Printer Friendly Forum Posts - amp wont turn off

hello. i got a kicer zx350.4 (newest model). when i take out the key out of the ignition, by headunit turns off but the kicker amp doesnt. it stays on for a couple of seconds. and before it turns off i hear a descending whining noise (first it get loud then low then dies). after that noise a couple after the amp turns off.

also when i accelerate, i hear a whining noise coming from the dash or some where in front of me.

what can be the causes of these symptoms?

What happens if you remove the remote wire from the amplifier while the system is playing?

Sounds like it might have something to do with the remote turn on setting. Newer Kicker amps have a 3 remote turn on settings: +12volt, DC, and signal. If you had it set to +12 volt or DC offset the amp should turn off once you kill the power. If you have it set to signal and you haven't MATCHED the input gain with the headunit that could be the cause of the problem. Look into that. Either switch it to +12volt or adjust the input gain. The whining noise seems like typical powerline noise caused by running a signal lead to close to a high current power line, although I could be wrong.

I have not seen one of the new Kicker amps with multiple methods of turn on. But having the amp set to signal sensing would tend to turn off exactly as yours is. Look into that solution before removing the remote wire from the amp.

yes! it turned off. i switched it to 12+ volt. i heard a whine when i accelerate. its not bad as the first time. does anyone know the causes of whining sound?

If you turn the gain all the way down, does the whining go away?

imupabove wrote:

yes! it turned off. i switched it to 12+ volt. i heard a whine when i accelerate. its not bad as the first time. does anyone know the causes of whining sound?

Seems like powerline noise or AKA engine noise. This is not a rare problem. First remove the deck and remove the RCA cables from the back. Then, get an extra pair of RCA's and connect them directly to the amp without running them along the side of your car. Should only take a minutes. See if the noise goes away.

calitech247 wrote:

imupabove wrote:

yes! it turned off. i switched it to 12+ volt. i heard a whine when i accelerate. its not bad as the first time. does anyone know the causes of whining sound?

Seems like powerline noise or AKA engine noise. This is not a rare problem. First remove the deck and remove the RCA cables from the back. Then, get an extra pair of RCA's and connect them directly to the amp without running them along the side of your car. Should only take a minutes. See if the noise goes away.

Most common cases for this is bad GROUND. Either by the deck ground, amp ground or in the RCA ground connections in the head unit or amp. Very common in pioneer head units to have bad grounds to the RCA ouputs. Running RCAs next to power wires is not the case. Its called a GROUND loop for a reason. Also another common reason is gain level set way too high. Which is why i am an idiot suggested turning the gain all the way down to rule it out.

Use a voltmeter and ensure you are getting good ground at the amp. If thats fine I would look at the ground from the deck. Seeing as you are complaining of this problem from the subs. I am betting you have a less then ideal ground to the amplifier or gain set too high.

What is a proper ground? topic
https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp~TID~49445~PN~1

How to set gains. topic
https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp~TID~85479~PN~1

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posted_image

yeah the ground on the amp is good. my deck's grpund is wired up with the car's stock wire harness, good idea? its not grounded directly to the car's chassis because i cant find anything close to the deck to ground.

imupabove wrote:

yeah the ground on the amp is good. my deck's grpund is wired up with the car's stock wire harness, good idea? its not grounded directly to the car's chassis because i cant find anything close to the deck to ground.

Your ground is reading 1/2 ohm or less on resistance? And is clean of any paint? Is it good or does it just look good?

No the factory location is not always ideal. You may have to run a bit of wire to find a good spot. Again free of paint and 1/2 ohm resistance or less. Also have you turned the gain down to rule out having the gain set too high?

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Eliminating noise in any system can be confusing because many things can cause it. Yes, it can be a BAD GROUND issue or it can be POWERLINE NOISE (conductive coupling). I'm going by the fact that the noise rises and falls with engine speed as dude said in his first post. Sorry, im an idiot, but this has nothing to do with input gain adjustment. Improperly MATCHING an input gain with a source unit will cause clipping and distortion. Not noise that rises and falls while accelerating. You can rule this out simply by setting the volume to zero while the car is running and reving the engine. If the noise is still present then it could a bad ground, conductive coupling, or something else. Just trying to help.

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At times, it would be nice to grow an extra pair of hands.

Wow An input gain adjustment that can not get rid of engine noise.

But if it does and I'm wrong my bad. I just never heard of that. Thats all.

first you have to take your rca wires and run them on the other side of the car.second thing reconnect your ground 2 inches from the last spot.third thing make sure your remote wire is in the proper spot

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boxead78

boxhead78 wrote:

first you have to take your rca wires and run them on the other side of the car.second thing reconnect your ground 2 inches from the last spot.third thing make sure your remote wire is in the proper spot

...............WUT??

