Audio question

Ford SportTrac Forum

Help Support Ford SportTrac Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Dec 26, 2003
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Location
miami, FL
i need some help with my audio system. My speakers and sub are all connected to my AMP. When i am listening to the radio i can hear the music but as soon as the bass tries to bump the speakers go quite and then come back on....... Does anyone know what i can do to fix this problem?
 
sounds like the amp is clipping. The sub is drawing too much power from the amp. How many channels is the amp? I hope it is a 5 channel amp if you have 4 door speakers and a sub wired to it.....if not, that could be your problem.
 
What you can do is bridge 2 channels to run your sub and run all four speakers off the other 2 channels. The only drawback is you lose your fade control front to back.
 
You could also if you don't have one might think of adding a Capacitor to your amp set up to help the amp push the subs when the the bass notes require the extra juice that seems to be causing your amp to clip. I added one to my set up and no more clipping.
 
it has nothing with the amp requiring more power it has to do with the sub not getting anough power from the channel on the amp, what ever way it is wired now.



Adding a cap isnt going to up the amount of wattage the amp gives to the sub. If, lets say, the amp is putting out 250 watts to the sub, adding a cap wont make the amp put out 350 watts.....



A cap will store power for the amp so the amp does not put strain on your electrical setup during lower bass notes when a sub requires more power.........that is why adding a cap stops dashboard lights from dimming.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I suggest making the 4 channel strictly for your mids and highs and powering the sub off of it's own amp. That way your not running anything at an unsafe ohm load that may damage the speakers. If your interested I have an extra amp here, nothing too fancy but works great powering a 10" Rockford Fosgate Punch HE2 sub. It's a Koiiler 2 channel Bridgeable 800watt Amplifier.



[Broken External Image]:



Interested?
 
I never stated that the cap would add more watts to the amp or make it push more watts out the exits...A cap just stores power when i a bass note hits hard and pushes the amp to draw more power putting strain on the electrical system..........he seems to have the same problem I had...to many speakers hooked up to the amp (which in my case was also kicked up to bass boost 4) and when the bass hit strained the amp and the electrical system. The subs trying to hit max bass plus the other speakers hooked up cause the amp to clip/power down somewhat due lack of electrical power pushing the amp to run at full capacity. Placed a cap on the amp and not only did I get cleaner, more solid bass because the amp is not being robbed of electrical juice to run nor being strained but no more clip/powering down . I'm pushing two 12s with some 6 X 9's from one 4 chanel amp.. All this was done at best buy, when I was having the similar problem I took it back to the bestbuy had them check the amp and the tech stated not enough juice was being provided to the amp when the bass hit due to all the 6X9's also utillizing power from the amp, and all the other electrical equipment I had on the truck (neon lights, stobe lights, CB radio, Frequency Scanner and such) in other words electrical stain. A Fosgate cap was installed and now even cranking the amp up on the boost, the head deck bass boast and volume in the 30's the amp doesn't clip/power down because whenever the bass hits, the amp has enough juice from the cap to operate, push the subs and the 6X9's without any stain on the electrical system. --This is what happened to me and how my problem was fixed..........it may or may not be what is the issue wiith his problem. Another solution may be to run mids and highs of one amp so as to not be running anything at an unsafe ohm load that may damage the speakers and get another amp to run the subs only.---
 
Last edited by a moderator:
OFF TRAC, your correct but it is configured incorrectly anyway. I also don't think Best Buy should even be mentioned in a conversation about proper audio installs. I worked for Next Level Auto Acessories here in South Florida and have had several customers come in because of Best Buy's mistakes.
 
Brandon64, all my prior audio set ups have been done by audio only speciallty stores such as the one you used to work for. The only reason I went to Best Buy was because my girlfriend and her family gave me a gift card from there for my b-day and I was sort of low on cash since I had just dropped a down payment on the ST, yet I was already looking to switch out the stock audio system and I figured huh....lets use that gift card for something I want at this moment.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well you know what, your happy with it right? Then that's all that counts. :) What exactly did you get anyway, just out of curiousity?
 
the sub had been working for like 9 months and then one day it just stopped..... I dont know how to rewire it to fix it. I would like the amp but i dont have the money for it thats why i didnt buy two amps when i did my first setup
 
Top