Need Help!

[dbertoli]

OK here's the deal. I have a pioneer deck. The deck is running to my stock infinity amp. The amp is working, however the power from the pioneer is too high, so the sound is loud when the volume is low. I figure there will be a way around that, not important right now.

The HU has 3 sets of rca connections, one for subs, rear, and front. I have my cables plugged into sub out and ran to the trunk to my two amps. The subs don't pound.

The sub is turned to on, set to max, little response but not much. Should be pounding a lot more. If I plug just one cable into one amp, the sub powered by that amp pounds normal. As soon as I plug the other amp in, it is back to low response.

My thoughts are maybe that the voltage running through the rca cables is too low to run two amps.. but when I plug both cables into one amp I have the same problem. Only thing that seems to work fine is having one cable plugged into one amp. both amps are 2 channels which I have bridged if that makes a difference.. any ideas?

Also, I have the gain turned full on each amp I have tried adjusting that with no luck.. I was using a LOC after the stock amp, which worked but I couldn't seem to balance the two channels.. Would it make more sense to use the high level inputs? Would this work better?

Click to read more...

 

[AndrewH05]

There's so much wrong with everything you just said and I'm at work, so if someone doesn't explain everything that's wrong before I get out, I'll do it in a couple hours. But first of all turn your gain down, it's not a freaking volume control. That's why it's so loud at low volumes because the gain is all screwed up. In the meantime, here's something for you to look at:

How To: Set your Amplifier Gain - Amplifiers / Head Units / Processors / Electrical - SSA Car Audio Forum

And here:

http://www.bcae1.com/gaincon2.htm

 

[AndrewH05]

Double post

 

[dbertoli]

... The gain is turned up on the amps powering the subs.. not the stock amp the gain cannot be adjusted on that. The volume is loud because I am sending a higher voltage to the stock amp then the stock HU would, and there is a setting on the HU to turn off the amplified signal coming from the aftermarket HU.

Either way that is not the problem. The problem is that the two pioneer amps I have each driving one PG Octane R10, are not pumping. Now I have a normal rca cable running form the HU to the amps. When I plug both left and right channel into the amp, the sound is crap and not very loud. regardless of the gain setting. IF I remove either the left or right channel and leave only one channel plugged in to one amp it sounds fine.

SO lets say we have one amp plugged in with one channel of the rca cable. and then I have the other channel of the rca cable plugged into the other amp. The sound is just as crappy as having both channels plugged into one amp. Unplug one of the channels, and it sounds good again.

I'm pretty sure its going to have something to do with the voltage running through the rca and being split to two amps.

---------- P

 

[dbertoli]

And i dony just leave the gain full i have tried adjusting it, havent gotten the voltmeter out yet because im pretty confident that the gain is not the issue.

 

[Lowflyin 10+ year member]

The gain is an issue and nobody is going to tell you to check anything else before you set that properly.

 

[dbertoli]

I realize gain is a factor, but its set properly, and still have the issue.

 

[robert420 10+ year member]

you better be running identical amps to one sub. 2 different amps on each coil will make it **** out

 

[dbertoli]

I have one amp running one sub. X2

Both amps are pioneer one is one model older same rating. One amp for one sub.

Lowflyin is right the gain is likely to blame but when i match iy with the hu i still have the problem.. The amps are working fine. The hu rca outputs worm.the problem lies solely in the connection from the rca on the hu to the rca input on the amps. Ive never ran two amps for subs but i have run one for subs a one for speakers.. When i did i used both a cheap rca splitter which worked fine and also used the outputs to the other amp which worked fine.

These pioneers have no rca outputs. So i would be forced to use a splitter or eq.. Which would be ok but its not working.

Now these amps are both 2 channel bridgeable amps. So i have one sub on each amp, bridged. So technically i shouldbt need both channels of the rca on each amp right? One channel each should work? Or should i split the two channela and plug 2 into each amp.. But this doesnt work either.

 

[robert420 10+ year member]

u said u have 2 pioneer amps powering one pg octane r10

 

[dbertoli]

Sorry if im not explaining it very well. This is extremely frusturating as i have spent alot of time on it.

Two subs. Two amps. One sub on each amp.

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

here's the deal. You dont have the volume range required to get teh subs bumpin because the factory amp is blasting out your mids before you can get to that volume. So the fix is get a 4ch loc so you can attenuate the speaker level to the factory amp there by allowing you to get higher in the volume and viola the subs will bump.

 

[dbertoli]

I had a 4 channel loc installed same problem. And I also tested it with the speakers off and cranked the volume. That still didn't work.

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

disconnect one sub and see what happens. might have them wired out of phase

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

what type of rcas? sounds like the rca's themselves are 180 out of each other. I would have grabbed the dmm a long time ago.

 

[dbertoli]

They are monster cables, I tried unplugging one sub but I have two amps wired separately. One sub on each amp. It works with one channel of the rca hooked in but not both..

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

pull out the deck disconnect the rca's. grab your dmm and resistance check from one end of the rca to the other just to make sure that the rca's are wired properly. Because it really sounds like somehow, somewhere the signal is reversed on one channel.

 

[dbertoli]

Well I tested the rca's and they are functioning normally. I messed with it a little more and I still have the same outcome. Let me reword this again excluding information that is not on topic.

I have a pioneer deck with outputs for subs. One white one red. So I have a set of monster cables hooked up to those outputs and off the the trunk. Now my pioneer amp has one red and one white input. So I adjust gain to match, hook up everything else amp has power and is functional. So I plug the white plug coming from the deck to the white. Pumps good. I plug the red one in and complete distortion. Unplug either white or red and pumps good again. I have my sub bridged. So it only works properly with one channel of the rca hooked up.

 

[dbertoli]

Alright well it turns out my rca cables are in fact cursed. They tested fine, I even went as far as testing them with a video signal. But when I put new ones in it worked. Thanks for all the help.

 

[joselr3668 10+ year member]

I think your out of phase on 1 amp