Is it my sub, amp or hu? (xxx, 1500de, eclipse cd5000)

[BreakingBad]

ok so i have had a TON of trouble with my system ever i had a local install bay do the install, as seen in the installer review section of this site..

anyway, i had my amp sent back to us amps, they 'repaired' it and said my capacitors were bad, they 'fixed' it and as soon as i go and hook it all up, it was poundin then all of a sudden.. bass cuts out and i hear a crackling noise.

first thing people said.. check your rca's. so i did. they were frayed (the outside material) so i figured it could be interference or bad rca's. got new ones, same problem occurs.

normally before it was to the point where i could listen to the bass for awhile, and it would cut out later. now its as soon as i turn the HU on. its a 'scratching' or rubbing noise coming from the sub, so i thought it was the voice coil rubbing.

with the HU on, if i have volume at 0 and push slightly on the sub in the downwards motion, it makes the rubbing noise.

if i turn off the HU, and repeat the same thing, there is no rubbing.

the HU might be defective. could it cause this issue? you should be able to change the colors on the buttons into like..4 or 6 different colors, and all that works for me are like red green and blue not the other 3.

anyway, last night as i got out of my car i saw lines through the screen on the HU. literal lines...like a HRline on a webpage. couldn't see it in daylight.

i'm just concerned aout the sub.. is it screwed now b/c of something sending it distortion, or could the crackling noise be from the HU?

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[Atimm693 10+ year member]

Get an MP3 Player/portable cd player and get a headphone to RCA jack and plug it directly into the amp. If the crackling still occurs, then its the amp. If its not there, then its the probably the HU.

For the sub take a 9v battery to the terminals and when it pops up or down listen for any noise.

Id say your HU may be defective, either that or the sub.

 

[BreakingBad]

Get an MP3 Player/portable cd player and get a headphone to RCA jack and plug it directly into the amp. If the crackling still occurs, then its the amp. If its not there, then its the probably the HU.
For the sub take a 9v battery to the terminals and when it pops up or down listen for any noise.

Id say your HU may be defective, either that or the sub.

thing is before i got my AX back i had a small alpine 600 watt on the sub, and the only issue that gave me was clipping but i never turned it up loud enough to clip. this crackling noise started immediately after i switched amps out, and progressively got worse.

if my VC was rubbing, wouldnt it still rub right after i turn off the HU?

i'm leaning towards HU because i now see lines through it at night.. wtf is that? i'mm return it for warranty if i still experience problems my amp probably wasn't fixed all the way.

 

[Atimm693 10+ year member]

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif Your alpine got mad when it heard you were going to remove it and fuxored your hu. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

Lol j/k id return it as well.

 

[BreakingBad]

lol..

so.. tell me this..

like i was saying, if i power on my HU, and keep the volume level at 0, and i push down on the sub (last time i tried) i hear a scratching noise.

when i turn OFF the head unit, push down, no scratching noise.

is this just the HU sending a bad signal / fuxoring my sub?

like i also said before this crackling/scratching started as soon as i swapped out amps, and got worse as time went on.

now i have no bass, any time a bass line comes in the crackling is heard.

i then saw the lines through my head unit... so i figured it was that.

i hope its not the sub though.. things 80lbs and will cost an assload to send back for repair.

so COULD the HU be making that crackling noise through my sub whenever the bass comes in and/or i push on it?

 

[BreakingBad]

update:

i actually was thinking theres NO way its my sub since it was bangin before all this crackling started.

turned my car on, pushed on sub with HU off, no noise.

turned HU on again, volume 0, pushed on sub, surprisingly no noise.

so basically, this distortion and crackling is random. bass comes and goes.

if it was the sub/VC wouldn't it be rubbing all the time if something was bad on it? does this just sound like a HU issue? (rca's have been replaced, grounds checked, etc.)

 

[shynegrynd07 10+ year member]

try hooking up a cd player or mp3 player to it like fargof said.. you need the thing that has rca's that go into a headphone jack. or just return the head unit and get a new one.. be sure to check all the wires and make sure none are touching to.. and try hooking the alpine back up and see if it makes the same distorted noise

 

[BreakingBad]

can't hook the alpine amp back up, guy i borrowed it from won't do the swap out again (he said its a pain in the *** no)

plus i have to actually cut my wires (1/0) to fit the alpine amp anyway which we think are 2-4 gauge.

i'm going to attempt to swap out an alpine hu (something like 9845 or some shit, it was like 100-200 bucks at best buy about 2 yrs ago) from my mother's car and see if that will do anything different.

swapping out hu's... if problem still occurs its gotta be the amp or sub. i'll be pissed if its the amp because they apparently fixed all problems and tested it thoroughly.

 

[Nutz 10+ year member]

I thought you said you would have this fixed after all the things you bad mouthed me about in threads. So maybe the other shops didn't help......

hmmmmmm................

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3266072#

Go have a professional look at it, maybe it would be cheaper for you in the long run......Just an idea.............

 

[BreakingBad]

uh, my head unit being defective has nothing to do with the fact that whoever worked on my car probably doesn't dress themselves in the morning.

wood screws through painted sheet metal as a ground?

rofl dude, go home and quit following me around on forums, it's becoming weird.

 

[Nutz 10+ year member]

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif :laugh:

 

[StreetWaves-OH]

I think it may be the output on the amplifier but definately get it checked out by somebody who knows what they are doing. Also give USAmps a call before sending it back, they may have an idea. The AX Amplifiers inputs are very sensitive, some headunits can cause a major problem because of their outputs. Thats why they state not to use ground loop isolators on these amps. CHECK YOUR GROUND, With AX Amps (or any large amp) I Would Strongly Recommend Running Your Ground from the Battery Up Front to your amp .