What's wrong with my system?

[HawaiianHaole 10+ year member]

A few months back I described a problem I was having. The left front speaker cut out every now and then. A little adjusting on the headunit (fade, balance, volume) usually did the trick in a matter of minutes.

I checked the connections and the amp. Amp was good and the connections seemed okay. For the most part, the problem has been solved, although it does happen far less often now, but the problem is now that it usually takes a little longer to get it to work again.

Fast Forward to this afternoon. My subs start cutting out. Mid song its playing, goes out for a little bit, comes back on. I start messing with the speaker wire to see if its come loose, and its playing fine. Then goes out for 20 minutes. i go inside and have some lunch, then head back to work. It was playing fine for about 80% of the ride.

What could be causing all this commotion. My two thoughts are the ground connection may no longer be secure. Does this make sense to anyone? The other possibly is that the Alpine deck I got was just a lemon and may be causing this problem as well as the issue with my left speaker.

Any thoughs to help me out?

I looked at the sub amp (Tsunami 1100). The green power light was on the whole time, and didn't appear to be in protection mode. It wasn't warm or anything. The amps are grounded in two seperate places. All the other speakers were playing fine.

Click to read more...

 

[LBX2G 10+ year member]

the problemm could be any thing. The amp it would be my first guess. if u have a volt meter with allgator clip. I would hook it up to the amp (this also depens where the amp is). and let it play and watch it. OR if u got another amp just try the other one.

 

[HawaiianHaole 10+ year member]

I have a digital distro block within inches of the sub amp. It had a steady reading of 13.6 with the car running. I looked at it when the subs were hitting and when they weren't. Same thing.

 

[LBX2G 10+ year member]

13.6 that is kida low where they turned up full blast. And i ment hook the volt meter up to the output part of the amp.

 

[HawaiianHaole 10+ year member]

13.6 that is kida low where they turned up full blast. And i ment hook the volt meter up to the output part of the amp.

13.6 - 13.9 is what it is always at when I have the car running. THat is with them turned up, but no where close to full blast.

I don't have a volt meter to check the output of the amp. Thanks anyway. Any other suggestions.

 

[homer3304 10+ year member]

Since it is happening to different speakers on different amps I would start looking at the head unit first.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

I would start with the headunit. It would appear that you are getting good volts to the amps and the problem has switched from one amp to another. How are your RCAs routed? Do they run from the HU to one am and then to the other. If so, the preamp in the first amp could have a loose connection that is causing your intermittant problem. Check all your RCA connections regardless. It sounds like more of a signal prolem than anything else.

13.9 volts is pretty typical at the amp. You will lose some voltage in the power wire and ground path.

 

[Anarcy 10+ year member]

13.6 is not low, that is perfectly fine, i run 13.6-13.9 most of the time. It has to be the connections running to the amp.

 

[pavengmike6 10+ year member]

Helo, do you think it would be an overheating problem? From the sounds of it he runs it for awhile, and it cuts out, then when it cools, it comes back on.

Is your amp getting hot???

 

[LBX2G 10+ year member]

nope not an over heating problem. He said that the amp protection light never comes on.

 

[ovsims 10+ year member]

My first thought is to check the RCA cables. I had some cables that looked perfectly fine that gave me problems like this all the time. I had to buy new cables. I really don't think its your amps since it went from one to the other. So just check all of your connection at your speakers and your RCA cables and you will be listen to entire songs again.

PS The vibration from you driving is what gets it going again not your lunch.

Please sign X_____________ to release me of any harm or damage, frustration or lost time caused from any wrong information I provide.

Please email me for my paypal address to send money for any happiness or joy I bring you for correct infromation.

 

[HawaiianHaole 10+ year member]

I am taking the Alpine deck to get it bench tested tomorrow. It seems to me that there must be something wrong with the internal amp. I double checked all the connections and everything appears to be fine.

Someone has already answed this, but the problem doesn't appear to be overheating. When I first noticed it, it was on for maybe 5 minutes. To the hand, it still felt cool, not even room temperature. As I let it run for 20 minutes or so, it still wasn't even warm to the touch.

In a way, I am hoping they say its the deck, that way I know what the problem is and move on from there. Only bad thing is the deck is only 3 months old. Hate to buy new one already.

Helo, or someone else, it doesn't sound like anything to do with the ground connection of the amp to you? If there ground was bad, would I hear distortion rather than the power kicking on and off?

 

[HawaiianHaole 10+ year member]

Maybe I will get some new RCAs just as a little peace of mind. I appreciate all the responses. If anyone else had any suggestions, please let me hear them...

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Helo, or someone else, it doesn't sound like anything to do with the ground connection of the amp to you? If there ground was bad, would I hear distortion rather than the power kicking on and off?

If the ground was bad either 1) you would hear static as the power was interrupted or 2) the POWER led on the amp would go out because it was not getting power or 3) the protection light would come on when the undervoltage protection kicked in when the ground connection went bad. Since none of these are happening, I would have to guessthat the problem is in the signal chain prior to the amp.

 

[HawaiianHaole 10+ year member]

I just swung by Circuit City, since they sell Alpine, to see if they would run a bench test on the deck.

I described the problem as I did on the forumn. The first thing they did was run a check on the subs. They said my subs were putting out an ohm load of 125. "Obviously, one is fried" he said.

THen he ran a check through my 4 channel amp and said those speakers are putting out an 11 ohm load. Never looked at the head unit like I asked.

I asked if his meter was calibrated correctly.

SO does any of this make sense to anyone?

I am going to swing by Lowes and pick up a multimeter and swing by another shop to see if they will run similar tests and actully look at the head unit.

I spent the morning shopping for new head units, now I might have to call up RE and tell them that my subs that are a month old need to be fixed. OUtstanding.