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yeah most AV receivers are a line level RCA connection crossed over at about 120Hz.
even the HTiaB ones with the power from the receiver are still an LFE signal that's crossed over.
I wasn't sure how he had it all wired up though.
not all receivers even have LFE output unless they are DD/DTS capable

While this thread is on the topic of it tho, don't most sub-out on home audio recievers just send a signal anyways? Most of the subs I've looked at for home audio have a built in amp that you plug into the wall.

my point was that running the sub out of an enclosure gives absolutely NO damping or suspension for the speaker, so very little power is needed to cause the sub to over-excurse, and that will damage the sub.
If you had it turned up loud enough to sound 'normal' for a listening level, chances are you were giving it too much power already.
running the sub open air that way and letting it bottom out will cause distortion and cause the speaker to lose it's linearity which will fray the coil windings and freeze up the cone.
when that happens, the sub is trashed.

I checked, double checked, and triple checked every connection. I also tried the RCA's the proper way, the improper way (left on right, right on left). I'm not sure what happened, but if it happens again, I think that it'll be going up for sale.

SiriusBlack wrote:Well, something for sure is damaged in my car.

I swapped the RCA lines, and tried it, same result. Low to no bass with both lines, and lots of bass with one line. It's like it shorts out/distorts when both lines are hooked up.

So, I pull out the Eclipse amplifier. I set everything up for subs, and hook it up, and I get the EXACT SAME PROBLEM! So... I'm back there messing with settings, etc, and I get absolutely nothing. I then decide to try the RCA's on the front line (not rear/sub like I had been trying). I plug these in, and it works great, so I figure it's a problem with the CD player, and in hopes of it working, I try it again on the Sub line. Well... it worked. I didn't try the PPI amp on the sub line after it started working, but I think it will work. Now can anyone explain this? I simply can't make anything out of it.

I'm going to try the PPI amplifier tomorrow on the RCA's now that they work, and if it does work, I'll plan on it being a problem with the CD player that is now either permanently or temporarily fixed.

are you sure you had the colors right? (like + and - for speaker wire) but the RCA colors...you sure you didnt mix R and L? that might make something funny like that happen. if that wasnt it i dunno...at the beginning of your post i was gonna say your rear/sub RCA outputs were bad but now you say they work so i dunno.

Well, something for sure is damaged in my car.

I swapped the RCA lines, and tried it, same result. Low to no bass with both lines, and lots of bass with one line. It's like it shorts out/distorts when both lines are hooked up.

So, I pull out the Eclipse amplifier. I set everything up for subs, and hook it up, and I get the EXACT SAME PROBLEM! So... I'm back there messing with settings, etc, and I get absolutely nothing. I then decide to try the RCA's on the front line (not rear/sub like I had been trying). I plug these in, and it works great, so I figure it's a problem with the CD player, and in hopes of it working, I try it again on the Sub line. Well... it worked. I didn't try the PPI amp on the sub line after it started working, but I think it will work. Now can anyone explain this? I simply can't make anything out of it.

I'm going to try the PPI amplifier tomorrow on the RCA's now that they work, and if it does work, I'll plan on it being a problem with the CD player that is now either permanently or temporarily fixed.

its important to remember that if you aren't sure of what you're doing, ask questions first before you do something. you could have, if you haven't already, blown the sub and/or damaged both your car amp as well as your home amp. this is a good lesson to learn from, just take it as that.

btw, most people here get to the board ever couple hours. so next time you have a question post and be patient. depending on the company, most won't take products back if they were't installed by a certified installer, or if they can prove you installed it improperly. if that happens, you're at a loss of money.

Thanks a bunch Dustin,

I called up my buddy and he says that he thinks that the "boing" noise is actually an air leak around the mounting points. There's this thick carpet that's on the box and I think if we tear it off, that might stop the noise.

I really don't think the sub is blown (nor do I want to think that). We had the sub on a cheapo Regent surround system from Wally World. I'm pretty sure it's 8ohm. We didn't have the sound up loud enough for the sub to bottom out (for whatever it's worth), because I know exactly what this is like. I tore up an older Sony Xplod like that... on purpose :woohoo:

BTW - the reason we had the sub "open air" (out of a box, running) was to test it to see if it worked. Then, like little children, we became amazed at what we saw, and continued to play.

Thanks guys.

You can run a sub open air like that just fine (not sure why you'd want to do that though other than just to test to see if it works) but you can't send much power to it otherwise the sub will bottom out / over excurt.

As long as your home stereo amp is capable of a 4 ohm load (which a lot of newer ones are....) then it's perfectly fine to do so. If its not able to do so, then ya, it could be bad for the receiver... shouldn't do anything to the sub though.

Have you only been playing the subwoofer by itself? or do you have your mids and highs hooked up as well? Sub-bass playing by itself is going to sound retarded regardless of how great a sub you have.

And as mentioned earlier, if your sub is making a "Boing" sound, then it's probably blown. I'd probably quit messing with the sub before the voice coils unwind all over the place and create a short and fries your amp with it.

And as far as breaking in a sub or any speaker for that matter, I've never seen any empirical data showing a benefit of doing this. I used to think it was needed and made a difference, but it seems to be a bunch of crap now. It's just something the so called elite 'audiophiles' have made up. Same as the need to break in your RCA or XLR lines with a special machine or using a magic marker on your CD to make it sound better, or a special ink that you can put on your resistors to make the music more transparent. Funny stuff

SiriusBlack wrote: Now that I think of it, I did forget to mention that the sub was hooked up to an amplifier for a home stereo subwoofer. Not sure if this makes any difference or not, but I thought I'd mention it. It wasn't just a regular speaker connection.

Thanks guys.

Doesn't matter. Most home amps are made to run at 8 ohms.