PLEASE HELP: POLK 500.1 and SWR-1022D

[sarhan]

hi,
i jus got a polk 500.1 carbon series amp and an Alpine SWR-1022D subwoofer. when i connect them the sub works only on very low volume, and if i put it up a lil bit then the thing jus makes this noise and turns off or the amp turns it off? but u wait a lil bit and it goes back on again and does the same thing. is the sub blown? or did i not wire it right? something wrong with impedance? please help.
thank you

[CrBoy]

check out the amp gain and the power and ground wires...

[sarhan]

the amp is fine, cuzz i had another sub hooked up to it before, am jus not very confident in this alpine.

[sarhan]

all wires are in place, and the gain works, when i put it down the amp kick really low, when i put it up it jus does the same thing and turns off...

[neomagus00]

that to me sounds like you have bad insulation somewhere and you're arcing to the metal of the car... check your wires to make sure the insulation isn't cut or abraded through anywhere, especially the speaker wires; also check to make sure that there aren't any stray threads of wire poking anywhere they shouldn't...

[sarhan]

the connections everywhere are pretty good, there is nothing stickin out or anything. should i be using speaker wire to connect my amp and my sub or some special kind of wire? cuzz right now its jus regular speaker wire. i'll try changing that too and see maybe it got damaged somehow, but any other ideas on why? should this sub work with the amp? i mean i dont see a reason why not, but maybe smth i missing out on. lemme know. thanks

[Custom Jim]

I wonder if you have one voice coil wired out of phase with the other to where one is trying to work opposite of the other thus no sound and the amp goes into protect. How is the speaker wired to the amp ?.
Jim

[sarhan]

i go from pos sub 1 to pos on one of the coils and neg on sub1 to neg on the other one of the coils, and then i connect the other pos and the other neg with a jumper wire. is that right?

[sarhan]

just checked all the wiring again, still does the same thing... :(

[Custom Jim]

Try disconnecting one or both of the jumper wires and see what happens.

[sarhan]

if i disconnect the jumper it jus doesnt work at all. as if it was off. what do blown subs usually do? do they work at all? cuzz this one works, but not very much lol.

[Custom Jim]

Take "sub 1 +" to one of the speakers positive terminals. Now take "sub 1 -" to the negative terminal on the speaker next to the positive terminal you just connected to right before this connection and see what happens.

[Custom Jim]

If you want to check for a blown sub, you will need a meter that measures resistance. You can also gently push in squarely on the speaker cone and see if it rubs from the voice coil being charred or if the voice coil tube is warped and rubbing.

[sarhan]

okay, jus tried that and it works the same way as it would with the jumper. do you think i should try sub1+ to coil1+ sub1- to coil1- and sub2+ to coil2+ and sub2- to coil2- ?, jus dont wanna mess it up thas why am askin before i do it.

[sarhan]

if i push down straight on it, then there is no noise comin out... if i do it at an angle u can hear it rubbing inside.

[Custom Jim]

Ok, I'm back (had to go home for the day).

Anyway I would think "sub 1 +" and "sub 2 +" are connected inside the amplifier to each other and "sub 1 -" and "sub 2 -" are also connected to each other. Polk has a wiring diagram in this site on that amplifier and I glanced at it before I left work and one way shows just using 2 of the speaker terminals on the amplifier. Maybe double check the diagram also and compare it to what you have.

I kinda think with no sound the speaker is broke. Is it a new sub, used one ????. With you trying another one and the system works It has to be either in the wiring or the sub and I was assuming the sub was maybe new and working. Maybe it's not.

If you do push on an angle most any speaker with a tight voice coil gap will rub and that's why you have to do it squarely.

If you want to you could check the the other voice coil for operation by doing the same thing without any jumper wires. Now I'm not trying to be ignorant here but are you sure you are hooked to the one voice coils positive and negative terminals ?. Another way I do a test on a speaker is to take a 1.5V or 9V battery and connect the wires off of the speaker to the terminals on the battery. if the speaker pops then you verified continuity (completed circuit) but it will not tell us anything as to what the resistance is or is there is maybe a mechanical problem with the speaker itself.

Jim

[neomagus00]

well, you have them in series... hum... try the 9V battery trick, just hold the (-) speaker wire against the (-) of the battery, then tap the (+) to the (+), if it makes a pop, then i'm all out of ideas...

[MacLeod]

You beat me to it Neo! Thats the first thing I thought of when I saw the 22 in the model number. If those are dual 2 ohm coils and hes running them in parallel hes running the amp at 1 ohm which its not rated to handle and so its going into protection mode.

[neomagus00]

yeah, that's what i thought till i read it again and he has it in series... he's going AMP+ to V1+, then V1- to V2+, then V2- to AMP-...

[MacLeod]

Well, so much for that bright idea. Well it must be a screwed up sub cause that amp will run 4 ohms all day long.....and twice on Sunday.

[sarhan]

freakin ebay! i'll try to be careful nextime when i buy shit. thanks thou for all ur help. i guess it is the sub that isnt workin after all. :(

[yahyah]

you know what boss i have the exact same problem but i havent come around to fixing it just yet what you can do is try another sub or another amp and see what happens also if you could post it, it will help everyone in the future
thanx

[PoweredByDodge]

... i still think he's got 'em in series.

Let's send him to Best Buy and see if they can fix it.
(seething sarcasm).