New Sound System Nonfunctional

[confuseid 10+ year member]

Hello Everybody. This is my first real post (not counting introduction).

It's been a project I've had for a while, I mostly posted on Honda Accord forums, but some car audio junkies over there told me I should ask over here because it's sorta...complicated.

First off just to give a rundown: I have a 2000 Honda Accord Sedan EX.

My sound system I have installed is as follows:

1400 HC Kinetik Battery

6.5" Zeus Hifonics Component Speakers

1000W 4-Channel Autotek Street Machine Amplifier

iDA-X100 Alpine Headunit

I have successfully installed all of these parts. I installed the headunit first and it worked with the factory speakers. Then I installed my speakers and my amplifier (trunk). My problem is this: I have wired everything correctly (as far as I have been informed), and yet there is no sound coming out of my front speakers when I turn on the HU.

As a lot of people seem to overlook much of what is written in a post, I will put this on a separate sentence of its own.

I AM NOT USING A SUBWOOFER.

I have a pair of RCA cables running from my Headunit to my Amplifier.

The speakers are connected to the crossovers (passive).

The tweeters are connected to the crossovers.

The crossovers are then connected to the Amplifier.

I have checked the fuses on the amplifier, and it looks fine.

I have checked, double checked, and re-double sanded all the grounds.

The amplifier turns on when the HU turns on, thus the Remote wire seems to be working, and the power wire.

Though I would not count any ideas out, I, with my limited experience in the audio electronics world, would consider the problem to be either the RCA cable not patching a signal through to the amplifier, or the speaker cables, or the speakers themselves.

Thus, I did a continuity check on the RCA cables, and each end seems to be working fine.

Thus, I did a check on the speakers, and connected my factory speakers to the amplifier, with no the same result: no sound.

Thus, I did a check where I directly connected the speakers to the amplifier, skipping the crossovers (to check to see if the xovers were bad), to no result: still no sound.

If any pictures are required or requested, feel free to ask. I've taken many, and can take more.

Here are links to my threads in the honda accord forums, just for the off chance someone has an account there:

http://www.6thgenaccord.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13008

http://www.hondaaccordforum.com/New_Sound_System_%2700_Sedan/m_116752/tm.htm

I have had my car taken apart with all the interior panel pieces laying in the garage for about a month. My door lock and window control have been hanging off the door. I would greatly appreciate any help I can get, especially from members of the CarAudio.com forum that are so highly reputed among my audio enthusiast friends.

Click to read more...

 

[TurdFergueson2 5,000+ posts]

Make sure the amp is on 4channel and I believe you should have 2 sets of rcas coming from the HU. Or some y splitters. Not too familiar with the alpine HU's so I don't know whether they have multiple preouts.

 

[darkhunter139 10+ year member]

Is sound coming out of ur back speakers?

 

[NissanKicker 10+ year member]

Just my input: Usually it's success!

... i'd do this:

1) Check your 4-ch amp to see if there is a 2-ch or 4-ch mode switch ( a few amps have those ).

2) If you're rear stage is working ( If you have a rear stage - read deck speakers ), connect their wires to the front speaker inputs. ( so if they are getting sound. )

3) Make sure your H/Us fade is centered ( 0 ).

4) Your amps RCA input for channels 1/2/3/4 ( whichever ones you have the front speakers hooked up to ) could be screwed.

5) Make sure you are plugging the RCAs in the correct spot behind your H/U and/or in the amp.

6) Try grounding your RCAs behind your H/U. * This might give your RCAs the ground that you might be lacking *

.... Hmm, that's all I can really see.

 

[confuseid 10+ year member]

Just my input: Usually it's success!... i'd do this:

1) Check your 4-ch amp to see if there is a 2-ch or 4-ch mode switch ( a few amps have those ).

2) If you're rear stage is working ( If you have a rear stage - read deck speakers ), connect their wires to the front speaker inputs. ( so if they are getting sound. )

3) Make sure your H/Us fade is centered ( 0 ).

4) Your amps RCA input for channels 1/2/3/4 ( whichever ones you have the front speakers hooked up to ) could be screwed.

5) Make sure you are plugging the RCAs in the correct spot behind your H/U and/or in the amp.

6) Try grounding your RCAs behind your H/U. * This might give your RCAs the ground that you might be lacking *

.... Hmm, that's all I can really see.

1. Yes my Amplifier has different modes, it is currently set on 4-Channel. (I am pretty sure that is what its supposed to be on, but I tried 2-Channel just for luck and it didn't work).

