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Another subwoofer option - NVX Audio
- Thread starter tlr1000
- Start date
I spoke with another person there this morning, unfortunately I didn't get her name but she was friendly and helpful in a way I hadn't expected from my previous dealings with SonicElectronix. I was pleasantly surprised.
My third subwoofer will likely be shipping out today, and they've upgraded the shipping to overnight. I'm certainly happy about that. Hopefully this saga will be over soon for me and I'll be able to go back to focusing on enjoying what I've spent money on rather than thinking I should have gone a different direction.
My third subwoofer will likely be shipping out today, and they've upgraded the shipping to overnight. I'm certainly happy about that. Hopefully this saga will be over soon for me and I'll be able to go back to focusing on enjoying what I've spent money on rather than thinking I should have gone a different direction.
New sub arrived today. Box was clearly damaged on both ends and taped back up, but who knows whether that was somewhere between Kentucky and California…
The new sub is making the same exact “blown voice coil” noises that the last one was making, but not quite as loud. At this point I’m just done with them. If I can get this order refunded I will.
And as I said before, they’re never getting another dime from me. This is ridiculous.
The new sub is making the same exact “blown voice coil” noises that the last one was making, but not quite as loud. At this point I’m just done with them. If I can get this order refunded I will.
And as I said before, they’re never getting another dime from me. This is ridiculous.
After cooling off a bit, I called and spoke with them Monday morning on my way to work. They immediately asked me once again to buy a shipping label to return this subwoofer to them. I reminded them that they never refunded me for the one I purchased when I did the return of my first subwoofer. That fell on deaf ears.
Called back this morning on my way to work again, spoke with them about having them just send me a return label, and they claimed that they can’t do that because they might get in trouble. I asked how much trouble they might get in for making customers never want to spend money with them again. No good answer to that, what was done before was due to extenuating circumstances, blah blah..
So I said, wait a minute, three identical subwoofer problems identified within very short time frames each time doesn’t also qualify as extenuating circumstances? Again, deaf ears.
Long story short, they’re accusing me of abusing their subwoofers and if that’s not it, then Fedex is somehow destroying the voice coils in these drivers in shipping. I don’t see how that can be, but I only know a little about subwoofer driver construction so I can’t argue that point very effectively, but I can say for certain that the only time the gain knob on my amp went up from min was with the very first subwoofer which lasted two hours before it was completely dead. The next two sounded like *sugar* with the gain knob at minimum and the car’s volume at ~25%
At this point I’m waiting for a technician to call me and discuss the problems I’m having. I guess if we can’t come to a solution, all I can do is initiate a charge back with PayPal and return the entire order. It really doesn’t seem like their policies make it possible to solve a problem in my experience, but since I’ve already cut the trunk side panel to mount this thing in my car I’d like to make it work if I can.
Called back this morning on my way to work again, spoke with them about having them just send me a return label, and they claimed that they can’t do that because they might get in trouble. I asked how much trouble they might get in for making customers never want to spend money with them again. No good answer to that, what was done before was due to extenuating circumstances, blah blah..
So I said, wait a minute, three identical subwoofer problems identified within very short time frames each time doesn’t also qualify as extenuating circumstances? Again, deaf ears.
Long story short, they’re accusing me of abusing their subwoofers and if that’s not it, then Fedex is somehow destroying the voice coils in these drivers in shipping. I don’t see how that can be, but I only know a little about subwoofer driver construction so I can’t argue that point very effectively, but I can say for certain that the only time the gain knob on my amp went up from min was with the very first subwoofer which lasted two hours before it was completely dead. The next two sounded like *sugar* with the gain knob at minimum and the car’s volume at ~25%
At this point I’m waiting for a technician to call me and discuss the problems I’m having. I guess if we can’t come to a solution, all I can do is initiate a charge back with PayPal and return the entire order. It really doesn’t seem like their policies make it possible to solve a problem in my experience, but since I’ve already cut the trunk side panel to mount this thing in my car I’d like to make it work if I can.
amorris
Member
Man, at this point, I'd just buy a different brand sub to put in the box.. the box is really where all the $$/time is anyways.
bo3bdar
Member
I have yet to install my NVX boost for Model 3, so hopefully it's not something actually about NVX. Mine came in a clean box, no damage, looks brand new. When I eventually get it installed, I'll report back.
