JL Audio 10w7 - Cone separation mystery - questions for speakers guys/girls

[DiggetyDan]

The issue:

I have a JL Audio 10w7 subwoofer with a cone that has separated from the coil former. The pictures below show it from two angles, the white stuff looks like glue residue from where the cone used to be seated but has now lifted.

I'm trying to figure out if this could be done by driving the sub with a 1000w amp. The sub is rated for 500w max 750.

Here is the back story:

I had this sub in my old car in a high output box driven by a JL 500.1 slash amp. It sounded amazing. When I purchased the 4runner I pulled the system out of my old car and transferred some of the components to the 4runner. The amp didn't fit anywhere in the 4runner so the shop who was doing the work recommended I go with a 500w Alpine PDX amp to drive the sub since they're good amps and can fit under the seat. I said sure, go ahead.

When I picked the car up after the install he told me he installed a 1000w Alpine PDX amp instead, as if he was giving me a good deal. He said the 10w7 is a monster and can take it. Not knowing all that much about this stuff I took his word for it and drive home.

The system, especially the sub, never really sounded right. The shop told me this was because I kept the factory head unit so the signal is just not that great to start with. I started looking at head units and decided to get the sound I was used to with the last set up I would just have to bite the bullet and get a new HU.

While I've been waiting to raise the extra money for a new HU I decided I wanted to take back some of my rear cargo space and ordered a smaller sealed enclosure for the sub and sold the huge High Output box it was in.

When I removed the sub from the box I noticed what you see in the pictures here. Now I'm wondering if the real reason the system didn't sound right was that the sub got blown somewhere during the installation, maybe the gain was set too high.

Any of you that are familiar with subs and amps and the type of damage that can be done to a sub? Anyone seen this type of issue with these subs? Is this something that could have been done by the shop?

I'm just not familiar enough with how a sub works and what a 'blown' sub looks like and am trying to get more informed before speaking with the shop owner.

 

[riceandpho]

you should of kept the jl amp, but if the gain was set correctly on the alpine amp, then it wouldnt over driven the sub, but also did u use a bass knob? , did you give it so much boost that it distorted even more? i blown out one sub, that was a older rf p2 15 thats rated on 250w rms and 500w peak, i was feeding it with the jl 500/1 and i droved it so hard, that it heated up , the cone seperated from the voice coil. even tho the jl sub can handle the power, you can only have it last, if everything was set correctly. was there any other thing under the front seats? i dont know much about 5th gen, but the 4th gen i hide rf t600-2 and jl 300/2.

this is what happens when its too much power and gain set yoo high, distorted signal fed to my old crossover.

the coils originally are bright red, when it heated up, it turned black, also i was lucky enough its didnt start a fire.

 

[Bucket81]

I have seen this in cars with factory head units. You can send it in to JL for repair I don't remember how much it costs. It would be worth it you have a US made one the new black ones are made in China.

This didn't blow because of being over powered, it most likely blow from a dirty signal and high power. And probably wouldn't have if you had the proper head unit. Subs like power I have over powered a lot of subs as long as you know what your doing you can do it.

Do not put it in a smaller box it will only happen again.

Id have it fixed(if you call make money off it) and sell it and the Alpine amp, get a new head unit a nice 5 channel amp (JL XD 700/5) a 10W1 or a 10w3.