2. Yes my rear deck speakers ARE working. No sound coming out of front though.

3. I checked my HU fader settings, and it is indeed at 0. I even tried turning all the way up to front, just for luck, and still no sound.

4. I do not know what you mean my amp's RCA channel input may be "screwed". Do you mean the terminals may be bad?

5. My RCA's are in the F spot: For the Front Speakers. There are 3 RCA terminals on the back of my HU: F, R, and SW. I am not using aftermarket rear speakers, nor a subwoofer, thus I only need one pair of RCA cables.

6. If you don't mind elaborating, how might I ground my RCA cables behind my headunit? Perhaps I'm missing something, but my RCA Cables aren't...uh well actually to be honest, I have no idea what you're talking about. Am I lacking a ground? My headunit is grounded, and so is my amplifier.

Here are some pictures as references:

The rear of my headunit: showing RCA input slots.

My Amplifier's RCA input/output side.

My Amplifier's power/ground/remote/speaker terminal side.

Thank you for the fast responses. If you have any more input, please feel free to provide it; I would rather troubleshoot with only me, myself, and the car audio forum rather than a shop that overcharges.

 

[tonyroc14 10+ year member]

you do have two sets of rca's right? Coming off of the F "F" and "R" on your headunit. You need to plug the front rca into channel 1/2, and youre rear rca into channel 3/4 Then run your front speakers off of channel 1/2 output. and your rear speakers off of channel 3/5 output. Left with left, and right with right.

 

[TurdFergueson2 5,000+ posts]

1. Yes my Amplifier has different modes, it is currently set on 4-Channel. (I am pretty sure that is what its supposed to be on, but I tried 2-Channel just for luck and it didn't work).
2. Yes my rear deck speakers ARE working. No sound coming out of front though.

3. I checked my HU fader settings, and it is indeed at 0. I even tried turning all the way up to front, just for luck, and still no sound.

4. I do not know what you mean my amp's RCA channel input may be "screwed". Do you mean the terminals may be bad?

5. My RCA's are in the F spot: For the Front Speakers. There are 3 RCA terminals on the back of my HU: F, R, and SW. I am not using aftermarket rear speakers, nor a subwoofer, thus I only need one pair of RCA cables.

6. If you don't mind elaborating, how might I ground my RCA cables behind my headunit? Perhaps I'm missing something, but my RCA Cables aren't...uh well actually to be honest, I have no idea what you're talking about. Am I lacking a ground? My headunit is grounded, and so is my amplifier.

Here are some pictures as references:

The rear of my headunit: showing RCA input slots.

My Amplifier's RCA input/output side.

My Amplifier's power/ground/remote/speaker terminal side.

Thank you for the fast responses. If you have any more input, please feel free to provide it; I would rather troubleshoot with only me, myself, and the car audio forum rather than a shop that overcharges.

I've never used that thing you have in channels 1&2. I always ran rcas from the back to the inputs on the amp. Buy yourself 2 sets and try that. If you have everything grounded properly, I'm sure you will get sound from all the speakers.

 

[thaster 10+ year member]

did you turn up the gain at all?

 

[mokedaddy 5,000+ posts]

I've never used that thing you have in channels 1&2. I always ran rcas from the back to the inputs on the amp. Buy yourself 2 sets and try that. If you have everything grounded properly, I'm sure you will get sound from all the speakers.

x2. Pull out the hi-level harness and see if that works.

Also did you run new wires for the mids and tweets or are you using factory wiring? Also you keep talking about the tweets and those wires, do you have the mids hooked up as well?

 

[TurdFergueson2 5,000+ posts]

1. Yes my Amplifier has different modes, it is currently set on 4-Channel. (I am pretty sure that is what its supposed to be on, but I tried 2-Channel just for luck and it didn't work).
2. Yes my rear deck speakers ARE working. No sound coming out of front though.

3. I checked my HU fader settings, and it is indeed at 0. I even tried turning all the way up to front, just for luck, and still no sound.

4. I do not know what you mean my amp's RCA channel input may be "screwed". Do you mean the terminals may be bad?

5. My RCA's are in the F spot: For the Front Speakers. There are 3 RCA terminals on the back of my HU: F, R, and SW. I am not using aftermarket rear speakers, nor a subwoofer, thus I only need one pair of RCA cables.

6. If you don't mind elaborating, how might I ground my RCA cables behind my headunit? Perhaps I'm missing something, but my RCA Cables aren't...uh well actually to be honest, I have no idea what you're talking about. Am I lacking a ground? My headunit is grounded, and so is my amplifier.

Here are some pictures as references:

The rear of my headunit: showing RCA input slots.

My Amplifier's RCA input/output side.

