New System, Having a lot of problems.

[blgaudio 10+ year member]

Okay heres the equipment:

Hifonics BXi1608D Amp

2 Alpine Type R 12" SWR-1242D 4 ohms

Soundstorm CAP350B Capacitor

The box was a challenge, this equipment is all going in a single cab dodge. The box is divided in the middle, seperating it into two different chambers,one for each sub. I originally ported it to Alpine specs with a square port, low and behold when the subs come they wouldnt fit. was hitting port. As bad as I hated to I scrapped the square ports and went with a round pvc port. This is the first time I have used round ports btw.

Using a calculator off of the12volt.com I come up with a port length of 8.9in, dia. is 3.5 in. This has it tuned to a freq of 33hz (As recommended by Alpine). The air space for the subs is about 1.7ft^3 a piece, Alpine recommended .80-1.75ft^3 for a vented box.

I wired the subs to 1 ohm, since the amp is "1ohm stable".

Run of 0 guage from batt. to cap, then from cap to amp.

I grounded on a seat bolt.

Checked rca's. They're hooked up proper on hu and into input on amp.

Now for the problems:

First problem, I had no sound output whatsoever from the subs, volume, gain adjustment did not correct this, cap would not turn on, amp was on.

I noticed that the cap has a remote turn-on lead. Run remote from hu to cap then from cap to amp, is this correct? Capacitor started working, still no sound though.

I'm setting there bumfuzzled all the sudden I get a bump, subs start working, very low output though! Volume is on 30 on hu, still low output on subs, I turn gain to 3/4. Subs are working but sound terrible, still very low output for volume to be on thirty. After adjusting on the amp and hu for a while I get a little more out of them, still no wheres close to what it should be, it was getting late so I stopped on it.

What is the problem? Do I have a bad ground? Should I re-wire the subs to 2-ohms each instead of having them both wired together to 1-ohm. Is the amp bad? Is the box my problem? Can someone give me some suggestions, something to try?

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[Ellsworthz 10+ year member]

the problem..

..you have an capacitor.

solved.

 

[hornedfrog1985 5,000+ posts]

Need to read more.

 

[dennit469 10+ year member]

capacitors are shit

 

[hornedfrog1985 5,000+ posts]

If I had to guess I would say there is a wiring error somewhere.

 

[blgaudio 10+ year member]

If I had to guess I would say there is a wiring error somewhere.

This is my guess too, its in a buddys truck and he has no clue what he is doing, had tried to do some of it himself I had to go back and correct alot of issues to start with. I have a feeling I have a mixup on the wiring in the box. Going to pull it all out tomorrow and re-do it I guess. Should I stick with 1 ohm or try 2 ohm a piece?

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

Cap Crap, all on da floor!

Cap Crap

 

[blgaudio 10+ year member]

capacitors are shit

Are they really that bad? It has a 30 day warranty should I try and return it?

 

[smoka 10+ year member]

1.Take a meter and read the voltage at the amp.

2. If you are getting 12v+ at the amp and no sound, get a mp3 player (ipod etc) and buy a phono-to-rca's plug which lets you plug your mp3 player right into your amp and see how it sounds.

This should rule out a few obvious problems.

 

[its_bacon12 10+ year member]

Sounds like wiring problem between the subs, possible ground problem.

Easiest would be take the subs out and hook one up free air at very low volume to see how the output is with an easier load and a simpler wire scheme.

If that's not the problem, try hooking up a different source to the amp like an iPod with a 1/8" to RCA splitter, or using your computer via 1/8" to 1/8" connector, male to male.

If that doesn't work, reground the amp.

If that doesn't work, take the cap out of the equation to see if it's a bad cap resisting electron flow.

 

[blgaudio 10+ year member]

Okay I may have found a problem, i believe the pos and neg's are mixed up on the subs, inside the box. Would this cause an issue? Would it not shut the amp down into protect?

 

[Nut Hair Trick 10+ year member]

Don't you have a phase control on the amp? Try adjusting that. Otherwise, I think your

subsonic (HPF) could be be turned completely up. It needs to be turned all the way down, or at the very highest, what your box is tuned at.

 

[blgaudio 10+ year member]

Don't you have a phase control on the amp? Try adjusting that. Otherwise, I think your subsonic (HPF) could be be turned completely up. It needs to be turned all the way down, or at the very highest, what your box is tuned at.

If everything is right it should be at 33hz. Where should phase be? Will check hpf tomorrow thanks.

 

[Nut Hair Trick 10+ year member]

I'm not familiar with the phase control, I would just adjust it while playing, to see if anything changes. I believe it's pretty much the same thing as swaping + and - around on your speakers. If I remember the adjustment goes to 180.

 

[SicAudio 5,000+ posts]

no they would just be out of phase, if the subs are dvc4 ohm subs then 1 ohm, 4 ohm or 16 ohms is the only option so 1 ohm is what you want.

recheck the entire install.

is the amp new, or if not do you know if it even worked before ?