Something strange happened to my Ti 12D....

1Quik7 · Post by **1Quik7** » Thu Nov 18, 2010 7:47 pm

I was driving along the other day listening to some music, nothing too loud, I'm kinda set for SQ...the first baseline kicks in and then flatness. I know this sound well, it's the sound of a blown speaker. I get kinda angry because this is a 20 day old setup RSD 1200.1 + Ti12D, nothing big or special. I think, ok, maybe it's just shorting out or I lost a line and the stock sub is where I am hearing the distortion...

Open the trunk and find this...

Not sure what to think at the moment, waiting to hear back from the dealer.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Thu Nov 18, 2010 8:12 pm

wow!!!!
All I can think is that the rubber surround is/was old and brittle
and deteriorated over time from sitting in a box. Unless you were hammering test tones which I doubt, I have never seen something like that....those subs are pretty old now at this point, but still.
How long have you had it? should be covered under warranty. Where did you buy it? Sure hope you get a replacement.

Post by **Bfowler** » Thu Nov 18, 2010 8:45 pm

damn...i havnt seen anything like that before either!

Post by **stipud** » Thu Nov 18, 2010 8:57 pm

Wow! Never seen that!

Post by **ttocs** » Thu Nov 18, 2010 11:00 pm

never seen it on one of these subs but I have seen a sub do something similar before. Good news is that you can probably repair it yourself, just need to locate the parts might be a little hard.

Post by **joerg** » Thu Nov 18, 2010 11:52 pm

Robotunderground might have the parts to get it repaired.

MW3 · Post by **MW3** » Fri Nov 19, 2010 1:01 am

Can you send a few more high rez or close up shots of the surround?

I am curious to take a closer look, weird one for sure.

1Quik7 · Post by **1Quik7** » Sat Nov 20, 2010 11:53 pm

Ok, so I'm having some trouble loading the originals, which were better resolution. Still clueless and waiting to hear from the distributor. I've only have them up for less than 30 days, I know they are kinda "old" since they don't make them anymore.
But, I had a pair of Xmax's that sat in the sun in the back of a hatchback that got played to death; I soldered the voicecoil so many times, and they kept trucking for YEARS, Kinda pissed atm.

I really don't understand what happened. Either structural failure(which the rubber feels fine) or the motor torqued weird and ripped it?

davewaibel · Post by **davewaibel** » Sun Nov 21, 2010 4:58 pm

looks like an angry exwife, or girl friend to me- that surround is pretty inpervious to anything- it wasn't 20below outside was it? I have 4 bnib, and I opened them up to inspect to make sure I had no issues- but very odd- seriously that surround cant really fail like that mechanically- have you pissed anybody off recently?

MW3 · Post by **MW3** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 5:42 am

More pics, higher rez... Strange failure for sure.

1Quik7 · Post by **1Quik7** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 11:27 am

Original

1Quik7 · Post by **1Quik7** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 11:30 am

Original

1Quik7 · Post by **1Quik7** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 11:32 am

Original

1Quik7 · Post by **1Quik7** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 11:32 am

Haha, no angry ex's, those days are long gone, no one besides me and the g/f even know I have the speaker and I don't drive very often to begin with, maybe 20min each day.

I'm prolly just gonna get rid of all this stuff, it was a stupid drunk 2am impulse buy, I'd rather have money for Xmas gifts.

Is this speaker worth anything for parts or should I try and repair it, then sell it? I bet there are less than 40hrs on this thing.

davewaibel · Post by **davewaibel** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:06 pm

its pretty much industrial art- unless your will to spend nearly the replacement cost to have it repair- there are no recone kits that have been 'available', only rumors, it may be possible to put another surround on, but it would be pretty tough to pull it off of the flat panel, without damaging it- and you originally said that the output stopped- which may be the coils are now damaged- wish you werent so far away, I would like to have it- just for the magnet structure, but shipping is probably too much to get it to me- if you find someone to repair it, post up who/what/how much, since those of us that have these will eventually need some repair-

Post by **ttocs** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:30 pm

I bet it would be a bitch to get teh surround started, but once you get a piece of it up I bet the rest would come up with it.

