no sound to sub
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=105480
Printed Date: April 30, 2024 at 5:09 AM
Topic: no sound to sub
Posted By: bullseye753
Subject: no sound to sub
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 1:33 AM
just finished building my box today.. and installed my new alpine h/u.. everything played fine.. wired my amp up.. it powered.. but no sound to my sub.. any ideas? speaker wire should be fine.. could it be my rca's? do they have to match up in regards to left/right on the amp as they do in the preouts.. i tried different combos.. nothing worked. it also says its a front/sub preout.. do i have to designate which one i want somehow through the h/u? thanks for any help -------------
Replies:
Posted By: still_walkin
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 6:17 AM
i alaways match the left and rights up cause you cant put a fire out while your driving.either the speaker could be blown the gain isnt up or the rcas need to be pushed all the way in. double check all your wiring take the rca out plug a new one in see what happends. then go from radio to amp wiring amp to sub. check the inside of the box too
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1993 sdv
Alpine 4x6 6x9 5 1/4 swr-10d4
alpine v60
12.5 VGA flip down
Nettop pc w/10" touch screen
78nova
5-re audio 5x7 ,10" sub &
Xtx-500.5
"Take the faceplate off get the jumperpack"
Posted By: techman93
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 8:59 AM
still_walkin wrote:
i alaways match the left and rights up cause you cant put a fire out while your driving.either the speaker could be blown the gain isnt up or the rcas need to be pushed all the way in. double check all your wiring take the rca out plug a new one in see what happends. then go from radio to amp wiring amp to sub. check the inside of the box too
The rca's for sub have no polarity, left or right backwards should not make the sub not work. That also won't cause a fire, unless you screwed up the wiring job to power connections somehow. I advise you to first start checking fuses first. Then your connection to ground and then the audio output from amp to make sure you hooked up to the output and not a high level input by mistake. Then look at rca's just being firmly plugged in and to the correct plug on radio.
Use a dmm and test for resistance (ohms) at the box connection(s) and make sure the connections had not come apart.
If you have checked these then it may be an issue with the amp, radio or sub.
------------- The wire I'm test'n isn't doin' what it's supposed to be doin'... I am so glad I printed that tech sheet, with the wrong info.
Do it right the first time... or I might have to fix it for ya
Posted By: still_walkin
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 10:22 AM
Also people when wiring power and ground and remote wires they use all the same wire colors and its easy to mismatch a wire. That's what I ment from the fire
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1993 sdv
Alpine 4x6 6x9 5 1/4 swr-10d4
alpine v60
12.5 VGA flip down
Nettop pc w/10" touch screen
78nova
5-re audio 5x7 ,10" sub &
Xtx-500.5
"Take the faceplate off get the jumperpack"
Posted By: techman93
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 3:06 PM
Usually people don't use the same wire color, unless they are an amature installer with little or no experience. Even when I started to install back in 1992, I never used a single color wire for power, ground and remote. I figured that it was common sense to use different colors.
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The wire I'm test'n isn't doin' what it's supposed to be doin'... I am so glad I printed that tech sheet, with the wrong info.
Do it right the first time... or I might have to fix it for ya
Posted By: still_walkin
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 4:04 PM
True but some people don't have commom sense not sayin this guy doesn't I don't know him I'm just trying to cover all bases to help him wit his sub. So any updates on your problem
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1993 sdv
Alpine 4x6 6x9 5 1/4 swr-10d4
alpine v60
12.5 VGA flip down
Nettop pc w/10" touch screen
78nova
5-re audio 5x7 ,10" sub &
Xtx-500.5
"Take the faceplate off get the jumperpack"
Posted By: bullseye753
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 6:30 PM
yes, i tried different rca's and made sure they were connected properly and still no sound.. i took the sub out of the box and connected it straight to the amp to rule out the terminal cup and still nothing.. i did notice though that when i turn the 'level' on the amp closer to .2v rather than 9v i get a very small vibration from the sub
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Posted By: i am an idiot
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 6:48 PM
What happens if you turn the gain all the way to the .2volt setting? How many voice coils does the woofer have?
Posted By: bullseye753
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 7:19 PM
i dont think it changes.. its a kicker l5.. so dvc
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Posted By: i am an idiot
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 7:33 PM
Are you sure that you have the voice coils wired properly? Try connecting only one voice coil to see if it plays like that.
Posted By: bullseye753
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 7:56 PM
ok. i just checked the gain on .2v and it did nothing noticable.. you cant tell its vibrating if you arent touching it.. ill check just one voice coil like you said and see if it plays.. do you think the inline fuse matters? what size should it be for a 4 awg
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Posted By: i am an idiot
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 8:05 PM
What kind of amp are we dealing with?
Posted By: bullseye753
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 8:30 PM
hifonics titan 1000d.. 80 amp fuse.. i think i have a 60 amp inline fuse
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Posted By: i am an idiot
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 8:38 PM
The 4 Ga. wire needs to be fused at no larger than 150 amps. That is what the wire is rated to handle. That is of course if it is a true 4 Ga. wire. Many of the new wire kits have 4 Ga. size insulation with much smaller than 4 Ga. wire inside. So just to be safe I would fuse it at 100 amps. If the 60 amp fuse is not blown, leave it in there untill we get it working.
Posted By: i am an idiot
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 8:54 PM
If my memory serves me right, I think the speaker terminals of that amp are + + - - Are you sure you have the wires connected to the amp correctly?
