After a series of malfunctions with my bass engine, I am pretty confident that I have isolated my issues with my system. It has been a long process (6 ugly weeks) of checking every nook and cranny of my rig, and has damn near costed an innocent subwoofer its life.
Lets start with a list of parts involved here.
Parent vehicle: 96' Buick Century aka "The Bucket"
Head unit: Alpine CDA-9807
2-channel amp: JBL LCA-752
Sub Amp: JBL GTO75.4 II
Front stage: Infinity 5000CS 5.25 4 ohm 2 way component set
Sub setup: Two Kenwood KFC 1030W 4 ohm 12" subwoofer, in an Audiobahn prefab box.
Amp cables: Streetwires one 4-two 8 gauge
RCA cables: Monster Cable Interlink 2's for front amp, and Interlink 3's for sub amp, sub cables split off with RadioShack Y splitters.
Symptoms at the beginning: Right subwoofer is cutting out. When subwoofer does work, the amp will occasionally go into protect mode, but only when deep bass notes are played at high volume.
This has been one hell of a process. First thing under scrutiny is the new subs I bought a couple of days before problems began to occur. The first day I had them, I damage the right sub's surround when putting in my trunk. My trunk pin ripped a massive tear in the cheap foam surround. I patched it with some hi-temp glue, put it back in, and the next day the problems start.
After much toiling thrying to find what the hell was wrong with this sub, I found nothing. Ignoring the evidence (sub operation not afftected by pushing on cone, no signs of overexcursion or thermal damage) I cut off the dustcap to find another dustcap, and the INSIDE of the voice coil. Somewhere, in all of Kenwood's genius, decided that the tinsel leads shouldn't be located under the dustcap, but instead in some location that I wasn't bold enough to cut my way into.
I was sure it had to be this sub. The box obviously isn't built for this sub, so I figured overexcursion had to have caused the sub to lose a tinsel lead, and it was flopping around in there, sometimes touching the right lead, and sometimes shorting out. I was wrong.
A check of the sub wires revealed slightly frayed ends that could touch through the 5-way posts in the enclosure. I
cleaned it up a bit, and still the same problem.
At this point, I began to suspect the sub amp. This is my second of this kind of amp, the first cooking my old subs in under 2 hours of playtime, and being connected to these fried, shorted subs, cooked itself. Not the toughest of amps if it couldn't self protect itself from my stupidity while several lesser quality amps have, an easy suspect.
After a couple of messings of around, it was revealed that putting one end of each cable splitter into the two different rca inputs, as opposed to left to left, and right to right, (it is a four channel amp, and does need both rcas plugged in for all channels to recieve signal) it revealed that both subs are functioning normally, as well as the amp. (except for the unknown cause of the protect mode)
A use of the balance controls of the head unit shows that when balanced to the left completely, there is no signal output from the left sub RCA. I began to check the connection on the inside of my Interlink 3's, which hold on so tight, that they have damaged themselves and the equipment they were hooked up to when removed. They have ripped the metal part off of my old amp's RCA inputs, and before that, one of the conections broke on the left side because it was twisted too far when refusing to let go of the plug it was in.
After looking at the connections, and seiing them up to snuff, I went to the other side of the cables and just tugged the cables downward from where they come out of my dash, and can't yet be covered by carpet. Bam, we have left signal to the subs, and it hasn't quit working since. I haven't yet pulled off my whole dash to look at the RCA connection, but will eventually to make sure everything is permanetly good.
Still having the problem with the unknown amp protect at this point. I triple and quadruple checked the sub wiring, and just sut off the old frayed ends, and made the prettiest ends possible to put in the binding posts, as well as taking a 50th look inside the box. So far, so good, But only a little time will tell whether or not this really fixed the problem, but about an hour of thrashing on the setup showed now problems so far. All of this in the last paragrapgh happened about 2 hours ago.
