Home Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

is it normal for a car sub to rattle in free air?

until i get the sealed box i'll be using for my JBL GT5 15" poly subwoofer, i've been breaking it in a little at low volumes in free air. today, i turned the volume up a little while checking some new tracks out that i'm planning on putting on my media player. i noticed that the cone was buzzing, even rattling, on tracks with really loud and deep bass. it sounds plastic like the dustcap is loose or something, but i'm wondering if maybe it's just an artifact of playing in free air or resistance from the stiff surround breaking in.

it sounded REALLY bad at first with the sub sitting on the corner of a flimsy milk crate along with the box my headphones came in and a pice of paper sitting on the crate too. i took them off, and put a thick piece of wood under the woofer and some camping mat style foam under the magnet leaving an air gap for cooling, and the buzzing seemed tamed, but still apparent. finally, i moved it to the tiles over cement floor on top of the pieces of foam, and can still hear the buzzing, but it seems like it might be decreasing.

is it normal for a sub to buzz like that in free air or as it's breaking in? it sounds a little like when a car body vibrates to bass, but higher pitched like it could be related to the poly cone and dustcap. i tried tapping it to see if i could hear anything loose, but couldn't


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Topic - is it normal for a car sub to rattle in free air? - thump 15:35:54 12/28/16 (12)

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