My Amplifier's power/ground/remote/speaker terminal side.

Thank you for the fast responses. If you have any more input, please feel free to provide it; I would rather troubleshoot with only me, myself, and the car audio forum rather than a shop that overcharges.

The way you have it, nothing is in 3/4, and you have the amp set for 2 channel. Switch that one that says 2/3/4 to 4. You don't have to worry about the outs on the amp that you squared off.

 

[NissanKicker 10+ year member]

Part 2:

1) Hopefully you turned your gains up...

2) I don't recommend you using that High Level input... Never works for me. You'll need to use your RCA input.

3) * Grounding you jacks - Splice 2 pieces of speaker wire, wrap them around the HUs RCA outputs - 1 piece of wire for each L ; 1 piece of wire for R ( Front - since you're using the front ), Splice the other end of each wire and ground them to the rear of your CD player ( Inbetween a tight groove... or a screw that can be loosen on the HU )

4) make sure you ran wires from your Amp to each speaker... * You can't use the factor wire & expect them to play through the amp. *

5) Make sure each all positives and negatives are together... * You might have crossed them some where *

6) Make sure no bare wire or connectors are touching metal inside of your doors.

... That's really all that I can say see without being there. Hopefully that helps. If not, I wish I was closer...

 

[NissanKicker 10+ year member]

TIME OUT!!!!!

.... Did that car have a Bose system of something in it????

Because there is a possibility that you taps on the the factory Amp wires instead of the ACTUAL speaker wires.

.. That's happened to me PLENTY of times.

 

[confuseid 10+ year member]

Jesus lots of responses. Okay Here we go:

First off: I am not using that high level input, I just took the picture back when I had it in. The same goes for the mode set on 2-channel, I stated in my earlier post that I have it set to 4-channel.

Honestly I do not know how to turn my gains up or down, or what the hell that is.

I'm guessing it's on the amplifier.

I did not/do not have a Bose system in my car.

I am not using any factory wires. I purchased an 4-Gauge amplifier wiring kit from Autotek along with the amplifier. The kit only came with 1 pair of RCA cables, which I have connected the F on the HU to the 1/2 Channel on the Amplifier.

Do I need another RCA cable to connect the R slot on my HU to the 3/4 channel on my amplifier? I have been told that the R slot was for rear speakers, and since I am not using aftermarket rear deck speakers, I don't need it?

I have checked, and double checked all wiring. Positive and negatives are all correct, and there is no bare metal or wires touching anything.

Hmm, have we discovered something in the RCA cables or am I, unfortunately, correct?

By the way, is it necessary to ground my RCA cables? That seems strange.

 

[mokedaddy 5,000+ posts]

Jesus lots of responses. Okay Here we go:First off: I am not using that high level input, I just took the picture back when I had it in. The same goes for the mode set on 2-channel, I stated in my earlier post that I have it set to 4-channel.

Honestly I do not know how to turn my gains up or down, or what the hell that is.

I'm guessing it's on the amplifier.

I did not/do not have a Bose system in my car.

I am not using any factory wires. I purchased an 4-Gauge amplifier wiring kit from Autotek along with the amplifier. The kit only came with 1 pair of RCA cables, which I have connected the F on the HU to the 1/2 Channel on the Amplifier.

Do I need another RCA cable to connect the R slot on my HU to the 3/4 channel on my amplifier? I have been told that the R slot was for rear speakers, and since I am not using aftermarket rear deck speakers, I don't need it?

I have checked, and double checked all wiring. Positive and negatives are all correct, and there is no bare metal or wires touching anything.

Hmm, have we discovered something in the RCA cables or am I, unfortunately, correct?

By the way, is it necessary to ground my RCA cables? That seems strange.

So what speakers are you trying to run off the amp? The mids and tweets off channel 1 + 2? Are you running anything off of channels 3 + 4? Did you run new speaker wire or are you using factory speaker wire and if so did you tap into in the kick panel or behind the deck?

Do you have any pictures of it installed? Settings, cables, speaker wires.

 

[NissanKicker 10+ year member]

OK... Now that you've made all that clear.

PART 3!

1) Make sure you are connecting the speaker wires to the correct side.

* Example:

You put the RCAs in the 1/2 INPUT, but you are connecting the speaker wires in 3/4.

* NOTE! - The Front and Rear is just for the FADE to work PROPERLY! You don't need anymore RCAs. *

And grounding the RCAs is as COMMON as the BIG 3.

2) When you hear " Gains " ...

... That's the volume control on your AMP.

Make sure it's all the way to the right ( Clockwise ) * Might have to use a phillip or flathead *