Amplifier Help Needed

[naiku 10+ year member]

Sorry in advance for the long post..........I installed my new amp yesterday, and unless I have hooked up something wrong it looks like the right channel on the amp is defective (great!). So before I start going about sending it back I wanted to get some help on what could still be wrong............ so far I have narrowed it down to the amp right channel by changing speakers/crossovers/wires and still the right channel barely plays. I have also made sure that the balance/fade on the HU was centered.

If I hook up a speaker to the right channel (either front or rear right channel) music does come from the speaker, but it's so quiet you have to crank the HU volume up to full to really hear anything, and it's very crackly. Ok so here are my questions...

1) I am using the line (speaker) level input to the amp, if for example I have mixed up a positive/negative on the input could that cause the problem I am experiencing? Music, but very quiet.

2) As it's a line level input, if I had gotten some of the wires incorrect would the amp just not work at all? Again, it does play but only very quiet. I would have thought if the right side input was wrong then nothing would play. Or if the left side was wired correctly, the left would play, but if right side was wrong then (as I am experiencing) the ride side would play but only very quietly.

3) Since it's a 4 channel amplifier, would it make more sense for just 1 channel (say front) of the right to be bad? or is it more common that both front and rear would be bad?

I think the line level input was about the only thing I did not check yesterday, could the quiet crackly music be caused by a wire incorrect on the right channel on this? Any other idea's on what to check as well before I pull the whole thing out to send back.

Also......... a different subject, but still on the install. I get a LOT of interferance through the speakers (gear change, windows up/down etc) since I used the line level input I ran 2 lengths of speaker cable to each door, one to extend the existing stock cable to the amp (input) and then another length to come from the amp (output) to the speakers, this cable ran from the door and then along the sides of the car. I then ran my power/remote down 1 side of the car and to the amp. I checked the ground (good) and so is the power wire being alongside the speaker wire (input) causing my noise problems? Besides pulling all the speaker wire and running the input side from the back of the HU down 1 side of the car and leaving the power down the other side, is there anything else that can cut down on the noise? I have seen noise blockers, but I don't know how they install or if they work.

The only other thing I also did not check was the fuses, the amp has 2 (do these have any bearing on left/right?) if one is bad would the right side not work properly? or would the amp not work at all if 1 fuse was bad.

Again, thanks for reading this and sorry for the long post. The right channel amp problem is at the moment more important than the noise one. If the line level input being wired incorrectly can cause the symptoms (quiet music/crackly) then I can work on double checking that before sending the amp back.

Thanks.

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[Dj-torn 10+ year member]

I will do my best to help you here, from experience the hi level inputs tend to emit alot of noise, my suggestion is for you to purchase a Hi-low converter, or try regrounding your hi leve inputs.

As far as the amp is concerend normally you would experience problems from either front or rear, but not right or left. But I would go ahead and make sure that you didn't accidentaly hook up the front speakers and think that they where right or visa versa.

- Check your gain set them both to 9 o'clock to be safe, and HPF/LPF make sure that neither is engaged, but rather running on Full or OFF depending on the amp.

- If you have avaliable a portable cd, ipod, walkman, or radio, use the head phone jack on the item and plug it into the amp and test each channel like that using (mini/head phone to 2male RCA, this can be found at any radio shack or even walmart)

- If a fuse was blown then the would be no sound.

Lastly check all your connections, and make sure that they are secure, and that the wire in no pinched anywhere.

GL

 

[naiku 10+ year member]

Thanks for replying, I do know for sure that I have the speakers wired correctly coming out of the amp (front speakers have different cable to the rears) and at the moment I have both fronts hooked up to the left channels (nothing connected to the right).

The gains are pretty low (probably around 12 o clock) but I will knock them down a little further later today. Will also make sure the HPF/LPF are off. The other thing I will then check is for pinched wires............ it sucks that this is not working properly, even wired as it is right now it sounds so much better than stock!!

Fingers crossed it is a wire or something stupid somewhere.

 

[Dj-torn 10+ year member]

the gains @ 12o'clock are probably fine, the only reason I said lower them was if you should try using a portable cd player and plug that into the RCA inputs of the amp, I didn't want you to blow anything.

If nothing works I say call the manufacture, maybe they have delt with this problem before, and have a quick fix, or maybe they will replace it for you.. You must have some sort of warranty on it IF you just bought it.

What kind of amp is it?

 

[buildmeabox 10+ year member]

I glanced at your post but I'm impatient at times.

Let's start from the HU to amp connection, from what you stated only the right channel works, so try this, connect the right channel output form the HU to the left input of the amp and see if that works. I would write down what wire color is connected to what input on the amp along with a plus or minus next to it. We know the right input from the HU is good so this test will simplify which way we'll trouble shoot next.

