What is this distortion called?

[swraman]

Hi,

I tried to search for this but I dont know what it is called.

I have a Dayton Audio Sub-120. If I turn the gain up past half way, the bass stops being crisp and low, and instead becomes much higher in pitch, and sounds horrible. its like im hearing the bass instead of feeling it, the room stops shaking and its jsut really distorted, high pitch, and loud.

What's going on here, is this "clipping"? What is the problem here, and is there any way to fix it?

thanks

Raman

 

[yepimonfire]

could be the amp clipping since this generates high order harmonics (or at least in my experience) or it could be port chuffing sounds. you may be overloading the input stage by turning the gain to high. maybe try turning the gain down and turning up the pre-amp section of your receiver (in the speaker settings increase the subwoofer volume a few dB's)

 

[TLS Guy]

Hi,

I tried to search for this but I dont know what it is called.

I have a Dayton Audio Sub-120. If I turn the gain up past half way, the bass stops being crisp and low, and instead becomes much higher in pitch, and sounds horrible. its like im hearing the bass instead of feeling it, the room stops shaking and its jsut really distorted, high pitch, and loud.

What's going on here, is this "clipping"? What is the problem here, and is there any way to fix it?

thanks

Raman

The fix is to turn it down, buy or build a much more powerful sub.

 

[WmAx]

It is probably both amp clipping AND very high harmonic distortion caused by the very limited linearity of the driver. As you exceed a few mm in excursion, the driver's motor becomes non-linear; motor power radically reduces and I also expect the raise in thermal energy is causing additional problems like dynamic compression.

-Chris

 

[swraman]

Thanks for the replies, it does seem like I need a more powerful amp. yes it is creating harmonics of the tone its supposed to produce, so I do think it is clipping. I take it the solution to this is to get a more powerful amp?

@WmAx: Thats interesting. If the driver has such a limited linear approximation, why dont they use a control system to better control it? do more advanced subs do this, or is it non-issue if you just have a more powerful amp?

Thanks,

Raman

 

[WmAx]

Thanks for the replies, it does seem like I need a more powerful amp. yes it is creating harmonics of the tone its supposed to produce, so I do think it is clipping. I take it the solution to this is to get a more powerful amp?

@WmAx: Thats interesting. If the driver has such a limited linear approximation, why dont they use a control system to better control it? do more advanced subs do this, or is it non-issue if you just have a more powerful amp?

Thanks,

Raman

Yes, more advanced subs use a servo feedback system to help compensate. On top quality drivers, however, a servo is of no real use; the best measured performance drivers available are passive, FYI.

You could replace the existing driver with a more sensitive, higher linearity unit and re-tune the port to accommodate the new driver. Acoustic Elegance has a 12" driver, I believe, that fits the bill, but I would have to run some performance simulations first to be able to give you more confident information and recommend a specific model.

-Chris

 

[billy p]

Between the AE av 12x or the TD series which I believe are geared for higher frequency. The av12x is only good for a few hundred hz but with much more travel they should yeild better low end...fwiw. But I am bias...lol

Just my 2 cents