new car, new system, power, no sound

I'll start off with my setup:

1993 Subaru Impreza
Jensen VM1923 w/ NAV-102
Alpine SPR-17c door speakers
Alpine SWR-1242D subwoofer (1)
Hifonics BXi1210D amp (sub)
Hifonics ZXi4410i amp (speakers)
Scosche Distro Block (4 to 8)

I installed my system and it gets power, reads cd's, turns the amps on (both are lit up, though pwr light is on the ZXi4410i but not on the BXi1210D), subs are wired to 2ohms, speakers are bridged 2ch each. All the components are brand new.. Please help! I just got back from Iraq friday came to pick this car up from my sisters and im trying to get music so i can take the 35hr drive home today!!

Well if your sub amp isn't lighting it isn't getting power to start with! Take out your meter and start checking! Does the "speakers" amp come on in protection mode? You did run rca signal cables to the amps right, i see you make no mention of this, hence my reason for asking!

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Do the amps come on if you play the radio?

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Yes I ran RCAs. A set for the sub amp, and a set for the speaker amp.

The amps have illumiated logos, those light up, but no power light on the sub amp (but it is on the speaker amp). the protected mode light isnt on. and no sound for radio/ipod/cd anything

OK, so you either have a bad amp, or a bad head unit, or a fuse is blown, or you have an installation error.  Do you have a volt meter?

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yes i have a volt meter. not quite sure what to check though. i already re-checked the power and remote wires on both amps but im not sure how to test the rest

I really hope its a wiring/fuse issue... I need music on a 35hr drive, lol

So you have voltage at both the power and remote connectors but one amp is not lighting up?  Or it's lighting up but there's no output?  Do you have something like an iPod you can connect directly to the amp in place of the RCAs from the head unit and see if it plays?

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Yes, power at both remote and power wire.

The amps have illuminated logos on them. Both amps logos are illuminated, to me, means its getting power, BUT...

The POWER light is illuminated on the speaker amp, but not illuminated on the sub amp...

SUB AMP: PWR Light = OFF // LOGO Light = ON
SKR AMP: PWR Light = ON // LOGO Light = ON

Ok, I hooked up my ipod to the speaker amp first, no audio. sub amp 2nd, no audio.

Then either your amps are bad or you have too low an impedance load on them - or there is a shorted speaker or speaker wire on both of them.  Or maybe your system voltage is too low and they are shutting off on low voltage (it needs to be above 10VDC usually.)  It's unusual that two amps would have the same problem which leads me to think it's an installation error or system voltage is too low.  You may need to get help from a local pro.

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System voltage as in voltage from the battery?

Maybe thats it. I have a capacitor also, the digital kind, it reads 7.0-8.0.. Is that the voltage?? Maybe thats the issue, if so, what is it I need, a new battery? I am hoping to get this done myself as I was supposed to leave today, and no shops are open till tomorrow

tenchu wrote:

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System voltage as in voltage from the battery?

Maybe thats it. I have a capacitor also, the digital kind, it reads 7.0-8.0.. Is that the voltage?? Maybe thats the issue, if so, what is it I need, a new battery? I am hoping to get this done myself as I was supposed to leave today, and no shops are open till tomorrow

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Yes, that's the voltage.  Can you start the car?

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I have to take off... if your battery voltage is that low the amps will stay off.  If you run the car and they still don't work, there is something else going on.  Good luck and drive safely!

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Well I just bought a new battery. Still the same thing. And the cap still reads 8.0

wth?! What could be wrong??
I have a 4 gauge wire ran from the positive terminal of the battery,
less than a foot away is a 4 gauge in-line fuse,
then 4 gauge ran all the way to the capacitor,
4 gauge from the capacitor to the distribution block,
8 gauge ran from the distro block to each amp.
8 gauge ran from each amp to ground.
remote wire ran from head unit to amps
rca ran from front speaker output on hu to front speaker amp, plugged into ch1 ch2 inputs
rca ran from subwoofer output on hu to subwoofer amp, on L/R inputs
speaker wire ran from sub amp to terminals on enclosure
speaker wire ran from enclosure to sub
sub wired in 2 ohm arangement as layed out by the12volt's info
speaker wire ran from speaker amp to front door speakers
harness adaptor plugged into oem harness

What is the voltage at the amplifiers? Don't rely on the cap's read-out. Use a VOM, and check it directly. Also, post the voltage of the remote lead, please.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Try eliminating your cap. If you are using only one cap for two amps, that can lead to voltage drop. The first amp in line with the cap is probably the one that has the power light illuminated. The second amp simply isn't getting enough power. Good luck!

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Sorry about the late reply. Ended up going out and getting loved up like the economy last night, lol. So I decided to mess with the car more, I removed the capacitor i had and wired the 4 gauge power wire directly into the distro block after trying what i thought was everything else.. Now the speakers work!!!

BUT, I still cannot get the sub to work. NOW the sub amp power light IS on, the protect light is NOT on. Sub out is set ON in the hu settings. I tried re-arranging the speaker wires on the amp channels and still nothing.

Any ideas now??

Thanks again for all your help!

You are not getting enough power to your amps. My opinion is to make sure your alternator is capable of producing enough amperage to supply your hungry amps. I would also replace the 4 gauge wire with 0 gauge. Use 4 instead of 8 from your block to your amps. Good luck!!

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Well figured out the sub thing. Somewhat.

Everything works now, YAY!

But, I have a mono block amp. It lists what power it makes at 2ohms but wont work when i wire the sub in 2 ohm?

To make sure i'm doing it right, I had one + wire going to one voice coil's + terminal, and one - wire going to the OPPOSITE voice coils - terminal. The other two terminals empty?

The speaker will not play wired in that manner.   What is the impedance of the voice coils?  Following are diagrams for parallel and series wiring.

Option 1 (parallel) = 2 ohm load Voice coils wired in parallel Recommended Amplifier: Stable at 2 or 1 ohm mono

Option 2 (series) = 8 ohm load Voice coils wired in series Recommended Amplifier: Stable at 4, 2, or 1 ohm mono

You left off the wire on the right side of the bottom picture.

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Let's Go Brandon Brown. Congratulations on your first Xfinity Series Win. LGBFJB

they are 4 ohm coils.

maybe i mis-understand the picture?

to me it looks like 1 + wire to one + terminal and one - wire to opposite - terminal

fyi im trying to get it 2ohm. the bottom is 8ohm no?

Top diagram is 2 ohm.  I stated you forgot the wire because that was the closest thing I could think of to what you described.

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Let's Go Brandon Brown. Congratulations on your first Xfinity Series Win. LGBFJB

So I had it correct for 2 Ohm correct?

This setup should work in 2 Ohm no?

https://www.caraudiomix.com/HIFONICS_BRUTUS_BXi1210D_1200W_Car_Amp_p/bxi1210d.htm

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-GkupBrr2S54/p_500SWR1242/Alpine-SWR-1242D.html

According to what I read, you had an open circuit.  You ran signal to a positive wire of one coil, and you had the negative wire connected to the negative terminal of the other coil.  Without connecting the 2 remaining terminals together, there was no flow of current through your speaker.  The positve signal went into the positive of the coil and had no where to go.  The negative terminal of that coil was not connected to anything.

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Let's Go Brandon Brown. Congratulations on your first Xfinity Series Win. LGBFJB

oh i feel stupid now.

i finally see the wire that connects the two + and two - terminals together. you were right, i had it wrong. thanks for beating it into me, lol!!

I hope I didn't bruise you up too bad.

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Let's Go Brandon Brown. Congratulations on your first Xfinity Series Win. LGBFJB