# Car Audio Issues



## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

I have a sub hooked up, it is a bazooka tube BT8024DVC. It's hooked up to a 300W 2Ch bridgeable amp. Everything is hooked up right to the best of my knowledge. The terminals on the bazooka are + - + -. I have the wire bridged on the amp and on the bazooka I have the correct polarity hooked up to the outside + - terminals with speaker wire connecting the middle - + terminals. The only way I can hear the bass is when I turn the balance of my speakers to the right or left. I'm not sure where I went wrong, help would be appreciated!!! If it matters, I have the factory deck in WRX.


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## jaggerwild (May 21, 2007)

Just try several combinations as it may not be your connection but the bazookas connection that is causing it.
I always try different wires connection schemes to see what gives the best bang for my buck so to speak. If a connection is sounding bad, I'll then experiment with it till it sounds better.


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

try hooking it up parallel instead of bridged


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

I tried the parallel and got the same results, it seems that every different connection gives me the same results. I've even hooked up a different sub and I've gotten the same results with that...I also tried switching around my RCA's...could this be an amp problem?


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## jaggerwild (May 21, 2007)

What make Amp is it?


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

Pioneer


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

yeah the amp has a regulator problem....if you have a friend with an extra one, try hooking it up and see fi the problem is resolved, if so then then the amp is the problem.


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

So it turned out to be an RCA issue that is not fixed to my sub plays best when the balance of the speakers is in the middle...but now when I turn up the volume all my speakers sound distorted...


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

The speakers are distorded even when the sub and amp are not on. I cannot play through the radio without some sort of distortion... I went and turned the balance to each of the speakers (FR, FL, RR, RL), none of them sounded distorted when I turned up the volume. Any ideas?


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## jaggerwild (May 21, 2007)

Your not giving us a lot to go on here, what head unit is it? Are the rest of the speakers running straight off the head unit? Are they the original speakers or replaced? What car, how many speakers?


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

get some new rca's, or is the problem with the RCA's on the amp?


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## ThePistonDoctor (Mar 2, 2009)

We need more info. Do you have premium sound? How is your amp hooked to the head unit? Do you have some kind of adapter or something since you said it was a stock HU? 

Just plugging and unplugging wires is NOT the way to resolve this issue. Tell us all the details about how your system is hooked up and we can help you.


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

more then likely is using a line level converter if it is a stock HU


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

Hey guys, sorry I haven't gotten back to you for a while. I've got everything worked out, I had a speaker wire touching some metal so it wasn't hard to fix. But my car audio never fails to amaze me at the problems it throws at me and I now have a new one... I'll do my best with all of the details. I have a stock HU in a 2003 WRX, I'm using a 300W Pioneer amp to power a BT8024DVC Bazooka tube. I was driving today with the volume at about 10 of 40 and the tube started to cut out on my and then it just stopped. I had the amp turned up to about 3/4 of the way. I proceeded to go home and I hooked up some regular house speakers and they worked with the wires that are hooked up to the Bazooka, could I really have blown the sub? It's rated at around 250RMS I believe and I think my amp at best will do 150RMS...


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

did the sub start to get quiet, or start to get choppy and distorted?


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

No, it was in and out when I was drivnig. There was no distortion before it quit and it sure wasn't choppy.


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

hmm, if the voice coil was blown it would still move a little, check your connections by taking them out/off and make that the bass didnt slice the wires off so they are not getting a signal through.
Like when you bend a coat hanger back and forth eventually it will break, same thing can happen with your wires in the trunk with the subs.


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

I took everything apart and there was no visual problems with it. I could see no broken or shorted wires...


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## ThePistonDoctor (Mar 2, 2009)

If the sub is cutting out it usually means it's losing signal from the amp. How is the amp grounded? That to me sounds like a loose ground on the amp. It should be grounded straight to bare metal within 12-16 inches of the amp.


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

I thought that was my issue as well, everything was secure with my amp though. Today I took an ohm meter to the sub and it showed that it wasnt a complete circut, I blew something in the sub. I sure can't see it visually though. I was surprised, I didn't think that low powered of an amp could blow a sub like that.


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

was not a complete circuit?? It is a dual Voice Coil?


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

Yes it is


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

Hmm, do you have one channel going to each Voice Coil?


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

Ya, thats the weird thing...


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

If it is a 4ohm sub and your amp is 2 ohm stable then just loop one of the voice coils back to the first one (+ to +, - to -) then run one channel back to the amp which would make it run @ 2ohms. If you have the amp that can handle it, meaning a mono amp.


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

That is how I had everything wired. I had one channel from the sub running to the amp and the other channel was looped to the other channel on the sub


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

no,......
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/8308/singledvc2ohmto1ohm7rq.jpg

In the image replace the 1 ohm with 2 and the 2 ohm with 4 on the sub


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

So I just tried that out and I got no sound, still..


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

what happens when you leave one set of voice coils unplugged, just hook it up to one.


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

Nothing, the tester (volt meter, ohm meter) or whatever it's called to read if it's a complete circuit said that it was not. So when I hook up one or the other nothing plays.


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

is your amp giving you a trouble code, like "Thermal" "Low OHM" or not light at all?

If you have no sound no matter how you hook it up, try another subwoofer, if it is the same result then amp = bad.


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## cssbaseball19 (Feb 24, 2009)

It's def the sub, I have a new one hooked up right now and it works great. I must have blown it.


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

you now have a niftly looking paper weight!


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