If you pm me the vehicle model and year I can tell you what the color code is on the HU output.

If the above works then you have a bad output on the HU

If not then the amp has a bad input. I would suggest you buy a line level to RCA converter, $20 bucks at walmart, and test your RCA inputs on the amp. Follow the above steps and do not deviate or you'll end up chasing your tail.

Good Luck

 

[naiku 10+ year member]

the gains @ 12o'clock are probably fine, the only reason I said lower them was if you should try using a portable cd player and plug that into the RCA inputs of the amp, I didn't want you to blow anything.
If nothing works I say call the manufacture, maybe they have delt with this problem before, and have a quick fix, or maybe they will replace it for you.. You must have some sort of warranty on it IF you just bought it.

What kind of amp is it?

The gain thing makes sense, I am going to pick up one of those RCA adaptors today and try that to see if the right channel works with that method. If it does then I am narrowed down to it being something on my speaker/high level input connections.

It's an Aura RPM 4200, it does have a year's warranty on it, so if all else fails I will be returning it. I contacted the manufacturers tech support who got back to me and also suggested that it could be a connection on the speaker/high level input connections.

Fingers crossed the RCA/MP3 player test will give me an output on all 4 channels, if it does I will be checking the connections there (or simply scrapping the speaker level input and getting an LOC).

Will post back sometime tomorrow about the results.

Buildmeabox, it's a 2000 F-150, I had printed a wiring diagram from the internet, but of 2 I printed my wires appeared to be a combination of both diagrams. I probably won't have time to switch the outputs until the weekend, but I am hoping that using the RCA/MP3 player method suggested by DJ-Torn will (hopefully) show that all 4 channels on the amp are good, which will then simply leave me with the speaker level input connections being the problem.

I am beginning to wish I had bought an LOC in the first place (had debated it but figured since I had a speaker level input I may as well use it)

Thanks for all the info, will be posting back as soon as I get any results.

 

[naiku 10+ year member]

Well I picked up a 3.5mm to RCA input jack and hooked up my walkman, lo and behold my right channel worked. So I checked all the connections on the speaker level input, removed all the connections and checked each wire, reconnected everything and still no right output.

Fed up with it now, LOC is on the way. Can anyone recommend somewhere to pick up a 4 Channel LOC from? Most I can find are 2 channel, I found a 4 channel one for $18 but they wanted almost $13 to ship it!!!

 

[naiku 10+ year member]

Ok, now I am getting REALLY fed up with this. I had a 4 day weekend so decided to find time to check out all my connections fully. Disconnected and re-crimped every connection, still no right channel. So I gave up and went out and bought an LOC (and while I was out some RCA Y-cables).

Back home and I decided to check one more time with the MP3 player that all speakers worked, so I hooked up all 4 speakers, used the RCA Y-cables and my MP3 player and got sound out of every speaker. Next I went ahead to install the LOC, since I already had speaker cable running to the amp (from the speaker level inputs) I decided to use these for my LOC (if I got interferance using these cables I had planned to relocate the LOC to the back of the HU). Everything connected no problems to the rear speaker cables, switched on the HU (first thing I notice is how much better the sound is with an LOC instead of speaker level inputs) and the 2nd thing I notice is STILL NO RIGHT CHANNEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I begin to think maybe it is a problem with my rear speakers (the wire colors I have are different to 99% of diagrams I found on the internet) but they work when using the MP3 player, so I am sure I have the right cables. However, to eliminate this variable I decide to hook the LOC up to the front speaker cables, STILL NO RIGHT CHANNEL. If I switch the left and right RCA's the sound moves from left to right, but no matter which way I wire it I STILL GET NO RIGHT CHANNEL.

So I know my speakers all work, I know all channels on my amp worked, I am 99.99% sure that the balance all worked on my HU before starting this, I know it's not my RCA cable as I get the same problem using speaker level inputs.

And so here I am on Wednesday morning with still only half my speakers working, and fast running out of idea's as to what I can check. The 1 single thing I just now thought of is that maybe my + and - are wrong coming into the LOC on the right side, but I find it hard to believe (although still possible) that I managed to get both front and rear on the right side mixed up on the input (LOC/Speaker level) side of things, but that the output (going to speaker from amp) would be correct.

I heard that some Ford's come with a factory amplifier, could this be causing the problem I have? As far as I was aware I don't have the factory amp, and it's weird that it would cause only the right channel to not work.

F**k I am really confused with this, any help now even more appreciated than before. I need an expert!!!! Thanks.