Thread: Lined Driver + Amp = Problem

Originally Posted by 3onDubs

Last night I wired some crossovers into the trunk for my component door speakers in my e46. I also took out my spare tire and moved both of my amps and my line driver into the tire well.

I was driving today and everything was sounding ok until i turned the volume up...then my speaker amp seemed to go out because all I could hear was bass from my subs. I turned it down and the speakers came back on. When I turned them up again, the same thing happened, but this time they didnt come back on....I am no expert at car audio, so my limited knowledge has led me to the following list of possiblities:

1. My line driver is overdriving my amps
2. The amp (which isn't secured) doesn't like the tire well?
3. My newly added crossovers are preventing the speakers from going out?

If anybody can help me to consider other possiblities that I might be overlooking or to narrow down my choices based on the scenario I described, I would really appreciate it.


Edit: I was going to create a new thread, but i figured i would just add it here. I was experienceing speaker whine before, so last night i moved the ground for my carnetix regulator (which powers my travla pc) to the factory ground location for the factory amp...now i still have the whine. I figured that since im not using the factory amp, it was pointless to try and use this location.

I was thinking that I should ground my regulator to the same location as my aftermarket amps in order to solve this...correct? The only problem is that the amps go into a capacitor which is grounded to the battery's negative lead. To be safe, I was thinking about just taking the ground wire from the regulator and running it into the ground slot on one of my amps....is this a good idea?

Some amps go into a temporary protect mode when the incoming signal is too great for the amplifier to reproduce. Had an Alpine 5-channel that would fo that. Make sure you reduce the amp gain to near minimum, and adjust the signal from the line driver. The functions are about the same, difference being that line drivers increase your signal/noise ratio, whereas gains on amps at some point reduce it.

Do you have the gains of the amplifiers turned ALL the way down? A line driver boosts the signal so high that it can overdrive the input section shutting the unit down. This is a good thing. It saved your speakers and amp. It also tells me that you do not know how to properly set the gains when using a line driver. Please search and re-read the subject of setting gains. Not trying to be snippy, this is just where the problem is at.