Incredibly weird amp behavior with the remote wire!!! Help Please!!!

[Casurfer99 10+ year member]

Alright guys this is a problem that has absolutely baffled me. Originally I had a Pioneer 4-channel (Gm-x544) amp running 4 Infinity speakers. It has it's remote wire from the power antenna. The second amp (gm-x352) I have is a Pioneer powering a single JL 10" sub. The remote wire for this is coming directly off the one from the 4 channel amp ("daisy chaining" it maybe?). Well recently I bought a more powerful Jensen amp (XJP-340). I know its not the best amp but it only cost me like $25 bucks. Well when I went to hook up the Jensen it powered up fine and everything but when I connected the remote wire the Jensen powered up, but the Pioneer 4 channel's power went off. When I unhooked the remote from the Jensen, the Pioneer came back on. In other words they won't stay on at the same time. The Pioneer just refuses to stay on when the Jensen uses the same remote wire. I was thinking that it might be drawing too much ampheres from the remote but it's only two small amps or that the Jensen is shorting out the remote line. I was thinking about A) putting in a whole other remote for the Jensen or B) using a relay to see if that solves the problem. If you guys have any advice it would be greatly appreciated, thanks, James

Click to read more...

 

[paikiah 5,000+ posts]

Originally posted by Casurfer99 Alright guys this is a problem that has absolutely baffled me. Originally I had a Pioneer 4-channel (Gm-x544) amp running 4 Infinity speakers. It has it's remote wire from the power antenna. The second amp (gm-x352) I have is a Pioneer powering a single JL 10" sub. The remote wire for this is coming directly off the one from the 4 channel amp ("daisy chaining" it maybe?). Well recently I bought a more powerful Jensen amp (XJP-340). I know its not the best amp but it only cost me like $25 bucks. Well when I went to hook up the Jensen it powered up fine and everything but when I connected the remote wire the Jensen powered up, but the Pioneer 4 channel's power went off. When I unhooked the remote from the Jensen, the Pioneer came back on. In other words they won't stay on at the same time. The Pioneer just refuses to stay on when the Jensen uses the same remote wire. I was thinking that it might be drawing too much ampheres from the remote but it's only two small amps or that the Jensen is shorting out the remote line. I was thinking about A) putting in a whole other remote for the Jensen or B) using a relay to see if that solves the problem. If you guys have any advice it would be greatly appreciated, thanks, James

i think a relay would most certainly do the trick. It's quite obvious that there is too much current draw form the remote lines (my sony mobile ES remote line MAX is 0.3A).

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Yup. Although the majority of amplifiers out there only take a few milliamps of remote current, there are some that draw a lot more. Sounds like your Jensen is one of them.

A relay is the solution.