# What is wrong with my soundsystem (speakers cutting out)?



## Rkrajnov (Nov 22, 2010)

Please read everything before commenting, not to sound rude, I just feel that everything I'm mentioning is important to the solution of this. I'm trying my best to only go into critical detail but there is quite a bit I need to cover.

Ok so I installed a soundsystem about 14 months ago. It consists of a Fi Q 12" sub hooked to an Audioque 1200d (at 1200 rms) and a pair of Hertz HSK 165s hooked to a JL 300/4 (each at 150 rms bridged). I have 0 gauge wire going back from my battery to a dist block where 4 gauge wire goes to each amp.

Worked fine for about 8 months and then around 6 months ago I first started noticing my speakers would cut out intermittently. Over the months I have had days where this has happened a lot, days where its happened once or twice all day (most commonly), and days (and even weeks) where it hasn't happened once. Now through this all, the subwoofer NEVER cuts out. only the midbasses and tweeters hooked to the JL. 

Now, I finally got around to checking voltages on the amps. I should mention last week was one of the weeks it was mysteriously working fine once again. I had just reinstalled my subwoofer and was playing lots of loud bassy and demanding music all week and no cut out. At this time (when I fixed my gain settings a bit) I also tested my direct volts to each amp and it was reading in the low 13s, which was no more than a volt or so below what the car battery volts were at (I have a meter up front). Still seems kind of low, but I didn't worry about it that much.

Today, however the problem has become the worst it's ever been. I literally haven't been able to listen to my speakers all day because it just constantly cuts out if I play anything over around 50% volume. My charged volts at the battery are still like they should be (high 13s - low 15s unless under a lot of stress in which case they will drop to no more than 12.6 before charging back up). However at the amps the volts were reading at 10-11v, even dipping into the 9s. I turned down the speakers so that not much demand was being placed and so that they stopped cutting out and the amps stayed at ~10.5 while the battery remained at 13.9. It is the same voltage for both amps and I have no idea why or why only the midbasses and tweeters cut out but not the sub. Why am I losing so many volts? Is my alt bad? I should also mention that my alt and battery were both replaced around 11 months ago and the alt (should be) 135 amps as that is what the stock one is rated at (unless they somehow put in the wrong alt at the shop). I think this should be able to handle my system and I can't believe it would already be going bad, but I don't know what else to think.


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## jcorkin (Jan 26, 2012)

if your front battery has good voltage at it i wouldn't point fingers at the alt, however if the power wires have had excess current pulled through them it may have slightly damaged the wires and raising the internal resistance in the cables, or a poor ground could be at fault. i would start be doing some resistance readings across the power cables and ground to frame cables as there is a problem with your voltage for sure. 

now for the speakers cutting out if i remember the JL amps have good protection systems in them. one thing i believe they will protect against is low voltage so if the voltage drops below its threshold it will go into protection saving its internals from going up in smoke and would be why your highs are cutting out but wouldn't explain why your sub is not cutting out. another possible problem would be one that i have dealt with personally, i had a speaker in my tahoe that had a bad/loose connection internally and would randomly short and kill all my interior speakers power from the headunit, i would have to shut the radio off and turn it back on before the speakers would come back on and weather temps affected this as well seemed to do it more when it was cold out. i finally tracked it down to the rear passenger side speaker disconnected it and no problems with it for the past two weeks, now its time to replace both the rear 4x10 speakers with some 6.5's. hope this info helps you.

after everything cuts out if you go check your amp does it seem excessively hot? is there a protection light on?


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## adrenalinejunkie (Oct 17, 2010)

Hmm... if only your components amp is cuttin out and not your sub amp, the problem should be with the components amp. Have you checked all your wiring? Have you tried lowering the input sensativity/gain on your components amp? Are all audio enhancers such as loudness, SLA (sound level adjustment) off/0?


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## Rkrajnov (Nov 22, 2010)

adrenalinejunkie said:


> Hmm... if only your components amp is cuttin out and not your sub amp, the problem should be with the components amp. Have you checked all your wiring? Have you tried lowering the input sensativity/gain on your components amp? Are all audio enhancers such as loudness, SLA (sound level adjustment) off/0?


