ok so i thought my amp was bad and i bought a new one....
but this one does the same thing...

the amp gets power, but the box does not hit at all.
when i switch from radio to CD the amp loses power.

the RCA's and wires are all brand new rockford wires, the amp is a 1 year old 300W alpine v12, the headunit is an alpine(maybe 3 or 4 years old?), and the box is a 8 or 10" pioneer bandpass(also maybe 3 or 4 years old).

ANY IDEAS?

somthing is really, REALLY messed up with your system. try this: unplug the rcas from the amp and turn the system on. does the amp still power up? does the headunit still power up? somthing tells me there is a bad ground somwhere.

you mentioned that everything is fine when the radio is on but not when a cd is playing. there is no logical reason for this to happen. i cant even begin to think of reasons for this, unless somthing is messed up inside the headunit.

you also mention that when the sysetm IS working, the subs sound bad. do you think this might be a function of where the subs are placed inside the vehical? perhaps they dont have enough wattage? elaborate on this a little.


edit: if it is an 8" or 10" in a prefab bandpass, i can almost promise you that it will sound like crap no matter what. of course, this is just my personal opinion, but take into consideration what you are working with. if youve heard this same sub/box combo in another setting and approved of the results, it might be a problem further up the signal chain, but if you just "dont like it", it might be because of the sub/box itself.

it wasnt where the subs were places, or the wattage...they just sounded seriously distorted.

what should i have my headunits ground hooked up to, right now its hooked up to the metal thing that hold the headunit

edit: my other speakers never shut off, only the amp

have you checked to see if the remote line to your amp is connected properly?? maybe you tapped the amp remote wire to the power antenna wire by mistake. That would cause your amp to shut off when you listen to CD since the antenna goes down.. I made that mistake once or twice.

Did you just hook this system up or did it just mess up?? If the amp turns off when the CD player comes on maybe you hooked it up to the power antenna lead on your head unit rather than the remote. Hope that helps. :-)

elaborate more on the power antena lead? i wasnt sure which was the remote wire because there was 2 blue wires and a pink one. can i just try hooking up my remote to each one? that shouldnt cause any damage right?

blktalon96, you get a cookie!, lol ;)

in your particual headunit you have two blue wires one only send out powr when the radio is on, and therefore is only used for the antenna. the second blue wire sends power whenever the headunit is on, and is used as the remote turn-on for the amps. switch whatever blue wire you have it hooked up to now with the other one and problem solved.

so the subs sound distorted, correct? sounds like there might be an issue with settings. make sure the levels on your headunit are up and the gains on the amp are down (well, find a good balance between the two). if you have a set of bass-only RCA outputs, make sure the level on them is up at the headunit. make sure the crossover(s) are set at low-pass, and at roughly 80-100hz (whatever sounds best to you). one more thing: on a lot of pre-fab bandpasses the front section is constructed of plexiglass, and is usually not held on very well. ive seen many MANY of these types of boxes that rattle like hell because the plexiglass is bouncing all over the place. not sure if that helps but im just throwing things out there.

BTW, your headunit ground is fine, you can leave it there.

ok i changed the remote wire and thats fine now, but STILL no sound out of the subs...

rca cable: ||||||C-

when the - touches the input on the amp, the sub starts to work

but as soon as the C touches, it goes off...

wtf could be causing that?

my rcas are plugged into the sub pre-outs if that makes a difference...

does you amp have the setup to add speaker level input ...like to tap in to you speakers to get the signal... if so try it .... I've seen subs hit harder that way I forget the reason I remeber someone telling me that it was the rca outputs being bad or two other things that I can't remember I need to stop drinking

how many pre-outs are coming out of your headunit? sounds like you have a few, try using a different set or maybe try new RCA cables (i know you said they were new). if your amp doesnt have the speaker level input like pudd-dogg mentioned, you can try a line-out converter that taps into your speaker wires. but i wouldnt see why you would even need this if you have preouts in you headunit. but it is an option.

Have you messed with where you have the amp grounded? Sounds to me the amp is grounding out on the RCAs. Either that or your sub pre-out is screwed on your deck.

Ok, well first things first, get a voltmeter, rent one from someone or if you have one... Check the power and the ground at the amp. If nothing, either a fuse or ground is messed up. If you do have power, turn on your amp check the remote and the ground, you should have the same as the power and ground, 12v. If not, thats the problem, if both of those are in check... Could be RCA's or headunit.