A second suspect of the protect mode, which was the original suspect of the problem with my first amp is voltage drops. I know I should be running 0AWG-4AWG for my amps, but cannot afford the kit yet. It had been plaguing my mind, and I am wondering is this could cause enough of a voltage drop to shut off the amp. My lights don't seem to flicker so bad, and I have an Optima Red Top under the hood. So this one seemskind of unlikely, but possible. Unfortunatly, I still don't have a DMM to measure if this is the problem.
So, at the end, we have a Kenwood sub that got the "Jack the Ripper was here" look for nothing, possibly damaged deck or RCA cables, and hopefully no more problems. Any input folks?
Replies (20)
SQLThump on 02/12/2008 17:43:16
Nobody? I was hoping one of our more expierenced golds would pipe in with some unknown cause I never would have known or thought about...........
newB on 02/12/2008 17:49:40
its a little rough for me to follow everything going on here, but it seems like left sub was cutting in and out, then after you decided the sub was ok you moved to rcas and found a bad one, then tweaked it so it would work now everything is better but the amp is going into protect. is that right?
-Drew
SQLThump on 02/12/2008 18:22:33
This is correct, except the right sub was giving me problems (didn't bother matching up proper RCA siding for subs, at first since it's just bass) It is a megapost, bbut there was problem after problem ever since I got these new subs.
So far so good, but I am posting this up just to see if anybody knows another possible cause that I can't think of. I have nailed every problem for know, but pulling on RCA cables to fix a problem doesn't tell me what i did to fix it all.
The amp went into protect again today when I balanced the fader all the way to the right. I am certain I am not having a sub wire shorting because I have checked every millimeter of cable, and every connection, to make sure no wires are touching each other, or anything metal.
Basically just stumped. I fixed the problem for the most part, and it only goes into protect when balanced all the way to the right now. Kind of fixed, and definitely far from satisified. (at least it rocks like mad when everything works)
newB on 02/12/2008 18:30:17
so are you running your woofers off a 4ch amp? if so- how are you wired and to what ohm load?
-Drew
SQLThump on 02/12/2008 18:45:57
Yes, the subs are off a 4 channel. They are single 4 ohm coild, wired one to each of the two bridged channels. So a stable 4 ohm load all around. This amp hasn't hardly gotten warm since I got it, and I have pushed it pretty hard.
I did select the four channel for a reason, unfortunalely that reason is a bit too expensive for the time being, hence the ghetto Kenwoods.
newB on 02/12/2008 19:25:09
hmmmmm....
so two channels 4ohm bridged each?
solution:
new class D amp
lol
if i was there i would like to inspect it but my wee inferior brain cant visualize all the implications your having, sounds like a problem for a more developed brain like swez LOL
-Drew
SQLThump on 02/12/2008 19:51:17
Yeah, I am beginning to second guess the original design I bought the amp four, which is our 8's (2 in each front door) and a 15 in the trunk. I think I will retire my 2 Channel, use the new amp for the comps and 8's, and use a new class-D and probably use2 of some stouter 15's. Who's to say though....
Swez where the hell are you???? I need some "Old Man Audio" sage advice right now..........
Dude if you were to inspect it, you would probably trip too. I haven't pulled the dash apart yet, but check after check after check has revealed that everything else is normal, and this angers me. The wiring is still a bit untidy, but not as bad as before. I will get everything looking tidy after that, but I would probably get shot if I left a customer's car looking like this........
newB on 02/12/2008 20:04:38
even with the 8s and 15 i would go with two Class D amps rather than one 4ch. a class D amp is more efficient and designed to push bass. your class AB is for mids/highs and will be power hungry pushing bass woofers
-Drew
SQLThump on 02/12/2008 21:40:30
I catch that logic,but space is kind of at a premuim under the seats in my car, and I really don't want more than two amps. I am sure using the 4 channel for comps and midbass, and a new class D for the 15's.
This is a pretty stout 4 channel which is why I picked it out, but I definitely wish at this point that I would have planned differently. Maybe it's time to save for like 2 years and get my dream Diamond Audio bass engine. I could go for a D3800.1 and some nice D3 15's to match it.
swez on 02/13/2008 12:04:21
Hello... I'm back from a brief repite and read the details and see the aggrivation in the whole mess too.
