CMX kicks

[fatryan 5,000+ posts]

what im really not understanding though is how the right comp will make intermittent static noise even if its RCA is unplugged and the decks fader is all the way to the right. and the same thing happens with the left speaker. anyone have any idea about that?

its not like flat out static. its only when i turn the volume up really high. and its a static noise that goes to the beat of the music. anytime the midbass hits there will be a real quick static burp in the speaker thats off...

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

what im really not understanding though is how the right comp will make intermittent static noise even if its RCA is unplugged and the decks fader is all the way to the right. and the same thing happens with the left speaker. anyone have any idea about that?
its not like flat out static. its only when i turn the volume up really high. and its a static noise that goes to the beat of the music. anytime the midbass hits there will be a real quick static burp in the speaker thats off...

Where are you disconnecting the RCA's from? The deck or at the amp? If it is at the deck, your RCA's could have exposed or unshielded wiring somewhere. Try disconnecting at the amp and throw the gains up. If there is a constant static, check your grounds. There might be some regular floor noise when the gains are up as well, I never tried my luck with setting the gains to max, I used DMM and let it at that //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif Also, check your wiring to the speakers, making sure there is no crimps or cuts in the lines. I had a pinched power wire in my old car that caused the fuses at the batteries to blow. I didn't find it until the 3rd fuse :lol:

The staic is usually caused by a bad ground. Since it is when the midbass hits, I would assume that the more the power, the greater the static, so you might want to double check your grounds for corrosion/resistance issues. For example on how grounds cause static, my GF's OLD pioneer has bad Pre-outs whose grounds internally are bad. Even after a ground loop isolator and tons of grounding, the noise is still there.

I had a 2 gauge ground for the X200.4, what grounds are you running?

 

[fatryan 5,000+ posts]

Where are you disconnecting the RCA's from? The deck or at the amp? If it is at the deck, your RCA's could have exposed or unshielded wiring somewhere. Try disconnecting at the amp and throw the gains up. If there is a constant static, check your grounds. There might be some regular floor noise when the gains are up as well, I never tried my luck with setting the gains to max, I used DMM and let it at that //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif Also, check your wiring to the speakers, making sure there is no crimps or cuts in the lines. I had a pinched power wire in my old car that caused the fuses at the batteries to blow. I didn't find it until the 3rd fuse :lol:
The staic is usually caused by a bad ground. Since it is when the midbass hits, I would assume that the more the power, the greater the static, so you might want to double check your grounds for corrosion/resistance issues. For example on how grounds cause static, my GF's OLD pioneer has bad Pre-outs whose grounds internally are bad. Even after a ground loop isolator and tons of grounding, the noise is still there.

I had a 2 gauge ground for the X200.4, what grounds are you running?

i disconnect them at the amp. and yes i do hear static when they are disconnected. like i mentioned above, ive been running just the right front RCA so i at least have some music when i drive, but i still intermittently hear static out of the LEFT speaker. i have checked the amps ground at the chassis and the amp, theyre both really solid and wiggling them had 0 affect on any output. also, its not my decks preouts because the problem is limited to my left speaker. i tried switching out to the 3 other RCAs and putting the left comp on the right front and left rear channel and the problem stayed with the speaker. it seems odd that there would be a short in the speaker wire because both the tweet and the woofer are messed up. and since the xover is in my trunk only 1ft from the amp (wire is 1ft if that), that only means id have to have a short in BOTH the tweet wire and the woofer wire. very unlikely that its that. but it also seems unlikely that both drivers died simultaneously ya know? and im running 4awg wire, which should be plenty since im not running the amp nearly at full potential. 4awg wire should be sufficient for full potential regardless.

 

[zeuolaxxx 10+ year member]

Dude.!! do you have pioneer, right? do the ground loop!!!

 

[zeuolaxxx 10+ year member]

I have a Pioneer DEH-7800, I have a strange noise.. I change the neg on the amp, radio, every where, I change RCA and still have the noise... Then I did the ground loop and the noise gone!!! The pioneer has poor ground so doing that the noise gone!

 

[zeuolaxxx 10+ year member]

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=198477&highlight=fix+pioneer+ground+loop go there it could help you a lot!!!

 

[fatryan 5,000+ posts]

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=198477&highlight=fix+pioneer+ground+loop go there it could help you a lot!!!

well i think i pretty much eliminated the possibility of it being my HU because i tried all 4 RCAs on that channel (left channel) and i still got static however my right comp (on right channel) plays fine on all 4 RCAs

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

well i think i pretty much eliminated the possibility of it being my HU because i tried all 4 RCAs on that channel (left channel) and i still got static however my right comp (on right channel) plays fine on all 4 RCAs

To be honest, I'm very confused at how it went staticy, it has to be something with the system somewhere in your car. Maybe just a weird wire somewhere. You definitely heard it before it was taken out, and I did it in your presence, so the amp isn't bad. How are your gains set? DMM?

I was running the front speakers at 85 RMS DMM and the rears at roughly 110-120 RMS DMM. Another thing I can say is that when you are tuning these Xenon amps, they are VERY touchy at the gain knob. It's been too long since I tuned the amp, but I remember the DMM went crazy at about 75% of the gain knob adjusted. What I mean by that is when you are ajusting the gain upward...them DMM barely responds to output until nearly 75% of the knobs turn, and then it shoots up like crazy. So if you aren't careful with the knob, you could be pushing more or less power to your speakers than you intended.

Did you listen to the speakers before touching my adjustments just to hear them? Like I said, I had roughly 85 RMS to the front, and 110 or so to the rear, so your speakers shoudl have been fine on that for a test listen. That would be helpful as a grounds to figure out from. The amp was perfect sounding at that point.

Also, when you installed, I hope you definitely made sure to have the battery disconnected, or made sure your pre-outs were NOT in the amp when you connected the live power wire. I toasted a set of pre-outs on my current deck (Best Buy fixed for free FTW) when I was tuning my sub stage amp (An older Bazooka,and I din't have any of my Xenon stuff at the time). I had CRAZY static when the car was off, and then static plus engine whine when the car was on. Pioneers have a 'safety' ground wire inside their headunits, basically from what I am told, it is a thin fused wire connected to all 3 pre-outs, and when one pre-out goes, all are affected.

Just trying to help //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[fatryan 5,000+ posts]

To be honest, I'm very confused at how it went staticy, it has to be something with the system somewhere in your car. Maybe just a weird wire somewhere. You definitely heard it before it was taken out, and I did it in your presence, so the amp isn't bad. How are your gains set? DMM?
I was running the front speakers at 85 RMS DMM and the rears at roughly 110-120 RMS DMM. Another thing I can say is that when you are tuning these Xenon amps, they are VERY touchy at the gain knob. It's been too long since I tuned the amp, but I remember the DMM went crazy at about 75% of the gain knob adjusted. What I mean by that is when you are ajusting the gain upward...them DMM barely responds to output until nearly 75% of the knobs turn, and then it shoots up like crazy. So if you aren't careful with the knob, you could be pushing more or less power to your speakers than you intended.

Did you listen to the speakers before touching my adjustments just to hear them? Like I said, I had roughly 85 RMS to the front, and 110 or so to the rear, so your speakers shoudl have been fine on that for a test listen. That would be helpful as a grounds to figure out from. The amp was perfect sounding at that point.

Also, when you installed, I hope you definitely made sure to have the battery disconnected, or made sure your pre-outs were NOT in the amp when you connected the live power wire. I toasted a set of pre-outs on my current deck (Best Buy fixed for free FTW) when I was tuning my sub stage amp (An older Bazooka,and I din't have any of my Xenon stuff at the time). I had CRAZY static when the car was off, and then static plus engine whine when the car was on. Pioneers have a 'safety' ground wire inside their headunits, basically from what I am told, it is a thin fused wire connected to all 3 pre-outs, and when one pre-out goes, all are affected.

Just trying to help //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

thanx dude. im like 99% sure its the speaker. im gonna pull it on wednesday and test it on a home reciever to find out for sure. ive rulled out the deck and pretty much rulled out the amp too. sux cause i just got these comps, but they are under warranty so i better get new ones! i set my gains with a DMM to....sqrt(200*4)=28.2V. that about 200WRMS per channel. and yes, gains are always touchy but this PG's gains are a bit touchier than usual. took me a good minute or 2 to set it precisely on 28.2V.

 

[Etac 10+ year member]

well i wish i never read this post lol

after doing some testing - i think the staticy thing is just the way the speakers are cause mine do it too - i mean you really gotta gotta get close and listen to hear it... but once the volume goes up its not an issue.. im starting to think it has something to do with their off-axis preformance... (which is really good)

and i agree with the post above - the tweets can be a little harsh at times (matters on the song) but usually sounds great - i have mine in the mirrior triangles now but i plan on moving them into the kick area soon..

 

[fatryan 5,000+ posts]

well i pulled them today and checked each driver on my buddies reciever. the tweeter played fine with maybe minimal distortion. but it was playing off the amp too, just really low volume, so id like to send that in under warranty just incase. i hooked the woofer up and it played high frequencies but barely played the midrange and there was ALOT of static. i pushed on the cone and i think i may have felt a little scratching. but worse than that when i pushed in it would stay in the down position for a second then pop back up. like it was sticking to something then releasing. so i guess that means the coil is bad? or could there be something else? i just dont see how i could have possibly fried the coils, i KNOW i did NOT clip the signal.

 

[headless 10+ year member]

Sounds like the left woofer is fried... it could have been killed when the amp fried, but If the amp fried while playing music it's likely that it was being clipped even if you didn't expect it to be. Also possible that it had a bad ground causing massive amperage spikes trying to push power... How did you set your gains? Where do you have the amplifier grounded? Have you done the big 3? What size wire to your amps and for the big 3? Any dimming?

Did you test the tweeter and woofer on your buddy's receiver WITH crossover's? be careful; pushing a full range signal to a tweeter will destroy it in no time.

I hope Premier takes care of you - I've returned several woofers from my Rainbows under warranty to Don (6spdcoupe) and never had so much as a blink from him re: RMA'ing them back. It may have helped that he knew all of the hardware I was using though - i bought my Arc 4150XXK amp and Eclipse CD7000 from him also. I hear a lot of good things about Premier, so perhaps you'll see similar service from him.

 

[fatryan 5,000+ posts]

Sounds like the left woofer is fried... it could have been killed when the amp fried, but If the amp fried while playing music it's likely that it was being clipped even if you didn't expect it to be. Also possible that it had a bad ground causing massive amperage spikes trying to push power... How did you set your gains? Where do you have the amplifier grounded? Have you done the big 3? What size wire to your amps and for the big 3? Any dimming?
Did you test the tweeter and woofer on your buddy's receiver WITH crossover's? be careful; pushing a full range signal to a tweeter will destroy it in no time.

I hope Premier takes care of you - I've returned several woofers from my Rainbows under warranty to Don (6spdcoupe) and never had so much as a blink from him re: RMA'ing them back. It may have helped that he knew all of the hardware I was using though - i bought my Arc 4150XXK amp and Eclipse CD7000 from him also. I hear a lot of good things about Premier, so perhaps you'll see similar service from him.

i set my gains with a DMM and they were low, so i highly doubt that i clipped this signal. my amp ground was really solid (14k gold grounding unit bolted to sanded chassis) tested perfect on DMM every time. i didnt, however have the big 3 done, but i really have no dimming anyways. im just running a comp amp now. my sub amp is in my room. plus, my accord has a stock 4awg neg to chassis. i dunno about the other wires, but thats pretty big for stock.

i tested the tweet and woofer WITH the xover and without. it was the same response with both....tweet played ok, woofer barely played anything and sounded like shit. i only played each driver for maybe 3 seconds tops, so i doubt i hurt anything.

premier has been really helpful and he seems to be a really nice guy so i def am holding out hope in him. my amp may have died but i dont know how that could have fried my comp with all the resistors and fuses in the circuit. it does look bad though unfortunatley. i really hope premier can help cause im gonna raise hell with rainbow if i dont get a replacement.

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

If those are the steel basket comps, they might be overrated on the power they can actually handle.

 

[fatryan 5,000+ posts]

If those are the steel basket comps, they might be overrated on the power they can actually handle.

what? what are you talking about? how do i find out? how much could they handle?