I followed the manual, it suggested turning the HU up to 60% and then turning the gain on the Amp up until the sound was just about breaking up. I did that and it's al been fine...i really think the earthing could be an issue. What is the potential damage if the earth connection has failed?

no no no, the head unit should be FLAT, no signal gain,i.e bass 0.0, midrange 0.0, high 0.0, subwoofer 0.0 any eq tweeks or menus all flat!

then all adjustments on the amplifier's to 0 and level-in too "low" for sub, or "flat or hi" for speakers


"flat = the amplifiers crossover is not used"
"hi = amplifiers crossover is used"

your choice on the above

then set the amp or amps to quarter gain, then adjust headunit volume to a 20-25 "a normal listening volume level", then re-adjust the gain on the amps if it sound to loud or not for normal listening.

" 4 channel amplifiers have 2 gains for front and rear therfore must be the same unless you feel other wise but you head unit will adjust this later on"

your notice that on amplifiers there is adjustments, just tweek the adjustment dont go over boad as your headunit will do the rest, just try and get a good hi-fi sound, do not use BASS BOOST or any other bass crap.

once its sounding sweet then you can adjust the headunit's eq funtions for more impact if you wish

"the head unit should be FLAT, no signal gain,i.e bass 0.0, midrange 0.0, high 0.0, subwoofer 0.0 any eq tweeks or menus all flat!" They are AG, my DEH-P88RS2 does all that for me on auto set up mode, you know where you plug in the mic and fix it to the headrest.

The bit i've got wrong is the volume gain overall, i did this in line with the manaual...not something I normally do but as it was a nice amp I thought it worth the effort.
Just called Pioneer and they have suggested getting the HU to North Holt Car radio repairs.

I think you might be jumping the gun to soon, on my pioneer mp80 there's network on-off switches on the side of the metal casing on the headunit, have you looked in the installation instruction for them?

If one pre out is buzzing then maybe but all of them just sounds like something is up wiring wise, what guage power cable are you using and have you used a power distribution block?

Morning AG, i had a little think about it last night and have decided to completely refit the system before returning any kit.

The power gauge is fairly thin but i am using a dis block. The buzzing is heard on all 3 sets of RCA's.

Just had my HU returned from North Holt car radio repairs, i had fried the RCA earthing circuit. But they repaired all for £45 plus vat. Now I need to look at earthing...all tips very welcome!

Ok that was reasonable as long as it was the problem, earthing for the headunit should be fine as long as no one has choped the iso connector then tried to boge it back together.

I stripped out the interior this weekend and replaced all cable locations. I now have a new thicker power cable running seperately from the RCA's. I have also chased in a new really thick earth wire running from the battery through the car to the lights earth point.

The amps been chased in nicely and again all speaker wires are well away from anything running power.

But I still have a hissing from the speakers with the sound turned down to zero...this is driving me nuts!

So a simple question about earthing, when the car is off I have 0.2 ohms, not too bad from what i've read? But what should I expect when the car is turned on/ignition on engine off?

Please help!

You might need one of These

have you tried using another amplifier?

and did you check to see if your pioneers headunit has switches for networking the amplifiers?

I don't understand that bit AG...sorry for being daft.

What I have not done is followed your advice on setting the amp on all 4 channels as Flat, all of my speakers have cross overs. This will be done at lunch time today!

On the positive once the hu is turned up a bit the sound coming out is simply stunning! My front speakers (alpine type r's) are now working really well and i'm loving it.

Bockers - I've read that those loop backs reduce the SQ?

TAG, what's the best front component set for around £100? I've got Focal A1 6x9s in the rear 1/4s and am looking to upgrade the fronts, so was thinking of the Focal A1 6.5" components.

I've just seen you've recommended the JBL GTO's in another thread, they are about £65. What are your thoughts on those compared to the Focals, or anything else in that price range.

