Alpine 3553 amp problem

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=11705
Printed Date: May 20, 2024 at 6:10 AM

Topic: Alpine 3553 amp problem

Posted By: webnosis
Subject: Alpine 3553 amp problem
Date Posted: April 01, 2003 at 4:05 AM

Hi,

This is my first post to the forum and I am in desperate need of some advice. I have a second-hand Alpine 3553 amp installed under the driver's seat of my Ford Focus (european). I have wired it up and the amp seems to be powering up fine. The light goes red, then changes to green after a couple of seconds. However, when I connected up the speakers it produced no sound at all. I have confirmed that the all the cabling is ok by connecting a Jetsound amp, and it all worked fine. There is not enough room under the seat for the Jetsound so I need to get the Alpine working somehow. I have no manual so I guess I might be setting it up wrongly, as it has a lot of settings.

Things I have tried:-

Input selection switches
Gain levels

I think that I am connecting the speakers up correctly, but if anyone has any ideas on this I would really appreciate it.

Cheers,

Web

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Cheers,

Web

Replies:

Posted By: esmith69
Date Posted: April 01, 2003 at 6:25 AM

Try hooking the amp up to a different power and signal source and see if you get any output. If you do, then you know the amp is fine and something is wrong with the wires in your vehicle. If you still don't get any output, then you know that the problem lies with the amp--either the amp itself is damaged/broken, or one of the settings needs to be changed.

As long as everything is connected properly and the gains are set to at least 25% you should definitely get some sort of output...

Posted By: webnosis
Date Posted: April 01, 2003 at 6:31 AM

I have confirmed that the wiring is OK by connecting a different amp to the same wiring that doesn't work with the Alpine. So I'm guessing that it must be something to do with the amp being faulty or the amp's settings. Although I am not 100% sure that I have wired the speakers correctly!

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Cheers,

Web

Posted By: esmith69
Date Posted: April 01, 2003 at 6:38 AM

Yea but if the other amp worked using the same wiring then most likely it's something wrong with the Alpine amp. Although I suppose you could have the speaker wiring connected to the alpine the wrong way. You can hook up just one pair of speaker wires to see if that will work, and of course try each amp channel. As a last restort you can check the speaker terminals for positive voltage using a DMM.

Posted By: Velocity Motors
Date Posted: April 01, 2003 at 8:00 AM

The amp probably has blown speaker outputs. This is a common occurance on amplifier's taht have had the (+) & (-) speaker terminals touch momentarily. The older amps are very prone to this and the cost to repair is about $ 75.00 Canadian . I have seen this on many of the older Alpine amplifiers and HU that we used to sell. Bring it in and tell them to replace the speaker output on the amp and this should fix the problem.

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA