Subwoofer help

MarkVIIIS

MarkVIIIS

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I need a little help I'm not the most knowledgable about audio stuff but I just installed some infinity kappa speakers with a jl audio 4 channel amp and a 12 inch sub with a jl audio mono amp. The speakers work great but I'm having trouble with the sub it worked fine the first time I tried it but now every time I hook it up the protect light comes on so I needed some ideas on wut would cause that I have a 4 gauge ground and power cable going directly to the battery and then a 14 gauge wire for the signal power hooked to the radio signal power
 
Where did you ground the sub amp? Does the 4ch share the same ground? Is the ground sanded down to bare metal? --Edit: You ran a ground all the way to the battery?

How is the sub wired? Are the jl amps the slash series or the jx's?

What are the settings @ on the sub amp?

Were you connecting/disconnecting power/grounds ect with the car on? Did and live wires touch each other?

What voice coil configuration is the sub? i.e- 4ohm dvc, svc 2ohm, svc 4ohm, dvc 2ohm ect..

When you say "everytime I hook it up the protect light comes on". What exactly are you reconnecting?


Since you're new to car audio it could be anything.
 
Start simple. turn all the levels to zero on the amp. make sure the it is grounded to bare metal and the ground cable is no longer then 3 feet if at all possible. depending on the wattage of that amp will depend on the size of your cable/wire if they are descent infinity kappas and you have a jl1000/1 mono amp i think 2 gauge would be better for min but thats just me.

once you have all your levels turned to zero. that is the gain the the bass boost things like that. and you have a proper ground installed (the ground is probably the single most important part of your amp setup) then check your power source make sure its clean from the battery back to the amp.

after that as mentioned check your speaker configuration and the impedance of your set up. you could be faulting because the amp isnt designed to handle the type of load you're putting on it. For example you maybe have a 2ohm stable amp however your speakers are 4ohm DVC (dual voice coil) and are wires in a 1ohm load. IF that was the case this could and most likely would trigger your protection mode.

Check your speaker wire connections as well. Make sure there is no cross over or arching or any other neat way to say they are f-ing touching or crossed. creating a short will fault the amp very fast and cause damage. Also make sure you have the Positive side connected to the positive side and the negative to the negative. not just the speakers but for the power wires as well.

It is possible you could have a faulty amp as well.

Hopefully some of these tips will help you isolate the problem quickly. However this is just some of the common reasons for the fault protection. Others include stuff like starving the amp of power. I would suggest checking these and checking back.

Remember your grounds are most important. make sure your body engine and battery grounds are all clean and connected most electrical problems for cars and car audio can be traced back to a faulty ground
 
I have the battery mounted in the trunk and I've just been disconnecting the signal wire from the amp ill post the specs of everything when I get a chance
 
This is the sub

12" SSI Kappa Series 2 Ohm or 4 Ohm Subwoofer Power Handling: Peak: 1400 watts RMS: 350 watts Impedance: Selectable 2 or 4 ohms Coated glass-fiber woofer cone Thick rubber surround Selectable Smart Impedance (SSI) lets you set the subwoofers impedance with the flip of a switch Cast aluminum basket with voice coil vents Triple voice coil technology 2" Voice coil diameter Rubber boot surrounds the magnet structure Frequency response: 23-400 Hz Sensitivity: 91 dB
 
JX Series 1-Channel Class D Car Amplifier RMS Power Rating (@ 14.4V): 4 ohms: 500 watts x 1 chan. 3 ohms: 750 watts x 1 chan. 2 ohms: 1000 watts x 1 chan. Unregulated PWM switching type power supply Remote bass level input (JL Audio RBC-1 sold separately) LED power (green) and protect (red) indicators Variable Bass Boost (0 to +12 dB bass boost centered at 45 Hz) Soft start turn-on prevent clicking and popping when system turns on 1 channel operation Speaker-level (high-level) inputs with signal sensing for automatic turn-on Preamp RCA outputs to daisy chain multiple amps 3-Way System Protection circuitry (thermal, low impedance, and speaker short protection) Heavy duty aluminum alloy heatsink for effective heat dissipation Nickel-plated RCA level inputs Nickel-plated screw terminals Input sensitivity: Low level: 200mV-4V High level: 2.0V-10V Variable low-pass filter (50-200 Hz, 12 dB/octave) Damping factor: >1000 @ 4 ohms Frequency response: 20-150 Hz (+/– 1 dB) Dimensions: 11"L x 7-3/4"W x 2"H
 
Yes agree with the above comments and definitely a blown fuse or ground issue making the amp to kick in protect mode
Does the amp heat up as well and any smells
 
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