HELP with Definitive Tech Supercube REF

[billnuts]

well,

i was watching a movie, at a real good level, the sub cut out,
then come back on, then cut out.

made a ahhhhhhhhgggghhh sound and died....


before i give it a proper service and burial, with the brown box UPS truck coffin.


it didnt sound like a dead speaker kind of aghhh, it was more like a amp going aghhh...

i just got this sub less than a month ago, and was wondering if anyone knows or has any suggestions to try before i have to ship it out.

i tried diffrent inputs, checked the fuse

the red light is on, or the music sensor circuit works, it will turn on but no output

i pushed on the woofer, and it does move.. so the cone is not frozen, and the screws are not easy to get at to check the terminal for ohms.

i dont want to push voiding my warrantee so any other suggestions
you might have would be appricated.

bill

[jimmyp58]

I had this sub and nothing like this ever happened. I'd call Chet @ Def Tech tomorrow to see what he says before you do anything else.

Jim

[David Meek]

Bill, as the warranty is in effect I wouldn't do anything further. Just box it up and let Def Tech correct the problem for you.

[SpOoNmAn]

Call Chet at Def Tech, youll be surprised at how well youre taken care of.

No idea as what the problem is, never heard of this happening b4 to a supercube.

Itll get fixed fast, just call Chet, sucks that it happened though :cry:

[Cowanrg]

i had something similar to my old reference... it didnt DIE though, it just turned off, then cycled back on. i was driving it too hard. my room is pretty big and brutal (20' high, 20' wide, 18' deep and completely open at the back (two levels high open). and all three walls are exterior, so its like a horn almost. i had it pretty loud and it would cut in and out. unplug it for an hour or two, plug it back in and try it again. i thought mine had died, but it just needed time to cool off and collect itself.

[SpOoNmAn]

I cant see pushing the Ref too hard, but Ill take your word for it. I had a room that big, minus your massive height(which is hurting you for sure), but the little supercube 2 couldnt be overdriven. maybe it only happens with the reference? I had the SC II for 8 months, and now have the Supercube 1 and I cant imagine needing to overdrive them.

are everyones calibrated correctly? I assume so, and trim levels in pre/pro are all set as well? That reference would walk all over my SC 1, the doubter in me is saying somethings not set up right, but Im probably wrong. If the thing gets hot and needs to take a break, somethings wrong inside. I wouldnt stand for that.

where are your volume knobs on back of the unit? Mines at 10oclock. Any higher and my house will crumble.

Back on the topic of getting it fixed, heres a story.

A good friend has had his defTech pf18 sub since 1994, 11 years old. He called Chet and told him about some problems with the woofer and chet sent him an entirely new woofer, free of charge, no shipping costs, no questions asked, 6 years after the warranty expired. Ive talked to him on several occasions and hes a great asset to the company. I needed mounting brackets and deftech logos for the bpx's i was selling 2 years ago. I emailed him, asking if I could buy some, and left my mailing address.

I didnt get a response but the next day, I get a package with exactly what I asked for. Here he overnighted them to me, lol. Now thats service :T

[Cowanrg]

spoonman,

every room is very different. mine has double the height of a normal room, so its almost twice the volume. plus, the room has NO back at all. its a staircase that goes upstairs. so the "volume" of the room is 1500 square feet or so. this makes even the most manly sub cry for help. i liked the SC reference, but it was a bit lacking in my large space. i could have easily done dual references, but i just never did. i had mine at 30-50% on the voume knob. it just started to boom after that point. because of this, i had the LFE coming from me receiver a little hotter than normal, so i could have the volume on the sub at half. i had it a bit boosted in my receiver, but it was still flat. i do listen to a wide variety of music, some more demanding that others. it didnt go off very often, but it was relatively easy to do in my room.

i now use velodyne HGS15x's (two of them) and they are nice. however, i could still use a bit more headroom (not much, but a bit more), so im upgrading to dual DD-18's in the fall. so, moral of the story is, just because the sub is awesome, doesnt mean it can't overload in a room. i dont drive my stuff super-hard (my speakers cant really even go that loud without blowing, they are planars), but certain rooms can be very demanding on your system.

[billnuts]

Ok talked to chet.

I called chet at dev tech.

he said it was the amp, and that i needed to send it in or take it to a local dev tech dealer and that the local dev tech dealers should be able to repair this no problem at all or i could send it in to him.