However for your scenario- something is off there. First one could be bad luck. Second one is a refurb/shipping error and already bad. Third one? Something seems really off. If you were certain that it was on low volume to start, then I'd double and triple check the install and get out some tools to measure waveforms.
The NVX subwoofer itself is the same they sell to thousands of people, and I have no reason to doubt it's performance. It can handle 500W without any problems.
One thing worth noting that is not obvious- the box comes wired for 2 Ohms from the factory. It's a dual coil design, and they are wired in series by default. If you've got a massive amp behind it, you might be blasting more watts than you expected.
I've been thinking about that pretty seriously. It looks like the JL Audio W0 and W1 drivers would fit. W3 and up probably won't.
TBH, if the enclosure made me feel like my money was well spent, I would have just shrugged and tossed a better driver into it quite some time ago. Time is money after all.
I'd recommend making sure your subwoofer is good NOW. If enough time passes before you find that it's bad, they will make it difficult for you to get a new one. I waited to do my install and managed to get my first return approved on the last day that I could have returned it. They told me if I had waited one more day before I called them, I would have been SOL. (and I had an email in to them. they were ignoring it, so I made the phone call)
I agree that there's something terribly wrong here. That's why I've spent hours of my time testing and troubleshooting to be sure I know what's going on.
The sub is wired for 2 ohms from the factory, yes. The coils are wired in parallel, not in series, they're 4ohms each. My amp is 500 watts with a 2 ohm load, and is (or was, Alpine doesn't make this one anymore) an option in the kit when ordering from SonicElectronix. I used a DMM to confirm that I wasn't sending >500 watts to the driver when I did the install the first time. (I used to HATE it when old men said things like, "I've been doing this for 30 years!" but here I am, having been doing this for 30 years... lol) The first subwoofer driver they sent me is my first blown speaker in any of my installs in all that time, so I triple checked everything about my install before I even reached out to them for warranty coverage, because blown voice coils generally are NOT something that you can get covered under warranty.
I honestly don't know what to think. It certainly seems clear to me that the quality of NVX subwoofers is suspect, but I've only dealt with 2 of them that were new, (First and third) The second one was clearly someone else's RMA'd subwoofer that got shipped to me rather than a new one, and that one had the exact same problem that I'm having with this third one. (I can also say for sure that if I let this third one play for 2 hours, it will be burned out like the first one was. I could already smell it burning when I took it out of the enclosure to see what was going on, and that was after 5 mins of play time at 25% volume)
If you push down on the speaker cone, you can feel the voice coils dragging on something inside. That's what's wrong. What I don't know is whether that can likely be caused by shipping damage that destroys the cardboard box but doesn't show any visible damage to the fiberglass or carpet on the enclosure. I seriously doubt that it would happen with any of the higher end, more expensive drivers I've used in the past.
bo3bdar
Member
Yep, sorry I meant parallel. 2 Ohm load. This was a surprise to me and made me revisit my power calculations after I measured it. I'm currently planning to drive it with a JL Audio amp.
Good to know actually that you've got some experience. A lot of times here it's just people guessing what the installer did with no idea. Makes it harder to explain outside of quality issues at NVX though.
I'll maybe cut them slack on the shipping an RMA, mistakes happen. The real test is whether they fix it.
For what it's worth, I sent an amp back that would no longer work for me because it was too big, and they were good about it. Refunded minus my shipping back using their shipping label, which was cheaper than I could otherwise do.
I'm far outside the return window now. I can only do warranty if I need it. But I really bought it for the fiberglass box, and worst case I can just eat a $150 or $200 driver and put something else in there.
I can't reconcile what you are seeing with what other people have seen. There are other people on the forum here who have done this upgrade including the Model S boost, and haven't had this kind of trouble. Reviews of their equipment and drivers in general are pretty good 4 to 4.5, even on Amazon where they can't really fake the numbers. Supply chain malfunction? Bad parts? Very odd.
Ahh. Very good observation, thanks for sharing that. Definitely dragging will burn it up. I'll double test mine manually to see if I've got that problem as well. That seems like manufacturing defects, QC gone bad. But I suppose could be shipping drops, although I'd be really surprised if you could drop a voice coil hard enough to make it grind with destroying the fiberglass. And two in a row with same problem is getting into 3 sigma probabilities.
