Working fine for 5 years then...

[Gus 524]

Hi everybody,

Ran into a problem with my sound system in my truck the other day. Currently I have a Pionner AVH-X2500BT, a JL XD500/3 Amp, Kenwood KFC-6984PS speakers, and a JL W1v3 Sub. I installed everything myself about 5 years ago and I have really enjoyed the sound and never had any problems.

Just the other day I noticed two problems that have started to occur. 1st problem is my subwoofer at certain frequency's just sounds terrible. It only makes this sound during certain songs at certain frequency and sounds fine at any other time. The sound it makes sounds like the sub is bouncing a bunch of marbles on a metal surface. Just a really crappy sound.

2nd problem is that when the everything is on and I am not playing any music I get a constant small bass hit from the subwoofer and a quite audio tone from the speakers at the same time. This happens every two seconds or so.

What I have done. I inspected the subwoofer and cant see anything wrong with it. I brought it into my local audio shop and they tested it and said it was fine. However they didn't seem very confident. I made sure all the wires throughout the entire system were secured. The power cable is separated from all the others. I cleaned my grounds. I pulled out the RCA's and the bass and speakers still made the faint noise every 2 seconds.

It has been around -25 degrees fahrenheit here in MN so maybe the cold had something to do with it, even though it has survived every other winter just fine. Not sure if the two problems are directly related to each other or not. I have not changed anything for the last 5 years and it was working great. My components are not too expensive so i'm not hesitant to replace anything, I just don't want to replace the wrong thing if I don't have to.

What advice can you give me? Any ideas on the problem? Any similar problems out there? Any other trouble shooting I can do?

Thank you!

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[JohnKuthe]

....It has been around -25 degrees fahrenheit here in MN so maybe the cold had something to do with it, even though it has survived every other winter just fine. Not sure if the two problems are directly related to each other or not. I have not changed anything for the last 5 years and it was working great. My components are not too expensive so i'm not hesitant to replace anything, I just don't want to replace the wrong thing if I don't have to.

...

I think you found the problem! -25F is b u t t a s s e d COLD!!

John Kuthe...

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

isolate the issue with an Aux to RCA Y splitter going straight from your head unit to your amp. one test for subs, one test for door speakers. Plug the aux into your phone, play music. If it plays clean just fine, then its your head unit thats the issue which needs replacing. If it doesnt play, then its the amp. Simple right?

 

[Gus 524]

I think you found the problem! -25F is b u t t a s s e d COLD!!
John Kuthe...

I think you may be on to something! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

isolate the issue with an Aux to RCA Y splitter going straight from your head unit to your amp. one test for subs, one test for door speakers. Plug the aux into your phone, play music. If it plays clean just fine, then its your head unit thats the issue which needs replacing. If it doesnt play, then its the amp. Simple right?

Ok I think I know what your saying. So it would be my phone plugged into the aux to RCA splitter plugged into the RCA cables plugged into my amp trying both the sub and speakers. Thank you so much for the trouble shooting suggestion I'll give it a try.

 

[Gus 524]

Did some more trouble shooting. The repeating noise stops only when I disconnect the sub. When the sub is disconnected everything works great just obviously no bass.

Everything I've tried won't get the sub to stop sounding like trash during some songs.

Thinking it's got to be a bad sub.

 

[tymoto21 10+ year member]

Play the sub free air

I think it's a loose spider

But could be something else

 

[Gus 524]

Just did, no change. Still makes all the sounds.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Just did, no change. Still makes all the sounds.

Might be an issue with the amp (if it makes the noises with RCA unplugged from the amp). Playing the sub out of the box and looking carefully you might find something that is obviously coming unglued, but making noises with no signal sounds like some trouble with the amp. Did you buy the JL amp new? That's very unusual for one of them to fail after only 5 years.

That said, we had a really cold day this week and I noticed my amps looked like a frosted beer mug right out of the freezer on a summer day just caked with frost. I didn't dare even play them worrying if the frost melted into the guts of the amp it would short something and blow up.

My guess is the amp. Can you get your hands on any other speaker to test off that sub channel of the amp?

 

[Gus 524]

I ordered another sub. Should be here in a few days. Having a friend come over and plug in his sub first to double check that's the problem. If not I'll return the sub and continue on trouble shooting.

Yes, I did buy the amp new. I bought everything new around 5 years ago now.

Will see...

 

[Gus 524]

Well the sub is not the problem. My sub sounds great in my friends jeep.

Thinking my amp is bad??

Must be just the sub channel not working properly.