How do you know when a sub should be put out to pasture? Are tehre any tell tale signs (aside from complete failure) that indicate a worn speaker? I have a 10" Infinity Kappa hooked up to a Kenwood KAC-729S amp (100/channel, 300 bridged) that just doesn't seem to sound good anymore.

 

Blue is dead on ballz accurate. Also if you read realy low, under 1/2 its rated impedance or really high like a meg ohm its dead. also sometime subs tinsle leads start hitting the cone while playing and make a tapiing noise. if its had a terminal tab you can bend that away a little and it cures that problem also sometimes a wire for the sub gats caught under the cone and makes a similar smacking noise.

 

What about bottoming out? Is that a sing of wear, being over driven, or poor amp control?

 

The term bottoming out is also thrown around alot and many times is just distortion. Many subs today, like eclipse and Ba can't bottom out they are constructed differently to aviod it.

 

Bottoming out is a sign of a poorly set-up system - rarely is it sign of wear in a sub - though it can be a prelude to failure, because bottoming out is bad, bad, bad.

A poorly constructed box (generally too much airspace), too much power, amplifier clipping/distortion, and the playing of ultra-low frequencies (like under 20Hz or so- depending on the sub itself) can bottom out a sub. All of these can lead to a blown sub, but bottoming out does not indicate a blown speaker.

~HH