Here, a systematic plan of progressive elimination is needed. A DMM is the proper tool as well. A 3rd party observer with good troubleshooting skills is also most helpful. Here's the progression:
1. Remove both sub to amp wires and test ohmic value of each sub (Since these are 4 ohm subs, expect a reading of ~3.4 ohms per sub)
a. If one measures infinite and the other reads just under 4 ohms, there's a coil problem... coil is not connecting well to the binding posts or termination of the tinsel lead is suspect. (Inspect things carefully before doing the last ditch effort... removing the duct cap inspection step)
b. If one sub reads well below 4 ohms, (more like 0.1 ohms) we have a shorted coil or the tinsel leads are shorting to the basket or each other.
Once we have confirmed or eliminated the condition of each sub, then we move to do voltage tests at the output stage of the amp used to power each sub. This requires the DMM, set to AC voltage scale of 20 VAC or higher. (Depends on the amp output capabilities)
2. Here, we use a known good speaker/woofer that can take enough power.
a. Hook up the 4 ohm sub, turn on some music and measure the voltage at the amp outputs. (If the amp is rated for say 250 watts, we should see peak reading of 31 VAC on the meter when heavy bass hits come) Do this for both bridged amp channels.
b. If 1 channel is very weak or no voltage is present from one channel, we swap the input RCA's to see if that makes a difference. If it brings that channel back to life, RCA wiring up stream is suspect.
I'll stop for now and come back later to finish this. For now, chew on this a bit so it's clear in the mind what to do and why.
Swez
SQLThump on 02/14/2008 04:16:05
Visibly, I can probably confirm tht column 1 pard b is not occuring. I did remove the dustcap of one sub already, and much to my dismay, I found the inside of the voice coil only, no outside with nice visible tinsel leads. In order to accec the outside coil, cutting the underside of the sub, and lifting the cone up and out of the way is the only access.
Stuff like this is why Kenwood (one of my favorite brands) is being added to my "blacklist" due to reliability problems. I plain don't care how many features you add or how good it sounds, if it won't last through a few years of heavy use, and a little plain abuse here and there, you can keep it.
I definitely get the procedures here, and why to do them, but I don't have a DMM. I will have to call over a homeboy and borrow his for a few days I guess. Also, my primary suspect at this point is the Head Unit. The behavior on the input stage of the amp, fading to different sides of the deck making problems when the amp is now recieving mono input, and tugging on the RCA cables making things work again seems to point to the deck.
swez on 02/14/2008 05:36:37
Would tend to agree with you on that generalization. But learning the proper way to diagnose issues now, will save lots of aggravation and expensive guess work later. Once you have done a few of these successfully, you'll be a valuable asset to yourself and homies.
Also, it's easier for a 3rd party to give guidance and objectivity on matters like this. When one is in the midst of a complex set of confusing variables, emotions and snap judgements tend to rule over the logical and we all have that to contend with. (None are immune to such things)
"When we are in the middle of a forest fire, it's hard to spot for the creek and head for safe conditions." Had my fair share of those experiences in life and that's when it's time to call in some outside assistance to lend an objective hand.
Swez
PS You may be right about the newer Kenwood products. They may be fine for the average user. But for the "hardcore ground pounders", these products may not have the durability and robust designs to satisfy. To get that, the ante goes up considerably. (Kicker, RF, JL, HiFonics and other competition grade gear is needed)
SQLThump on 02/14/2008 06:05:46
I'm not trying to say I don't need to run the tests, but all seems to be normal. I'm gonna call up the homie tommorrow and see If I can't get this stuff busted out tot othe best of my ability.
