Cant turn up gain & Blinking power Light! Help!!!!

 

Bronze Member
Username: Austin6

Post Number: 14
Registered: Jun-04
Problems problems everywhere! Help guys please!!!

Situation is like this.. I am stuck with a factory headunit for right now because its a mazda 6 and there are no kits for this car yet =/

I put 2 DVC 4-Ohm 12's 400 Watt RMS in a sealed box wired so its a 4 Ohm load on the Amp.... bridged.

Amp is a Audiobahn 2 channel 800 Watts RMS at 4 Ohms bridged.

I installed a (step-down?) off the HU and ran RCA's to the AMP.

After hooking everything up certain bass sounds really good, but some sounds really distoreted.

I wanted to start adjusting Gain/Level and found turning the gain up slightly more than a 1/4 turn makes things worse, and turning the X-over over 50 gets worse also.

X-over range is 50 - 120. I then noticed the power light is blinking, and that just does not seem right to me.... can anyone tell me what might be going on?

Very sorry if i did not give enough information... just tell me what you need to know and ill try to explain.

Thanks in advance,

Busted in Austin
 

Gold Member
Username: Glasswolf

NorthWest, Michigan USA

Post Number: 3956
Registered: Dec-03
"I put 2 DVC 4-Ohm 12's wired so its a 4 Ohm load on a Audiobahn 2 channel [amp at] 4 Ohms bridged."

coils in series, subs in parallel?
make sure. it sounds like you have it wired in straight parallel and the amp is shutting down due to the load being too low.

"I found turning the gain up slightly more than a 1/4 turn makes things worse, and turning the X-over over 50 gets worse also."

it very well may be that the gains are properly set at below a quarter turn.
remember the gains only match the input stage of the amp to the line voltage. the XO point should be set to about 80Hz.

"I then noticed the power light is blinking"

make sure you have the proper amp power cable size.
make sure the ground point is to bare sanded metal chassis ground.
make SURE the subs are wired for 4 ohms total load if that amp is bridged.
 

Bronze Member
Username: Austin6

Post Number: 16
Registered: Jun-04
GlassWolf thank you for your post,

**** coils in series, subs in parallel?
make sure. it sounds like you have it wired in straight parallel and the amp is shutting down due to the load being too low. ****

I am pretty sure it is set up correctly, but I will double check them. The amp is not turning off, but the light is blinking. I connected the ground to my post my rear seat is attached to the frame with... maybe i still need to sand the paint away some.

I am thinking I did the classic mistake... of adding Bass to a stock system, and it sounds like crap because my high end factory system is indeed crap.....

Two questions for you GlassWolf. (with multiple parts of course) Muwahaha

1. Should I connect my HU to my AMP through the High level input, or should I use a step-down like I did? the light blinking could that be because power is being sent down the RCA's causing a clipping on the amp?

2. Since I will be sticking with the factory head unit for a while how do i catch the high end up with the low end?

*** Thinking about replacing the 4 factory door speakers with some good speakers and getting a decent 4 channel amp. I have 4 (6 x 8)-door speakers, one in each door, with 2 tweeters in the corners of the front windows.

I have about $500 to spend now and can put another $300 or so into it in a month or so.

Please let me know what you think.
 

Gold Member
Username: Glasswolf

NorthWest, Michigan USA

Post Number: 3965
Registered: Dec-03
Q1: same deal. the amp just has the LOC built in, which saves needing the external one.
now the problem could be if this is a BOSE factory system similar to the RX8's, then the line voltage from the factory unit is 10 volts, which requires a special line-out convertor designed to tap into the BOSE system exclusively to give you a proper 4V line signal.

Q2: you get that special BOSE LOC (if needed) then run to an electronic crossover (if needed) and a 4 channel amp. then replace the factory speakers with better components run by that amp.
then use your existing amp and sub(s) for low end.
This is more or less what we ended up doing with a friend's RX8.

« Previous Thread Next Thread »



Main Forums

Today's Posts

Forum Help

Follow Us