john_draws

Amps cut out and speakers make a bad pop noise.

The stereo specs

1. ID CXS6 2ohm....http://www.cardomain.com/item/IDSCXS62
Recomended RMS 150w
Peak Power 300w

2. PG Xenon x200.2....http://www.cardomain.com/item/PHOX2002
RMS 200wx2 @ 4ohms

3. IDQ10 D4.....http://www.cardomain.com/item/IDSIDQ10D4V2
Recomended RMS 250w
Peak Power 500w

4. PG Octane R 5.0:1 Monoblock....http://www.cardomain.com/item/PHOR501
RMS 300w @ 2ohms

5. PG Tantrum DD5 ......http://www.cardomain.com/item/PHOTDD5

I have a 4g wire fused off the battery to a distribution block. The block has

1. 60amp fuse runin 4g to the xenon x200.2

2. 60amp fuse 8g to Octane R 5.0:1

3. 30amp fuse 8g to Tantrum DD5

I then have matching gauge grounds to another distro block which is then a 4g wire to groung under seat belt bolt.

Well first off is that i was completly retarded and didnt relize it untill everything was installed that the x200.2 was 200w RMS @4ohms and my components are 2ohm. So the amp then has 400w RMS @2ohms..Right?
Which is way to much power for the components.

PROBLEM.

1. when turning up the speakers the front left speaker would make a loud pop
noise. The amps and tantrum then power off and sometimes restart. Then
even at low volumes everything would power off.

MY THOUGHTS.

1. First thing I did was check all my speaker wiring. I have 14g going to
my components and 12g going to the sub. I found no shorts and wrapped
anything i thought could cause a problem.

2. Next I hooked up the equipment individually. I kept grounds as stated
earlier.

3. First I just powered the Xenon x200.2 to the components and set the
crossover to HP 117Hz and sensitivity (gain) all the way down.
At first everything seemed okay but with even moderate volume the
speaker would pop loud. I then used a little MTX 75wx2 rms amp to
power the speakers fearing that i was overpowering them. It was fine on
a HP filter with gain all the way down. On FP the speaker would pop again
which I believe is the speaker slapping the coil. But 75w rms should not
make these speakers bottom out, right?

4. Second powered up just the sub and had no real problems except that the
box wasnt air tight so it sounded like shiz.

5. Third hooked up the MTX 75w rms amp and the tantrum DD5. Everything
seemed ok and to be running fairly well. (this was with car parked)
then went for a drive, all is well then i pull into a parking spot and the
tantrum DD5 and MTX amp shut off, then restart. And sometimes it seems
like bumps cause it to shut off but sometimes it just clicks on and off.
Volume level does not matter, it happens at low and high volume.

QUESTIONS

1. Why is my speaker popping even when well underpowered. (pretty sure
there is no speaker wire short).

2. Why are my amps clipping out even at super low volumes?

I could use all the help I can get on this as I am stumped. (I think it is a ground issue).

PLZ PLZ help i am trying to leave on a trip by friday so I got to get this figured out.

Side note: I dont think the speaker is blown it read like 1.9ohms
Also I have pics if it would help.

Thanks,

MP3Car.com

 

greenwire

Your grounding sounds fine, typical star ground config..
Your power sounds fine, so long as everything gets it's power it should be fine

This smells like an impedance matching issue to me, amps don't usually shut down for much else.. Double check all your amplifier spec pages against your speaker spec pages and brush up on ohm's law. If everything seems to work check the amp against another speaker and the speaker against another amp, barring that i have no suggestions

Good luck!

john_draws

greenwire thanks for the response. I am pretty sure my impedance is right.
The components are runin off a pg xenon x200.2.the amp can produce a 1-4 ohm load and the components are 2 ohm.

last night i noticed a faint huming or what not when accelerating, so could that also be a ground issue indicator. power wires are down 1 side and speaker wires down the other.

Also last night the speakers would cut in and out but the amp and DD5 stayed on. Other times the amp and DD5 would shut off and on.
Could it maybe be a loose remote wire off of the radio to the DD5?

I am going to rip the car apart and recheck all wiring today. If someone can make some sugestions please do, I am strugilin here.

Thanks,

john_draws

Another quick questions.

1. Can the speaker magnet be close to metal?

yak8998

yes, the magnet can be close to metal. against it even.

get a multimeter w/ a continuity check, ground one lead and than try every connection on your amp. the only one which should be continous is the gnd wire. your speaker leads might be grounding somewhere. this technique beats the heck out of checking the wires by hand, and gaurentees you dont miss anything.

it sounds like your bottoming out your mids. 75W can and can't bottom out the speakers. depends on enclosure, crossovers. Turn up the XO some and see if it doesn't stop that. And the turn on turn off issue could be any number of things. I'd start with taking that dd5 out of the loop and see what happens. it might be part of the issue. keep it simple.

about the noise - alternator whine. its not too bad, so thats good. try removing the dd5, usually its too many componets can induce alt noise. Relocate your grounds, reground your head unit off the factory harness. and don't worry about the wires running next to eachother, i run my RCAs, speaker wires and power wires all together and around each other, it doesn't hurt anything, its a big stupid myth.