It really is a shame about Kenwoood as of late. They have some great features even in their mos basic head unit designs,
PS. I kind of knew I was up the proverbial ckeek without a paddle, thats why your and others objective opinions are great. Definitely gonna do these tests as soon as possible!
newB on 02/14/2008 11:23:50
im running a small 2ch interior amp for my fronts right now and its been working great for a few months, my first turn off was when a friend had three kenwood amps he wanted me to look at because they were all blown. >_< get that DMM and give us a good update
-Drew
SQLThump on 02/14/2008 15:26:56
Yeah, I think they sound great, but relaiblilty is key, A shame really, I will miss using their products for new work. Hell, both recievers for my home theater are Kenwood too, and though sounding great, they have their fair share of quirks too.
SQLThump on 02/14/2008 17:36:40
Dude with the voltmeter is here! But it is cold as hell, and I have to work tonight, so I'm gonna run these tests tommorrow. We will put an end to this madness!!!!
swez on 02/14/2008 18:21:20
It's not madness! The more tools we have at our disposal and know how to use them, the more value we bring to the party, ourselves and our clients.
Word up!
Swez
newB on 02/16/2008 01:20:00
it SEEMS like madness, if broken into a series of smaller easier to manage issues the problem will usually show itself
-Drew
SQLThump on 02/16/2008 02:19:37
Exactly, It does seem like madness with the stereo. But when I can't crank my gear, it IS madness! I didn't get the DMM from dude yesterday, as he didn't have it on him, but I think I have enough money to go score one from Wally World tommorrow. Might as well get one now.
I just want to go back to bumpin already. It is a really stout system when everything works.
-SQLThump
SQLThump on 02/18/2008 19:15:27
Alright, got the DMM! Time to get back to work. I will let you know of the results.
OK, we got 4.5 ohms at the left sub, and 4.9 ohms at the right. The meter would read 1 in the hundreds columns, so confused on how I got this reading. Also confused on one sub reading higher ohmage than the other.
Both sub channels maxed out at 40.7 volts with current subs hooked up. But i am not sure if I needed to use DC or AC sides of the meter.
Measured voltage at the battery, the amp, both with accessories off, and with the amp at full pound, and got 13.8-9 at the battery, 13.7-8 at the amp connections, and a drop no lower than 13.4 with the system turned all the way to max listening volume. (30 out of 35 on Alpine H/U
Ok, so what do you guys say on these results??
Lets start with a list of parts involved here.
Parent vehicle: 96' Buick Century aka "The Bucket"
Head unit: Alpine CDA-9807
2-channel amp: JBL LCA-752
Sub Amp: JBL GTO75.4 II
Front stage: Infinity 5000CS 5.25 4 ohm 2 way component set
Sub setup: Two Kenwood KFC 1030W 4 ohm 12" subwoofer, in an Audiobahn prefab box.
Amp cables: Streetwires one 4-two 8 gauge
RCA cables: Monster Cable Interlink 2's for front amp, and Interlink 3's for sub amp, sub cables split off with RadioShack Y splitters.
Symptoms at the beginning: Right subwoofer is cutting out. When subwoofer does work, the amp will occasionally go into protect mode, but only when deep bass notes are played at high volume.
This has been one hell of a process. First thing under scrutiny is the new subs I bought a couple of days before problems began to occur. The first day I had them, I damage the right sub's surround when putting in my trunk. My trunk pin ripped a massive tear in the cheap foam surround. I patched it with some hi-temp glue, put it back in, and the next day the problems start.
After much toiling thrying to find what the hell was wrong with this sub, I found nothing. Ignoring the evidence (sub operation not afftected by pushing on cone, no signs of overexcursion or thermal damage) I cut off the dustcap to find another dustcap, and the INSIDE of the voice coil. Somewhere, in all of Kenwood's genius, decided that the tinsel leads shouldn't be located under the dustcap, but instead in some location that I wasn't bold enough to cut my way into.
I was sure it had to be this sub. The box obviously isn't built for this sub, so I figured overexcursion had to have caused the sub to lose a tinsel lead, and it was flopping around in there, sometimes touching the right lead, and sometimes shorting out. I was wrong.
A check of the sub wires revealed slightly frayed ends that could touch through the 5-way posts in the enclosure. I
cleaned it up a bit, and still the same problem.