Wiring looks good as far as I can tell. And I have tried lowering sensitivity and it hasn't helped at all. When watching the volts with the DMM the problem clearly occurs when the volts just get too low (~9.6) then they jump back up the mid 10s usually and cut out briefly for like a second or two during this. I suspect this has what has been happening all along, but today they won't even raise back up past the mid 10s at the amp so they end up cutting out very constantly as the volts get too low. I don't know what would be causing this large discrepancy in voltage between the battery and amps. As far as I can tell the grounds seem fine (though I'm no expert, I just screwed my grounds for the amps onto two metal screws attached to my trunk roof. There is no evident paint or anything and it worked fine in the past before this problem started occurring.


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## Rkrajnov (Nov 22, 2010)

jcorkin said:


> if your front battery has good voltage at it i wouldn't point fingers at the alt, however if the power wires have had excess current pulled through them it may have slightly damaged the wires and raising the internal resistance in the cables, or a poor ground could be at fault. i would start be doing some resistance readings across the power cables and ground to frame cables as there is a problem with your voltage for sure.
> 
> now for the speakers cutting out if i remember the JL amps have good protection systems in them. one thing i believe they will protect against is low voltage so if the voltage drops below its threshold it will go into protection saving its internals from going up in smoke and would be why your highs are cutting out but wouldn't explain why your sub is not cutting out. another possible problem would be one that i have dealt with personally, i had a speaker in my tahoe that had a bad/loose connection internally and would randomly short and kill all my interior speakers power from the headunit, i would have to shut the radio off and turn it back on before the speakers would come back on and weather temps affected this as well seemed to do it more when it was cold out. i finally tracked it down to the rear passenger side speaker disconnected it and no problems with it for the past two weeks, now its time to replace both the rear 4x10 speakers with some 6.5's. hope this info helps you.
> 
> after everything cuts out if you go check your amp does it seem excessively hot? is there a protection light on?


No protection light and the amps aren't hot at all.

I will try checking the resistance readings. The grounds look fine but thats my only other idea of what could be wrong.


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## adrenalinejunkie (Oct 17, 2010)

Rkrajnov said:


> Wiring looks good as far as I can tell. And I have tried lowering sensitivity and it hasn't helped at all. When watching the volts with the DMM the problem clearly occurs when the volts just get too low (~9.6) then they jump back up the mid 10s usually and cut out briefly for like a second or two during this. I suspect this has what has been happening all along, but today they won't even raise back up past the mid 10s at the amp so they end up cutting out very constantly as the volts get too low. I don't know what would be causing this large discrepancy in voltage between the battery and amps. As far as I can tell the grounds seem fine (though I'm no expert, I just screwed my grounds for the amps onto two metal screws attached to my trunk roof. There is no evident paint or anything and it worked fine in the past before this problem started occurring.



I have a JL 300/2 and when my voltage gets really low, the 300/2 will cut off for a second and then turn back on. It seems to me like the PCB on your amp is damaged. I had something similar happen to an old kicker zx750.1D and it ended up being the PCB that got damaged.


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## Rkrajnov (Nov 22, 2010)

adrenalinejunkie said:


> I have a JL 300/2 and when my voltage gets really low, the 300/2 will cut off for a second and then turn back on. It seems to me like the PCB on your amp is damaged. I had something similar happen to an old kicker zx750.1D and it ended up being the PCB that got damaged.


But why would the volts be reading low on BOTH amps then? Correct me if I'm wrong but shouldn't the sub amp still read normal if there was a problem with just one amp? That's what's confusing me. I'm beginning to wonder if my power wire isn't the problem.


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## adrenalinejunkie (Oct 17, 2010)

Rkrajnov said:


> But why would the volts be reading low on BOTH amps then? Correct me if I'm wrong but shouldn't the sub amp still read normal if this was the case? That's what's confusing me. I'm beginning to wonder if my power wire isn't the problem.



Before you go ahead and purchase new power wire, try to relocate your amp's ground and make sure the ground is to bare metal IE. No pain, carpet Etc. in the way. What type of power wire is being used from under hood battery to rear then to your amps? A bad ground can also cause voltage drop through the wire. What does your battery read while the car/accessories are off?