I boxed it up, 111 lbs. and headed off to the closest dev tech dealer in my area, paragon sound in ann arbor, the receptionist was very friendly and the salesman they had working helped me carry in the sub.

they called chet and confirmed my earlier call and that they would ship it out to dev tech for me. (saving $88.00 in shipping is cool)

chet wanted to know if their house tech could exchange the parts needed and not ship the whole unit in.

thats when the manager/ owner came in of paragon sound.
very rude, nasty to the above mentioned employees.

i talked to chet on the phone and confirmed that I know what i am doing and can send the defective part to him just as easily as their tech here can.

the owner/manager of the store said they would cover it under warrantee but thier manager said that i would have to pay their labor. to swap out the parts. i kindly said no thank you. i didnt feel like getting soaked for unessasary labor charges. nor do i feel i should have been charged labor

so i was still on the phone with chet, he gave me the ok to do it myself.

so i went home with it. it took me 3 minutes to pull the xover and amp section out and its boxed and on its way to chet as i type.

the sub is very impressive, massive motor structure. looks bigger than a CV stroker, and bigger than JL 13w7

the amp was moderate in size approx 10 inches by 10 inches in size

their is no obvious failure points on the amp board, no burnt traces.
no blown caps, or smoked ic's
but thier is a board that is a daughter board that i think i figured out what it is

the neg speaker wire goes into this board thier is five gray wires that go to the main circuit board and the neg comes out the other side to the speaker
besides a few resistiors covered in heat shrink. thats it for the whole board.
i seems to be a speaker protection circuit.

anyway, overall A+++ on build and speaker the amp is a bit smaller than i thought it would be
but well built for a 10x10 amp considering it has a external xover board.


I should be back up and running in less than a week!!

thats A++ for Dev tech and chet. :T



bill

[SpOoNmAn]

Excellent news Bill, I knew he/they'd come thru. :T

And look what happened, you learned a thing or 2 about your sub, and now appreciate it more.

Now I'm tempted to get inside the SC 1, lol.

[jimmyp58]

Chet's the man!!!

[tmueller]

:T I have to give Chet some props. Per Jim's recommendation, I gave him a call to get some parts for my Mythos and within one week my parts were sent to my attention, no questions asked with no bill to pay. Chet is the man!

Ty

[mitch57]

I to have had the same experience. I had a crease in one of mid range drivers so I called Chet and he said it probably wasn't a problem but wanted to play it safe. He sent me a new driver pre-paid free of charge. I asked him if I should send the old driver back before or after he sent me the new one. He said don't worry about it. Just chuck the old one in the trash after you install the new one!

I don't think customer service and support get any better then this!!!

[SpOoNmAn]

it's ashame other companies dont do this.

Ive been in contact with Sandy Gross a few times and on all occasions, Ive told him what an asset Chet is to the company. Chet deserves all the accolades he can get. The entire company does.

The only other company thats impressed me almost as much, is Parasound.

[raider]

def tech reference sub(noise)

Has anyone notice backround hum (60hz)or noise in the sub with no signal and is this normal?
I realize its a class d amp and they are somewhat noisey.
I am running two of these subs and its absolutely insane :T
but i am a little concerned about the slight hum in the backround

[SpOoNmAn]

I caN hear it, and so can some others, but only with our ears pressed up against the cabinets. Otherwise I cant hear a thing.

[billnuts]

well, its fixed

i was on my way to fed ex, had the amp packaged up to send to chet and i decided not to be so lazy and do some more testing first.


well, after only a few minutes of testing, is it the amp blown or is the speaker,

it turns out it was the speaker, infinite ohms.
i grabbed a 12 inch car sub from the garage, and made sure the amp worked.
sure enough the amp works fine.


i called chet and he sent a new driver out asap.
he did not want the old driver back, so that saved me on shipping

total down time 7 days start to finish including shipping!

thats great customer service.

the new speaker arrived, installed in a few minutes and was up and running.

i am giving this driver more break in time and let it settle in for a month or so
at lower work levels.
give the cone and motor more time get used to moving.
i also upgraded the internal speaker wire from 18 ga to 12 ga speaker wire to the sub.

I will say this i have seen alot of amp/sub combos, but this one still puzzles me, 24 ohm driver, wierd secondary board off of the amp circuit.
i should have took pics, and posted them.


bill

[SpOoNmAn]

I dont think you need to baby it, you just had a wierd driver, but better safe than sorry for peace of mind. I drilled the SC II I got and it didnt give in, and I drove it to levels I didnt think possible. I do the same now with my SC 1, its amazing.

yeah they do some wierd stuff in their, but its efficient and it works well, so I dont ask questions, lol.

chet and deftech rocks :T