help! subwoofer sounds off beat?!
 

I am not sure if I am noticing this now or it has always been like this from the start.. but recently i have been noticing that the bass sounds like it is delayed and or a bit off to the beat of the music. I have a single jl 10 inch w6 in a ported box powered by a jl audio e1300 monoblock amp. headunit is a calrion vx409.

the weird thing is that when i have it on tuner, the beat/bass ssounds right... but when i have it hooked up to my ipod and or cd , SOME songs, not all, sound as if the beat of the bass is off or even muffled a bit. Is this more to do with the quality of the mp3/song file? I checked all connections and they seem fine... I never fiddled with the settings since day 1 as well. bass freq on the HU is at 80 and bass q is at 1.25.

on the actual amp itself, the freq is around 80 as well i believe...

Os the sub wired correctly. The positive and negative may be wired backwards.

its hooked up right. it isnt horrid sounding... it could be just me :S

If everything seems to check out, and it's still bugging you, maybe bring it by one of the sponsers, and let them have a listen. Couldn't hurt for the piece of mind.

Go over to rise, or soundsgood they can help you out.
Posted via RS Mobile

ya i am thinking it might just need to be fine tuned... i have the filter currently set at LP 12db.. and at about 100hz.. does that seem about right?

Might be a bit high @ 100hz.... but I don't think that would cause the beat to be off by a bit...

so bring it down closer to about 80?

i think i figured out what is "wrong" i am used to a sealed enclosure.. and because this is ported, it isnt as tight and accurate esp with songs that have lower longer bass durations... debating on getting a sealed enclosure made for the w6

Was the enclosure built specifically for that sub, or is it some generic box from Princess Auto or something? Tuned ports can be tricky if they're not properly designed to the parameters of the driver(s).

the box was made for the jl w6 sub. a few years a go my buddy and i built custom snclosures for our cars.. he did a ported box for the w6 (using specs from the owners manual) and i built a sealed dual enclosure for my w3v2s. to be honest, my w3s may have sounded better. there is a possibility the box could have been built off spec a bit, but it seems like certain notes in the bass sound worse than others.. so i guess not so much off beat but the accuracy is off and sometimes sounds muffled.

like i said the shorter thumping bass is ok it is the lower rumbling sounds/transition that seems a bit off

I just recently built a ported box for the 10W6V2 and it sounded pretty darn good. I would still recommend ported but maybe tune the box slightly higher and EQ it a little better, Placement of the enclosure could also make a difference so see if you can play around with that as well.

We specialize in building enclosures so if you need a little advice or help building or designing it, I am always here.

thanks mike... yea, i think i might fiddle with the position.. right now it is positioned so that the sub is facing the trunk.. i might flip it so it points up or towards the seats... what have your experiences with the w6 facing the seats/up sound like?

The last one I did was facing up in a spare tire well in a Maserati Quatroporte. The bass was tight and clear and the enclosure was ported. I think if you face the back of the seats the SPL will go down but the bass will be matched better with the rest of the music and could sound a bit tighter too (to the ear). Crossover should be set to around 70-80 HZ ideally.

the bass is tight... and sounds good during beats, the problem is the bass during a lot of rnb songs where the bass is lower and shorter.. the higher sounding thumping bass is fine, and the low ruumbling (exhaust sound) is fine too. i should just bring it into you this week so you can listen.. when do you work next?

Did you reverse polarity via the deck by any chance?

180 degrees out of phase works sometimes while other times it makes it worse - all depends on the install and other factors like crossover point, slope, etc.

You may have loose connections...........

I am in tomorrow (Tuesday). :)

Does your amp have a subsonic filter? If so set it sightly below that of the tuning frequency of your sub box. That will clean up your low bass response.

this is the amp i have.. not sure if it has subsonic :S not great with terms and car audio except for wiring em up

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...io+e1400D.html

No subsonic filter on that one. The slash series has the SSF.