Posted By: techman93
Date Posted: June 15, 2008 at 11:51 PM
That is how that amp terminal is (+ + - -) so connect the outer left and outer right or inner right as one channel, and the inner left with the outer right as another output. The amp is mono stable to 1 ohm.
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The wire I'm test'n isn't doin' what it's supposed to be doin'... I am so glad I printed that tech sheet, with the wrong info.
Do it right the first time... or I might have to fix it for ya
Posted By: bullseye753
Date Posted: June 16, 2008 at 12:33 AM
yes i noticed that. i have the voice coils wired in parallel and the amp wired to it in parallel. it is a 4 ohm dvc so that should come out to 600w @ 2 ohms for the sub.. and that amp runs at 700w @ 2 ohms. am i doing something wrong? the wire is definitely 4 ga.. it barely fits into my 4 ga amp terminals.. and if that 60 amp fuse was blown wouldnt i not be getting any power to my amp?
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Posted By: i am an idiot
Date Posted: June 16, 2008 at 5:58 AM
Some amplifiers will light up with a blown power fuse. I am pretty sure the HiFonics amplifiers will not light up with a blown fuse. Do you have a volt meter so we can verify that you do have power getting to the amp, and to be able to check the voice coils of the woofer?
Posted By: bullseye753
Date Posted: June 16, 2008 at 9:46 AM
yes i have one.. ill check it out
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Posted By: bullseye753
Date Posted: June 16, 2008 at 10:55 AM
the fuse is not blown and i have about 14.2v to the amp with the car on. im not sure if theres really a specific way to check voltage on the speaker terminals or voice coils but i checked the terminals on the amp and i was getting 0.00 on both negatives and -.03 on both positives.. music was playing.. idk what that means though
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Posted By: i am an idiot
Date Posted: June 16, 2008 at 2:44 PM
Set the meter to the AC volts scale, with the music playing touch and hold the black meter lead to the negative speaker terminal of the amp. Now touch and hold the red meter lead to the positive speaker connection of the amp. The reading will jump around a lot, just let me know what the highest reading was. Let it play for 20 seconds or so. If you get no reading there, unplug the RCA jack from the amp and touch and hold the black meter lead to the shield (the outer ring) of the RCA cable. Now touch and hold the red lead to the center conductor of the cable. This reading is probably going to be in the Millivolt range. Notice the highest reading you get here too. Post the results.
Posted By: bullseye753
Date Posted: June 16, 2008 at 5:20 PM
ok i got no readings from either..
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Posted By: techman93
Date Posted: June 16, 2008 at 5:41 PM
Do you own a MP3 player?
You can test amp input with one. Get a cable that has RCA plugs on one end and a headphone plug on the other. Plug correct end into proper place and play some music with volume low on MP3 player. That way you can rule out the head unit outputs being defective.
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The wire I'm test'n isn't doin' what it's supposed to be doin'... I am so glad I printed that tech sheet, with the wrong info.
Do it right the first time... or I might have to fix it for ya
Posted By: bullseye753
Date Posted: June 16, 2008 at 6:26 PM
wow good call.. it plays.. so its the rca's on the alpine
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Posted By: techman93
Date Posted: June 16, 2008 at 9:10 PM
So all that to diagnose the head unit has defective outputs. Hope the deck is under warranty.
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The wire I'm test'n isn't doin' what it's supposed to be doin'... I am so glad I printed that tech sheet, with the wrong info.
Do it right the first time... or I might have to fix it for ya
Posted By: bullseye753
Date Posted: June 16, 2008 at 11:13 PM
so do i.. thanks for all the help guys
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Posted By: i am an idiot
Date Posted: June 16, 2008 at 11:35 PM
I highly doubt that the new alpine deck is your problem. What model is the deck? Do you have some expensive cool looking RCA cables? If so I would start troubleshooting there. Also check in the menu to make sure the subwoofer is turned on. Or try another RCA jack on the radio. Not going to say it can't happen, but I find it odd to have a defective Alpine radio right out of the box.
Posted By: bullseye753
Date Posted: June 17, 2008 at 11:26 AM
yes i tried a whole new pair of rca's and draped them over the seat to make sure there was no pinches.. its the new ida-x300... i have the subwoofer setting turned on too.. i found it hard to believe at first too but then i came to the realization that i bought it off ebay and that kinda stuff happens
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Posted By: i am an idiot
Date Posted: June 17, 2008 at 7:28 PM
If the unit has multiple RCA jacks, and you are not using one of the other sets, try connecting the front or rear to the sub amp. You may want to perform the test at the top of this page, this is not a common problem with Alpine decks, but it could have happened to yours. If it tests ok with the meter, do not waste your time with the fix. https://bcae1.com/images/rca/temporaryrcashieldrepair.html
Posted By: techman93
Date Posted: June 17, 2008 at 7:41 PM
It may be possible it has a sub out that can be turned on or off in the menu settings.
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The wire I'm test'n isn't doin' what it's supposed to be doin'... I am so glad I printed that tech sheet, with the wrong info.
Do it right the first time... or I might have to fix it for ya
Posted By: bullseye753
Date Posted: June 18, 2008 at 7:48 PM
it only has one set of preouts.. but there are '2 systems' for the sub i only tried one.. maybe ill try the other
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Posted By: bullseye753
Date Posted: June 18, 2008 at 9:20 PM
HA! it works! good stuff guys thanks a lot for all your help
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