JAPCAB

Hi guys,

Wondering if some of you can give me some advice.

I bought a new sound system for my car, all soundstream equipment sold by an authorized sound stream outlet. They installed it for me.

I have one sub, an amp for the sub, a set of splits and a seperate amp for the splits.

I go and pick up my car. The guy in the shop demo's the system for me, adjusting the bass/treble etc. Cool i thought. He told me that the speakers need to break in so take it easy on them; i asked him ok then whats a safe level that i can play them at so i dont damage them, he tells me volume level 30-31 on my headunit.

He said once the speakers break in that it will go much louder, and 'the gain has only been turned up 1/4'. I said so 30-31 is ok to break in the speakers until we get it retuned in two weeks? and he said yes.

Two days later, i'm listening to music on the way home, at volume level 30. The front left speaker all of a sudden goes flat. It still plays, but at about 1/3 as loud and clear as it played before it cut out. I get home and check all the wiring. everyting seems intact. I contact my car audio supplier. he says look bring it in and they'll have a look. I said ok then saturday is the earliest i can come in so i'll see you then.

So i turn the balance to the right speaker, as the left one is playing very soft and flat music. The next day after the first one blows, again on the way home from work, i hear the music sort of cut out, and go really flat and not as loud. I smell a burning smell this time as it was the drivers side speaker.

I get home and call my car audio supplier again. I told him what happens, he said bring it in. I told him what if the speakers are blown? I am not paying another cent, i paid top dollar for top notch equipment and you guys have professionally installed it. He said if the speakers are blown then its from over driving them, playing it too hard. I go yeah but i didn't because i followed your recommendation of 30-31 volume level. He goes bring it in and they need to send the speakers back to soundstream. I told him that if soundstream aren't going to replace them, then they will be supplying me with a new pair.

Also i have noticed that my sub woofer is not producing as much bass anymore either!! its probably running at about 1/3 of what it was running at during the first 2 days before i had a problem.

What should i do? Anyone know what the problem might be? Someone suggested it might be a power problem??? I'm running 1 900W rms sub, 900W rms amp for the sub, soundstream tarantula splits and a 480W amp for the speakers, and a 1.2 farad capacitor.

jwa4378

burning smells definitely are NOT good. What wattage are you running to the "splits" (components)? Did they replace any of the stock wiring? If you are running anything over say 50WRMS, they should have replaced the wiring. Please include in your response the WRMS rating of the amp (is the gain still at 1/4?), as well as the Gauge of wiring used (if any replaced). That smell might have been melting insulation.....smells like A$$.

What impediance are the speakers / cabin speaker amp? This might be the "cutting" in and out you experience.....load too low for amp. Have you taken any voltage readings to make sure the amps are getting what they need? A total of 1380W (if that is RMS) is a LOT of wattage....that sucks a LOT of power.

John

JAPCAB

the splits are soundstream tarantula 150W speakers, 2ohm impedance. The amp is soundstream XTA480.2, which runs 240x2 @ 2 ohm, 120 x 2 @ 4 ohm. Dont ask me what they set it to, and i dont know how to check the setting on the amp.

sub - 900W rms tarantula, dual 2 ohm voicecoils. sub amb - 900W soundstream amp, ega900d. 900W @ 1 ohm load. I was told the sub was at 1/4 gain to wear in the sub.

When the first speaker went, i took off the door trim and checked to make sure wiring was ok. What i did notice was that from the speaker to the crossover was new wires, but they didnt' use new wires to go through the doors, they just joined new wires up to the stock wires which go thru the door obiviously to the amp. I suspect this was to 'save time' during the install. When i took my system for a professional install i assumed that they would change all the wires.I asked the guy 'dont you normally change these wires? they are so thin. He told me that thats ok, that wont be a problem.

With voltage settings, amp settings - i have no idea. I took this to get it professionally installed and i assumed they were experts and knew what they were doing. obiviously not.

My first impression was that the stock wires through the door hadn't been replaced was causnig the problem, but the guy assured me that its ok they dont normally change those

would appreciate any more feedback which will arm me with info to get these bastards!

