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**Jeffhulbert50** · #1 02-16-2015, 11:30 PM

the mysterious "9,000 watt" coil that's revolutionized the audio recone market has popped up many times and its always praised as a great choice. but, whats the deal-e-o?

lets start with a few basic points.

the listing says "RATED BY ZENITH" which to me says they accept no liability since they didn't say it would handle 9k, the maker did.

another note

Quote:

allows the coil to handle well over 450 degrees before it will begin to melt.

which is followed by

Quote:

That's well over 150 degrees over my best coil

which is followed by the statement

Quote:

which allows these coils to be "RATED BY ZENITH" at 9000 watts rms.

so, lets do the comparison-

450 degree - 9,000 watts rms

~300 degrees, standard coil stated as - 1,500 rms "all day"

so back to the statement That's well over 150 degrees over my best coil , there saying that 150 degrees is the difference of ~7,500 watts

moving on, another explanation for the coils possible failure
"the ability to handle up to 9k of clean power"

specifically noting clean power (which is obvious), the user could be told they must have fed clipped signal to the coil.

next
Yes they are expensive but as always you get what you pay for.

to me, they come from zenith which is in china. nothing in china is more expensive then here, other wise they wouldn't have outsourced the coils from so far away just to deal with importing.

also note, as ive mentioned before, these coils are labeled as 450+ degree handling. there regular voice coils, made by precision econowind in florida, uses an adhesive rated for 500 degrees working temp. and they don't use different glues, they used the best on all there coils unless you provide a cheaper kind for them to use in your run.

now onto the big selling point in any ad they use to project this coil being better then the others out. the term "wet wind" . it rolls off the tongue well and sounds pretty cool in general. but what the hell is it?

lets break down a voice coil in a basic way. its comprised of a bobbin (which becomes a former when wrapped) and wire. pretty simple.

the wire its self isn't bare. meaning the wire has insulation just like a speaker wire. the insulation is super thin and usually gives the wire the darker or golden look depending on what type is used to coat the wire its self.

heres where some misinformation comes in. the wet wind part. the wire is not simply wrapped on the bobbin and call it a day. it needs to be held in place. a long long time ago, the wire would be wound tight then coated in a glue to create somewhat of a shell to hold the wires together. but that's not the most affective method due to minimal adhesion between layers.

the wire is sent through a liquid bath or wet cloth that applies a thin coat of adhesive to the wire between being unspooled and wound onto the bobbin. then a thin coating is added to the whole coil. then the coil is baked to cure the adhesive.

that's what wet wound is, every coil that's made today. its affective and provides great layer adhesion.

moving on.

the black body affect or black body radiation is based off darker colors relieving heat better then light colors. some may have seen the term BAA or black anodized aluminum formers. the black portion, anodized especially due to its course finish, helps increase cooling around 5% over a pale color choice.

why is this being mentioned? the coil in question is black, and that's the only reason I can think of that they would paint the winding of the coil.

now, looking at the photos (on there site), you can see the winding peaking through the black paint where the black its self didn't adhere well to the windings surface. this, to me, means the coating is added after the coil is made. what's wrong with that? what about the 5% increase? well, although it would help dissipate heat, its also counter productive to add a thermal insulator to a winding. adding the black also seals the windings off from surface air turbulence keeping heat in.

you can see that the coil is not actually a black wire wound onto the bobbin its self by looking at the lead ends. you can see the base coil is a golden color.

now, zenith supposedly rated the coils at 9,000 rms. on the site it DOES NOT say that the 9k rating is motor dependent. so, as end users, we have to assume it does not matter what motor its used in, the rating should be the same. and since zenith does not make subwoofers, when they tested the coil I assume they did it in an ambient environment (not in a sub).

so whats this all leading too?

I ordered a coil. time to put it to the test. I would like feedback on how you would like to see it tested so the results are considered acceptable and theres no statements to the affect of "but you had to.... for the test to be accurate"

I have plenty of power available to test the coil (9,000 watts+) if anyone was wondering