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## johnvroom (May 5, 2009)

it is a power transmission issue, too much of a voltage drop from the battery to be anything else, the JL is just more sensitive to it. clean and re-terminate the power wire and the ground points, frankly your ground termination doesn't sound good (as you describe it), try a point inside the body of the car as the trunk isnt designed to make good electrical contact with the car.


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## Rkrajnov (Nov 22, 2010)

I have something else interesting to report

I tested my voltages with the car and amps off. ~12.8 at the battery AND at the amps. However upon turning the car in Acc. (and thus turning amps on) I read 12.4 on the car and 9.1 on the amps and with the car on (with no music playing) the battery voltage ranged from about 14.5 - 15.3. Yet the amp voltage ranged from about 11-11.5. What is going on here? Surely this must mean something but I don't know what. Why does voltage match when the amps are powered off but I lose so much once they get powered on? Is this a sign of bad grounds or what? I really don't know enough to tell.


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## adrenalinejunkie (Oct 17, 2010)

Rkrajnov said:


> I have something else interesting to report
> 
> I tested my voltages with the car and amps off. ~12.8 at the battery AND at the amps. However upon turning the car in Acc. (and thus turning amps on) I read 12.4 on the car and 9.1 on the amps and with the car on (with no music playing) the battery voltage ranged from about 14.5 - 15.3. Yet the amp voltage ranged from about 11-11.5. What is going on here? Surely this must mean something but I don't know what. Why does voltage match when the amps are powered off but I lose so much once they get powered on? Is this a sign of bad grounds or what? I really don't know enough to tell.



Seems like your alternator isn't charging. Even though it's been about 11 months old, it will not last long if it has been abused. High current causes low voltage if the alternator isn't strong enough which will strain the alternator and lower it' life span. You do have a big voltage drop at the amps oppose to the readings you are getting from your battery. What type of power wire are you using? A bad ground and small power wire can cause voltage drop. Like I said before try reloacting your grounds to bare metal. If you remove the alternator, you can take it to an auto parts store and they usually check them for free or some auto parts can even check your alternator with this machince while the alternator is on your car. Normally alternators have a 1 year warranty if not life time warranty, if you diagnose the problem soon, you might be able to warranty your alternator.


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## adrenalinejunkie (Oct 17, 2010)

If you haven't done the big 3 upgrade, I'd do that also using some OFC 1/0 power wire. It's a cheap upgrade to your electrical setup.
The Big 3 Upgrade – Improve your Car Audio Output up to 25% | Sonic Electronix Blog


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## Rkrajnov (Nov 22, 2010)

adrenalinejunkie said:


> Seems like your alternator isn't charging. Even though it's been about 11 months old, it will not last long if it has been abused. High current causes low voltage if the alternator isn't strong enough which will strain the alternator and lower it' life span. You do have a big voltage drop at the amps oppose to the readings you are getting from your battery. What type of power wire are you using? A bad ground and small power wire can cause voltage drop. Like I said before try reloacting your grounds to bare metal. If you remove the alternator, you can take it to an auto parts store and they usually check them for free or some auto parts can even check your alternator with this machince while the alternator is on your car. Normally alternators have a 1 year warranty if not life time warranty, if you diagnose the problem soon, you might be able to warranty your alternator.


If the alt wasn't charging though wouldn't I be getting bad readings at the battery too? It seems like it's charging the battery fine and there is just a loss of voltage between there and the amps... but I don't really know enough to say conclusively that the alt isn't the problem. But like I said the battery is reading 14.5-15.3 (usually staying around 15.3 once the car has been running for a few minutes) when no music is playing (or even when the music is on at a low-moderate volume) so it seems to me the alt is doing its job.

As far as power wire, mine should be more than sufficient. I'm running 1/0 gauge back to the dist block and 4 gauge to each amp. The grounds for the amp are also 4 gauge and I upgraded the ground for the battery to 1/0 gauge (though I haven't done the rest of the big 3).


