The other night my fiance's amp stopped pushing the subwoofers. It just cut out, and never cut back in. It still turns on, but it is not powering the subwoofers. I had him hook his subwoofer up to my stereo, so the subwoofer is not blown. I also had him hook up his RCA's to my stereo, those are fine too. Then I had him hook up his amp, in my car, to my subwoofers- no sound. Everything in my car is fine- remote, ground, power. My stereo works fine, so I know it's his amp, but this is where I'm lost. Why would it turn on, but not push the subs? This just really ticks me off if this amp is crap already. He's had it for MAYBE 3 months.
Oh, and in case anyone is wondering- it's a volfenhag zx-5003. I'm a Kenwood girl myself, so I'm kinda blaming the brand. If the amp is shot, does anyone know if this is something volfenhag is notorious for?
The output channel is probably toast.You can open it up and you'll probably see where it shorted out.Either way I'd replace it with a new amp of better quality because it's most definately not worth the hassle of attempting to have that amplifier repaired or repairing it yourself.What kind of budget do you have for an amplifier if you replace the damaged one?
if you think 3 months is a decent amount of time, you would probably consider my stuff ancient. mines going on 2 1/2 years and still works perfectly fine! it's not a decent amount of time in my opinion. see i'm not a kid that just doesnt care and blows up money. i have children i would rather spend that money on, especially around christmas! it ticks me off that this thing didn't even last a quarter of a year. i know somebody that has a rockford amp that lasted through 2 serious accidents, AND about 7 years of use, and its still going. that rockford may be a freak amp, but i expect even a crap xplode to last longer than 3 months.
the fuse on the amp is fine, that was the first thing i checked. i also had him open up the amp to see if anything was fried in there. everything looks perfectly fine and everything appears to be in tact. we wont be sending it to be repaired, and we probably wont be able to repair it ourselves because we cant even figure out what went wrong with it.
as for a budget for a new amp, we wont have any room until after the new baby, and after christmas. when we do have the money for it, i sure hope he doesnt try to get another volfenhag. he has a volfenhag sub (its actually been pretty good so far, doesnt hit as low as my typhoons though) so i dont know if hes going to *still* want to keep with the same brand.
You can find a good used amp that should power that Volfenhag sub for one hundred dollars.All you have to do is wait around a bit and there will be one for sale.Check on caraudio.com,there's usually lots of good deals over there and they get tons of traffic.
the one he got was only $90 on ebay (brand new, and including shipping), so we will probably take a look on ebay again. if anything, we can go to a place around here and get a pretty decent deal on a kenwood. i'll check out caraudio too, thanks for the tip
Have you checked the RCA's on both the amp (input) and reciever (output). My buddy had the same issue and he had put the RCA's in the wrong input.............ya never know
we had it hooked up to my car with my RCA's ... and we also tested his RCA's... its for sure the amp. also, it was working fine for however long- and then just stopped working. if that were the case, it wouldn't have worked in the first place.
well i sure am glad i dont come to a forum full of men on a regular basis. i guess guys just dont know how to respect other people. jackas.s.
M.S., if you would have read, you would have seen that i said that "i am a kenwood girl myself". first off, you could respect me and not put down the brand i prefer. and second off, you could respect "somedonniedude" and just not say anything instead of criticizing his nice offer.
as for kenwood, i have NEVER had any problems, they are not a crap brand. they are great quality for the price, my sh.it never fu.cks up. and its already lasted me long enough for me to be happy with it, and since i dont abuse it, it will continue to last. just like THE REST of my kenwood equipment. not everyone out there that wants to bump wants something that is going to cost them thousands of dollars, and blow out their ear drums. not everyone wants to have the "best" and be good enough for competition. so thank you, my kenwood system is a F.UCKING KICK A.SS SYSTEM for the $300 i paid for it. it pounds hard enough to wake up the neighbors, and i've only got 2 10's!
Someone's over protective about their brand... Usually us "men" just have a witching when a girl comes around and then we roast marshmallows so you are a lucky one.