1Quik7 · Post by **1Quik7** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:09 pm

davewaibel wrote:its pretty much industrial art- unless your will to spend nearly the replacement cost to have it repair- there are no recone kits that have been 'available', only rumors, it may be possible to put another surround on, but it would be pretty tough to pull it off of the flat panel, without damaging it- and you originally said that the output stopped- which may be the coils are now damaged- wish you werent so far away, I would like to have it- just for the magnet structure, but shipping is probably too much to get it to me- if you find someone to repair it, post up who/what/how much, since those of us that have these will eventually need some repair-

The VC's are good, the speaker still has output, it's in a sealed box though; the air it was losing out of this gash was pretty big.

It's alright though, got an RMA for it.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:20 pm

Why won't the place you bought it from replace it under warranty?

Where did you buy it?

MW3 · Post by **MW3** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 8:20 pm

Still stumped, very odd.

My best guess is perhaps someone (not saying its you) actually cut the surround when they opened the outer packaging. They cut thru the outer packaging with a box knife and it went deep enough slice the surround without someone noticing.

After time the slices that were on the top of the surround are joined together after it slowly tears during play.

Its a VERY long shot, but that an awfully clean and symmetrical line across the top of the surround.

If a surround fails or comes apart it usually starts at the angled joint where it connects to the cone or most commonly where it connects to the basket flange...

1Quik7 · Post by **1Quik7** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:56 pm

Stryker wrote:Why won't the place you bought it from replace it under warranty?

Where did you buy it?

It's getting sent back, they gave me an RMA(return merchandise authorization).

1Quik7 · Post by **1Quik7** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 11:04 pm

MW3 wrote:Still stumped, very odd.

My best guess is perhaps someone (not saying its you) actually cut the surround when they opened the outer packaging. They cut thru the outer packaging with a box knife and it went deep enough slice the surround without someone noticing.

After time the slices that were on the top of the surround are joined together after it slowly tears during play.

Its a VERY long shot, but that an awfully clean and symmetrical line across the top of the surround.

If a surround fails or comes apart it usually starts at the angled joint where it connects to the cone or most commonly where it connects to the basket flange...

Well it wasn't me. It was very well packed. Large box, within a larger box, the speaker itself was encased in a molded foam enclosure. I was very excited and pretty gentle with it, I inspected it as soon as I got home from work. And yes I just had to push on the cone to feel how rigid this bad boy was. I don't think it was cut, but I do understand what you are saying, it's so clean. At the same time there are no nicks or marks, it looks like a brand new sub.
A friend of mine who used to be big into car audio said he saw this once before, it was a little worse though because the cone wasn't aluminum and it folded the speaker in half. He said no one could come up with a good explanation, maybe some sort of weird back-pressure?

Definitely interesting to say the least, wish I had a camera mounted in the trunk to see the blowout.

Post by **ttocs** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 11:15 pm

I have seen a sub explode from too much pressure in the box, but it was a paper sub, cerwin vega I believe and it was in a band-pass enclosure.. Obviously the sub on that speaker is not going to blow like the paper did, the surround would be the weakest point.

What size box was it in and what did you have pushing it?

Post by **Jacampb2** » Tue Nov 23, 2010 7:35 am

Hmmm, it definitely looks like it followed a fairly straight line across the highest point of the roll in the surround. The section down by the cone is the only part that looks "torn" and not cut to me.

I'm not saying that the OP did it, it could have just been a defect when the surround was made, I am not sure, but I think the butyl surrounds are molded, it would be fairly easy to screw up the molding process and end up with a defect that may have missed QC.

In some of the pictures it looks like the screw holes in the rubber gasket line up with the start and end points of the tear, in the straight above shot they don't line up-- did the gasket get turned? If start and end points line up with the screw holes under the basket, it is possible that over tightened screws may have grabbed the surround and twisted it, causing wrinkles near the screw holes that would be stress risers. Admittedly, that is a long shot, but it could have also been accidentally punctured near the screw holes while it was mounted. Of course this all assumes that the tear began and ended at/near the mounting points.

All in all butyl rubber is pretty robust material. It is nearly impervious to all chemicals and stays quite flexible through a wide range of temperatures. I have seen lots and lots of foam surrounds which have blown out or rotted away, but never before a butyl one.

Good Luck,
Jason