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## adrenalinejunkie (Oct 17, 2010)

Rkrajnov said:


> If the alt wasn't charging though wouldn't I be getting bad readings at the battery too? It seems like it's charging the battery fine and there is just a loss of voltage between there and the amps... but I don't really know enough to say conclusively that the alt isn't the problem. But like I said the battery is reading 14.5-15.3 (usually staying around 15.3 once the car has been running for a few minutes) when no music is playing (or even when the music is on at a low-moderate volume) so it seems to me the alt is doing its job.
> 
> As far as power wire, mine should be more than sufficient. I'm running 1/0 gauge back to the dist block and 4 gauge to each amp. The grounds for the amp are also 4 gauge and I upgraded the ground for the battery to 1/0 gauge (though I haven't done the rest of the big 3).



You bring up a good point, but it might be possible. I'm not a professional either, just throwing stuff out there. Have you tried disconnecting one of the amp's power and see if the voltage is still the same (low)?


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## Rkrajnov (Nov 22, 2010)

adrenalinejunkie said:


> You bring up a good point, but it might be possible. I'm not a professional either, just throwing stuff out there. Have you tried disconnecting one of the amp's power and see if the voltage is still the same (low)?


No, but I was actually thinking of trying this. I got some classes to go to right now, but I'll disconnect the amp giving me problems later and test the voltage on the other then to see if it's still reading low.


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## Rkrajnov (Nov 22, 2010)

Have had a really busy week and actually never got around to fooling with my amps, but I'm gonna try disconnecting the speaker amp tomm to see if my sub amp doesn't read normal when its powered alone. 

But want to bump this just to see if anyone else has any ideas to throw out there. If I can't get this figured out soon, I might just take it into a car audio shop.


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## MUGWUMP (Jan 29, 2012)

Rkrajnov said:


> Have had a really busy week and actually never got around to fooling with my amps, but I'm gonna try disconnecting the speaker amp tomm to see if my sub amp doesn't read normal when its powered alone.
> 
> But want to bump this just to see if anyone else has any ideas to throw out there. If I can't get this figured out soon, I might just take it into a car audio shop.


Do you have a distribution block? Have you seen if there's a drop before the amps? Have you inspected your power wire from the battery to the amps? How is everything wired? I apologize if you already covered this.


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## Rkrajnov (Nov 22, 2010)

MUGWUMP said:


> Do you have a distribution block? Have you seen if there's a drop before the amps? Have you inspected your power wire from the battery to the amps? How is everything wired? I apologize if you already covered this.


I do have a dist block. And I haven't tested for a drop before the amps. What would be the best way to do that with my multimeter (sorry I'm a n00b at this still so I want to make sure I'm doing everything right).

Also the battery has a 0 gauge wire running back to the dist block with 4 gauges going to each amp. The ground wires are all equivalant to the power wires.


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## MUGWUMP (Jan 29, 2012)

Rkrajnov said:


> I do have a dist block. And I haven't tested for a drop before the amps. What would be the best way to do that with my multimeter (sorry I'm a n00b at this still so I want to make sure I'm doing everything right).
> 
> Also the battery has a 0 gauge wire running back to the dist block with 4 gauges going to each amp. The ground wires are all equivalant to the power wires.


I'm also a stereo noob, but i think measuring the voltage from where the power wire goes into the block would be a start. Touch that wire and a solid ground. That should tell you if there's an issue with your power wire. I do hope you've got a fuse close to the battery.


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## Rkrajnov (Nov 22, 2010)

MUGWUMP said:


> I'm also a stereo noob, but i think measuring the voltage from where the power wire goes into the block would be a start. Touch that wire and a solid ground. That should tell you if there's an issue with your power wire. I do hope you've got a fuse close to the battery.


ya i got an inline fuse like a foot of wire from the battery. And thats what I figured, just wanted to make sure haha. I'll try to do that tomorrow and see what the results are.


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## Woosey (Feb 2, 2011)

Glass fuse? Measure before and after the fuse under the hood... Maybe a faulty fuse..


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## pauls4runner (Dec 28, 2011)

I would also check the voltage before and after the dist block. if both amps are seeing the same voltage issue, chances are, the problem is with something they have in common. The JL amp with r.i.p.s technology will go into protection mode under 11v and shut off. I dont know anything about your sub amp, it may not have the same technology. with you mentioning the grounds are screwed into the trunk lid, I would redo the grounds to the bottom of the trunk (trunk floor)


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