Kenwood is a cheaper brand, maybe not garbage, but a cheaper brand. When compared to other companies you can get better for the same price. Maybe MS came across strong, but he's just a big teddy bear. So don't let it get to you...oh wait you did
All the threads posted were people being helpful and as soon you get a single bad one you freak out and hate all men...pu55y power all the way. I see artificial insemination in your future.
did i say i hate all men? i'm just not surprised that there isnt the same kind of respect at a mens forum compared to a womens forum. i've been reading a few different posts, and i've seen a couple guys post igorant replies.
yes, kenwood is affordable, but it's not crap. its just ridiculous that this guy just jumps ONLY to put down kenwood. i've been thankful for the help that the others have given me, but this guy cannot run around just blabbing whatever kind of crap he feels like without having to deal with somebody else having to disagree. if he has the right to say that, i have the right to say what i want to. so what if im over protective about my brand? im sure that if somebody came around and said your system was crap you would defend it too! i'll keep that in mind if i ever see any guys defending their brands. its pu55y power. k. thanks for clearing that one up!
as for artificial insemination, i think your prediction is wrong. lmao. buddy, im already pregnant and i have a 3 year old. no turkey baster for me. i like the real thing. but thank you so much for your attempt in predicting my future.
I'm enjoying how this thread has turned out.On another note...I don't really like Kenwood all that much either because of issues with their head units but...I guess on a budget you could run their products but there's better out there for the money.The only thing that I do like from Kenwood are their in dash DVD players/navigation units,those are very nice but they cost a nice buck too.
i dont have a kenwood head unit, but i do agree that you can buy better for the money, especially when it comes to excelon. i really like their subwoofers though, and the amp- it was the best i could find for the price. i bought my 10" typhoons off of ebay for $100 (for the pair, including shipping, and was 2 years ago.). so for $50 a brand new sub($120 in stores at the time), i think they are probably one of the best deals i could have found. another thing that needs to be kept in mind is that different people have their own preference when it comes to how a subwoofer sounds.
Now the reason I say Kenwood is bad: the power supplies in their amplifiers suck, making them one the most common brands of amps that I've seen blown. Usually within a year or so of use. I haven't had experience with their HUs but somehow I'm not surprised they have issues.
Now that's Kenwoods new amps. Like so many other brands, there was a time when they made good stuff, but not anymore.
But in the end poeple will buy whatever they want, so anybody who doesn't like what I've said, doesn't have to listen to it.
Well...I am a jerk but not to women,they're far too sensitive for the most part.As far as pu55y power existing...that's only before you get it,once you do get it that power vanishes and it's on to the next one.
haha rob ^ think we discoverd alternate fuel for our vehicles.
onto the serious note of things, your not alone to being abused on the forum. Women or not it's how we break everyone in, especially if your teying to praise brands that are loew budget but the bad side of low budget. no matter how loyal u are guys and girls on here yes other girls/women will get on ur azz about it cause it gives the audio world a bad rep when companys make crap and sell it to beginers at a high price. about the rockford amp, that was when they were building really decent amps. but now it has all faded away and thier nothing more the low budgets. for decent low budget i love infinity but even i stepped up to the type - r market and a hifonics brutus amp. eventually ill move on to Fi and Kicker. the point being it's fine to run kenwood and volfenhag if u don't wanna blow a shiit load of money but u take it with a grain of salt. that being longevity of the equipment and output of it. i had 4 infinity reference subwoofers in my trunk thought i was a badazz. came on her a good year and a half ago and was corrected. now i built a 1 12 inch alpine type - r woofer setup. it gets over 8 times louder then all 4 subs. do u see what i mean? the system may sound awsome but sit in a real power house system that the other guys on here run and u will just be shell shocked. the other thing about this forum is it's over run with true masters of craft and so mediocre and mid level. it's a mix of everyone. but most who have posted here like mike ,MS, rob. thier all deep up to thier azzz in audio and know a ton about everything in car audio. they also own/work in shops or just with the stuff day in day out. so never be quick to kick that knowledge aside over constructive criticism of a brand ur loyal to cause i highly doubt kenwood feels the same about you. so don't be quick to blow up on the forum till you know us. now to answer your amp question. u could have 3 things. a simple fuse blown, now before u say u checked them replace it anyway, looking will never tell the truth of asmall crack in the fuse and so on. by a small chance it is possible that u toasted the solder joint by a terminal or rca output on the amps motherboard and the signals therfore cut. the 3rd is the amp self destructed on the internal motherboard circuitry, even though u can't see it.
lastly before u go saying but the amps power lights on i'm sure the amps got more then one fuse and ones supplying power. or the lights even in protect mode which it prob is.
also i have a question for you, how is your amps settings. did u max the gain or have it tuned correctly?
