Why Are My Subs Popping

[Keesh]

i think somethings wrong with my amp! everything runs fine but when i turn the gain up more than half way, its will start letting distorted pops out of the subs, not distorted bass from the song, but random pops.. it also does this when i turn the bass on the head unit right up..

another thing its started doing is playing the same sound that the head unit makes when its loading a cd through the subs. i have made sure no wires are touching, i even bought new RCA's and yes my wires are separate from the RCA's any ideas, ive tried my subs in another car and theyre ok.. so u think my new pioneer head unit is on the blink or my amp is kicking up a stink?

[michael.walker88]

not sure if this will help
dont turn your gain right up find that distortion point then go back just a fraction and im not sure by wat you mean by noise like disc loading but if you want really good sound after adjusting your gain the way i said on your head unit set your base to either -1 or -2 then put your treble to +6 this will give you really clear sound providing you have good qaulity speakers and they are are rated higher wattedge then you amp you should be able to turn it rite up and not get any distortion

if you amp is say a thousand watts peak power 4 channel than that means my rms rating is round about 750 watts but back to peak if each channel is then capable of 250 watts peak each then you need to run 300-400 watt speakers thi will stop the amp blowing it self and the speakers and should not distort them hopefully this will help

[Brycestro]

i know the popping noises your talking about and they're not fun. I believe it's usually a case of a speaker wire grounding somewhere. the best suggestion i can give is to either replace/tape up the wire running from your amp to speakers/subs that are making the noise to be triple sure nothing is touching. If this doesn't work, get back to us

[StoneX]

It'll probably be the Pioneer head unit as it is really easy to damage the RCA's on them. You can test a couple of ways... Disconnect head unit completely and measure the resistance, with a multimeter, from the chassis of the head unit to the outer section of the RCA sockets on the back. It should be short circuit. The other way is to leave it all connected and get a bit of wire and link the chassis to the outer section of one of the RCA sockets. Just touch the wire to it and see if the fault goes away.

If you work out that it is that as the problem, take head unit back or to Pioneer in Mulgrave and get it fixed

[Keesh]

yer i need to make it clear that its not distorted music.. its just when the bass reaches a certain level it starts to "pop" almost like when u touch rca terminals on a home stereo but not quite..

It'll probably be the Pioneer head unit as it is really easy to damage the RCA's on them. You can test a couple of ways... Disconnect head unit completely and measure the resistance, with a multimeter, from the chassis of the head unit to the outer section of the RCA sockets on the back. It should be short circuit. The other way is to leave it all connected and get a bit of wire and link the chassis to the outer section of one of the RCA sockets. Just touch the wire to it and see if the fault goes away.

If you work out that it is that as the problem, take head unit back or to Pioneer in Mulgrave and get it fixed

so u think its a problem with ground to the rca's?

[Charg'd]

i had a similar problem, id say its your amp
when i put my monoblock in, the speakers would cut out at high bass, so i tried new amp & now i have no problem

[Keesh]

i had a similar problem, id say its your amp
when i put my monoblock in, the speakers would cut out at high bass, so i tried new amp & now i have no problem

yer thats crazy.. my amp has been running fine for ages and was really good.. like blew my mates out of the water.. thats y im having trouble giving up on it cause it ran everything so good.. i dont remember doing anything to it that would cause it to start playing up.. the only thing ive done is change my front speakers, which are running off the HU so i dont think that would do anything:S my mates are too scared to let me try there amps incase i blow one up.. its either the rear out on my HU (which i dont think cause rear speakers work fineand dont pop) or the amp itself.. it happens when i turn the bass right up on the HU too.. almost like the amp is shorting out with more power.. but theres no protection warning.. im so lost

[Charg'd]

yer thats crazy.. my amp has been running fine for ages and was really good.. like blew my mates out of the water.. thats y im having trouble giving up on it cause it ran everything so good.. i dont remember doing anything to it that would cause it to start playing up.. the only thing ive done is change my front speakers, which are running off the HU so i dont think that would do anything:S my mates are too scared to let me try there amps incase i blow one up.. its either the rear out on my HU (which i dont think cause rear speakers work fineand dont pop) or the amp itself.. it happens when i turn the bass right up on the HU too.. almost like the amp is shorting out with more power.. but theres no protection warning.. im so lost

shorting out under power? my did this too, im running 4 gauge wiring with a splitter, but new amp is fine

[StoneX]

yer i need to make it clear that its not distorted music.. its just when the bass reaches a certain level it starts to "pop" almost like when u touch rca terminals on a home stereo but not quite..

If they only "pop" once they reach a certain volume... You're overdriving the subs and the popping is them bottoming out.

so u think its a problem with ground to the rca's?

Check it how I explained above... That will tell you if it's the RCA grounds in the head unit.

[Keesh]

its not the subs i no that cause i had them pumping hard in my mates car.. it mite be the HU.. ill try bringing the amp and subs inside and running it off my cd player then i will no if its the amo or the hu.. cause i dont want to b bothered with taking the HU out atm.. i have a feeling it might be the rca's on the amp

[StoneX]

You can't test the amp and sub "inside" as you won't have a 12v supply that can supply enough current to run the amp at full power.

[Brycestro]

You can't test the amp and sub "inside" as you won't have a 12v supply that can supply enough current to run the amp at full power.

Yeah i was kinda wondering what pieces of equipment he must have lying around the house :P. Anyways, best of luck with your troubleshooting.

[Keesh]

You can't test the amp and sub "inside" as you won't have a 12v supply that can supply enough current to run the amp at full power.

i beg to differ.. or beg the differ i dunno wat it is that ppl say haha

i have a car battery as backup too..

[StoneX]

As soon as the amp pulls high current the battery voltage will drop as it can't discharge as quickly as the amp requires it. But anyway, good luck.

[Fletch_QLD]

It'll probably be the Pioneer head unit as it is really easy to damage the RCA's on them <...> leave it all connected and get a bit of wire and link the chassis to the outer section of one of the RCA sockets. Just touch the wire to it and see if the fault goes away.

Thanks to this thread, I have determined my problem is blown internal rca fuse on pioneer HU. Is it possible to fix myself ? HU is old piece of junk from wreckers (so can't claim warranty in good conscience), i just want to get it working as good as possible (at minimal cost) for the missus - a 'dodgy' fix would do the job - but I would rather continue to use the amp to drive the rear speakers.

[StoneX]

The dodgiest fix would be to permanantly connect a wire to the outside of the RCA connector to ground... In dodgy terms, solder to outside of RCA ring and solder or screw to head unit chassis.

[Fletch_QLD]

Thanks, I didn't want to go that way in case there was a risk of shorting something out long term. I have now done as suggested - but I actually fixed at the amp (no need to remove HU) soldered wire to rca lead and screwed other end of wire to earth point on amp. Thanks for the help.

[kopper69]

Otherwise you could just open the head unit and replace the fuse. Fuses would probably be a surface mount and cost a couple of $ to get.

[Keesh]

far out! i wrote this thread like 4 head units ago loll, it ended up being the rca's at the back of the head unit, in most cases you just have to open it up and bend the outer contacts back onto the circut bourd and give it a solder, ended up swapping amps and the stereo for something better so it worked out in the end