At this point, I began to suspect the sub amp. This is my second of this kind of amp, the first cooking my old subs in under 2 hours of playtime, and being connected to these fried, shorted subs, cooked itself. Not the toughest of amps if it couldn't self protect itself from my stupidity while several lesser quality amps have, an easy suspect.
After a couple of messings of around, it was revealed that putting one end of each cable splitter into the two different rca inputs, as opposed to left to left, and right to right, (it is a four channel amp, and does need both rcas plugged in for all channels to recieve signal) it revealed that both subs are functioning normally, as well as the amp. (except for the unknown cause of the protect mode)
A use of the balance controls of the head unit shows that when balanced to the left completely, there is no signal output from the left sub RCA. I began to check the connection on the inside of my Interlink 3's, which hold on so tight, that they have damaged themselves and the equipment they were hooked up to when removed. They have ripped the metal part off of my old amp's RCA inputs, and before that, one of the conections broke on the left side because it was twisted too far when refusing to let go of the plug it was in.
After looking at the connections, and seiing them up to snuff, I went to the other side of the cables and just tugged the cables downward from where they come out of my dash, and can't yet be covered by carpet. Bam, we have left signal to the subs, and it hasn't quit working since. I haven't yet pulled off my whole dash to look at the RCA connection, but will eventually to make sure everything is permanetly good.
Still having the problem with the unknown amp protect at this point. I triple and quadruple checked the sub wiring, and just sut off the old frayed ends, and made the prettiest ends possible to put in the binding posts, as well as taking a 50th look inside the box. So far, so good, But only a little time will tell whether or not this really fixed the problem, but about an hour of thrashing on the setup showed now problems so far. All of this in the last paragrapgh happened about 2 hours ago.
A second suspect of the protect mode, which was the original suspect of the problem with my first amp is voltage drops. I know I should be running 0AWG-4AWG for my amps, but cannot afford the kit yet. It had been plaguing my mind, and I am wondering is this could cause enough of a voltage drop to shut off the amp. My lights don't seem to flicker so bad, and I have an Optima Red Top under the hood. So this one seemskind of unlikely, but possible. Unfortunatly, I still don't have a DMM to measure if this is the problem.
So, at the end, we have a Kenwood sub that got the "Jack the Ripper was here" look for nothing, possibly damaged deck or RCA cables, and hopefully no more problems. Any input folks?
Replies (20)
SQLThump on 02/12/2008 17:43:16
Nobody? I was hoping one of our more expierenced golds would pipe in with some unknown cause I never would have known or thought about...........
newB on 02/12/2008 17:49:40
its a little rough for me to follow everything going on here, but it seems like left sub was cutting in and out, then after you decided the sub was ok you moved to rcas and found a bad one, then tweaked it so it would work now everything is better but the amp is going into protect. is that right?
-Drew
SQLThump on 02/12/2008 18:22:33
This is correct, except the right sub was giving me problems (didn't bother matching up proper RCA siding for subs, at first since it's just bass) It is a megapost, bbut there was problem after problem ever since I got these new subs.
So far so good, but I am posting this up just to see if anybody knows another possible cause that I can't think of. I have nailed every problem for know, but pulling on RCA cables to fix a problem doesn't tell me what i did to fix it all.
The amp went into protect again today when I balanced the fader all the way to the right. I am certain I am not having a sub wire shorting because I have checked every millimeter of cable, and every connection, to make sure no wires are touching each other, or anything metal.
Basically just stumped. I fixed the problem for the most part, and it only goes into protect when balanced all the way to the right now. Kind of fixed, and definitely far from satisified. (at least it rocks like mad when everything works)
newB on 02/12/2008 18:30:17
so are you running your woofers off a 4ch amp? if so- how are you wired and to what ohm load?
-Drew
SQLThump on 02/12/2008 18:45:57
Yes, the subs are off a 4 channel. They are single 4 ohm coild, wired one to each of the two bridged channels. So a stable 4 ohm load all around. This amp hasn't hardly gotten warm since I got it, and I have pushed it pretty hard.
