Originally Posted by vjarnot (Post 1763136)

Speakers fail in two ways:

You turn the volume to a particular level, which determines the load that the speaker places on the amp, let's say X watts.

Now then: your amp either can, or can not, supply X watts:

a) your amp can supply X watts: the speaker plays at the selected volume. If playing at this volume causes the speaker to exceed its thermal or physical capacities (i.e., the amount of heat it can dissipate, or the distance the cone can extend), then the output sound is distorted and the speaker ultimately fails.

b) your amp can not supply X watts: the amplifier attempts to supply the amount of power that the speaker is drawing, but can not. This causes clipping, as the electrical waveform from amp to speaker has its peaks and troughs squared off. The output sound is compressed and the speaker ultimately fails.

The key bit that many people don't get is that the speaker is the component that determines how much output power (i.e., wattage) is drawn from the amp.

Originally Posted by RonRizz (Post 1763445)

by your theory, If I hook up a sub that is rated at 1000 watts rms to an amp that is rated at 25 watts rms, The amp will instantly clip, and blow the speaker?? Total BS Unless I've been doing something wrong for the last 30 years.... Clipping..yes, Overdriving.....Yes, too little power, not a chance.

Originally Posted by RonRizz (Post 1763445)

Clipping..yes, Overdriving.....Yes, too little power, not a chance.

Originally Posted by RonRizz (Post 1763906)

Hmmm. whatta ya know. All these years I thought clipping was caused by overdriving the input gains on your amp.

Originally Posted by vjarnot (Post 1763460)

You will cause your amp to clip when you select a level which your speaker requires more wattage to produce than your amp can deliver

Originally Posted by Wicked CAS (Post 1765657)

Let's keep it on the topic... this member has a problem with a subwoofer and amp combo.... as a result he has a blown sub....

Sooooooooo, Did you call the vendor yet, and what happened.
Did you get serial number on the back of the sub or on the packaging.

Originally Posted by reunited (Post 1767942)

a) Title of post
b) acknowledgement by OP that subs were wired wrong and received way too much power
c) one sub failed, the other didn't
d) Conclusion: since ONE sub did not fail, then the sub that failed must have been defective.

??????

Does this fail to make sense to anyone else or am I just having a bad day?

Originally Posted by Vertigo (Post 1767678)

Thanks for all of the thread comments.
I guess the failure of the sub is probably due to a wiring error of 1ohm instead of being at 4ohms.

The thing I'm still not getting is, the other JL sub I have is still working completely fine being wired at 1ohm, and doesn't sound like it's getting too much power whatsoever. My volume levels are still as low as they were when the 1 sub stopped working.

If the wiring caused the subs to get wayyyyyy too much power, shouldn't they both be dead, instead of one being toast and the other working as good as new?

This is why I think there's something defective with the one sub.

Originally Posted by vividracing (Post 1768457)

You were overpowering them substantially. If there was a defect, it wasn't the ultimate source of the failure. It may have allowed the woofer to fail sooner than the other, but the fact remains that they were severely overpowered.

Let's put it this way... If I put 2 brand new cars on the dyno and run them both at 2000 RPM over redline and one blows up before the other I can't really say that car was defective. It was being pushed beyond it's engineered limits. The other car just held out longer. Maybe the car that lasted longer was built a little better, maybe not.