I have a couple of Rockford Fosgate Punch XLC 8" subs that are going under my rear seat in a couple of sealed boxes. I was wondering which speaker wire terminal is the positive terminal and which one is the negative terminal on these subs??? There's a little purple dot next to one of the terminals, but that's the only marking I see. I'm assuming that's the positive terminal, right??? Thanks for any info.

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99 F150 X-Cab 4x4 SB, 5.4L V8, Deep Wedgewood Blue/Dark Graphite, Off-Road Pkg, 3.73 Limited Slip, Tow Pkg, Captain's Chairs, CD, Airaid, Luvernve Stainless Nerf Bars, Lund Frontrunner bug deflector, Lund Eclipse taillight covers, Lund Eclipse side window covers.
Soon to be added : Sony Mobile ES CDX-C7850 head unit, Sony Mobile ES XDP-U50D DSP, Rockford Fosgate Punch 600a5 amp, Infinity 62.1i's in the rear and 63.1i's in the front, 2 Rockford Fosgate 8" Punch XLC subs under the rear seat.



[This message has been edited by MattT (edited 09-22-1999).]

 

Purple dot = "+" on four ohm speakers.
Red Dot = "+" on eight ohm speakers.

Todd

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97 White F-150 XLT 4X4 ORP, 4.6, SuperChip, Stillen Air Intake, Gibson Exhaust, Hellwig Sway Bar, Weld Wheels, 33" Bridgestone A/T Duelers, 3" Body Lift, Rancho 9000's, Billet Grill, SmittyBilt Nerf Bars (Stainless), SnugTop Shell (Expo), Sunroof, Sony ES CDX780 Head Unit, Sony ES 10 Disk Changer, Sony ES XDP 210 EQ/DSP, MTX Pro 4X75W AMP, Kenwood 300W AMP for Sub., 1 Fared Lightning Monitor Cap, Optima Yellow Top Battery, MTX ThunderForm W/2-8"-4ohm Fosgate Punch XLC, Infinity Kappa components in front, Infinity Kappa 5X7 rear. On Order: White face gauge? Still looking.......

 

I knew the dot was for + but thats pretty cool about the color.
You can test any woofer or full range speaker for polarity by hooking up a 1.5v battery to the terminals.
You will see the speaker push out when the batt terminals and speaker terminals match.
The positive terminal is also normally on the right.

 

Don't do that test for very long. You are turning your speaker into a heating coil if you hold that connection for too long.

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yes

 

Agreed,
Don't do this test for any lenth of time.

 

MattT,
Hey I recently purchased a set of rockford punch 8's also I have them behind the seat in vented boxes, any way I have a Alpine 200 watt amp its kind of ancient but still wroks great gets extremly warm when you really let it hit the 8's for a while. Well the reason I writing this is to tell you to watch the bass level a little. I was testing for the resonant frequency of my truck and found out the 8's don't like to be thrown very far I pulled the spider loose and FUBR'D one of them luckily though they are going to replace it for me! I aslo need to update my list down there!..lol

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99 F-150 XLT Sport 4x4 4.6L , 3.55 LS, K&N air filter, Straight Exaust system!,.999 tuned TPS,Pioneer CD Player,Optimus 200 Watt Amp,8" MTX road thunder II's. Custom pinstriping




[This message has been edited by sugarman (edited 09-26-1999).]

 

Hey sugarman and MattT,

Sugarman, which subs do you have? Punch-XLC-DVC??

I run two 8"/4ohm XLC / 2ohm load on my Kenwood-Kac816. (300 RMS) While the amp does get hot. I have had NO problems. My setup hits very hard on a regular basis. Perhaps you got a bad speaker? It happens.....

Quality subs are made to hit hard!!!!
Don't be afraid to push your subs to their recommended power range. This rating, for speakers, is normally conservative. Wish the same could be said about amps!!

Todd

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97 White F-150 XLT 4X4 ORP, 4.6, SuperChip, Stillen Air Intake, Gibson Exhaust, Hellwig Sway Bar, Weld Wheels, 33" Bridgestone A/T Duelers, 3" Body Lift, Rancho 9000's, Billet Grill, SmittyBilt Nerf Bars (Stainless), SnugTop Shell (Expo), Sunroof, Sony ES CDX780 Head Unit, Sony ES 10 Disk Changer, Sony ES XDP 210 EQ/DSP, MTX Pro 4X75W AMP, Kenwood 300W AMP for Sub., 1 Fared Lightning Monitor Cap, Optima Yellow Top Battery, MTX ThunderForm W/2-8"-4ohm Fosgate Punch XLC, Infinity Kappa components in front, Infinity Kappa 5X7 rear. On Order: White face gauge? Still looking.......

 

Remember not to play vented boxes below the frequency the box is tuned to.
There is no acoustic loading provided by the box below FB.
The speaker is like a fish swimming out of water at these frequencies.
Sorry this is one of the drawbacks to any vented system.
Fortunately not much music has frequencies this low except basshead stuff.

 

LuvtheC
I have the XLC's,4 ohm. It may have been a bad speaker because they only had two of them there at the Pied Piper where I purchased them one new and one on display so the one that died may have been the one that was on display, I didn't mark them when I put them in the boxes. Any way I bought one of those basshead testing CD's and found out the little guys didn't like it very well. Other than that they hit reaaly hard better than most 10's that buddies have and I have an ancient amp! I think I got it off Noah's Arc but I will ahve to check the reciept!...LOL

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99 F-150 XLT Sport 4x4 4.6L , 3.55 LS, K&N air filter, Straight Exaust system!,.999 tuned TPS,Pioneer CD Player,Alpine 200 Watt Amp,8" Rockford Fosgate Punches, Custom pinstriping

 

Those older amps I think are better made than some of the new ones.
They made them before the bean counters got a hold of the car audio industry.

 

Sugarman,

I agree with 54regcab. Many of the older amps are better built. Like many things!!

What were you doing with the test cd? You need to be very careful with them. I use all the AutoSound test cd's available.

These should be used only to fine tune your system. If you aren't using an EQ or signal processor they will not be of much use to you. Except to set gains and check polarity. Both of which you can do other ways.

I agree two eights do hit hard and are more accurate than most ten's!!

Todd

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97 White F-150 XLT 4X4 ORP, 4.6, SuperChip, Stillen Air Intake, Gibson Exhaust, Hellwig Sway Bar, Weld Wheels, 33" Bridgestone A/T Duelers, 3" Body Lift, Rancho 9000's, Billet Grill, SmittyBilt Nerf Bars (Stainless), SnugTop Shell (Expo), Sunroof, Sony ES CDX780 Head Unit, Sony ES 10 Disk Changer, Sony ES XDP 210 EQ/DSP, MTX Pro 4X75W AMP, Kenwood 300W AMP for Sub., 1 Fared Lightning Monitor Cap, Optima Yellow Top Battery, MTX ThunderForm W/2-8"-4ohm Fosgate Punch XLC, Infinity Kappa components in front, Infinity Kappa 5X7 rear. On Order: White face gauge? Still looking.......

 

The reason 2 8s sometimes hit harder than 2 10s is the boxes that we can fit in our F150s are normally too small to accomidate the 10s minimum air space requirement.
I bought a test CD at a pawn shop for $3.00 and have found it to be extremely useful in tuning vented boxes.