New Install. Sub works but barely??

[Oak244 10+ year member]

Ok this is about my 100th install it feels like lol. Anyway, This is a first for me. All of the power up, and the one amp running my sub, used to run my front speakers so I know it works fine. So, I expected to turn on the car and hear BOOM. But instead I got nothing. On my Ecplise 8053 the volume goes from 0-80. At 80 I can hear the sub a little but its faint. I am going to hook up a front speaker now to see if its all the amps or just this one. In the mean time, any ideas where to start looking?

Like I say the amp is a Arc Audio 2500XXK that was fine just a few days ago running my mids. Now I moved it to the sub and it's doing what I stated. One new thing since the last install is a BLA to go with my 8063 CD player.

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[dgr00s 10+ year member]

check the crossover on the amp, maybe its set for high pass?

 

[dgr00s 10+ year member]

you might want to make sure you moved the rcas on the rear of the deck from the mid set to the non fader set, as well.

 

[NoviceGuru]

check the crossover on the amp, maybe its set for high pass?

this would not be the only problem if that was it. maybe a combination of high pass and having your positive negatives messed up?

you might want to make sure you moved the rcas on the rear of the deck from the mid set to the non fader set, as well.

this is good advice too

 

[Oak244 10+ year member]

The amp is on LP, The RCA's to the sub are the Non Fader + and Non Fader -. Then of course Mid + and Mid- and High = and High -. I have the other speaker wired up to test another amp, but I can not find my $%^&%&^*& keys! lol I just had them, and now they are gone lol

 

[Oak244 10+ year member]

Ok I hooked up the other speaker, and it too does not make noise untill I am around 65-70, and it also sounds terrible. Like crackling sounds instead of bass. So this says to me, whatever is wrong is not limited to just one amp, which says its got to be the BLA, RCA's or power or ground I would assume.

 

[NoviceGuru]

yep

 

[Oak244 10+ year member]

yep

Any idea where to start or is most likely? I tried again with the midrange, and the music does not come out clearly, its more like Static to a beat.

I also checked all the power and ground connections throughout the system and all show 12.4 Volts ( Car not running) so I assume all the power and grounds are ok right? So then I am down to an RCA problem I guess???

 

[Oak244 10+ year member]

Well I found out its the BLA. I took the + and - Mid out of the BLA and plugged them into the amp bypassing the BLA and it worked fine. A closer look then at the BLA shows that the green LED is not lit, so I assume its not working. At this point, I do not know why.

 

[matrxx dude 5,000+ posts]

you mean balanced line adapter,you definitly dont need to run 16 volts to that amp.

 

[matrxx dude 5,000+ posts]

by the way you do know that you have to run power and ground and remote to the adapter.

 

[Oak244 10+ year member]

by the way you do know that you have to run power and ground and remote to the adapter.

lol Yes. The Power and ground measure fine with a volt meter. I have tried disconnecting the BLA turn on from the others, and wired it alone, and still it does not turn on. I have a fealing its broken. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/mad.gif.c18f003ab0ef8a0d9c27ca78d77a6392.gif

 

[Oak244 10+ year member]

Well I took the BLA out and opened it up. All looked fine so I tried taking it out to the car, and I wired the Power and Remote turn on to the + battery terminal then of course the ground to the ground and the LED turned on like its working. So what do I do now? The Remote turn on is enough to power all 3 of my Arc amps, but is not enough to turn this thing on even when its the only thing connected to the turn on lead.

 

[qtipextra 5,000+ posts]

You could try a relay.

 

[Oak244 10+ year member]

OMG I feel like a HUGE idiot lol. I had never used one of those barrier strips before. I thought if it was powered by one spot, it would go through the hole strip. Turns out I was wrong lol. Of course my relay worked fine, because it was hooked up to the screw right across from the one the power is comming in from. This explains why the 3 amps were working. Of course the BLA was hooked up to the screw next to it, and it did not have a feeding line across from it ( like I said I did not know the who strip was not live) and therefore it would not power up. Once I moved the BLA ground and power to the Relay's side, it powered up just fine! A HOLE LOT OF WORK over an idiot mistake lol!

 

[qtipextra 5,000+ posts]

At least you figured it out