AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Subwoofers, Bass, and Transducers › I think my HSU VTF-15H just bit the dust :-(
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

I think my HSU VTF-15H just bit the dust :-(

post #1 of 63
2/23/13 at 11:43am
Thread Starter 
So, I purchased a dual vtf-15 system last august and all seemed to be pretty well so far. Up til today that is. I decided it was time to turn them up a notch and put in a bass heavy movie (U-571). The volume on the subs was at 5/8 and the system volume was at -10dB. These subs should more than be able to handle that i would have thought.. Prior to today, the subs had never even been above 1/2 way. The whole movie I was hearing a bad rattle. I was pretty sure I had already found and addressed all my room rattles. So about half way thru the movie, I turned on the lights and decided to see if I could find the source. And much to my disgust, it was coming from one of the subs itself. I happened to get a video of the scene that made the movie unbearable to watch. See for yourself and let me know what you think.

http://youtu.be/rTga1-yoMjo

I have already sent an email to HSU, but they arent opened on the weekends. I hope the warranty covers this..
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #2 of 63
2/23/13 at 11:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by chevychad View Post

So, I purchased a dual vtf-15 system last august and all seemed to be pretty well so far. Up til today that is. I decided it was time to turn them up a notch and put in a bass heavy movie (U-571). The volume on the subs was at 5/8 and the system volume was at -10dB. These subs should more than be able to handle that i would have thought.. Prior to today, the subs had never even been above 1/2 way. The whole movie I was hearing a bad rattle. I was pretty sure I had already found and addressed all my room rattles. So about half way thru the movie, I turned on the lights and decided to see if I could find the source. And much to my disgust, it was coming from one of the subs itself. I happened to get a video of the scene that made the movie unbearable to watch. See for yourself and let me know what you think.

http://youtu.be/rTga1-yoMjo

I have already sent an email to HSU, but they arent opened on the weekends. I hope the warranty covers this..


5/8? You have duals, why are they turned up that high?
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 63
2/23/13 at 11:49am
Thread Starter 
The room is about 4500 cu ft.. And I wanted to feel the bass. I should be able to turn it all the way up if I want to shouldnt I? If not, why would the volume even go that high?
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 63
2/23/13 at 11:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by chevychad View Post

The room is about 4500 cu ft.. And I wanted to feel the bass. I should be able to turn it all the way up if I want to shouldnt I? If not, why would the volume even go that high?

Uhh if you ran some sort of room correction software you should be turning the trim up ...not the gain...

Doesn't sound like its bottoming out. Maybe something is lose in the sub? Have you tried contacting Hsu? I'm sure they can help EDIT: Nevermind I see you have already
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 63
2/23/13 at 12:47pm
Thread Starter 
Yea, i really hope something is loose. That would be ideal. Hopefully that is it. I have not done any calibration on the system yet. I am still working on the theater and not everything is completely set up. I want to wait and do the calibration when I have everything set up.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 63
2/23/13 at 12:50pm
What mode were they being run in? 1 EQ or 2 EQ? If it is 1 EQ, you have beat that driver to death, especially if both ports were open.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 63
2/23/13 at 1:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by chevychad View Post

The room is about 4500 cu ft.. And I wanted to feel the bass. I should be able to turn it all the way up if I want to shouldnt I? If not, why would the volume even go that high?

It was only a question. But hey, my car does 160, why don't I just leave my driveway and drive at that speed and go to the grocery store. Hey, the car can do it, rightt?
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 63
2/23/13 at 2:00pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by shadyJ View Post

What mode were they being run in? 1 EQ or 2 EQ? If it is 1 EQ, you have beat that driver to death, especially if both ports were open.

They are in EQ2 position.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Prime316 View Post

It was only a question. But hey, my car does 160, why don't I just leave my driveway and drive at that speed and go to the grocery store. Hey, the car can do it, rightt?

Well, for one, its not illegal to push my subs to their limit. And I'm all about cars too. I take my car to the track and I do go as fast as I can. I take my truck offroading, and I go as far as I can. I figured taking a sub at that level would be about the equivalent of taking a cruise on the highway.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 63
2/23/13 at 2:14pm
Code:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prime316 View Post

It was only a question. But hey, my car does 160, why don't I just leave my driveway and drive at that speed and go to the grocery store. Hey, the car can do it, rightt?

