I have a Rockford 600 Watt amp in my trunk which is connected to a 10 in subwoofer. Anyways, I don't want that sub in my trunk so I decided to hook-up my speakers to the amp. After hooking up the speakers, my speakers were actually playing lower than before. I had one of the speakers connected to the amp and another connected directly to the head unit and suprisingly the one directly to the head unit was louder. WTF right? LOL. I would think that the one with the amp would be louder. Does any one have any clue as to why this is happening???

 

is your amp set at low pass? which is why your speakers would be playing lower. Alsó if it is set at low pass then the high and mids will be cut out making the speaker running off of the deck to sound louder because it is playing a fuller sound.

 

How do I fix this. I have gain and ohMz/Frequency. That's it. What do I have to do? I also have RCA connections for Pass Thru. Does any of this ring a bell?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Short Fuse &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How do I fix this. I have gain and ohMz/Frequency. That's it. What do I have to do? I also have RCA connections for Pass Thru. Does any of this ring a bell?</TD></TR></TABLE>I think the x-over on your amp is inside the amp pop plug at bottom of amp off and replug x-over "card" in full range"
Also does your HU have a sub RCA output and are you plugged into that? 94

 

There is no sub RCA output on my HU. Where would my x-over be on my amp? I do not see it. I'll try to get some photos of my AMP so you can see what options I have.

 

look on the side of the amp. there should be some switches that say LP and HP. Swtich it to HP

 

Will look for these and get back to you if not there...thanks a lot...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Short Fuse &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">After hooking up the speakers, my speakers were actually playing lower than before. I had one of the speakers connected to the amp and another connected directly to the head unit and suprisingly the one directly to the head unit was louder. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Volume wise or frequency wise?

If the head unit speaker was playing louder volume wise, then you may need to check you gain settings (amp and headunit).

If the speaker was playing lower frequency wise (IE more bass), then you need to check you filter settings (amp and headunit).

 

I was playing lower volume wise. I set the gain to 0 so I could hear the quality of sound first and then fine tune it. ipleadthe5th might be on to something. I found the LP - AP - HP switch and it's set at AP. I'll try setting it to HP. See if that does the trick. I just have to open up everything again and reconnect. which kind of sucks....oh well! I'll see if this handles it. Thanks a lot guys.

BTW, this might sound stupid but was does LP - AP - HP stand for? I assume low and high....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Short Fuse &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
BTW, this might sound stupid but was does LP - AP - HP stand for? I assume low and high....</TD></TR></TABLE>


Low Pass

All Pass

High Pass

 

Go to your local shop or have a friend who knows what he is talking about show you. I recommend you do not leave it connected like that – it will ruin your mids / highs. IMO Rockford is a good amp for subs not really highs and lows.

 

The thought did cross my mind and yesterday I connected one of my speakers, to test this out, to the amp and had the X-Over set to HP and it still sounds weaker than the speaker directly connected to HU. I tried all 3 settings - LP, AP, HP. There were differences between the 3 but none made the speaker sound louder than the one connected to the HU directly.

I don't know what else to do now. This should have handled this. Any other suggestions? TIA...

 

Can you set the gain higher on the amp? Although your head unit and amp may be seeing the same signal they may have different gain settings in the amplifier stage (IE headunit 25x and amp 20x)....there is no standard for amplifier gains.

You don't have you cables coiled up anywhere do you? Like excess cable that you wrapped up in a circle. That could create a psuedo-inductor, causing a natural low pass, but it would have to be a mean bundle to have any effect in the audio range, so probably not that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Short Fuse &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The thought did cross my mind and yesterday I connected one of my speakers, to test this out, to the amp and had the X-Over set to HP and it still sounds weaker than the speaker directly connected to HU. I tried all 3 settings - LP, AP, HP. There were differences between the 3 but none made the speaker sound louder than the one connected to the HU directly.

I don't know what else to do now. This should have handled this. Any other suggestions? TIA...</TD></TR></TABLE>Have you checked the RCAs? What kind of HU do you have? On some HU there are AUX inputs, make sure you are not plugged into them, also if its a Sony HU if you are plugged into the cd changer input ,[the RCAs]
you will get a sig. to the amp, but even with the gain on the amp turned all the way up there is very little output out of the amp. also try another set of RCAs, just run them from HU to amp on top of everything to test. 94

 

I have two seperate sets of RCA connections. One said SW I think and the other I can't quiet remember. I thought this might have something to do with it.

Westrock2000, I do not have excess wiring anywhere. It's a clean wire installation directed perfectly. Like I mentioned above, last night I was working on my stereo because it was going into my dash and noticed that the RCA connections had different labels.

In case it helps, my HU is a Pioneer. It's one of the new ones. The MP3 player. Don't recall the model number right now.

 

Still need help with this. BUMP

 

dude... i dont exactly know wut ur problem is. im guessing u dont know wut to listen for when u add an amp

when u add an amp, its not suppose to get "louder". louder is a way to describe the decibel level. adding an amp does not directly add more decibels to ur system. sooo... it not suppose to get "louder".

adding an amp will give it better dynamic range. which u can then turn up louder and the distortion comes in a higher decibel level than with just the radio.

first check the amp settings. for starters, set the crossover freq at 80hz high pass. then set the gain to half way. make sure the rcas are plugged into the front or rear level output of the radio.

then plug connect the speaker to ur radio speaker output, listen to it at a normal listening volume. REMEMBER HOW IT SOUNDED

then connect the speaker to the amp. play it at about the same decibel level as how u played it with the radio speaker output. does it sound "BETTER"?

if not, ur amp might have a problem. u should get it checked out. if i made a mistake about wut ur problem is, please clarify.