I did select the four channel for a reason, unfortunalely that reason is a bit too expensive for the time being, hence the ghetto Kenwoods.
newB on 02/12/2008 19:25:09
hmmmmm....
so two channels 4ohm bridged each?
solution:
new class D amp
lol
if i was there i would like to inspect it but my wee inferior brain cant visualize all the implications your having, sounds like a problem for a more developed brain like swez LOL
-Drew
SQLThump on 02/12/2008 19:51:17
Yeah, I am beginning to second guess the original design I bought the amp four, which is our 8's (2 in each front door) and a 15 in the trunk. I think I will retire my 2 Channel, use the new amp for the comps and 8's, and use a new class-D and probably use2 of some stouter 15's. Who's to say though....
Swez where the hell are you???? I need some "Old Man Audio" sage advice right now..........
Dude if you were to inspect it, you would probably trip too. I haven't pulled the dash apart yet, but check after check after check has revealed that everything else is normal, and this angers me. The wiring is still a bit untidy, but not as bad as before. I will get everything looking tidy after that, but I would probably get shot if I left a customer's car looking like this........
newB on 02/12/2008 20:04:38
even with the 8s and 15 i would go with two Class D amps rather than one 4ch. a class D amp is more efficient and designed to push bass. your class AB is for mids/highs and will be power hungry pushing bass woofers
-Drew
SQLThump on 02/12/2008 21:40:30
I catch that logic,but space is kind of at a premuim under the seats in my car, and I really don't want more than two amps. I am sure using the 4 channel for comps and midbass, and a new class D for the 15's.
This is a pretty stout 4 channel which is why I picked it out, but I definitely wish at this point that I would have planned differently. Maybe it's time to save for like 2 years and get my dream Diamond Audio bass engine. I could go for a D3800.1 and some nice D3 15's to match it.
swez on 02/13/2008 12:04:21
Hello... I'm back from a brief repite and read the details and see the aggrivation in the whole mess too.
Here, a systematic plan of progressive elimination is needed. A DMM is the proper tool as well. A 3rd party observer with good troubleshooting skills is also most helpful. Here's the progression:
1. Remove both sub to amp wires and test ohmic value of each sub (Since these are 4 ohm subs, expect a reading of ~3.4 ohms per sub)
a. If one measures infinite and the other reads just under 4 ohms, there's a coil problem... coil is not connecting well to the binding posts or termination of the tinsel lead is suspect. (Inspect things carefully before doing the last ditch effort... removing the duct cap inspection step)
b. If one sub reads well below 4 ohms, (more like 0.1 ohms) we have a shorted coil or the tinsel leads are shorting to the basket or each other.
Once we have confirmed or eliminated the condition of each sub, then we move to do voltage tests at the output stage of the amp used to power each sub. This requires the DMM, set to AC voltage scale of 20 VAC or higher. (Depends on the amp output capabilities)
2. Here, we use a known good speaker/woofer that can take enough power.
a. Hook up the 4 ohm sub, turn on some music and measure the voltage at the amp outputs. (If the amp is rated for say 250 watts, we should see peak reading of 31 VAC on the meter when heavy bass hits come) Do this for both bridged amp channels.
b. If 1 channel is very weak or no voltage is present from one channel, we swap the input RCA's to see if that makes a difference. If it brings that channel back to life, RCA wiring up stream is suspect.
I'll stop for now and come back later to finish this. For now, chew on this a bit so it's clear in the mind what to do and why.
Swez
SQLThump on 02/14/2008 04:16:05
Visibly, I can probably confirm tht column 1 pard b is not occuring. I did remove the dustcap of one sub already, and much to my dismay, I found the inside of the voice coil only, no outside with nice visible tinsel leads. In order to accec the outside coil, cutting the underside of the sub, and lifting the cone up and out of the way is the only access.
Stuff like this is why Kenwood (one of my favorite brands) is being added to my "blacklist" due to reliability problems. I plain don't care how many features you add or how good it sounds, if it won't last through a few years of heavy use, and a little plain abuse here and there, you can keep it.