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UNLABELED Custom Car Club President

so sorry for the late reply! so it can the the ground from the headunit right? or the amps ground? im pretty sure the amps ground is find because the other 2 amps i had before this amp im using now was grounded at the same place.

im having trouble find a good place to ground me headunit and EQ :\. should i get like a 10 gauge ground wire and ground it where one of my amps are grounded?

thanks fellas.

And the plot thickens. An EQ you say?

Running Ground all the way to the back to reach your amps is not the way to go. There is plenty of good grounding to be found right at the dash. 2nd now with this magic EQ that appeared. Im betting i am an idit is right in the money.

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i think J.Reed wrote:

If you turn the gain all the way down, does the whining go away?

just my 2 cents here, if i am an idiot says to try something i would try that, no offense meant other posters but i am an idiot has a proven track record of diagnosing problems. it seems to me that the op is trying everyones advice and not listing all his equipment wich is making things more complicated.to the op : there is no magical way to fix your problem ,its a process of elimination.

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-A vision without a plan is just a hallucination-

Thanks for the vote of confidence spmpdr, I have no idea why some of them have trouble at least trying some of the things I suggest. It is almost as though they think I am an idiot. For some reason, a stigma I can not seem to shake.

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

i am an idiot wrote:

Thanks for the vote of confidence spmpdr, I have no idea why some of them have trouble at least trying some of the things I suggest. It is almost as though they think I am an idiot. For some reason, a stigma I can not seem to shake.

Yeah I don't get it either. Most are like the simplest thing ever to rule something out. Guess that just makes them the idiots? posted_image

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posted_image

I always suggest the simplest things. For some reason or another, the simple things are all I can come up with.

i am an idiot wrote:

I always suggest the simplest things. For some reason or another, the simple things are all I can come up with.

Well if it makes you feel any better. You are one "IDIOT" that I would have no problem taking advice or problem solving from. posted_image

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posted_image

i am an idiot wrote:

I always suggest the simplest things. For some reason or another, the simple things are all I can come up with.

hey "i am an idoit"! sorry i finally did some troubleshooting ..

i put the gain all the way down and i didnt hear any whining* noises but when i turn the gain up i heard it. and its funny because when the gain was all the way down i was still able to hear the music by turning up the master volume on the EQ and the headunit's volume is 25, weird right? the higher i put the gain i hear the hissing noises in my speakers. and with the gain turn up and the volume down, i hear only my left front speaker (low level sound). so im guessing the higher the gain the more i can hear the noises.

thanks for baring with me.

It is no surprise that you can still hear music with the gain all the way down. If you turn the gain all the way down, and you can still reach your desired listening level, leave it that way. If you were not able to reach your desired listening level, you would want to turn the gain up till you begin to hear the whining, then back it down till it goes away.

I am really glad you got it figured out.

i am an idiot wrote:

It is no surprise that you can still hear music with the gain all the way down. If you turn the gain all the way down, and you can still reach your desired listening level, leave it that way. If you were not able to reach your desired listening level, you would want to turn the gain up till you begin to hear the whining, then back it down till it goes away.

I am really glad you got it figured out.

yeah thanks :]. why can i hear the music with the gain all the way down, do you know? i can hear the music pretty good with the gain all the way down but im not getting the amp's potential, but yeah im pretty sure if i just boosted the amp's gain by a little i will be fine. is this all normal?

i am an idiot wrote:

It is no surprise that you can still hear music with the gain all the way down. If you turn the gain all the way down, and you can still reach your desired listening level, leave it that way. If you were not able to reach your desired listening level, you would want to turn the gain up till you begin to hear the whining, then back it down till it goes away.

I am really glad you got it figured out.

To bad it took a week to decide to try simply turning one knob counter clockwise.

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posted_image

j.reed wrote:

i am an idiot wrote:

It is no surprise that you can still hear music with the gain all the way down. If you turn the gain all the way down, and you can still reach your desired listening level, leave it that way. If you were not able to reach your desired listening level, you would want to turn the gain up till you begin to hear the whining, then back it down till it goes away.

I am really glad you got it figured out.

To bad it took a week to decide to try simply turning one knob counter clockwise.

haha iknow! i was kind of busy Xp.

The gain adjustment is not a volume control. (Unless it is an MTX) Turning the gain all the way down will not mute your sound. The gain adjustment determines how much voltage in will yield full output. If you have ever seen an amp with numbers on the gain adjustment, the numbers at full CCW are higher than the numbers at full CW. Full CCW = 6v Full CW = (.)2v This means that at full CCW it will take 6 volts of input voltage to reach maximum output power. At full CW it only takes (.)2 volts of input to achieve max out.

but is their any way eliminating the interfering noises? and still the gain all the way or whatever i set it at?

If you were not able to reach your desired listening level, you would want to turn the gain up till you begin to hear the whining, then back it down till it goes away

imupabove wrote:

but is their any way eliminating the interfering noises? and still the gain all the way or whatever i set it at?

