Kicker L7 Melted Voice Coil

[Guest]

I set the gains, it was not distorting when it left my hands....I'm going with the "whoops, kicker fucked up theory"...like Jim said, gain wasn't even at 1/2 when it went.

[Jim]

Help a n00b out but what causes distortion and how do I tell? By the way it is an older L7... like 02-03 model before they had the the fancy visual stuff on it....

[Guest]

distortion is caused many times by turning the gain up too high on an amplifier You can tell by the sub not sounding correct...you know...the farty, floppy, non-linear sound.. The only thing I'm kinda curious about is that Kicker rates the L7 @ 750 RMS...but that is probably for a sealed enclosure. I'm not sure what kind of power that they handle in the factory prefab ported enclosures. It might be less. The only other thing I can think of that might have caused it to blow was by having too much power going below the F3 point of the sub (....way below...like say 20 Hz) and the sub getting very non-linear but not really being able to hear it since humans have a hard time hearing below 25 Hz or so... Then again, not much music is recorded at 20 Hz either....I dunno...

[weshole]

Kicker still had some issues with those subs. Not alot, but some nonetheless. But, if Chuck set the gains, then I have no doubt that it's in the sub itself. As far as distortion goes, Most of it is inaudible and next to impossible to detect with our ears on low frequencies. (especially in a trunk or with a bandpass enclosure. If it didn't sound like it was overextending, (you'd hear that). Then it's probably not distortion that killed the sub. I'm not going to tell you not to buy Kicker either. On the contrary, I really like their subwoofers myself and would use them.

[weshole]

Also, the older L7's were very picky on the enclosure and port design that were utilized for optimum performance. If you didn't get it right, it would let you know.

[amicheze]

i dont suppose its because it was wired backward, or running completely different ohms than it was supposed to? i know there are issues with guitar/bass cabs and running the wrong ohms than what theyre designed for.

[PSiedTSi]

no the sub cant run the wrong ohms...think about it...the sub runs how much resistance it was made to have...the amp on the other hand can run the wrong resistance

[Jim]

To clear up some questions:

The kicker sub was purchased in 03 from Site on Sound. It is in a factory pre-made ported sub box matched by Kicker.

Sub was correctly installed / hooked up by Tjamz... and yes, its running the the correct ohm

[weshole]

Then it's either a manufacturers defect or it has just had enough boom,boom and gave up. Either way, sorry to that you/she blew a sub. Chuck, hook an ADMIN up.

[Jim]

Well called up Kicker, they wont replace anything over a year old, I mean can't blame them.

The Sub has been powered by a tiny MTX D class amp for quite a while, just this weekend is when we hooked up something with big power...

Theres a few companies who sell the 02-03 model Kicker L7's still...

If not, then theres the option of purchasing a new L7 so I dont have to buy a box, or there is a deal on 3 - 10" MTX subs...

I just don't want to spend the money to buy another L7 and have it go up in smoke...

What would you guys do?

[weshole]

Go with a newer L7 or even a less expensive L5. By the way, whaeres that little class D amp now?

[Jim]

It's still in her car...

I was kind of considering ordering a B stock L7 and then trying to warranty it? hehe umm i swear its not my fault it blew up!

[weshole]

What is the warranty on b stock? Where you gettin them from? Drop me a P.M. And clean out you message folder Mr. popularity.

[Guest]

Site on sound huh....didnt joe get his stuff from site on sound and his car almost burnt up?!?!....was any of the wire melted or anything jim?

[Guest]

some kid was sayin that bass songs start L7s on fire but my guess hes full of shit but idk

[lord_deastofact]

hey I didn't read all the posts but I had the same thing happen to a kicker amp I had, the amp was turned off from the deck and I heard a pop and smoke came out of it. site on sound didn't know what went wrong but I got a new amp all the same. I know kicker is not very good with handling OHM changes. I had lost of problems with that. They work awsome if you get the amp matched to the sub on settings(ohm load)

[Guest]

lord_deastofact wrote:
I know kicker is not very good with handling OHM changes. I had lost of problems with that. They work awsome if you get the amp matched to the sub on settings(ohm load)

Then from the sounds of it they don't like speakers as they are a reactive load whose impedance varies drastically from one frequency to the next (not uncommon to see a load change from 3.3 ohms to 24 ohms within the same octave)

[weshole]

tjamz wrote:
Then from the sounds of it they don't like speakers as they are a reactive load whose impedance varies drastically from one frequency to the next (not uncommon to see a load change from 3.3 ohms to 24 ohms within the same octave)

Exactly what I was going to say. Take a multi meter and hook it up to each of the speaker terminals, then move the speaker cone up and down manually. Look at the fluctuation in resistance.