I'm going to try to give as much detail as possible so you can help me figure this out. I was given a Kenwood 350 watt max, 2 channel amp from a coworker. I have an upgraded factory sound system in my car that includes a 6 channel amplifier and a 10" Pioneer sub. I also have an aftermarket Pioneer Head unit. Everything has been working fine, including the sub. I decided to hook the Kenwood amp up to my stock sub.
My stock sub is a dual voice coil 2-ohms each coil. I redid the wiring of the sub in a series circuit, so that the total resistance would be 4-ohms. I tested this connection with a multi-meter and it works fine.
My amp has 2 channels that are min 2-ohm stable each, but can be bridged into a single channel that is 4-ohms stable. I went with the bridged connection, hence why I rewired my sub in a series circuit. I hooked up the power, ground, and power control (blue wire) and the amp turns on and off with my head unit. The power light comes on and stays on, there is about 12V current going through it when it's on (but also car engine is not running). So it appears to be working fine.
I tested the speaker output from the amp to the sub and no signal is going to my sub, which would explain why it is not producing any sound. My problem comes from I believe the output of the head unit to the RCA cables. I have tried testing the RCA cables and there is a barley noticeable signal coming from them, about .04 volts. I did a continuity test on the RCA cables themselves and it passed. I also did that test on my head units RCA outputs, by holding one probe of the volt meter to the outer shield of the RCA output, and the other probe to the metal case of the unit, and it passed as well.
On the head unit's settings, I have the subwoofer output turned on and I have tried maxing the subwoofer level and maxing the bass boost, still no signal. Also tried turning the gain on the amp all the way up. Could it be a problem with my head unit not outputting a strong enough signal through the RCA cable? How could I resolve this?
A side note: I tried testing the output on the amp to the sub with the multimeter on a very low DC volt setting (200mV) and while the numbers were very small, I noticed they seemed to go up significantly every time a bass note was played on the song.
What else could it be/ what could I try?
My stock sub is a dual voice coil 2-ohms each coil. I redid the wiring of the sub in a series circuit, so that the total resistance would be 4-ohms. I tested this connection with a multi-meter and it works fine.
My amp has 2 channels that are min 2-ohm stable each, but can be bridged into a single channel that is 4-ohms stable. I went with the bridged connection, hence why I rewired my sub in a series circuit. I hooked up the power, ground, and power control (blue wire) and the amp turns on and off with my head unit. The power light comes on and stays on, there is about 12V current going through it when it's on (but also car engine is not running). So it appears to be working fine.
I tested the speaker output from the amp to the sub and no signal is going to my sub, which would explain why it is not producing any sound. My problem comes from I believe the output of the head unit to the RCA cables. I have tried testing the RCA cables and there is a barley noticeable signal coming from them, about .04 volts. I did a continuity test on the RCA cables themselves and it passed. I also did that test on my head units RCA outputs, by holding one probe of the volt meter to the outer shield of the RCA output, and the other probe to the metal case of the unit, and it passed as well.
On the head unit's settings, I have the subwoofer output turned on and I have tried maxing the subwoofer level and maxing the bass boost, still no signal. Also tried turning the gain on the amp all the way up. Could it be a problem with my head unit not outputting a strong enough signal through the RCA cable? How could I resolve this?
A side note: I tried testing the output on the amp to the sub with the multimeter on a very low DC volt setting (200mV) and while the numbers were very small, I noticed they seemed to go up significantly every time a bass note was played on the song.
What else could it be/ what could I try?