I guess while overlooking I am an idiots advice and mine as well regarding gain. That you also have not read the HOW TO SET YOUR GAINS! link i posted either.

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posted_image

i am an idiot wrote:

Baby steps.

Yep. I have trouble with that sometimes.

First do this. I am an idiot is giving you the easy and fast solution for now.

i am an idiot wrote:

If you were not able to reach your desired listening level, you would want to turn the gain up till you begin to hear the whining, then back it down till it goes away

once you have this done that. Click the like I provided above. Read it over really well. There is a special section just for EQ gain you should make note of. Read the first post of it over and over till it makes 100% sense to you. If you have questions feel free to ask. Once you have a good grasp on what is being cover in the How to set your gains topic. Then you can go about starting from scratch to get all your gains matched as they should be.

It is very important that you know and understand just what a gain is and it purpose first though.

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posted_image

dang. still here whining noises even if i put the gain to the first notch/mark. i here it more on the road driving. its annoying when i turn the volume down all the way down and hear music from my left front speaker.

not sure about the setting my EQ. all i do is set my headunit to volume 25/35.

the zx line of amplifer will take 5volts of rca input. What are the chances your EQ is giving that much or more at the current settings? If you are feeding 5 volts or more. The gain may not have to move at all from all the way down to achieve full output. Again read the how to set gain topic.

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posted_image

There is a problem with the front left channel of your EQ. (Or that is just the only speaker you can hear the noise in because you are closer to it than the others) Can I ask why we do not just use the volume control on the radio itself? I bet you 1000 dollars that if you turn that volume all the way down, there will be no music coming from any speaker in the car.

About the position of the Gain adjustment on the amp: Are your intentions to stay in the trunk and look at where the gain knob is positioned, or to listen to your system without noise? You can only choose 1 answer. Whichever choice you do not make, you have to let go and let God take care of and worry about why that one is that way.

i am an idiot wrote:

Thanks for the vote of confidence spmpdr, I have no idea why some of them have trouble at least trying some of the things I suggest. It is almost as though they think I am an idiot. For some reason, a stigma I can not seem to shake.

anytime man youve helped me more than once, I too have that hard headed approach to things but with time i have learned to listen to experience and learn from wisdom, I still make things more complicated than they really are sometimes though.progress not perfection.

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-A vision without a plan is just a hallucination-

i am an idiot wrote:

There is a problem with the front left channel of your EQ. (Or that is just the only speaker you can hear the noise in because you are closer to it than the others) Can I ask why we do not just use the volume control on the radio itself? I bet you 1000 dollars that if you turn that volume all the way down, there will be no music coming from any speaker in the car.

Remember when I said "a magic EQ you say"? While an EQ can be a useful tool if used correctly. Most the time they are not. Also by adding an EQ you are adding yet one more thing to introduce noise into the system.

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posted_image

i should toss the eq huh?

how about the remote wire and speaker wire next to the power wires, can that make the noise occur? because the speaker wire or my speakers inside the car and the remote wire for my mono amp is very close to the power wire.

Have you tried setting the EQ volume to 3/4 of the way up, and using the radio volume control to control the volume of the system?

i am an idiot wrote:

Have you tried setting the EQ volume to 3/4 of the way up, and using the radio volume control to control the volume of the system?

wow. i should of tried this a long time ago haha. it worked! no hissing or low playing music when volume all the way down. but i didnt pay attention to any whining, because of the rain.

you should change you name to "i am not an idiot" HAHA. thanks man.

imupabove wrote:

i am an idiot wrote:

Have you tried setting the EQ volume to 3/4 of the way up, and using the radio volume control to control the volume of the system?

wow. i should of tried this a long time ago haha. it worked! no hissing or low playing music when volume all the way down. but i didnt pay attention to any whining, because of the rain.

you should change you name to "i am not an idiot" HAHA. thanks man.

Thats what i was banking on too once the EQ came into play and why i kept referring to the how to set gains topic. Glad you got it worked out.

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posted_image

yeah thaanks man.

the only thing is, theirs still that whining noise :[. i feel like my car is going to blow up. its so annoying.

I would try taking the eq out of the mix. Simply run the RCAs from the deck to the amp. The eq may have a bad ground connection to the shield of the rca jacks.

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posted_image

I was under the impression that the whining noise went away when you turned the gains down on the amp.

imupabove wrote:

yeah thaanks man.

the only thing is, theirs still that whining noise :[. i feel like my car is going to blow up. its so annoying.

Your more than likely your gonna have to reroute your RCA cables AWAY from any large guaged power wire (aftermarket and even OEM wiring) Your system is picking up powerline noise...AKA conductive coupling. After all the other system checking you've all ready did so far, shouldn't be too much more work.

All you guys are loving stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haha wow. im done. disrespectful.

calitech247 wrote:

All you guys are loving stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think we were the ones suggesting that a large wire carrying DC voltage can induce noise into a shielded cable.