i know im not alone in being "abused", i've already said that. i also never said it was because i was a girl. what i said was that i shouldnt be surprised and expect the respect i get at other forums. once again, i also didnt pay the high prices for my system, and i dont want something that is going to blow me away, i just want something that is going to bump nice- and make my music sound good. i have a few reasons for that. 1) i respect my ears to some extent, 2) i drive a 1990 buick lesabre. it would fall to pieces, and 3)i have no need for something that loud. im not running around here saying my system will out-bump anyones here. im just saying- its not "crap". kenwood does everything i want, hasnt given me any problems in the many years i've had kenwood equipment. its not crap in my eyes, and i dont care if everyone here is going to insist otherwise. i paid $300 for my entire setup. subs, amp, box, cap, even wires. i feel that i got a good deal, and everyone else i've talked to agrees. i'm happy with my system, and would appriciate it if people didnt put it down because its not as loud as *they* would like it, or its a brand they dont prefer.
but this isnt even the point. the point was that it was ridiculous that this guy jumps in with a rude reply, wasnt even involved in the thread to begin with, after i had said that i prefer kenwood. which he obviously didnt read, and has somewhat stepped up to that fact. on top of that, i didnt come on here for "constructive critisism" for kenwood. i'm not the one having problems. my fiance is- with volfenhag. kenwood has nothing to do with this problem.
plus- i dont really care if kenwood "feels the same" about me. they are a company, im a person. thats how it is. i love walmart, but does walmart love me? lol. all they want is my money.
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now onto your help.
thank you for the tip on the fuse, i'll replace it and test the amp again. so if the amp self destructed on the motherboard, would it still be able to turn on?
the gain... it was tuned correctly. or at least it was. who knows what the fiance did to it.
i'll check out this hifonics brutus you all keep talking about. (leaving kenwood out of this.. i'm trying to get my fiance's system back up and running. not my own.). since you guys are so eager to steer me away from kenwood, how about i throw up my fiance, and you can steer him away. what would you guys suggest for the volfenhag sub? i dont know all the specs on it, but im pretty sure its the zx4712.
April, just where are these so called "women's forums"? I've never seen one before. When it comes to cars and electronics, it's always guys, guys and more guys. If someone kind of insults you on here, don't take it personally. I don't think they most on here are looking for cyber fights. FYI, for a female (as in haven't seen too many), you sure have some good diagnostic skills/logic.
yea i know. when it comes to cars and electronics its all guys. when i talk about womens forums, i'm talking about forums in general with a bunch of women. like parenting forums, pregnancy forums, you know.. that womanly stuff. i'm one of the few that braves the jump from one world to another. LOL.
as for my diagnostic skills, i guess i'm just good at narrowing down the list to single out the problem. i've always been pretty good with electronics. i dont know as much as i could, but i do agree that i probably know more than the average female. i dont have any female friends that know even know the first of it. they come to me to save money on getting a simple cd player installed. i'm definitely not an expert... but im not your average girl.
ok now that were all on the same page. heres the best advice i can offer. i assume the sub is some where around 300 rms and under. i'm not famillar with volfenhag at all in rms i mean i know them like i know sony, daul, pwer accustik, audibahn. thier all very poor built but models wise don't know but if i got with my knowledge from the other brands i maentioned it can't take more then maybe 300 rms. so a hifonics brutus is out of the question it kicks out to much power is a power hog and on top of that for the price it will be highly un effecient for you. i should know i own one. now if u say got a infinity 200 watt which i have a site i'll but below i buy from and thier great i can prob score ya one not much more then a 100 or less i'll look in a sec. once u get that u should be practiclly good for life. i have really beat the hell out of thier amps and they still run like the day i installed them so it would be ur best bet. one last side not eon loud systems and us. there is 3 main types off builders on heren me i'm the mix of all 3 but i aim for a sound quailty system that stays clean and loud. then u have spl aka sound preasure level people. they are the guys that have bass competitions for the loudest decibles. the all pure sound quality these are the guys who go out of thier way to make a movie theater look like a joke. they go through extreams to make the cleanst sounding systems on the block. now one added bounus to having aloud system is at low gentle volumes u hear everything, if you do it right. u will hear the violins, the drums and so on all seperate and reallt nice. that's why i'm a bit defensive when you just come out saying so what if it's not killing my ears and so on. cause nither is ours that's not are point to doing car audio. alright now that i had my moment of zen before you got amp shoppin we need you to list a rms watts of the sub, now remember "rms" is it's true watts not max watts thats irrelevant to what rms is/ and we need to know is it single voice coil meaning one pos one negitive or is it dual 2 pos 2 negitive and what thier ohm loads are so say it's 2 voicecoils and each voice coil is 2 ohm. it would be dual 2 ohm, if it's one set of terminals then it's single 2 ohm. hope this helps, almost forgot if the circuit board detonated then yes the amp light can still come on it runs 90 percent of the time on it's own circuit so even if fuses are blown it will come on and if any damage is done it will come on. certain amps have a protect light others dont so say the amp is screwed. the green power light would turn red if it can't change color the light may stay green all the time or red, what ever color it is.
