of speaker that is used in car audio to reproduce strong bass. This means the mechanical parts such as the voice coil, rubber surround and cone have the most strain placed out of all the system. Now we have had a lot of customers coming into the car audio shop with blown car subwoofers. They are working perfectly fine when installed, but after a month of hard use the same customer comes back for a replacement. Now this can get costly, we have learned from our car audio experience that this happens not because of the product build quality but how its installed into your vehicle. Today we are going to explain all of the different factors that have an impact on wearing out your subwoofer more quickly and leading out to a blown voice coil. This should hopefully give you a good understanding a bit more about the topic discussion and help you make your car subwoofer last longer.
1) Never over power a car subwoofer. When any kind of manufacturer car audio company places rms figures in the manual specification extensive testing has been performed. During this, they test how long the voice coil can handle the power for before it overheats and gets damaged. This is why you should always ensure that the car amplifier you are going to use matches the rms specs. Sometimes if its rated slightly higher maybe lets say by 50 rms thats still ok because that way its got more potential to provide a cleaner signal. So for example, if your sub is rated at 500 watts rms, then you need a amp that pushes around that so anything between 500 and 550 would be ideal. Also underpowering will not damaged it that is a myth because if you think about it when its in packaging its getting 0 watts all the time.
2) Prevent distortion and clipping. These two combined together cook up the voice coil due to the signal being disrupted. Ensure that you set the gain control setting on your car amp correctly, so that it matches the volts provided from the RCA cables. The best way to set gains in this day and age is to use a multimeter or the special SMD DD1 Distortion detector tool by steve meade designs aka the (car audio boss). Tuning by ears gets it near to perfect tuning, but realistically you still can't tell if the subwoofer is getting a clipped signal. Also if you can stay away from bass boosted music and don't turn up the bass booster setting on the car amp too high thats a good idea as well.
3) Get a ported enclosure box. A sealed box is air tight so nothing can escape out of the box at all due to the nature of the design. This can suffocate the subwoofer magnet inside the box if its been running continuously for a long time on full power. With a ported box, there is a hole that allows air to escape out with the bass, so it gets rid of all the heat generated inside the box. Heat is what damages a voice coil quickly, so a vented ported design box will allow your subwoofer to play cooler for longer and also sound more louder at the same time, so you get the best of both worlds.
4) Warm up your subs before hard use. This is recommended if your car is parked in cold climate conditions. When your car is left overnight the temperatures outside drop. The cold is transferred into the subwoofer parts such as the spider and surround of the speaker. This makes them more stiff and less flexible, so if you blast the bass at high volumes right away it could tear and possibly become permanently damaged. So the best way would be to warm up your car subs, playing a music track at low volumes on the stereo to loosen things up. Then after a couple of minutes you can safely bump your music loud and the let the subwoofer bass hit hard as it can be.
1) Never over power a car subwoofer. When any kind of manufacturer car audio company places rms figures in the manual specification extensive testing has been performed. During this, they test how long the voice coil can handle the power for before it overheats and gets damaged. This is why you should always ensure that the car amplifier you are going to use matches the rms specs. Sometimes if its rated slightly higher maybe lets say by 50 rms thats still ok because that way its got more potential to provide a cleaner signal. So for example, if your sub is rated at 500 watts rms, then you need a amp that pushes around that so anything between 500 and 550 would be ideal. Also underpowering will not damaged it that is a myth because if you think about it when its in packaging its getting 0 watts all the time.
2) Prevent distortion and clipping. These two combined together cook up the voice coil due to the signal being disrupted. Ensure that you set the gain control setting on your car amp correctly, so that it matches the volts provided from the RCA cables. The best way to set gains in this day and age is to use a multimeter or the special SMD DD1 Distortion detector tool by steve meade designs aka the (car audio boss). Tuning by ears gets it near to perfect tuning, but realistically you still can't tell if the subwoofer is getting a clipped signal. Also if you can stay away from bass boosted music and don't turn up the bass booster setting on the car amp too high thats a good idea as well.
3) Get a ported enclosure box. A sealed box is air tight so nothing can escape out of the box at all due to the nature of the design. This can suffocate the subwoofer magnet inside the box if its been running continuously for a long time on full power. With a ported box, there is a hole that allows air to escape out with the bass, so it gets rid of all the heat generated inside the box. Heat is what damages a voice coil quickly, so a vented ported design box will allow your subwoofer to play cooler for longer and also sound more louder at the same time, so you get the best of both worlds.
4) Warm up your subs before hard use. This is recommended if your car is parked in cold climate conditions. When your car is left overnight the temperatures outside drop. The cold is transferred into the subwoofer parts such as the spider and surround of the speaker. This makes them more stiff and less flexible, so if you blast the bass at high volumes right away it could tear and possibly become permanently damaged. So the best way would be to warm up your car subs, playing a music track at low volumes on the stereo to loosen things up. Then after a couple of minutes you can safely bump your music loud and the let the subwoofer bass hit hard as it can be.
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