Hey all. I just hooked up my new sound system and it sounds pretty sick! BUT!!! I'm having a problem!! Whenever i turn my volume over 21 my sub turns off.. just the sub.. The amp is still on and running but you don't hear the sub.. Now i've checked all of my wires over 10 times and everything is solid( grounds are good, power is good ) all my my wires are over sized so i doubt its a lack of current..
I'm running a 1000W RMS kenwood amp( 2 ohm ) and a kicker L5 solo baric 12" in a ported box.. it hits really hard and sounds great! but i don't get why it is cutting out..
The other day i had the battery charger on the battery and saw my cap go up to 16.. LOL.. when that happened i was able to turn the volume up to 30... any thoughts on what the problem might be? Is my amp ****ed?? ANY help on this matter would be greatly apreciated
also the amp is not going into protect mode/ turning off.. :S
battery ( power )wire 4 guage
ground wires 4 guage
amp to sub wires 9 guage
hope this is enough info.. i can take pics if needed and prob take a video too.. but hopefully the problem is more basic than i think it is.. thanks a lot in advance!!
--Patrick
Probably got your gains set too high, and the amp is freaking out.
that's what i thought too! Did a bit more research and found out the amp is underpowering the sub. The guy who i bought the amp off off lied on RMS ratings.. SO basicly my amp was going into safe mode/clipping. Thus me spending 400 bucks on a kicker amp to match the sub! problem solved. mods close
Which Kenwood is it? I have one that is "1000w" but is 500w RMS @ 2Ohm. I would blame the amp, your wiring is large, and I have had 1100W RMS on the charging system and it didnt give me too much trouble....dimmed a bit tho.
Good amps arn't cheap, I've been through a couple of them recently, im very pleased with the kenwood amp I picked up. Cost me 110ish, has 500w RMS and makes my MTX's nice and clear.
http://cws7.crutchfield.com/S-3Vi1jCxPdll/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?I=113KAC8103 Is what I have.... anything like yours?
Underpowering something won't make it go into protect.
mark, your amp is a lot newer than mine and has a higher rms rating. My amp is only rated for something like 250 watts RMS and my sub needs something like 600 rms.. I dunno why is going into protect/ not working But i know it's way underpowered. Here is the amp and sub i have.
amp
http://www.sell.com/2HBK5
sub
http://www.sell.com/2HBK5
since underpowering it wont make it go into protect. any idea on what would cause this problem? thanks guys
the link for the sub is a 4 ohm.. just noticed.. mine is 2 ohm. BUMP for more answers on mysterious problem. lol
Is the amp 2 ohm stable? If not... that's your problem.
How high are your gains set?
if your sub is D2 u need to run that amp at 1ohm, if it is stable at 1ohm..
the amp is 2 ohm stable but it's only rated for 260 rms and the sub is rated for 600 rms.. would this play a huge role in the problem? and the gains are set a bit lower than half
sounds like a 1 ohm load on a 2 ohm amp, from my experience. Had 2 kicker l7's d4, both wired down to 2 ohms pulling off a 2 ohm stable amp and at a certain level the amp would cut out.
try changing ur HU setting to reduce the bass.
I think I found it.
Correct me if I'm wrong on your wiring, but you've probably got the speaker wired to the left channel on the amp and got the bridging switch on the amp turned on, correct?
Normally, that would be the right way to do it, but your Kenwood amp is only designed to handle a 4 ohm load when it's bridged, according to the manual. What you're seeing is the amp shutting down due to the impedance of the speaker being too low. It's going into protection. You need a speaker that's 4 ohms for it to be stable.
It's nothing wrong with the equipment or your install, just a compatibility thing. My info comes from the manual, which I downloaded here:
http://inform3.kenwoodusa.com/Manuals/kac929.pdf
If I'm wrong, then I'm just as curious as you are...
Hope this helps.
aqua.. from what your saying. I think that is correct. Other members on an audio forum have said the same thing.. that the amp is only stable for a 2 ohm load.. my sub is dual coil and wired for a 2 ohm load.. and it being bridged causes it to be 1 ohm? So i'm running this thing way crazy huh? here's a quick msn paint of how the sub is wired and how i have it wired at the amp ( bridged )
so.. if i had no choice but to use this amp until my new one comes in.. is there a way to properly wire it to work for now?
if someone wants to throw some proper MS paint wires in there to solve this problem
Patrick,
Looking at what you've drawn for your wiring, it looks to be already wired in series, which would give you the maximum impedance. BUT, when I cruised Kicker's site, they list both a 2 ohm and a 4 ohm DVC version of that woofer, meaning that you'd be running 1 ohm at this point (which doesn't match what we're seeing...you should be able to easily change that). So, to make things somewhat easier for you, and to spare you my shoddy art skills, I've given you the direct link to the owners manual for the 2008 L5 woofer. The woofer in your box is the VS12L5, which looks like it might be a purpose-built version of the L5 sub, but you should be able to use the same manual, or at least gain something from it. Hope this helps!
Manual is here:
http://www.kicker.com/06/tech-support/manuals/manuals/2008/2008%20L5%20Sub%20c01%20web.pdf
woah! thanks for the quick response! I apreciate that you're taking the time to give me the proper tools to inform myself on the problem in hand. After reading both manuals i fully see that the two are nto compatible lol. i can't see a proper way to actually run the two. I guess i'm just gonna wait for MR.USPS to show up with my new. Hopefully that will fix my problems for now.. Until i buy another amp for the speakers.. then i'm sure i'll run into more problems lol. thanks a lot for you help aqua! if there is a way for me to run this properly for the next few weeks.. please whip out your ms paint skills
lol thanks man.
To save me the effort of pulling out MSPaint, do me a favor and drop me a personal email with a pic of the back of the speaker if you can, and I'll grab a photo editor and draw lines on it showing you where your speaker wires should go to make it work safely. That should at least get you some sound without shutting down the amp. And, it's no problem at all. I'm just glad to help you out and help you save some equipment, dude.
