BASSMEKANIC BLEW MY SYSTEM...

[crispone]

An engineer I work with sometimes heard my system recently, and last week he handed me a CD called/from "BASSMEKANIC", or some such thing. Lots of tracks with a variety of hard hitting base, and then a whole set of frequency sweeps, followed by sine waves and other extreme signal delivering test tracks.

I've played with it to narrow in my "tune"... without incident, but the other day, I ran a pass through several frequency sweeps, and my left rear Memphis MC92 6x9 crackled itself to death on one of the sweeps, and the load blew the fuse to my Orion 2125SX... Now the system is running again, with the left rear RCA removed to isolate it.

I suspect they'll replace it for free. Memphis is supposed to be good about that, and I didn't really do anything "overly harsh" to the speaker.


Anyone played with these types of test tracks during your system tuning?

Any "do's and don'ts" to be considered?


-crisp

[DatSRBoi]

Start low and work your way up. Leave your settings low too... Ive came close to popping my fronts on my old car before with those tuning CDs...

[.onetohate]

i used classical music before.

[theprodigy79]

When I was running in sound offs I used to tune using the test sweeps from Bass Mekanic and similar... Sounds like your cross-over was set too low for your full range... Try setting the cross over for your 6x9s somewhere between 80-100Hz.

Keep in mind, that CD is digitally AMPLIFIED bass, meaning abnormally HIGH bass focuses. It's putting a full 20Hz through 20KHz sweep (some of the tests actually drop below 10Hz) through speakers that are only efficient PRACTICALLY above 80Hz.

As for your Orion popping a fuse... I could make a joke about "Ofryin'" but I'll restrain (oops, too late) Chances are the amp just got some power feedback when the voicecoil on your Mephis fried.

[rollaevo99]

settings may be? or use crossover to separate lows and mid and highs.....bassmekanic is a cool CD...talking about bass booming!!!

[crispone]

Thanks for all thoughts and comments...

I DID run it pretty high... (just playin' with some cars beside me on the highway... they were FREEKIN' OUT trying to figure out what was up... kept looking around and stuff! HA HA! ..er... jokes on ME?)


I DID blow the left rear, it seems, and it WASN'T on the Orion, but the Kenwood 921, which is fine. The Orion DID appear to take a current spike or something, but once the fuse was replaced... it's crankin' no sweat... er... maybe a little SWEAT from the HEAT, but running cherry now! Yeah, NO DOUBT you can fry an EGG on the Orion when it get's cookin'..... I've NEVER had an amp get as hot as the Orions do!


As far as the left rear 6x9 Memphis coax... it is ALREADY crossed at (I believe 100hz) for the low end, and FURTHERMORE, my Kenwood EQ "pre-chokes" the RCA outs for the front and rear channel when the SUB mode is engaged, so they slope from around 80-100hz and take out the lows as well... I think I just gave it too high a dose of FREQUENCY AMPLITUDE in a range it didn't like.

Oh well... Memphis' replacement policy is supposed to be very good... I'll make that call later.

ROCK ON!


-crisp

[SolaraGuy22]

Was it an orange one? I only have 4 of the Bass Mekanik's. I can't wait for my system to be fully functional so I can tear up my tweeters and wipe out my woofers.

[crispone]

Was it an orange one? I only have 4 of the Bass Mekanik's. I can't wait for my system to be fully functional so I can tear up my tweeters and wipe out my woofers.

It is a RED disc, and comes with a DVD disc in a 2CD case. (I don't know what's on the DVD... a guy handed the disc to me and suggested I "TRY" it...)

I'll try to take a look at what the title is and post it later...


-crisp

[SolaraGuy22]

So far bass CD's have been good to me. My first set of subs I ever had were blown out by Master P. (well one of the 2) I went and replaced it and a couple of weeks later the same thing happed while listening to him. I upgraded at that point and it didn't happen again.

[Solara08861]

Where can I get a copy of that cd?

[QuickSEV6]

my left rear Memphis MC92 6x9 crackled itself to death on one of the sweeps, and the load blew the fuse to my Orion 2125SX...

Crisp, I know you want to remain "Old School" and money may be a factor, but I just thought I'd mention this.
When I was shopping for an audio system, I listened to every speaker the audio shop had. The speakers that I thought sounded the best were Diamond Audio. Then, after I already selected them, he showed me pictures of a bunch of blown speakers (including Focal). He said he never even heard of Diamond Audio blowing. I've been sold on them ever since. I'm sure other SG members will argue which is the best speakers. I just thought I'd add my $.02

[theprodigy79]

I can vouch for Diamond Audio, they are wonderful speakers.