Stereo Cutting out

[FourWinnsLC]

I recently installed two 6x9's and two 6.5's JBL speakers, a self amped Sub(JBL) with a 600 watt Rockford Fosgate amp and a newer sony Radio (Forget model) I am having issue's with the speakers cutting out, I bought the rockford fosgate amp for the single fator that the amp was going to be in the cuddy where it's going to get hot. After reading ten thousand reviews and forums the rockford fosgate amp handled the heat better. My thinking is I am not getting enough power. It does not matter if the boat is running or not. any idea's? I know I am not the only one that uses a set up similar to this one.

Right now the boat has two batteries (Deepcell Starting batteries) The thought was to wire everything into one battery and use one battery while the boat was off so you could still have one battery to start the boat in case the one playing the radio went dead.

I appreciate any information.

Also I used 4 gauge wire to wire the amp.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[mark1905]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

Ok, so let me get a clear picture of your setup here.

You basically have two amps that you're running here. One being the self powered JBL sub which has an integrated amp and the other being the Rockford Fosgate amp.. correct? Please forward on the RF amp model number.

- Do you have two seperate 4 AWG cables going to the RF amp and the JBL sub? If not, how do you have the power wiring?

- When you say the speakers cut out, do ALL speakers cut out including the sub?

- How often/when does it cut out? After playing for a while or just randomly? How long does it cut out when it does and what does it take to get it to come back on? Are you power cycling the deck or does it just choose to come back on?

- When the speakers cut out, do you see any "protect" LEDs come on the RF amp? Does the deck stay illuminated? When you touch the amp(s), are they burning hot to the touch?

 

[FourWinnsLC]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

Thanks for your reply I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability.

You basically have two amps that you're running here. One being the self powered JBL sub which has an integrated amp and the other being the Rockford Fosgate amp.. correct? Please forward on the RF amp model number

Correct, The amp is a T-400 4 channel... a 400 watt amp not 600 like I first said.

Do you have two seperate 4 AWG cables going to the RF amp and the JBL sub? If not, how do you have the power wiring?

I apologize for my ignorance here but I don't know what a AWG cable is, But I will explain the wiring.
We ran 4 gauge power wire to the sub to the battery, and then 4 gauge power wire to the amp to the battery.
Then we ran RCA cable to the radio to the amp, and speaker wire from the amp to the speakers.
Since the Sub had an internal amp we just ran RCA cable to from the sub to the radio to give it signal.
I hope this helps, as you can tell this is not even close to my area of knowledge, but I am learning a ton...

When you say the speakers cut out, do ALL speakers cut out including the sub?

Im really not sure if the radio cuts out or the speakers cut out, but all of the speakers cut out, including the sub.

How often/when does it cut out? After playing for a while or just randomly?

It cuts out when ever you turn the radio up to a certain point, which is not very loud. Or you will be listening to a song everything will be fine and the next song might have more bass to it and when the bass thumps it will cut everything out as well. It does not matter if the radio has been on for hours and seconds.

How long does it cut out when it does and what does it take to get it to come back on?

It just cuts out for a few seconds and normally I turn the volume down but it will come back on its own.

Are you power cycling the deck or does it just choose to come back on?

I am not turning the deck on and off, I think thats what you mean by power cycling.

When the speakers cut out, do you see any "protect" LEDs come on the RF amp? Does the deck stay illuminated? When you touch the amp(s), are they burning hot to the touch?

I dont remember seeing any Protect LED's and the amp but now that you broght it to my attention I will pay more attention to it, The deck does stay illuminated, and as far as i k now the amp is not getting Hot but i will pay more attention to that also.

Thank you for your questions and imput I greatly appreciate it.

 

[mark1905]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

First.. AWG = American Wire Gauge. Just shorthand for wire gauge.

Now.. interesting. What is strange here is that you have two independent components that are wired separately but both are cutting out simultaneously and dependent on the volume level. Since both are cutting out, logically we have to look at what factors they're both sharing.. which is the stereo input and the actual battery power.

You said previously that this happens regardless of whether or not the engine is on, right? As long as you are SURE that all of your battery, alternator, charging, electrical, ect connections are tight and good and clean.. then to me that rather rules out lack of power. 4AWG cable is perfect and plenty to supply everything, and a good running alternator will be supplying everything with 14.5v. Speaking of which.. are you having any other charging issues? Are your batteries always charged and all of your other accessories are acting fine? If you're curious and you have a multi-meter, you may want to check what voltage your alternator is putting out by putting a test lead on the charging post and the ground post of the battery.

The only other thing that both items share is the deck itself. Personally, I don't trust Sony's for anything.. as they're known to be unreliable in marine environments and do all kinds of things. You don't have the internal amp wires hooked to anything and they're taped/crimped up and not dangling or touching anything, right?

What I would do next is this: When everything cuts out again, look on the amp(s) and make sure that the lights are still illuminated. If everything looks normal.. then.. I would honestly suspect a defect in the deck itself.

 

[FourWinnsLC]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

Thank you for the information,
I will be double checking if both are actually cutting out at the same time when i was reading your question in my head I was kind of back and forth if they were both cutting out or not, I asked my wife and she said she thought they were both cutting out also, so i went with it.

And yes it does it whether the engine is on or off. As far as i know everything else works fine and the alternator seems to be working, though I will be checking.

You might be on to something about the deck it self being bad as it was a display......

 

[FourWinnsLC]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

Since your a little familar with my set up here do you think i need a bigger alternator? Such as a 100amp or 105 amp instead of the 65 amp in the boat now?


I've been reading several threads on this site that say they are adding bigger alternators

My thought was to buy either the Minkota onboard battery charger and plug it in every night, and just let the charger tend the battery. http://store.minnkotamotors.com/products/482243/MK_210D_(2_bank)

In the future I plan on installing a Marine coast guard radio, and somesort of fishfinder/chart plotter.

 

[mark1905]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

Nah.. for now, you're fine. Stock will do you right. Get to the bottom of your charging/amp issues and go from there.

The main thing that you need to determine is whether or not ALL speakers are cutting out simultaneously.. and whether or not the amps are working when it does. If all amps are on.. and all speakers are not working.. I would say it's the deck.

 

[FourWinnsLC]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

Ok, first of all Just the Speakers are cutting out not the Sub.
Second of all yes the Protect light was coming on.
In order to fix this we had to adjust several settings in the radio (Deck) (Im going to slaughter this) The thing that helped the most was while in blue tooth mode we turned down the amount of volume you could control from the ipod via bluetooth. We also toned down the bass to 80 DB with a slope of 3 instead of 100 Db slope of 1. All of this makes no sense to me. we were able to get up to volume 45 out of 50. Before we could not get to volume 14.

What I really need now is to find a audio guy to fine tune my amp and radio....
I don't know what that stuff means or does...

 

[mark1905]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

WAIT! I think I know what is going on here.

The protect light only comes on if the amp is stressed out, obviously. This would usually only be in cases of speaker wires shorting out but on some amps can come from either overheating and/or insufficient voltage.

If adjusting your bass made a difference on that RF amp.. then I'm betting the issue here is that you are trying to run that amp in full range mode instead of high crossover mode. You should have the crossover set to "high".. there should be a switch on the front of it by the dials. You should set the crossover frequency to around 200hz.. there will be a dial right by that switch.

Although.. the protect light thing does make me wonder about your speaker wiring. Double check everything to make sure that something isn't vibrating together once you turn it up. Make extra sure that everything looks good and is connected well.

Try that and see what happens.

 

[FourWinnsLC]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

Great Information I will Defiantly be looking into this.
Thank you once again.

 

[FourWinnsLC]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

Ok finally got a day off that is nice, i dont see any cross over frequency button, im on the boat now and wished i brought the manual to the amp. I think i have the rear and front gains set well. Theres a 3-way switch labeled LP, AP, And Hp that i dont know what they do. There currently on HP. But i do have the radio sounding fairly good.

 

[Piece715]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

LP = Low Pass
AP = All Pass
HP = High Pass

Mark knows what he's talking about when it comes to stereos... Take a look here http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=546534

This is a thread he created in response to a PM i sent him for tuning my system. May help ya out. Also you should be able to pull up the manual to that amp on the RF site. I know i brought mine up on my iphone all the time through the clarion site

 

[BajaCustoms]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

Sounds to me like you need to check real close to the wiring of the speakers that are running on the Rockford amp. I have been in the audio buisness for 14 yrs and a very common mistake that i find in customer installs is the improper wiring to amps. Our shop is a Rockford dealer and these amps are dang near bullet proof the amp you have is 2ohm stereo stable meaning with the proper wiring you can actually run up to 8 speakers off of this amp. Not sure where you are located but you should be able to get on Rockfords website and find a reputable dealer near you that will check it out for you. Good luck and happy booming!

 

[BobGinCO]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

I had this problem a lot with the RF 400a4 in my car...in the summer.

When it gets too warm, it goes into thermal cutoff. It switches off until it cools back down.
The louder you turn it, the hotter it runs.

Try installing a 12v fan to cool it.

 

[FourWinnsLC]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

LP = Low Pass
AP = All Pass
HP = High Pass

Mark knows what he's talking about when it comes to stereos... Take a look here http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=546534

I hope I did not insinuate that mark does not know what hes talking about, he has helped me a ton and I am very appreciative.

 

[FourWinnsLC]

Re: Stereo Cutting out

Had a friend that works with amps on a daily basis that is an authorized dealer of RF amps check my wiring out, it was correct.

I have... wait WE have the Radio sounding damn good, My next question is.... The friends family think its ok to turn the radio all the way up which is 50, well at 45 it starts cutting out. How do i adjust the amp so it wont cut out at 45.

Do i play with the cross over of 200 like mark suggested do i go lower? 150? Or is it in the Gains.

Also the Radio I have you can adjust several settings.

Ive been reading the Amp user Manual and reading marks reply to peice715's PM they both suggested tuning each channel by it self, Which i did not do, therefore when i get time I am going to do each channel by its self instead of a whole.

Also Piece715 thank you for posting marks reply on your PM question The Remote gain knob for the sub woofer is a great idea and i plan on doing it.