I've been running my system for about 4 years now, but it started acting funny today. I've installed all of it myself and i do know a thing or 2 about systems.

So today I was playing my system at a medium volume, when my subs started getting loud/soft on a normally steady bass note. Its been happening all night and its very intermittent. They go from normal to really loud, switching back and forth with no pattern. My first thought was why can't I get that much output normally? lol

I'm trying to figure out what could be going on here. Both subs seemed to be playing still, although they're not completely isolated from each other so one could be driving the other, but it seems like they're playing like they were before. I checked a few of the connections, thinking that if one was loose it would be hopping back and fourth between 2 and 4 ohms. but that wouldn't make it louder?

What if there was a weak short somewhere, so it would be intermittently hitting 1ohm? making it louder, but putting my amp at a hefty risk should the short get better, dropping below 1ohm.

Has anyone seen this before? My fuse is on the small side for my amp so if it started drawing more current than it normally does it should just pop the fuse on me, but it hasn't.

Let me know what u think.

Edit: i guess the short theory wouldn't work because my amp puts the same power to 1 and 2 ohms.

 

Hey,need a little more info before we can try and diagnose the problem. What kinda amp? A mono 1 channel or a 2 channel in stereo or bridge? Are the subs in parallel, series or stereo?

 

its a Clarion DPX1800 800W Monoblock Amp with 2 4ohm subs in parallel. running a single set of RCAs in mono. also the deck has a sub level option, and when the sub is turned down to -15 it still seems to jump to the same "loud" level as it does when at -2. to me this points towards the deck a little more.

 

Same thing happened to me just about a month ago. It was the RCA tip. I had it angled too much and the wire started to cut in & out. I had to pull my whole system, seats and carpet out to replace the damn RCA.

Like Matt said.... Check the RCA's. Could be the inputs, but I bet if you wiggle the RCA's either behind the deck or at the amp. You'll find the culprit.

 

awesome, i'll have a look.