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DTACK

That was a possible cause I was thinkin on...

About your last question, no problem at al for your magnet to be close to metal!


1. The popping sound from ur left speaker could be caused by the preamp in your HU, a bad line connection from your HU to your amp or even because the linecables to your amps are running next to your powercable (best is to run power on one side of the vehicle(left) and signallines on the other(right))

2. The clipping could occure if there is a problem with your HU, because you connected your speaker outputs from the HU to the line inputs from your amps or because you are using a bad linecable...

To test if the problem is with your HU, use an other source as input for your amps (walkman, iPod, cdplayer, ...) using a 3.5mm jack to cinch cable.

To test if its the linecable just switch the left and right from your amps input, if the plop sounds now from your right speaker (and you have tested your HU to work fine) then there is a problem with your linecable.

To test if there is a problem with your amps remote conncetion connect, at the amp, the remote straight away to the +, if you stil have the same problem your remote wire is ok.

These are just some things I can think of at the moment, good luck and hope you can get it solved quick!

ACHIEVER

I'd agree with this much of the above statement.
It actually sound like you have real good understanding of what you're doing here. When trouble shooting try to keep it simple.
I think the remote turn on lead is an easy thing to check next. Run a separate one temporarily rather than checking continuity as your problem seems intermittent.
I once had a similar situation in a girlfriends car. It turned out to be a poor positive connection to the radio itself (no carputer here). It had some connectivity allowing it to run and to start up the amp, but would give the pops you're describing without any real consistency.

SickVette

You mention the fuses for the amps......is there a fuse in the front of the car on the 4ga?

I agree ...the key to trouble shooting is keeping it simple. Do one item at a time. I would also use a multi meter to verify impedance and shorts. Sooome good advice above.

When a speaker makes a loud pop it is not really the speaker "bottoming out". What happens is the speaker is over driven. THe coil jumps out of the gap. When the coil goes back into the gap it often hits the sides which causes the loud pop.

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john_draws

Thanks for the quick good responses. I probably should have mentioned it is a stock unit going to a LOC.

The component speakers are mounted in custom free air speaker pods on the lower section of the door. (to be enclosed later.)

I agree with taken the DD5 out of the mix as I think when the front speakers
were shorting it was telling the DD5 to shut off the amps.(maybe)

The wiered thing is that sometimes the DD5 and MTX (test amp) both restart and then sometimes both stayed powered and only the speakers cut in and out.

So right now I am going to try takin the DD5 out of the mix and just try the MTX to components on HP filter.

QUESTION

1. When using the xenon x200.2 for the components i should use HP filter and
set the XO to what ? (like 120hz maybe, I want some bass they are 6 1\2)

Again thanks for the help, I will report on my findings in an hour or so.

john_draws

Nice guys more good responses, thank you.

@sickvette....

Actually as of right now there is just a dummy fuse at the car battery as
I am havin trouble finding the proper size fuse locally.
Also thanks for the explination on the speaker pop.

@achiever

Thanks for the comments, I feel I have a good idea as I am into home stereo
and such.

SickVette

A line level converter just changed everything. I was thinking you were using RCA out...I am sure everyone else was too. I would check the LOC out first. Does it have level adjustments on it? If so they are often reverse of each other. Clockwise on one side will rasie output while clockwise on the other side will lower output. Check for that. Also flip the RCA's and see if the popping switches to the other side. If it does it most likely the LOC. Line level converte do work but in my experience 1 in 5 are bad.

pancit175

I agree with sickvette, your loc could be adjusted to high causing too high of a level to go to your amps.

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john_draws

thanks for the hook up. I was thinkin it might be the LOC. I re did the LOC wires and to my knowledge there is no level adjustment on them.

I just got back from a drive with just the MTX 75w rmsx2 amp hooked up and the speakers would cut out for no reason at any volume. I dont think the amp was shuttin off, just the speakers cuttin out.

but

when i had the DD5 also hooked up I had it powering my screen and it would turn on and off at different intervals then the speakers cuttin out. So I would have to think the speakers cuttin out is not related to the DD5 and amps cuttin off.

So you think I should try a different LOC?

On a side note I believe there is paint were my ground is under the seatbelt

pancit175

yes try a different loc. If there's paint on the point where you ground at, then take a wire brush attachment to a drill and grind it clean of the paint till there's a good metal surface. ideally you'd want a clean surface free of debris and paint to ground your speaker at. I tend to use a star washer when i dont ground at a factory bolt so that the star washer cuts into the metal of the frame and the metal of the ground terminal.
Are your speakers cutting out at a constant rate, or cutting in and out at random intervals. For instance when you hit a bump it cuts out, then comes back in when you pass over another bump. If thats the case you may be grounding out one of the speaker wires.

__________________
"In the beginners mind there are many possibilities, but in the experts mind there are few."- Shunryu Suzuki
"Do it right or don't do it at all"

PROGRESS:
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