real nice kicker amp that should work great for you. it's 129.00 brand new with free shipping from the website i talked about. kicker is even a ton better then infinity. http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=17035
rockford fosgate is more than decent, now there entry level line is not the best,the punch amps arent the best but i guarantee u dont see the power series in best buy &etc,the power series i got rated at 500 watts came with a birthsheet rated at 969 rms @ 1 ohm
ok well let me hel[ you better chris is a bit new to your situation. ok april here's your best bet and i'll put u wise. you do not need a 4 0hm at 500 watts amp it's highly expensive even if u find a rare amp like that and i'll tell you why. most amps pump a 4 ohm load at half thier power, when wired to 2 ohm it nearly doubles. so basiclly u do not need a 500 rms 4 ohm amp , the sub can be wired to 2 ohm meaning it would get 500 rms at 2 ohm giving you a huge selection of amps. now i assume this is just one sub right? if so were good it can wire to 2 ohm and for the build of that woofer i wouldn't go over that kickers rms that i listed so if i were u i'd get that kicker tune it up correctly. gain set with 50 hz test tone, to the correct voltage with multi meter. low pass filter at 80 hz assuming ur box is sealed not ported. cause the kicker puts out around 70 watts or 50 more then what it's rated at. and rockfor fosgate used to be good but anymore thier horrible. so sadly don't listen to chris. get the kicker tune it correctly and i can bet it will pound like hell SAFELY without danger to blowing the sub.
ok well let me help you better chris is a bit new to your situation. ok april here's your best bet and i'll put u wise. you do not need a 4 0hm at 500 watts amp it's highly expensive even if u find a rare amp like that and i'll tell you why. most amps pump a 4 ohm load at half thier power, when wired to 2 ohm it nearly doubles. so basiclly u do not need a 500 rms 4 ohm amp , the sub can be wired to 2 ohm meaning it would get 500 rms at 2 ohm giving you a huge selection of amps. now i assume this is just one sub right? if so were good it can wire to 2 ohm and for the build of that woofer i wouldn't go over that kickers rms that i listed so if i were u i'd get that kicker tune it up correctly. gain set with 50 hz test tone, to the correct voltage with multi meter. low pass filter at 80 hz assuming ur box is sealed not ported. cause the kicker puts out around 70 watts or 50 more then what it's rated at. and rockfor fosgate used to be good but anymore thier horrible. so sadly don't listen to chris. get the kicker tune it correctly and i can bet it will pound like hell SAFELY without danger to blowing the sub. also a lst note, the kicker is built better then any rockford fosgate and kicker is very high on the quality scale compared to all the brands we talked about and you ask any guy in this forum if they would take rockford fosgate or a kicker and hands down it would be kicker.
"i paid $300 for my entire setup. subs, amp, box, cap, even wires."
Heh,you should see the install I did that costed a total of $360 that was flexing the crap out of my buddie's windshield It's a shame he abused Bass boost and blew up his amplifier lol.
April, LPF should be set close to the tuned port on the sub. For example, if the ports are 25Hz, then LPF should be around 23Hz - 25Hz. If you set it lower, then the subs will "bottom" out give lot of wind noise.
i think that kicker has subsonic so yea about 80 hz on low pass or higher. but 80 is usually the sweet spot maybe a few hairs past it on my setup. also as M.S. and Isaac described the subsonic and high pass are basiclly the same thing pretty much. the kicker i believe has it if not don't worry about it cause ur other amp i bet never had a subsonic or highpass. in a little more basic terms heres what a sub sonic does. it's like a limiter to the frequency that the sub moves at, same with the port and air movement. so look at it like this ur car can do 120 mph but is not very effecient it sucks gas down like crazy. drive it at the proper conditions for the motor say 50 mph rather then 120 and it's the same for the sub ur sub can run at crazy movement and frequencys but the port is designed to nail only one frequency and the subs gotta be in that range otherwise they will cancel each other out and sound like crap. so what a sub sonic does is tune the amps freqency that the sub woofer runs at to make the sub not go pass the boxes ferquency. cause if it does thesub will do what's called bottoming out which is basiclly u are over exerting the woofers excursion. risking blowing the woofer or just plain sounding bad. so the sub sonic cuts freqencys at a certain point so you don't bottom out the sub. idk if i made it a little clearer but i hope it helps.