How is this being helpful at all to the OP?

I would probably go to the HSU thread and try to PM Dr HSU.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 63
2/23/13 at 2:14pm
Hopefully your problem will be fixed by Monday at the latest when customer service opens again. I too own dual VTF-15H's and I would be disappointed if they malfunctioned. Knock on wood.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 63
2/23/13 at 2:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbrown15 View Post

How is this being helpful at all to the OP?

Let it go. That's over and done with. That was over an hour ago. You're late to the party.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 63
2/23/13 at 2:17pm
Haha Prime you're the one posting the comment not me.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 63
2/23/13 at 2:31pm
OP the gain on the sub isn't a volume knob. Think of taking a stock car audio system and turning it up as loud as it can go, you are going to blow the speakers. I know you didn't mean to, but I hope you didn't do any permanent damage. I'm running out the door now so don't have time to help you troubleshoot, but I'm sure more people will chime in to give you advice. Good luck.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 63
2/23/13 at 2:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by chevychad View Post

Well, for one, its not illegal to push my subs to their limit. And I'm all about cars too. I take my car to the track and I do go as fast as I can. I take my truck offroading, and I go as far as I can. I figured taking a sub at that level would be about the equivalent of taking a cruise on the highway.

Well, as people point out, it's a gain, not a volume control, and it should be matched (tuned) to the sensitivity of the signal coming from the receiver. So turning it up like you did is more like taking a 4 barrel carb and improperly tuning it.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 63
2/23/13 at 2:56pm
Thread Starter 
Ok, its not tuned ideally. But both subs are at the same settings. Why is only one of them making this noise? If the settings are what killed it, then why is the other one not doing the same?
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 63
2/23/13 at 3:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by chevychad View Post

Ok, its not tuned ideally. But both subs are at the same settings. Why is only one of them making this noise? If the settings are what killed it, then why is the other one not doing the same?

You got lucky and didn't kill it yet. LOL
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 63
2/23/13 at 3:08pm
Thread Starter 
This is ridiculous. I have a $1000 sub dead and you all are telling me I'm lucky???
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 63
2/23/13 at 3:18pm
Hes saying your lucky the other sub is not making a noise as well. the Volume of the system is what controls how loud the sub should go, that is matched to the speakers levels.
Turning the subs gain up is increasing the sensitivity of the subs electronics, and therefore it needs less input from the main system to match the speakers levels.

I think your blew your Driver.

Try to physically move the speaker cone, not touching the domed dust cover if it is a driver of that type and see if you hear any noise like scraping, etc.

Athnaasios
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 63
2/23/13 at 3:19pm
Aren't the subs still under warranty? It does seem strange just having the gain that high could blow the driver that quickly. It's not like the gain was set to max and he was running his AVR volume at reference.
Edited by jbrown15 - 2/23/13 at 3:25pm
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 63
2/23/13 at 3:26pm
Probably would have been a better idea to hold off on posting this thread until you had spoken with hsu. ID companies depend on business from AVS as well as other HT forums. They may just honor your warranty claim, but I'd be willing to bet people from the hsu camp read these threads when they see them. If I were a rep from HSU and someone was on here making my product look bad without giving me a chance to make it right, I'd probably be less inclined to help you. I'm not saying that's what Hsu will do, but just my 2c.
Reply
Reply
post #21 of 63
2/23/13 at 3:44pm
Running the gain knob at "5/8" is still only about 65% of the total gain. That should not blow a driver, I'm pretty sure they're designed by HSU to take a little more of a beating then that. I would just wait to hear back from HSU customer service. Understandably it can be a little frustrating but I'd probably hold off on saying anything bad about HSU on a open forum board until things have been resolved.
Reply
Reply
post #22 of 63
2/23/13 at 3:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by chevychad View Post

This is ridiculous. I have a $1000 sub dead and you all are telling me I'm lucky???

If if turns out you over drove your subs through improper use, what else would you call it but luck that you didn't kill the other one? Don't get mad at me. Not my fault it broke.

