testing a sub

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Jan 26, 2005 | 12:50 PM

fordtrucklover94

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From: Charlotte, NC

testing a sub

Ok, I just received my first of two subs that are coming, two Pioneer ts-w33c 150w rms. I was wondering, since I haven't set anything up in the truck yet, is there a way that I can test them other than hooking them up in the truck? I have a buddy with a setup in his car, but I don't want him to have to take stuff apart to test it there. I just wanna make sure it works so I know if i need to send it back or not. Thanks for ya'lls help you have provided me through this project, lol.

Jan 26, 2005 | 01:06 PM

morcutt

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From: Sugar Hill, GA

Well, in an open-air environment (not placed inside a sub box), they're not going to sound that great at all. With or without the sub box, you could connect them to virtually any radio (such as a hojme stereo), assuming that you're keeping the impedence at 4 ohms or higher. Just be careful not to deliver too much power to them if they're not mounted in a sub box as the sub box provides resistance to the speakers mechanical mechanism (suspension) and without the resistance, too much power can easily cause damage to the subs.

Jan 26, 2005 | 02:25 PM

fordtrucklover94

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From: Charlotte, NC

ok, i don't have a home stereo system, I'm in a college dorm, the closest I have is a sub attached to my computer. I'm not looking to pump a lot of power until it hits the truck, just something to see if it makes noise period, bought it from a wholesale lot, and wanna see if it's doa or not

Jan 26, 2005 | 02:33 PM

morcutt

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From: Sugar Hill, GA

There is a couple of checks that you can do in such cases. One is to test to make sure that the voice coil is functional. You can do this by connecting a small, singe battery (such as a AA or AAA) with wire to the terminals on each sub very briefly (less than a second). You should see the cone move in response to the connected power source. Do not use a larger battery or connect it for any longer period of time as you'll risk burning out the voice coil. Also, you can use your hands to carefully move the cone manually, in and out of it's normal rest position. The cone should move backand forth with no scratching noise. A scratching noise can indicate that the voice coil wire has separated from the former internally on the speaker. Also, if you have a computer w/ sound card at your disposal, you can hook a sub into one of the outputs (left or right) from the sound card that would normally go to a regular speaker. These efforts should let you know if your wholesale purchase was a good one.

Jan 26, 2005 | 02:50 PM

Tad1299

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From: Fort Worth

A lot of computer speakers are 4 ohm as well, so you won't hurt anything in your computer by hooking the sub channel to it, it that is possible. The other idea is to get some extra long speaker wire from your buddies amp and disconnect his speaker/s from the amp, then hook yours up, they won't produce much, but you would be able to tell if they worked/functioned properly.
Good luck.

Jan 26, 2005 | 04:14 PM

fordtrucklover94

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From: Charlotte, NC

I talked with my buddy about hooking it up to his, he says that If and when I get a box built, he will help me out with the testing, I'm gonna look at my computer and see if there is any way to hook up the sub to that system, maybe pull my sub off the comp and hook this one up, don't know how exactly, but i'll figure it out someway