I definitely get the procedures here, and why to do them, but I don't have a DMM. I will have to call over a homeboy and borrow his for a few days I guess. Also, my primary suspect at this point is the Head Unit. The behavior on the input stage of the amp, fading to different sides of the deck making problems when the amp is now recieving mono input, and tugging on the RCA cables making things work again seems to point to the deck.
swez on 02/14/2008 05:36:37
Would tend to agree with you on that generalization. But learning the proper way to diagnose issues now, will save lots of aggravation and expensive guess work later. Once you have done a few of these successfully, you'll be a valuable asset to yourself and homies.
Also, it's easier for a 3rd party to give guidance and objectivity on matters like this. When one is in the midst of a complex set of confusing variables, emotions and snap judgements tend to rule over the logical and we all have that to contend with. (None are immune to such things)
"When we are in the middle of a forest fire, it's hard to spot for the creek and head for safe conditions." Had my fair share of those experiences in life and that's when it's time to call in some outside assistance to lend an objective hand.
Swez
PS You may be right about the newer Kenwood products. They may be fine for the average user. But for the "hardcore ground pounders", these products may not have the durability and robust designs to satisfy. To get that, the ante goes up considerably. (Kicker, RF, JL, HiFonics and other competition grade gear is needed)
SQLThump on 02/14/2008 06:05:46
I'm not trying to say I don't need to run the tests, but all seems to be normal. I'm gonna call up the homie tommorrow and see If I can't get this stuff busted out tot othe best of my ability.
It really is a shame about Kenwoood as of late. They have some great features even in their mos basic head unit designs,
PS. I kind of knew I was up the proverbial ckeek without a paddle, thats why your and others objective opinions are great. Definitely gonna do these tests as soon as possible!
newB on 02/14/2008 11:23:50
im running a small 2ch interior amp for my fronts right now and its been working great for a few months, my first turn off was when a friend had three kenwood amps he wanted me to look at because they were all blown. >_< get that DMM and give us a good update
-Drew
SQLThump on 02/14/2008 15:26:56
Yeah, I think they sound great, but relaiblilty is key, A shame really, I will miss using their products for new work. Hell, both recievers for my home theater are Kenwood too, and though sounding great, they have their fair share of quirks too.
SQLThump on 02/14/2008 17:36:40
Dude with the voltmeter is here! But it is cold as hell, and I have to work tonight, so I'm gonna run these tests tommorrow. We will put an end to this madness!!!!
swez on 02/14/2008 18:21:20
It's not madness! The more tools we have at our disposal and know how to use them, the more value we bring to the party, ourselves and our clients.
Word up!
Swez
newB on 02/16/2008 01:20:00
it SEEMS like madness, if broken into a series of smaller easier to manage issues the problem will usually show itself
-Drew
SQLThump on 02/16/2008 02:19:37
Exactly, It does seem like madness with the stereo. But when I can't crank my gear, it IS madness! I didn't get the DMM from dude yesterday, as he didn't have it on him, but I think I have enough money to go score one from Wally World tommorrow. Might as well get one now.
I just want to go back to bumpin already. It is a really stout system when everything works.
-SQLThump
SQLThump on 02/18/2008 19:15:27
Alright, got the DMM! Time to get back to work. I will let you know of the results.
OK, we got 4.5 ohms at the left sub, and 4.9 ohms at the right. The meter would read 1 in the hundreds columns, so confused on how I got this reading. Also confused on one sub reading higher ohmage than the other.
Both sub channels maxed out at 40.7 volts with current subs hooked up. But i am not sure if I needed to use DC or AC sides of the meter.
Measured voltage at the battery, the amp, both with accessories off, and with the amp at full pound, and got 13.8-9 at the battery, 13.7-8 at the amp connections, and a drop no lower than 13.4 with the system turned all the way to max listening volume. (30 out of 35 on Alpine H/U
Ok, so what do you guys say on these results??
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