Meanwhile, chill. HSU has a 2 year warranty on their amps and a 7 years on the drivers. My guess is that they will probably send you replacement parts. That is, unless they see this thread with you talking about how you should be able to run them hard however you want rolleyes.gif
Reply
Reply
post #23 of 63
2/23/13 at 3:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbrown15 View Post

Running the gain knob at "5/8" is still only about 65% of the total gain. That should not blow a driver,

The dial location doesn't tell you how hard the drivers were driven. Depends on how sensitive the gain is on that amp, and amps vary in that regard. 65% of the total gain on my Outlaw EX would definitely NOT be a good thing if it was getting any sort of reasonable signal from the receiver.
Reply
Reply
post #24 of 63
2/23/13 at 3:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbrown15 View Post

Running the gain knob at "5/8" is still only about 65% of the total gain.
The position of a volume control does not indicate how much power the amp is producing. If the driver blew the power level was too high, no matter what the position of the controls.
Reply
Reply
post #25 of 63
2/23/13 at 4:00pm
HSU has excellent customer service and you are in warranty, so you will have it up and running shortly. There is a trouble shooting guide in the manual. I had a bad amp in one that failed within 5 minutes of use (no sound from sub) and I took the whole thing apart and diagnosed driver and amp. Driver was fine and they sent out a new amp immediately and I sent the old amp back prepaid shipping.

Did you gain match the subs, and this is not setting the dial the same. The dials don't always line up and mine was like 8 oclock on one amp was 9 oclock on the other. It could be you were driving one sub much harder than the other. Sometimes drivers or amp's fail. Giving them a chance to fix the situation is the best thing you can do at this point. smile.gif
Reply
Reply
post #26 of 63
2/23/13 at 4:00pm
I realize that, the gain knob on my PSA XS30 is way more sensitive compare to the Polk sub it replaced. But having it turned up that high still seems weird that it would blow the driver. I highly doubt HSU drivers are that fragile.
Reply
Reply
post #27 of 63
2/23/13 at 4:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by chevychad View Post

They are in EQ2 position.
If the sub was switched to EQ2 mode when this occurred, I think Hsu ought to take care of you in its warranty. In the manual it states not to run the sub as hard as you can in EQ1 mode, so that would have been a different story. However, you should understand that even in EQ2 the limiters can be over ridden with a strong enough low frequency signal at a high enough gain setting- these subs they are not fool-proof. I would be careful blasting the sub as hard as it can go under 30 hz, in any mode. Also, just an FYI, I wouldn't want to run a continuous sound at an extremely high volume for a prolonged period, this can over-heat the voice-coil or the amp and also destroy the sub.
Reply
Reply
post #28 of 63
2/23/13 at 4:15pm
Gain being too high...which I believe it was...or not, it should be covered under the warranty. As mentioned before, the subs appear to have been 'level matched' as opposed to 'gain matched' which doesn't account for all variables with the two subs. I would hope my 15H's could take more a beating than that and keep on ticking.

Truth be told though, listening to the depth charges in U-571 at that gain and kicked up hot in the avr would be something.
Edited by Prime316 - 2/23/13 at 4:21pm
Reply
Reply
post #29 of 63
2/23/13 at 4:31pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by nashou66 View Post

Hes saying your lucky the other sub is not making a noise as well. the Volume of the system is what controls how loud the sub should go, that is matched to the speakers levels.
Turning the subs gain up is increasing the sensitivity of the subs electronics, and therefore it needs less input from the main system to match the speakers levels.

I think your blew your Driver.

Try to physically move the speaker cone, not touching the domed dust cover if it is a driver of that type and see if you hear any noise like scraping, etc.

Athnaasios

No noise at all while moving. Is this good?

I'm not bashing HSU. I love the subs. They are great. Up to this point, they have more than exceeded my expectations, and I have been looking forward to being more impressed after they are calibrated. I am definitely going to give them their chance to make things right. They are closed right now. I wanted to get opinions of the experts in here to get an idea of what may be going on while they cant be reached.
Reply
Reply
post #30 of 63
2/23/13 at 6:12pm
The amps in the sub act the same way your Hi-Fi does you can not run the gain up beyond the point of leaving the amp with no headroom.
The setup recommends setting the gain at 9 o'clock and then run your AVR/Pre-Pro sub out at 0 or close to it now go back and level match this may end up at 8:30 or 9:30 for most but when you set the gain on the sub at half or more
there can be little to no headroom left therefore the amp will clip (run DC which is bad) shortening the life of both the amp ,crossover and voice coil.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Subwoofers, Bass, and Transducers › I think my HSU VTF-15H just bit the dust :-(