JAPCAB

is 1.2 farads enough to support 1200W RMS?

i wanted to run the sub at 900W rms,

and the splits at 150RMS each channel.

jwa4378

They probably did not run stock wiring to the amp, as there is not enough of it (stock wiring only extends from HU harness to the doors). Check the Gauge at the terminals to the amp.

As far as saying that its OK to not change them (I believe) is incorrect. I will defer to the experts (Darkknight1999, PJK3, etc.) on this one. I think you are supposed to be running at LEAST 16-18G wires (safely). NFRs2000NYC really knows about this stuff, as he has melted wires in the past, and knows the thresholds (for fun, of course ). I think the stock wires are like 22-24AWG wires (which is TINY to say the least). I have heard of these wires getting warm to the touch at 100WRMS. If they are running 240WRMS, they might just melt.

(edit: I just did a quick search and came up with this for wire sizes. Modifry and Macgyver really know their stuff, as they are Electrical Engineers)

Wire size thread

As far as the Cap goes.....it is debated on whether they are even needed. Some say yes, some say they are paper-weights (not getting into that one). I think that up to 800WRMS you are fine, then a 1F cap is usually the norm. 1.2 should be enough for you application. That would not cause the funky sound, though. If it was too small, you would just notice things starting to dim when cranked up . I am not a cap expert either, though.

If the speakers are blown, its their fault. They installed (and probably recommended) an amp that was too big for them, and they obviously could not handle it. If the gain was not up, they were not seeing all 150WRMS, so wattage should not be the issue.

The more I read this, the more I am stumped. There is no real way to determine what the problem is without physically seeing it in person, and testing it.

john

PJK3

[QUOTE=jwa4378,Nov 17 2005, 07:10 PM]
They probably did not run stock wiring to the amp, as there is not enough of it (stock wiring only extends from HU harness to the doors).

JAPCAB

I took it to the audio supplier and the problem was the tweeters were stuffed; so thats why it was sounding funny. This is my first car audio system, i didn't realise that the tweeters did so much.....i thought that they only did a little bit but without them the music sounds shitty and flat because its just the woofer working. (DOH!)

They have checked it out and will give me new tweeters. I believe they did some sort of retune because it sounds so much better and clearer.

At the moment just waiting for new tweeters, and yesterday i was driving and the sub has gone dead, must be a loose connection. I checked what i could but i couldnt' manage to find the cause. I wish i had a multimeter...its probably about time i bought one.

Luckily it was a lot worse than i thought and the shop looked after me, i guess i just wanted some extra info incase they didnt' want to play ball. I posted on another car audio forum and a soundstream representative called the shop and asked them what was going on so that helped too.

jwa4378

Phil - I just recommended replacing the wires, because he said he was experiencing a "burning smell". The only thing I could think of that would cause that sensation would be a melted wire. As far as replacement goes.....you can run a million watts through any gauge wire....I think it all depends on the number of amps in the signal.

JAPCAB - That would do it.....if the tweets were not working, there would be an obvious flatness to the sound. Quite nice of the Soundstream Rep to call on your behalf.

As far as the sub cutting out.....is the amp still getting power (power light on)? When the amp is running, is the "clip" or "distort" light blinking? If it is blinking, the amp is clipping, and probably is going into "protect" mode, hence cutting power to the sub to protect itself from frying. Are the speaker wires still connected at the box and the amp? Do you by chance know how they attached the wires to the sub INSIDE the box? With 900 watts running to a sub, they had better be soldered, not clipped. Make sure wires are attached to terminal on the box (if it is a terminal design, instead of a straight through design).

Once we know if the amp is getting power (and staying on), it will help narrow the search down for the trouble area.

John

MacGyver

Power is current squared multiplied by resistance. Wire has a finite resiatance (often listed as ohms/foot)... 10 guage, for example, has roughly 1mohm of resistance per foot. A million watts through 10 guage would be equivalent to about 32,000 amps. That 10 guage will literally vaporize itself at a couple of hundred amps.

jwa4378

AH. I was unsure about that. I thought that watts were similar to Volts (apparently they are completely different). You can send as many Volts through your body as you would like and have it not harm you. But once you get up in the amperage, you are dead (Tesla Coil, for example). I new a wire's power handling capabilities had more to do with amps than volts. I just didnt know how to calculate amps.

Thanks for pointing that out.

John