Wiring Question From Subwoofer to Amplifier if Enclosure has divided sections for Sub

[dafobbishon3 10+ year member]

Okay UPDATE. I tried daisy chaining anyway down to 2 ohms and there is output! There is some sound of bass. But it's not loud at all! Gain is already at 4V to match the preout voltage of my head unit. And my subwoofer settings is already on max on my head unit (this isn't bass boost btw. It's just subwoofer levels) any reason for a really weak output? Because even with everything maxed out on the HU, it's still pretty weak sounding. Not that Loud

 

[los33]

Okay UPDATE. I tried daisy chaining anyway down to 2 ohms and there is output! There is some sound of bass. But it's not loud at all! Gain is already at 4V to match the preout voltage of my head unit. And my subwoofer settings is already on max on my head unit (this isn't bass boost btw. It's just subwoofer levels) any reason for a really weak output? Because even with everything maxed out on the HU, it's still pretty weak sounding. Not that Loud

What is your volume at when testing?

 

[dafobbishon3 10+ year member]

What is your volume at when testing?

37 or 38. Because the highest is 50 so that's 75% of max. At low volumes there is barely any bump, once it gets to 35-38 volume, then you start to hear a somewhat decent amount of bump, but it's no where near it should be. That decent amount of bump, keep in mind is with my subwoofer level on max on the HU and also maxed on the EQ. Bass Boost is still off and at 0. I don't want to turn my gains any more, it's already at 4v.

 

[los33]

37 or 38. Because the highest is 50 so that's 75% of max. At low volumes there is barely any bump, once it gets to 35-38 volume, then you start to hear a somewhat decent amount of bump, but it's no where near it should be. That decent amount of bump, keep in mind is with my subwoofer level on max on the HU and also maxed on the EQ. Bass Boost is still off and at 0. I don't want to turn my gains any more, it's already at 4v.

You may have a bad ground on the amp.

How is your amp setup??

 

[shizzzon 10+ year member]

You may want to take your vehicle to a shop before something bad happens.

your power, ground and some speaker wires are all exposed.. That equals fire hazard.

Also, running the wires to each channel vs paralleling them at the speaker itself is NO DIFFERENT.

So, for all of a sudden getting some sound indicated you have one or multiple wire configuration errors which again.. is dangerous.

You need to either pull the fuse out of the power line and redo ALL wiring or take it to a shop for safety reasons.

 

[dafobbishon3 10+ year member]

You may have a bad ground on the amp.How is your amp setup??

My amp is setup on the back of my backseat but as for the wires, my power wire is hooked up to the power terminal on my rear battery and my ground wire from my amp is hooked up to the negative terminal of my rear battery and my rear battery is grounded. It's grounded correctly, because I used the exact same wires on my last setup. I haven't changed a thing. Wires are are still grounded in the exact same spot as they were, and my system was perfectly fine before. What I did is practically just a swap. Swap out batteries amplifier and subwoofer.

 

[mgoetter]

I had a similar problem with my sub before( no output from the subwoofer out) i also had a hifonics amp wired the same way (p1p2p1p2).. I never found out what the problem was and i dont know if this is recommended but it worked for a couple years on my old setup.. I connected my subs to the rca out from my headunit instead of the subwoofer out then used the amp to set up the range the sub played.. I would let some one else comment before you try this but it worked for 4-5 years in my truck

Also i dont know if this makes a difference or not (according to what was said it shouldnt) but in the hifonics manual they have pictures of mono subwoofers being wired like this p1 - + p1 and full range speakers wired like this.. P1 p2 p1 p2

 

[Umbra]

I had a similar problem with my sub before( no output from the subwoofer out) i also had a hifonics amp wired the same way (p1p2p1p2).. I never found out what the problem was and i dont know if this is recommended but it worked for a couple years on my old setup.. I connected my subs to the rca out from my headunit instead of the subwoofer out then used the amp to set up the range the sub played.. I would let some one else comment before you try this but it worked for 4-5 years in my truck
Also i dont know if this makes a difference or not (according to what was said it shouldnt) but in the hifonics manual they have pictures of mono subwoofers being wired like this p1 - + p1 and full range speakers wired like this.. P1 p2 p1 p2

Your setup is perfectly fine. You can hook up the RCA cables to an output other than the sub output. Assuming this output is full ranged you can eliminate everything you wouldn't want your subs to be playing with the low pass filter on your amp. I did this with a Y-splitter for the RCAs on a lesser HU that only had a single output.

shizzzon's concern about your wiring is a valid one. That would be a good thing to work on, not only to track down the problem, but also for safety reasons. You'll want to push as much bare wire into the terminals as possible, then tighten the screws so it's nice and snug (I usually give them a little tug to check). I've had amps that have flat metal plates that clamp the wire in place, but my current amp just has screw terminals. If I tighten them too much they crush the speaker wire to its breaking point, so you need to find a middle ground. You should cut excess exposed before putting it into the terminal, so once it's in, the insulation should run all the way up and there's nothing or almost nothing exposed. This reduces the possibility of shorts. I'd also suggest adding a bit of slack in the cabling. That one positive speaker wire looks pretty taught.

One loose wire can make or break your whole project. Aside from the wiring concerns, the ground would be my next point of interest. I know you said you used a ground from your old system, but might we see what this looks like? You'll want to bolt a ring terminated ground wire to unpainted chassis (this might involve sanding).

One more suggestion: you can narrow down your search with one of these and anything with an AUX out (like a smartphone or iPod). Hook up a device directly to your amp and you can take the HU and the RCA wiring out of the equation temporarily.