I'm an idiot, just blew my SVS (1 Viewer)

[Brandon_T]

Like the title says. Nobody is perfect I guess. The thing is I don't really understand why. To much power maybe? I wasn't even playing it all that loud. I am using one of the channels from my anthem amp to power it. It just popped once during a scene in ID4 and now it is dead. My wife is going to kill me. It was a 25-31cs. May it rest in peace. Id did seem to not want to go very loud without clipping. Any advice now is welcomed. Start ripping me apart now.

Brandon

 

[BryanZ]

You may need to get a new driver for the sub. Would double check the connections but it would appear that is the case. OTOH, if it is a pre-ISD then that is a good excuse to get the ISD for it.

 

[Brandon_T]

Is there really that big of a difference between the new driver and the old one?

 

[Dustin B]

I'm not sure if memory is serving me correct, but I believe TV had said it was about a 30% improvement in output capability.

However, if you killed the old one by clipping your current amp the new driver won't prevent that from happening again.

 

[Lewis Besze]

How do you know it blown?

Does it makes a "crackeling" sound,kinda like the when the voice coil hits the backplate[bottoming out]?

If it doesn't make any sound at all,and the cone looks in tact,then might be just a loose connection internaly.

Call Ron first he can walk you through the trouble shooting.

 

[Ned]

The new driver is a *huge* improvement. I'm waiting till I try out all my favorite bass scenes before posting a final thought but the THX TPM intro trailer went from clack, clack, to "holy shit!" (me yelling after the room quaked).

 

[Brandon_T]

Everything looks fine, but if I slightly push in on the driver it makes that sound, and you can feel rubbing. Aaaaaaagggghhhh This is a nightmare. I just got these from Robert George(obi). I don't get why my amp would clip so easily. Is it maybe cause I am running Studio 100's on other channels? I always read about how hard these things hit, and yet when I tried this out, it wasn't much more than my pw2200.

Brandon

 

[SanfordL]

Hey Brandon, I am still waiting on my PCi to ship, so don't count on this being the gospel, but I read something about someone having similar problems. The reason was b/c they didn't remove the driver packaging supporting the sub from shipping. There is some sort of a chunk of something or another the SVS guys throw in there to keep the gorilla's at UPS from bottoming your voice coils when they drop the sub 15 feet off a conveyor belt. :frowning: I might be wrong, but I know I read about a month or so ago about someone getting no real output from their brand new sub, only to find that there was some foam or cardboard packaging in the way of the driver. Just in case, I'd check it out. It might be that someone else with a CS already in their home or Tom or Ron can help. If not, man that sucks. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Walt N]

Brandon, SVS may have a whole bunch of the original drivers laying around from the driver upgrade program. Maybe they can make you a smoking deal on one? If you go with the driver upgrade instead you won't be sorry. It's well worth the money.

 

[SVS-Ron]

Brandon,

Accidents happen. Any chance you used a sound meter to calibrate your sub? It's vitually impossible to know really what happened or how it compared to your other sub without a good measurement there. It might be you were running it a bit "hot" and/or your amp was indeed clipping to the point it smoked the voice coil. It's rare but not unheard of.

You are still covered under warranty even though it's second hand. Contact us. Even if the amp or calibration added to the failure we'll work up something to get you back up and running with minimal cost and disruption.

Now, about that sound meter...

;^)

PS, customers are finding there is a HUGE difference in practical terms from the old driver (good as it was) to the new ISD. Going with an upgrade there might be a smart move since you clearly want to push the sub some? With a beefier voice coil and spider it'll take more abuse.

Ron

 

[Jeffrey Noel]

You are still covered under warranty even though it's second hand. Contact us. Even if the amp or calibration added to the failure we'll work up something to get you back up and running with minimal cost and disruption.

Now that is customer service. It never ceases to amaze me how well the SVS crew treats their customers. For this reason, and because of the freakin awesome subs, I will probably be purchasing an SVS this summer. Three thumbs up for SVS!

 

[Walt N]

"You are still covered under warranty even though it's second hand."
That is impressive. Too bad that generous company policies such as this so rarely extend to other forms of consumerism.
Kudos to SVS.

 

[Barry Barnes]

Brandon,
Accidents happen.... It might be you were running it a bit "hot" and/or your amp was indeed clipping to the point it smoked the voice coil. It's rare but not unheard of.
You are still covered under warranty even though it's second hand. Contact us. Even if the amp or calibration added to the failure we'll work up something to get you back up and running with minimal cost and disruption.

You guys are great. That's exactly the type of thing you do when you want people to continue buying your products year after year. I'm currently evaluating the SVS subwoofer I purchased last week and if the amazing sound quality wasn't enough to keep it, this type of post and your willingness to always go that extra mile certainly is. As a small business owner myself, I can say that your way of doing business and your success by doing so, just validates what I have always felt to be true. Be honest, be fair, offer value. What goes around comes around. You deserve all the success you are getting.

