Ok more testing. I pulled the box and sitting on the floor the sub distorted against the floor. It is way too close. I stood the box up and 90% of the distortion went away but their was still air blow by on some heavy bass. but I feel confident the sub is working properly

On to the amp: I played with gain.pretty much anything less then 99% gain only gives audible bass at full HU volume

at 100% gain, it picks up significantly but distorats very easily and the overall sounds like crap except for midbass.

I am thinking:
1 make new bigger sealed box
2 either amp is blown
3 i just had pioneer rebuild the HU and it sounds great. are the preouts bad?


how do I see if the amp is blown? hu preouts? sub?

where can I get a good replacemnt amp for $100 to drive 1 sub? around 400 watts

I have a RF power150, powerbass dual 10", pioneer 7500mp, xm radio

 

Amps are not designed to be ran at 100% gain. Nominal quality would be between 1/2 and 3/4. Past 3/4 your just amplifying distortion that will over time wreck your subs. My suggestion is getting a bigger amp. Dont be afraid to get too much power. You can always back the gain down and you will get cleaner distortion free bass. I run three Rockford P2 8"s on a Power T1000BD amp. Sounds awesome. My gain is at 1/2.

If you want to keep your amp, try porting your box, everything will operate more efficiently with the lower power output.

 

I just had the guys at circuit city look at the system. They felt the system was not blown, he said that the speaker, now facing up in the air, was moving way too much.

He said that is a good sign that the box is way off.

Now that I think about it, I put a solid brace in side the box about 2" from the speaker that runs through the whole center solid except for about 1/2" gaps at the front and back inside the box

If those gaps are too small, obvisously, the sub would only be seeing about 0.22 cu ft could be a major problem.


I am redesign a new box out of 3/4" with no bracing, not needed for such a small box