sub stops working

[accordluvr93]

is it normal for subs to not hit when it is extreamly fucking cold outside and my car has been sitting all night in the crazy cold

[awolanin21]

Have you checked your connections? What gauge wire did you use?

[accordluvr93]

i did a quick look over the first time it happened but all i really noticed was that nothing had come apart and the amp had power but other then that i dont even no what gauge wire that was used cause i bought it from a friends brother and my friend installed it and i just used what he gave me with the sub and amp so it was most likely whatever is standard at wal-mart

[sick6sect]

On top of checking your wire connections, Make sure you have a good ground. Best to have your ground wire a larger guage than your power, and to have it as short as possible. I ran 2ft of 4g for the ground.

1. Check your connections: (@Amp, Battery, Ground, Capacitor, and Reciever)
2. Check your wires: (Look for cuts, burns, touching wires, etc.)
3. Check your amp: (settings, do you have an in-line volume control?)
4. Check your Subs: (connections inside box)
5. I Dunno....

[sonikaccord]

Is your amp going into protect? Does it start working when it heats back up?

[Sarthos]

It actually can stop hitting right when it's cold out.
What happens is basically the springs get stiff from the cold, making them really difficult to move, resulting in weak output. My dad's nissan does the same thing with the factory speakers.
What you do is find a way to warm up the sub and for the love of God don't crank the sub until it's warm.

[sick6sect]

Another possible reason for your subs not working may be due to the amp underpowering the sub. If you ask the amp to put out more power than it's capeable of, then you are causing it to clip. Therefore, your sub will burn out. Your subs may be toast, What brand do you have?

[Sarthos]

It'd be nice to know what exact problem the OP is having...

I would assume the problem is the subs used to hit decently. Now that it's cold out they're really weak, even though the amp is turning on right.

And technically, any wattage you get out of a class D amp is heavily clipped to begin with...

[sonikaccord]

And technically, any wattage you get out of a class D amp is heavily clipped to begin with...

OT:
How is that? Are you talking about the PWM signals?

[charles.scarlet]

CHeck your ground, and also the turn on wire it might just have came undone.

[accordluvr93]

i will check all that but it starts working fine once the inside of the car is warmed up or the outside temp isn't below 10 degrees and its just a Sony explode most likely from wall-mart

[Sarthos]

So does it work at all when it's cold or is it just when it's warm?

How is that? Are you talking about the PWM signals?

Not sure what it's called exactly, we just covered class D amplifiers briefly in electrical engineering. But basically it's because class D circuits only put out square waves at the same voltage, and the signal starts looking like a sine wave after going through a low pass filter.

[sonikaccord]

So does it work at all when it's cold or is it just when it's warm?



Not sure what it's called exactly, we just covered class D amplifiers briefly in electrical engineering. But basically it's because class D circuits only put out square waves at the same voltage, and the signal starts looking like a sine wave after going through a low pass filter.

Yep the PWM signals. The thing alot of people don't know is that PWM is used in most class AB amps too, but only in the power supply. If you look at a typical amp it has MOSFETS in the power supply side and BJT's in the output stage.

The class D amp uses PWM in the output stage (audio portion) of the amp as well as the power supply. It can be ran with all MOSFETS which offer a bump in efficiency.

As far as the distortion...Do you remember when class D amps used to be just for subs? The reason for that was that there were too many artifacts in the upper audio region to be used as a "highs" amp. Technology has gotten better and faster switching is possible so now we have "full range" class D amps. Well that's how I perceive it. I need to read up on that some more

EDIT:
Found it.

Now you can imagine the more pulses the smoother the output. This is AC voltage but the concept is the same.

[Sarthos]

I know there are full range class D amps. I have one for my front stage. 150x2, no noticeable distortion difference between it and any class AB amp I've used, and it's insanely tiny.

[accordluvr93]

it starts working again when the temp is above around 10 degrees but if its below that nothing happens