 

[Dave Schofield]

I almost bought a PDR-12 today. If the salesman would have cut another $10 off the price I would have plunked down my credit card... He wouldn't and I didn't... I was feeling somewhat bad about not just pulling the trigger until I saw this thread and made my mind up here and now to buy from SVS as soon as I can afford it. Service like this is unbeatable in the industry and after exchanging a few emails with TV I'm convinced it isn't just a facade (not that I expected it to be)...

Congrats SVS, your service just won you at least one new customer.

 

[Brandon_T]

I just came back from a cheering up dinner at Uno's, courtesy of the wife, and see quite a bit of replys to my post. The one that surprised me the most was that from Ron. What you said is unbelievable. I too am a small business owner and think your company is an example by wich to conduct my business. I will definatly be in touch. And I promise to go buy a sound meter tomm.

Brandon

 

[DanaA]

Yes, let's all applaud SVS. I'm sitting here drop jawed at how remarkably customer friendly they are. From now on, all I buy is SVS subs. Even though I'm using a Hsu now, I'll be buying sooner or later. Ron, you're the man!!!

 

[Dan Steffen]

Gee I just read in another thread that "my sub BEATS SVS". Well that may be the case if you want to spend 3x the money. Possibly the other sub beats an SVS but NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY beats Ron or Tom at customer service. When I buy a product I want people standing behind their product.
SVS is a quality product with exceptional service associated with it

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I don't get why my amp would clip so easily.

Probably not enough output for the room levels you were seeking to get. If you find yourself needing to clip the amp to get ref output, you don't have enough amp juice.

At the point that any element in the signal chain is clipping (The amp, also the ouputs on the receiver can clip if you run hotter than +2 on the sub output)-- you will be sending distorted signal to the driver, and that will burn a voice coil.

-Vince

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

You are still covered under warranty even though it's second hand.

Very impressive! I know a local guy who says Meridian wouldn’t cover a $30 cable, even though he bought a $20,000 system from them!

Regards,

Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[SVS-Ron]

Brandon,

I just had a thought. Did you get BOTH Obi's old subs? Could you have been running both at the time this happened, or perhaps your old sub and one SVS?

I'm thinking that in addition to a calibration issue (which only a SPL meter can avoid) you might have been getting some pretty serious phase/cancellation problems that appeared to mute the sub's response some and cause your amp/sub to be working MUCH harder than you realized.

True story: Experimenting with two SVS Ultras (one experimental with a PC amp mounted in it, one just slaved to a Samson amp) I put one sub in each rear corner of my HT. I had an expected loss of response when I separated the subs from their common corner, but after tweaking the phase on the old PC amp (it had continuous phase) I accidentally found a magically "wrong" setting. (Note: first I had both subs individually calibrated to 5dB over done one at a time).

Here's the eye-opener: With the phase setting I randomly chose, and BOTH subs going +5dB hot, and running the Video Essentials LFE test tone I heard nothing. I mean NOTHING in my prime seat. I was measuring like a 20dB drop in response over just one sub. I thought I'd accidentally turned the receiver to Sub=No or something it was that quiet in the room. I then walked up to one sub... and it was CRANKING on that test tone. The woofer was just about hitting its max excursion (I could hear it now, but only from a few inches away). Same with the other. Back to my seat... dead silence.

Proof that in the limited bandwidth of a test tone (I can't recall what VE uses) you can achieve nearly perfect and total bass cancellation with just the right (wrong) placement of two subs that are not co-located and just the right (wrong) phase setting. After tweaking the phase just about 30 degrees I got response that came within a dB or two of the subs when they were in a common corner. I'd seen the power of phase, first hand. A living "worst case scenario" in my own HT.

Had I not stumbled on this and just cranked some bass heavy movie I could well have fried a driver or an amp too just trying to get the bass to have the impact I knew I should be hearing (I would have naturally just turned them both up, and ignored the calibration I'd set).

As we tell folks, phase is nearly never an issue for a single sub in one corner of your room. But...separate two subs and fail to validate phase cancellation... or somehow have two subs running opposite phase when they ARE co-located, and it's going to be cause some serious response problems. Fatal if you don't catch on to what's happening in time.

Again, this is only one possibility but it might help explain why the stress on the amp, and in turn the sub might have been orders of magnitude greater than it could/should have been. Forget what I said if this failure happened with only one SVS playing. Even then however a less than optimal placement of the sub can cause serious loss of response. It's not unusual for me to move a sub 3 feet and gain over 6dB improved response. This is nearly like adding a second sub! So if it wasn't painfully obvious before, it's true what we (they, everyone) says... placment is key with subs. Run a pair and it's placement AND phase that can be key. ;^)

Drop us a line when you decide to get the failed sub back up and running.

Ron