Installed new stereo/speakers, have problems, please help

samcoffeeman · 03-01-2008, 01:22 AM

Hello,
I recently purchased a JVC KD-HDR1 and had it installed by circuit city. I also replaced the front door speakers with Pioneer A-1682R, then the rear speakers with Infinity Kappa 692.7i. After I installed the rear speakers, I tested them before I put everything back together and they sounded fine. The next day as I was driving to work all of the speakers cut out on me. I tried messing with the wires and discovered that if I connect both of the wires to the left rear speaker the system will not work at all. If I have only one wire connected the system will work but cuts out if I turn the volume up too high. My fade and balance also seem to be out of whack. I am a total novice in this area so I need help to fix this. I don't think these speakers should be too much power for my system to handle but I really don't know.
Thanks,
samcoffeeman

durwood · 03-01-2008, 08:38 AM

first, this forum is about installing carputers just so you know. THere are plenty of other forums about car stereo.

Second
Your kappas are listed as:
"2-ohm impedance"
Why Infinity did this is amazing to me. They then say they are compatible with all aftermarket radios. That is completely stupid and false adverstising. I don;t know of any aftermarket radio that can handle 2ohm speakers. If they don't offer a 4 ohm version I'd return them and find a pair that does.

If your fader and balance are screwed up, Take it back to circuit city, they did the install.

rijk · 03-01-2008, 10:04 AM

wireing?
trie to connect the speakers outside the car (with other wiring) if they sound good than check te wiring (litle battery on one and with a voltmeter on the other and of the battery) the other and of the voltmeter on the other and of the wire, the voltmeter shows the voltage of the battery, this is good, if it doesn't the wireing is broken..

Also put the other and of the voltmeter on a metal part of the car, if the voltmetert than shows the voltage of the battery the outside of the wire is broken..
Also put the voltmeter to the other wires, they should be 0. Do this with al the wireing to the rear speakers.

Woofnstuff · 03-01-2008, 05:17 PM

also check none of the speaker wires/connections at speakers are connected or touching metal. also what he said

runcool · 03-02-2008, 03:03 PM

MAKE SURE that the speakers aren't touching the metal of the car. A speaker CAN'T WORK ON ONE WIRE OR ONE CONNECTION!
You need to take EVERYTHING apart then put it back in. this time following the instructions.

boomintrac · 03-02-2008, 04:39 PM

Just curious, what would happen if the speaker touches the metal part of the door?
Aron

JimmyFitz · 03-02-2008, 05:07 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by boomintrac

Just curious, what would happen if the speaker touches the metal part of the door?
Aron

The frame of the speaker is ok. But neither of the two wires going to any speaker can be grounded.

skystitt · 03-02-2008, 11:32 PM

i had this problem with some subs. it ended up that the ohms in my subs were too low for my amp. I had some stuff run in parallell that needed to be ran in series

pRoFiT · 03-02-2008, 11:44 PM

Sounds more like the speaker is shorting out. If you disconect one side and it still works then it must be getting a ground from the chassis. I would take it back to Circuit City and have them fix it.......Woops just read again....Um, Maybe you can bring it to circuit city with everything connected and tell them the stereo went out and see what they find. Kind of leave out the part about your new speakers until you really have to tell them that its all your fault the system isn't working

Older audio systems use the cars chasis for ground and only run one wire back to each speaker. If this is the case then you may need to run new speaker wires to the back of the car.

You may also just flip the back wires to the speaker. to see if that fixes it. Could be that when you replaced the speakers you put - on + and + on -. Then on top of that audio ground is connected to chasis ground......I dont know.

Check wiring, Flip wires. Pull one over on circuit city

RedGTiVR6 · 03-03-2008, 08:08 AM

thread moved to the car audio forum.

durwood · 03-03-2008, 09:16 AM

threads merged.

durwood · 03-03-2008, 09:19 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by boomintrac

Just curious, what would happen if the speaker touches the metal part of the door?
Aron

Depends on the amp, but if the terminals or wires touch chassis ground, then either the amp will cut out, you could get engine whine or other strange popping/crackling noises, or the amp will short out and go into permanent protect.

In a headunit, the amp will just cut out which is basically protecting it from destruction.

AWehmeyer · 03-04-2008, 06:32 AM

Durwood,
The Infinity speakers will work fine with all aftermarket radios. Of course, before we built these things, we tested OE radios and aftermarket radios driving them and nothing failed. Furthermore, in the 3 years that we've been selling them, we haven't had any reports of failed head units as a result of driving these speakers.

THe impedance of a speaker is more complex than the simple "nominal" rating suggests. Furthermore, once the speakers are installed in the car (often using the factory 18-22 gauge wiring) the impedance the radio "sees" is higher than the DCR of the speakers, which is c. 2.7 ohms. Additionally, once the speaker has been playing for a few seconds, the voice coils gets hot and the impedance rises. This is the case with all speakers.

Infinity "2-ohm" speakers are suitable for connection to all radios.

pancit175 · 03-04-2008, 05:21 PM

The reason why your fadeand balance controls are messed up is because circuit city uses so called "smart"-harnesses for the radio installations. What most likely happened is they used a sony harness instead of a JVC harness. Those two have the same plug configuration but different pin assignments on the speakers.

durwood · 03-04-2008, 10:54 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by AWehmeyer

Durwood,
The Infinity speakers will work fine with all aftermarket radios. Of course, before we built these things, we tested OE radios and aftermarket radios driving them and nothing failed. Furthermore, in the 3 years that we've been selling them, we haven't had any reports of failed head units as a result of driving these speakers.

THe impedance of a speaker is more complex than the simple "nominal" rating suggests. Furthermore, once the speakers are installed in the car (often using the factory 18-22 gauge wiring) the impedance the radio "sees" is higher than the DCR of the speakers, which is c. 2.7 ohms. Additionally, once the speaker has been playing for a few seconds, the voice coils gets hot and the impedance rises. This is the case with all speakers.

Infinity "2-ohm" speakers are suitable for connection to all radios.

I've seen plenty of people try to use 2 ohm loads running off an aftermarket radio and it's not healthy for the radio=lots of heat. I have never ever seen an alpine/kenwood/pioneer/blaupukt/etc etc radio say it's ok to use anything lower than 4 ohms.

Most chip amps are rated for the lowest of a 4 ohm load, and while I understand a speaker is more complex than pure resistive, it's asking for trouble in my eyes, unless your goal is to sell more amplifiers as well. I CAN see it working for people who want to replace bose/infinity/jbl stock speakers since they are more compatible.

If people's headunits burn up/amplifier circuits die an early death as a result of infinity's claims it's ok to use them, does Harman plan on covering customer's headunits?