I wanted more Bass in my 2011 Screw so I went down to the local stereo shop and talked to the guy for awhile, and he only carried Memphis and phoenix gold, he talked me into the letting him build a downfiring box with two phoenix gold slimline subs with a 600 watt Phoenix gold amp with a bass **** under the dash...long story short I was very pleased with the outcome, however 4 months after the install the cone separated from the rubber surround and was covered under warranty 3 months later I got a new sub.... I had the system in the truck for 6 months then sold my truck and bought a car for daily commute, had that for 6 months and now have a 2013 Screw, I had a different shop install all the same stuff back in the 13' and now I can hear the other sub is now rattling im guessing its about done... UGH!! I have not touched the settings on the amp ever and only have the bass **** turned up to about 80% and a lot of the time it is less than that, I do listen to a lot of Rap,and Dubstep and they tend to have more bass then other genres of music.... question is what do I do now?? I originally had all this stuff installed on 3/2/2012 so it is now over a year old and I don't think it'll be covered under warranty. Should I fight it and try and get another sub, are they overpowered? Should I buy a different brand sub?

This is the amp that I have:

http://www.phoenixgold.com/products/...p?productID=38

These are the Subs:
http://www.phoenixgold.com/products/...p?productID=46

 

 

 

I've had 2 12" Kicker CVTs (slim fit CVRs) under my back seat in a down firing box powered by a flea market amp for over a year and never had a problem. Also had 2 15" Kicker comps for over a year in my old Suburban, never once had an issue with those either. All my buddies run Kicker too. I'd just try out some name-brand stuff, never even heard of Phoenix. But usually when subs seperate like that so quickly, they're way over powered. If your amp is wired down to 2 ohms (most likely is) then you're actually UNDERpowering them with that set up. So I can only conclude that the subs are of poor quality. Your amp is probably fine, just get different subs

 

Most likely since its two subs each are wired to 2ohms then across those to 1ohm final load. Also there's plenty of brands out there that are name brand are not good, and brands your local shop might not carry that are great. Kicker is nice but there's better stuff for the money in the price range of their products, with maybe the exception of their amps because they offer them in just about any power level.

Basically what the probably is is poor quality both subs and amp, and with the bass at like 80% your most likely sending a clipped signal which will only hurt the subs. It also looks like the subs are basically sitting on the floor when that box is down, so that could damage them too.

If you want a shallow, look at the alpine type r. One of those would be better sound quality wise than those two you have now, and it'll get decently loud on 300rms, it's rated up to 600rms iirc.

 

Not sure why your not familiar with Phoenix Gold they have been around for a very long time, and use to be really good, were offered as premium audio in Mercedes and a few other brands in the early 2000s, I have heard that they have fell off the market for awhile but are now picking themselves back up since they were bought out.

The subs do not hit the bottom from what I can tell I have had it turned up on a bassy song and stuck my fingers under there, because I thought this was the reason for them separating. Yes Kicker is an alright brand, But I wouldn't buy them. I would like to try some DD subs but they usually require more mounting depth and power.

 

I emailed Phoenix and send them a link to this page so lets see what they say.

 

Yea old phoenix gold was awesome, now they're a good budget brand but I still think they're somewhat overrated, when they fell off, they fell off hard haha. The only shallow's I'd really recommend would be the alpine type r, stereo integrity bmkiii or iv, jl 13tw5, or the rockford p3s series (this one being the most budget oriented one).

You may be able to fit a dd1508 in there though, mounting depth is 5.5" or so. And on about 500rms they can get loud too.

 

Yea I don't want to have to buy a new amp, I really like this one, it's small and compact and see to have plenty of power for now. This box isn't ported, is that a good or bad thing?

 

Umm without looking up the specs of the sub's I'd stick with sealed, ported requires a bigger box and some subs don't handle ported well because they don't like really low freqeuncies. Just thinking about the box though, it could cause those subs could to bottom out if the box is too big which could also be causing some of the damage especially because you listen to a lot of songs with really low bass.

But I'd definitely cut the gain back some on the amp, I'd try to keep it under like 50% max so the subs will get a cleaner signal.

 

Ok ill try that...Only problem now is, is that my amp is mounted to my back wall and I cant figure out how to drop the back seat lol

 

I thought about Phoenix Gold for a little bit and I have heard of them, just didn't remember at the time. Didn't know they were in Mercedes though haha. I agree with sticking with a sealed box too. Lower powered 10's usually like them better than ported. I also agree that there are definitely brand with better stuff for the money in some cases, but I've personally had good luck with Kickers. I do tend to distrust smaller brand electronics for various reasons though. I've heard good things about the JL shallows and likely would've opted for them if I hadn't gone with Kicker. Pizzaman seams to know more than I do, so take his recommendations. I know he knows his suspensions haha. But one thing is for certain, don't get a third set of those subs