Car Audio Technical Discussions Dedicated to the technical side of Car Audio.

Amp question from a total newbie

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old 10-13-2010, 12:41 AM
  #1  
0 Watt CAFz'r
Thread Starter
 
LightSkinBro's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 7
Amp question from a total newbie

Let me start off by saying that I am in no way an expert at car audio this is all fly by the edge of my seat type of stuff for me.

I recently tried wiring my factory head unit to my MTX JH300 amp. When I turned on the head unit the sub started playing just fine but when I turn the volume down on the head unit the sub still keeps playing at the same volume. Even with the head unit turned down to zero the sub is still playing.
Has anyone encountered this type of situation and if so can you tell me what I need to do to fix this?

Thanks in advance for any kind of help.
LightSkinBro is offline  
Old 10-13-2010, 09:03 AM
  #2  
0 Watt CAFz'r
 
LOOSEWHEEL's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 29
Does your factory head unit have RCA pre-outs? Seems this amp does not have any speaker level inputs. If so, did you wire the speaker wires to the RCA inputs of this amp???
LOOSEWHEEL is offline  
Old 10-13-2010, 12:18 PM
  #3  
0 Watt CAFz'r
Thread Starter
 
LightSkinBro's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 7
The factory head unit has right line out +/- and left line out +/- but not RCA pre out.
The speaker wire is hooked up to the RCA inputs of the amp!
LightSkinBro is offline  
Old 10-13-2010, 12:23 PM
  #4  
0 Watt CAFz'r
 
greggerge8's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 1
make sure smart engage is on and recheck your wiring.
greggerge8 is offline  
Old 10-13-2010, 01:00 PM
  #5  
2000 Watt CAFz'r
iTrader: (2)
 
fresh1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 2,063
Originally Posted by LightSkinBro
The speaker wire is hooked up to the RCA inputs of the amp!
uhhh, why?

heres what I'd suggest you do. buy some real rca cables, short ones will work depending on the location of the amp and rear speakers, and get a line out converter, which will create an rca preout type thing from the signals being sent to your speakers. then you hook that up to your amp with the rca cable and then run the sub to the amp. the LOC basically splices into your factory speaker wires to get a signal and create an rca jack kinda thing. I've used these things before, and for A head units with no sub preouts or B saving time and using factory head units because the harness to wire up an aftermarket deck costs like 150+
fresh1 is offline  
Old 10-13-2010, 01:19 PM
  #6  
2000 Watt CAFz'r
iTrader: (3)
 
veeman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 2,455
Sounds like you have a high voltage input (speaker level) going directly to a low voltage input (amp's rca inputs), so even when the volume is very low on the deck, there's still sufficient voltage to drive the amp to high levels of output. Do as the guys above suggested and get a line out converter. Just out of curiosity, how did you hook up the speaker wires to the rca inputs, did you splice them onto rca connectors and then plugged those into the amp?

Last edited by veeman; 10-13-2010 at 01:26 PM.
veeman is offline  
Old 10-14-2010, 12:25 AM
  #7  
0 Watt CAFz'r
Thread Starter
 
LightSkinBro's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 7
Thanks for all the replies

greggerge8.. I was wondering about the SMART ENGAGEHow does that effect the signal I am sending to the amp. I don't think I have smart engage turned on.. so I will definitely try that.

freash1.. I meant to say the line out from the head unit is hooked up to the RCA inputs of the amp. I actually am using a line out converter.

I am going to hopefully try and take a second crack at it this weekend and report my results.
I have a feeling it's that damn smart engage switch.

Thanks again guys for all the replies!
LightSkinBro is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
bikethis
Enclosure Design & Construction Help
23
10-13-2009 01:36 AM
TargeT
Install related
4
01-28-2007 08:13 PM
neon_sinz
General SPL
5
03-29-2006 12:40 PM
Muckaluck
General Discussion
6
02-09-2004 01:21 PM



Quick Reply: Amp question from a total newbie



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:29 PM.