I recently installed a 10" Rockford Fosgate T2 and an Alpine PDX 1.1000 in my '09 tC. It's in a ported box tuned @ 32Hz. I had the gain at around 60% going by the gain-control for the first week. The other day I turned it up to around 80-85% and the sub was hitting much harder, lower, and the quality was also improved. But after about 10 mins of bumping, there was a burnt smell in my car. I opened my hatch and could smell it coming straight out of the port. Any reason this is happening? I turned the gain back down so I wouldn't risk damaging my sub.

 

how does the sub sound now, you may have cooked it

 

after i turned the gain back down, it sounded perfectly normal, luckily

 

Gain should never be turned on. That sub is rated at 1000 watts RMS, you are not putting out that power. By turning up the gain you are trying to force the amp to play harder, causing distortion. You fried your voice coil a bit. Take a volt meter set to ohms and test both voice coils. They should be around 4 ohms on each coil depending on what sub you bought.

 

One possibility is new subs do smell when you turn them up the first few times.

 

actually, the sub is 800watts rms. the amp is 1000 rms. so im not asking too much od the amp.
Gutling: someone mentioned that also abd im hoping thats all it is. my sub still sounds perfectly fine and the ohm reading is indeed at 4ohms. my sub is a d2

 

How do you have them wired? Those are dual voice coils.

 

its wired @ 4ohms. its all wired correctly. 100% positive it is.

 

Ok cool. I see it happen way too much you wouldn't even believe me. People come in wondering why their dual voice coil is burnt up. I take it out of the box and only one coil is hooked up. The best excuse I got was "well I thought it was when one side burns out I just wire up the other one"

 

2 DVC drivers with Voice Coils in Series / Parallel
Connecting the two voice coils of each driver in series (+ to -) and the drivers themselves in parallel (+ to +, etc.) will result in the following impedances:
Dual-6 Ohm Subwoofers: 6 Ohms
Dual-4 Ohm Subwoofer: 4 Ohms
Dual-2 Ohm Subwoofer: 2 Ohms
Dual-1.5 Ohm Subwoofer: 1.5 Ohms

 

Those alpines are not one ohm stable, so this is how it should be.

 

yes I know, its wired at 4ohms.