help, system help, plz

okay, here's my problem, last night a friend and i wired up my system, it sounded great for an hour or so, and then all of a sudden, i only had subs playing, and no speakers, then 5 minutes later, no sound what so ever, but my head unit was still "playing" but no sound, and every now and then either of the two will work for a minute or two, then stop, so i'll have subs, and then i won't, i'll have speakers, then i won't, what the f*&k is up with this , and has anyone experienced this, and how do i fix this problem? any help would be appreciated, thanx for your time and effort

well, although you described the symptoms pretty well - you said nothing about the system. What kind of amp(s) are you using ? How are the speakers wired to the amp(s) ? My guess would be you have a 4 chanel amp playing all of this stuff and either one of the speaker wires is shorted somewhere or you have to low of a load (impedance).

yeah, it sounds like you might be tripping protection features in the amp. it would most likely be shorts, cutting in and out like that. and yeah, you might also be running to few ohms (got a bunch of speakers wired in parallel, uh oh :uhoh: ) which could cause a wide range of problems with the amp(mostly heat, but other stuff too).

Wierd, that happened to me on Tuesday. I've had my system hooked up for years and never a problem with it, then out of the blue I took it off pause and absolutely no sound came out, but it was still playing. But even the spectrum analyzer on the HU was flat. I reset the HU and everything was fine. I know that had to be an internal problem, but it freaked me out.

check the remote wire too, i had the same symptoms, deck playing but no sound, and my remote wire came loose, i reconnected it, and it worked fine.

sorry bout the lack of info guys, i have two alpine type R 12" subs, and a legacy(i know it's shitty, but it was free) 600 watt 2 channel amp, thanx for your help, i'll try figuring it all out, also, when i went into my car today to roll down my windows and move it outside, the speakers worked, but no subs, also i noticed on my amp, that the protection light was on, what different scenario's might cause this?, thanx for your help

Originally posted by brians97accordSE
sorry bout the lack of info guys, i have two alpine type R 12" subs, and a legacy(i know it's shitty, but it was free) 600 watt 2 channel amp, thanx for your help, i'll try figuring it all out, also, when i went into my car today to roll down my windows and move it outside, the speakers worked, but no subs, also i noticed on my amp, that the protection light was on, what different scenario's might cause this?, thanx for your help

when the protection light goes on, it usually means one of the following:

1. too low of an impedence
2. amp overheating due to not having enough air circulation or surrounding temperature is hot.
3. wires may be touch other electrical wires (such as + touching -)
4. it's a legacy...NUFF said. j/k..

also check your RCA cables and make sure you have them plugged all the way in and not loose. if amp goes on, but no sound from speakers and sub, then ground the amp's ground wire to a different source. if that doesn't work, borrow a friend's amp and try it out and see if it's still the same.. good luck

allright, i know it's not due to overheating, right now, i've been outside, and the speakers(not the subs) are working, i just doubt they will when i start up the car, cuz thats when they tend to turn off and on, explain, some circumstances of low impedence to me so i could rule that out or pinpoint my fault, thanx

Impedance is all in how you have your subs hooked up... Each sub has 4 ohms of impedance. If you hook them up in parallel, the total impedance is cut in half. So if you have (2) 4-ohm subs wired in parallel, you are running at 2 ohms. This causes more current to flow through the circuit, and thus causing problems.

hmmm, i see, i dunno if it's because of that, but i might think about it

wat kind of sub does it happen to be? any specs or model number?

he said he had 2 alpine 12" type R's ........ either he has them in parallel and bridging that poor legacy or some of the speaker wires are touching at the amp where they are hooked up. Either of those scenarios would put that amp into the protection mode.

Originally posted by brians97accordSE
sorry bout the lack of info guys, i have two alpine type R 12" subs, and a legacy(i know it's shitty, but it was free) 600 watt 2 channel amp...

1. are your subs wired in parallel, series, or just one per chan?

2. do you have the swr-1221 or swr-1241?? makes a HUGE difference when wiring? if youre wiring a pair of 1221's in parallel thats a 1ohm load, and im assuming your amp wouldnt be able to handle that.

3. if you have your full-ranges wired to the hu, and the subs hooked the the amp and the cut off randomly... you might have two different problems. my system cut off out of nowhere once, and all that had happened was that a bad ground came loose.

but once we know more of the specifics itll be easier to help. good luck.

lol, my subs worked for a whole day and night, and now they cut in and out again, it's a bitch, and the speakers cut in and out too, lol, damn this car, and no the subs aren't bridged, and i'im not exactly sure what the model is but i'll check it out

Originally posted by brians97accordSE
lol, my subs worked for a whole day and night, and now they cut in and out again, it's a bitch, and the speakers cut in and out too, lol, damn this car, and no the subs aren't bridged, and i'im not exactly sure what the model is but i'll check it out im assuming you meant the subs arent paralleled, but anyways. how is the system set up? and to what impedance is the amp stable?