My DIY sub is rattling.

Jailtime

Jailtime

Standin' on a corner
I finished up my Dayton sub project today, it's built on the 15" classic driver and the 240W plate amp. It's all in a heavily braced 4.8 cu. ft. sealed box. The baffle is 1 1/4" thick. It plays fine at low, I mean low volumes. Anytime I reach a respectable level, the sub starts rattling and buzzing. The noise is somewhere in the driver area. I'm not pushing it hard when it starts making the racket. What's up with it? Bad seal somewhere, maybe?
 
Register to hide this ad
try putting some felt detween sub and box. And examine the sub, look for anything loose like terminals or screws.
 
I do have foam tape between the driver and the box. I might have a rattle where the amp wires clip on to the driver's terminals, or where I screwed the crossing braces in the box together. The plate amp and the back are all sealed with the foam tape too. It's frustrating when you can't track a rattle down.
 
Jailtime said:
I do have foam tape between the driver and the box. I might have a rattle where the amp wires clip on to the driver's terminals, or where I screwed the crossing braces in the box together. The plate amp and the back are all sealed with the foam tape too. It's frustrating when you can't track a rattle down.
Click to expand...

There was another member who had a sub rattle......Turns out the VC came lose.... But your sub has a new driver so i doub that could be the problem. See if there is something loose like the cardboard in the port tubes.
 
Kyle,
Could you take some pictures of the sub and post them. Take one of the driver mounted in the box, one of the amp mounted to the box.

Vincent
 
vegabass25 said:
There was another member who had a sub rattle......Turns out the VC came lose.... But your sub has a new driver so i doub that could be the problem. See if there is something loose like the cardboard in the port tubes.
Click to expand...

Seems I've fallen victim to a similar misfortune. I turned my sub up just enough to get the rattle, and took off a handle so I could reach around inside the box. Found that the magnet structure was rattling, the noise went away when I damped it with my hand. I've got a sealed box, so rattles from it are unlikely. Dammit, looks like I'm in for a return process. :sigh:
 
Jailtime said:
Seems I've fallen victim to a similar misfortune. I turned my sub up just enough to get the rattle, and took off a handle so I could reach around inside the box. Found that the magnet structure was rattling, the noise went away when I damped it with my hand. I've got a sealed box, so rattles from it are unlikely. Dammit, looks like I'm in for a return process. :sigh:
Click to expand...

Most drivers like that are staked together where the top plate and basket meet. There is the chance that it can come loose just a little and rattle like that. Most manufacturers put a bead of glue around that joint so that if it does loosen up a bit the adhesive keeps it from rattling. It won't affect anything functionally, other than the rattle. If you don't want to do the return you can put a bead of something like RTV silicone around that joint and it will probably keep it quiet.

If you want to experiment with it, use some rope caulk (aka Mortite) to damp the joint and see what happens. That's reversible so you can still return it.

Of course, I do understand the frustration of getting a rattly driver out of the box.
 
Thanks for the tip, RayW! The driver is good to go now, no more rattle. I fixed it with a bit of string between the top plate and the basket. Found a few leaks in my box, those will need to be fixed. Seems that this driver doesn't have a great deal of xmax, though. I don't think the leaks are helping that situation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom