A little help, please

[iam_dale]

Ok, so here's the deal, and I've looked through the other threads, and didn't see anyone w/ this problem. It's been several months ago, but I changed out the HU in my TA, and added a sub that has it's own amp. The sub, the rears, and the speakers in the doors all work. However, I've lost sound in the factory subs that are by the rear seats. Now, my HU has some "2 zone" deal on it. When I turn that "On," my sub that I installed turns off, along w/ the rear speakers, but my factory subs come on and the door speakers stay on, as well. WTF?!?!?! Can someone help me out w/ this? And if my right up is clear as mud, then let me know and I'll clarify.

thanks
dale

[bigrondownhiller]

What hu do you have? Did it just start doing this or did you play with some settings and it started?

[iam_dale]

It's a Kenwood something or other...I can check the actual model later...but it's brand new, other than the fact I put it in about 3 or 4 months ago. It's done it the whole time, I just didn't worry about it too much at the time because my kids were ridin' w/ me quite a bit, and I didn't care that they weren't working since it was right by their head. Now, they rarely ride in my car, so I'd like to get it working.

dale

[bigrondownhiller]

Does it have a high pass or a low pass filter in it?

[iam_dale]

Yep....built into the head unit. Both as a matter of fact.

[bigrondownhiller]

Check to see if either are turned on. If the high pass is on to the factory subs you might not get any sound out of it. You could also pull the radio fuse and it will reset the hu to the factory settings. Have you looked in the manual to see what settings it has?

[iam_dale]

Not recently...not even sure where it's at right now....got boxes of christmas stuff hid everywhere.....I'll try to find the book and check....thanks

dale

[BowTied]

Did you buy a harness, did the HU hook right up, or did you have to do line by line connections?

I wonder about the channels going to where they are supposed to be going.

[iam_dale]

I just bought one of the converter harnesses that plug right into the factory harness. Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. It's like their wired in w/ the fronts, and theirs not enough power to run them all. The only time they come on is if I turn on the "2 zone" thing. But then, it turns off the rears....so I guess more of the power is going to the fronts and factory subs then. I still can't find my dayum book either. I'll probably just end up finding it on line.

dale

[BowTied]

Yeah, I can never find the dang manuals either....thank god for Google!

[ls1bandit]

You can easily fix this by wiring your stock speakers to the amp you have, or by adding a second amp for just your speakers, a nice RF 4 channel amp will do the trick, then you have 1 amp for your sub and 1 amp for your speakers.

[BowTied]

Yeah you can do an additional amp. But I don't like not getting something to work like it should. And sometimes in a case like this it means the Amp you have is not pulling it's weight. Depending on how it is channeled and how much power is available per channel.

I hate harnesses. I never use them. But I'm lucky I have Good Meters and an O-Scope, soldering irons, heat guns, etc. I can understand why guys want them. But I check every output from the HU.

When I was young we just did it the hard way. Get the Pwr, Gnds, and Antenna connection right (basing on the Destructions) and then turned the volume to like one and snooped the other lines testing on a cheap speaker.

(Always a good idea to rip crappy speakers out of things before you throw them away.)

[bigrondownhiller]

I just bought one of the converter harnesses that plug right into the factory harness. Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. It's like their wired in w/ the fronts, and theirs not enough power to run them all. The only time they come on is if I turn on the "2 zone" thing. But then, it turns off the rears....so I guess more of the power is going to the fronts and factory subs then. I still can't find my dayum book either. I'll probably just end up finding it on line.

dale

Just go to the website, they usually have them online.

[iam_dale]

You can easily fix this by wiring your stock speakers to the amp you have, or by adding a second amp for just your speakers, a nice RF 4 channel amp will do the trick, then you have 1 amp for your sub and 1 amp for your speakers.

They should still be running of the factory amp....I think, anyway. The only thing on the amp I added is the sub...and it's bridged mono w/ the lpf on.

[iam_dale]

Alright. So I turned all the filters to pass through, and I can get a little sound through the factory subs. I remember them hitting a lot harder w/ the factory HU, though. It's almost like the impedence is off or something. I guess I'll end up pulling the panels and checking the resistance at the speakers. Any other sugestions?

thanks
dale

[bigrondownhiller]

Where did you pull the signal for the sub amp from?

[BowTied]

If you haven't been in the speaker panels there is next to no chance of there being an impedance problem. I have never looked at the SPKR Z. (Z=Impedance) But it is at most 8-ohms. So the most power loss you'd have is 1/2. Which you should still hear them pretty well. 1/2 Power is not fully 1/2 "loudness" or sound pressure loss, and I think you would be able to hear it much better if this was the case.

I don't know if you might be htinking line (or wire) impedance could be a problem here...but this is doubtful as well if you were just working on the HU.

Can you tell me the Amp and model you have? I'd like to try and find the electrical specs and see if I can find anything that might cause this.

The only wiring thing I could think of is if the speakers are high Z AND they are connected in series...maybe. Or you have an isolated channel amp and the L and R have a + or - channels crossed.

Flying blind...I'm leaning towards an impednace problem...but it is due to your orig. spkrs are higher Z, your Woofer is low Z. And when bridged your output power to the channels is limited or bridged as well. This could in effect mean the orig. speakers are getting 1/4 power or perhaps more!

[iam_dale]

I'll go and get the specs and post'em up. I just want to make sure everyone understands my problem. The sub I actually installed works fine. It's in a box in the back. It has it own amp that is fed off the "sub-out" rca jacks on the back of the head unit. The factory subs are the ones I'm having trouble with. When I wired this HU up, I bought one of the factory harness conversion kits that just plug right up. The factory subs apear to be wired in series w/ the front speakers, that are, I think, wired to the "factory" amp that I've never touched. Like I said, the head unit was pretty much a plug and play deal.

thanks for all the help,
dale