I'll be curious what their response is to you noting that the coil is dragging. Thanks for keeping us up to date.
I’ve taken the driver out of this enclosure and sent it back to them. Now that I’ve taken a little time to inspect it carefully I can see exactly what’s going on.
The stamped steel basket on these drivers is thinner than on any subwoofer driver I’ve ever used before. Like it’s thin enough to feel sharp on your fingertips if you’re carrying it by the basket. I thought it cut me, it’s that thin.
So the magnet is heavy, hanging off this super thin basket, and if fedex handles the package roughly, the weight of the magnet is enough to tweak the basket. It’s even so flimsy that you can tweak the driver without making a single mark on the fiberglass box. It’s actually kind of amazing how bad it is. I’d be willing to bet money that the basket on the factory Tesla sub is thicker and stronger than this one.
Almost forgot: their response about the coil dragging was basically the same as it was about everything else. I must be abusing it…
The stamped steel basket on these drivers is thinner than on any subwoofer driver I’ve ever used before. Like it’s thin enough to feel sharp on your fingertips if you’re carrying it by the basket. I thought it cut me, it’s that thin.
So the magnet is heavy, hanging off this super thin basket, and if fedex handles the package roughly, the weight of the magnet is enough to tweak the basket. It’s even so flimsy that you can tweak the driver without making a single mark on the fiberglass box. It’s actually kind of amazing how bad it is. I’d be willing to bet money that the basket on the factory Tesla sub is thicker and stronger than this one.
Almost forgot: their response about the coil dragging was basically the same as it was about everything else. I must be abusing it…
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Alright, the saga is over. I received a new driver yesterday, and it's working properly. The driver came to me packaged much better than the fiberglass subwoofer box is packaged, so it's clear that NVX knows how to package things in a way that won't allow the shipper to destroy them on the way to the recipient, they just don't put that effort into the fiberglass enclosure packaging for some reason. Customer service wasn't any better this time around, but I'm done repeating myself about how bad it is.
The bass this package is capable of is impressive once you get a working subwoofer from them. I mean, it's not even close to as loud or high quality as something like the JL Stealthbox I listened to in an FRS a few years back, but it does a decent job for the money. Unfortunately it's still MUCH louder at 50hz than it is everywhere else and you can't fix that without EQ, so no doubt I'll be spending a bunch more money on this sound system in the future unless I decide to just bite the bullet and get the Plaid that I've been wanting...
The bass this package is capable of is impressive once you get a working subwoofer from them. I mean, it's not even close to as loud or high quality as something like the JL Stealthbox I listened to in an FRS a few years back, but it does a decent job for the money. Unfortunately it's still MUCH louder at 50hz than it is everywhere else and you can't fix that without EQ, so no doubt I'll be spending a bunch more money on this sound system in the future unless I decide to just bite the bullet and get the Plaid that I've been wanting...
bo3bdar
Member
Thanks for the followup, good to know that they can come through at least part of the time. Based on your experience, I'm a little worried about the driver in my boost box, and the cheap metal frame for the driver. If mine happens to have been killed also, I'll try one warranty return, but will otherwise just switch to a better quality 10" driver to put in there. My boost box came without any obvious damage, but of course could have sustained some FedEx slams to break the driver. I'll know in a few weeks when I get this running.
I decided awhile back to add a JBL DSP to my setup, and I'll use that to dampen the 50Hz peak. I'm using the Tesla head unit as just the audio source, but will drive all the speakers with two better amps that I think will match better and give me more volume and the abilility to DSP tune the environment. JBL DSP 4086 for the dash+tweeters+rear door, and JL Audio MX600/3 for front door woofers and the nvx boost sub.
You might be safe if your subwoofer box doesn’t have obvious damage. All three of the ones they sent me had obviously been handled a bit rough. Not crazy damage except for the last one, but they all had some damage.
amorris
Member
Yeah if you have an SR+
You really want a DSP. That JBL s a nice budget option. I went a little more nuts with a Helix V8, but it really allows you to fix the incoming and outgoing peaks. Our cars naturally amplify the heck out of 50hz, so it’s not surprising you’d need to make cuts there.
So I removed the NVX driver from the fiberglass boost enclosure and installed a JL Audio 10W1-v3.