http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/product/products_id/11030.html

something like these, iv read the write up and there suposed to be as good as type r's but iv had a listen to them and i think there ok but miles better then there type e or s

new Q

I have a alpine head unit, kicker speakers front an rear 2x 12 inch kicker impulse subs a kicker kx800 5 channel amp , just wonderin which power cap would be best for my install

oh an what does 'farad' mean

thanks in advance ant

Why do you need a power cap? Just get a heavy duty battery and a higher amped altenator, personaly I don't like caps, the only time I use one is when there's buzzing due to a faulty antenator and it helps to filter that out

the higher rating cap the better, mounted within 16" from the amp intended, when they first came out they were known as stiffening capacitors, they serve three main characteristics, in car audio, 1, they supply your base amp with the initial power it needs when a base note drops low it demands/draws power from the power supply, and depending on how loud and low frequency the note/s are sometime the power supply of the car cant handle it resulting in clipping buzzing distortion and low quality base. the cap is intended to supply a quick power surge as required stopping the base from clipping or buzzing etc, no2 it filters out white noise and interference, and 3 stiffens up the base makeing it more punchy.
Companies like stinger for instance make a cap systems called power stations which are phenomenal, [so is the price lol]
Farad is a measurement figure of capacitors, eg a 1 farad cap is 1 million farads,
Hope this helps.

Also they can cause damage to equipment if wired wrong, explode if terminals are crossed by mistake, "some new ones don't, but cheaper ones from china maybe based on old original designs"

also if damaged, faulty or exposed may cause a very nasty shock.

Mostly old non digital amps like class A amps consume more power but if your not some bass head nutter even with a optima yellow top battery will see you through 100%

I've found out where my buzz is coming from! My head unit is making the noise when the lcd display is on, once it turns itself off the buzz is gone...so back to North Holt car radio repairs on Monday.

Arh ok, well at lest you know what to poke a stick at now, if worst comes to it then it's a new headunit

Right AudioGuy here's one for you.

As you know on the Coupe it doesn't have a parcel shelf as such and the boot is "sealed off" from the cabin shall we say.

I have a Vibe CBR 1300w active jobby 10" and noticed with the port plug in the bass is MUCH nicer and deeper however lost some of it's volume. Out of curiousity I pulled the back seat down and there was A LOT more bass.

I was thinking would it be worth cutting a hole or 2 in the rear "shelf" and putting a port there just for neatness to allow some of that bass out of the boot and into the cabin or would this be a waste of time?

Cheers!

thanks mule and audo guy

another one on security

anyone let me know the best place to hook into the following wires:-

1. ACC trigger
2. Engine cut off
3. Hood/Trunk switch
4. Interior lamp output
5. Window rising output
6. Trunk
7. Siren (I know this one lol)
8. Side door triggering (-)
9. Side door triggering (+)

There is also the central locking element that needs connecting but that has just totally confused me. What is the difference between a positive and negative trigger? Also what electric motor might it be talking about?

just one bit of advice mate, if you have no clue how to fit an alarm i would sudgest finding and installer to do it for you as it isnt a good idea poking around unsure of what to do

yes you would be right mate, buy some polished port holes like the vibe has

Just got the HU back from repair and my Buzz is gone!!
They said it was a fuse on it's way out...who cares, it works and it seems to have sorted out my bad radio reception at the same time!!!

Thats' it for me, i'm not touching the sound anymore, too much hassle.

Thanks again for your help AG

Fuse on it's way out... Ha lol, they most of mist something then realised

glad you got it sorted mate, now you can tweek those speakers till the right

No doubt this has been answered many, many times before but having issues finding it on 'search'.

What is the maximum mounting depth you can get away with for front door woofers mounting with standard grilles, or similar style to standard?

Iv'e built a masive sub enclosure inside my coupe for an 18" sub. And i'd like to tune it to a certain frequency so it sounds deep and not too loud.

First of all what frequency should i aim at? (i heard 60hz sounds good)

And what software should i use to achieve this. I've already made the box (i know i should have checked the box dimensions with the software first, but its too late for that). So i just need to know what size port and length i need to use.

if you have just lashed a box together any old size you wont get optimum sound from your subwoofer, 18in sub? What music do you listen two? Will sound great with slow base music, blues, reggae etc, but not so good with a medium to fast beat, what make is it? as the manufacture will supply the dimensions for the box and port size/port length etc they should also supply length = freq etc, the correct freq cut off is personal would depend on what music you listen two i.e. how low your music goes, between 40-55 hertz cut off is about the norm, and 90 hertz top filter is about correct.

18" is far to big for that boot, two 12" subs would be the most I would ever fit in a boot that size and idealy I'd prefer two 10" subs, the bigger the sub the more power It needs to run it because of this you loose overal tone, fantastic drop down bass but that is the only thing it will be good for and I think when you get it working your find the drone of that over powering bass to start to ruin the music and your end up taking it out.