Don’t buy the marketing crap they put on their website comparing them W1 and the VSW104v2 that they use in these boost enclosures. The JL sub is substantially louder despite the lower advertised efficiency. Especially below 50hz. There’s more to a driver than efficiency ratings…
Don’t buy the marketing crap they put on their website comparing them W1 and the VSW104v2 that they use in these boost enclosures. The JL sub is substantially louder despite the lower advertised efficiency. Especially below 50hz. There’s more to a driver than efficiency ratings…
ratcityrain
Member
Interesting. I have a 10TW3-D4, I wonder if it would make a difference if I replace my nvx sub with this JL. The 10TW3-D4 is a dual 4 ohm sub which is the same as the NVX sub so I think I should give it a try and see if I notice any difference like you have
ratcityrain
Member
Didn't work for me. The basket on the JL 10TW3-D4 is too large for the opening of the sub enclosure. It's all good, I think the NVX sub sounds good. The only thing I need to address is getting a hole in the rear deck lid so that I don't have to have the seats folded down for better bass response in the cabin
Getting my kit in the mail tomorrow and you have me very intrigued by this method seeing as how everyone else seems to hate the included jack nut. How did you get the nut to "stick" and not just keep spinning? Maybe I am not picturing it correctly, do you have a link to what exactly you bought?
I ended up buying a JL Audio enclosure and moving on. Probably should have just pushed harder to get a refund from Sonic Electronix and just gone a different route from the beginning. Oh well, I’ve learned so many times over the years that I should never go cheap. Maybe this time it’ll stick..
If someone wants to buy my unloaded NVX fiberglass enclosure, I posted it for sale.
teslamotorsclub.com
If someone wants to buy my unloaded NVX fiberglass enclosure, I posted it for sale.
NVX Boost Enclosure Model 3 (unloaded) $100
I finally bought something else to go a different route after being dismally disappointed in NVX/Sonic Electronix and their awful customer service. I have no plans to use this subwoofer enclosure so I figure it should go to someone who will actually use it. If you’ve been looking to add a sub...
teslamotorsclub.com
For anyone having jack nut issues (or not wanting to use a jack nut), there's a "blind well nut" that home depot sells for about $3 that seems to be working great for me so far. I got the 1/4 inch one and bought a 1/4 x 1 inch screw for it.
My jack nut was deformed to the point where the screw would work its way out and start rattling. For a while I fixed this by using a longer M6 bolt from an old TV mount I had...but after a few weeks that failed too. I got tired of tightening up the screw to stop the rattle. Part of this was my fault...I used excessive force to get the screw into the jack nut which caused one of the sides of the jack nut to break. I didn't know this until I pulled the jack nut out. In hindsight, I wish I would have just ditched the jack nut from the start.
I'm slightly worried about the well nut cracking if it gets to -40 here in the winter, but I'll deal with that when/if it happens.
My jack nut was deformed to the point where the screw would work its way out and start rattling. For a while I fixed this by using a longer M6 bolt from an old TV mount I had...but after a few weeks that failed too. I got tired of tightening up the screw to stop the rattle. Part of this was my fault...I used excessive force to get the screw into the jack nut which caused one of the sides of the jack nut to break. I didn't know this until I pulled the jack nut out. In hindsight, I wish I would have just ditched the jack nut from the start.
I'm slightly worried about the well nut cracking if it gets to -40 here in the winter, but I'll deal with that when/if it happens.
I saw the NVX (and met someone who has one).. Said didn't go low enough.. went with a jl microsub+... plenty loud/low and lives i in my otherwise unused "sub trunk". heh.I ended up buying a JL Audio enclosure and moving on. Probably should have just pushed harder to get a refund from Sonic Electronix and just gone a different route from the beginning. Oh well, I’ve learned so many times over the years that I should never go cheap. Maybe this time it’ll stick..
If someone wants to buy my unloaded NVX fiberglass enclosure, I posted it for sale.
NVX Boost Enclosure Model 3 (unloaded) $100
I finally bought something else to go a different route after being dismally disappointed in NVX/Sonic Electronix and their awful customer service. I have no plans to use this subwoofer enclosure so I figure it should go to someone who will actually use it. If you’ve been looking to add a sub...
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