Tower speakers cutting out!?

[MTtigekid]

hey all! my fam. has an 07 24ve with the stock tige tower speaker cans with i think are kicker speakers (idk, maybe?) just wondering if anyone had any ideas on why when we turn the volume above say 19 on the stereo the tower speakers pop and cut out untill you turn the volume all the way down to zero agian? the speakers and sub in the boat work fine, but its just kind of annoying when you are riding and listening to your favorite song when poof it goes out and you are left tuneless.

any suggestions would be marvy!

[chpthril]

hey all! my fam. has an 07 24ve with the stock tige tower speaker cans with i think are kicker speakers (idk, maybe?) just wondering if anyone had any ideas on why when we turn the volume above say 19 on the stereo the tower speakers pop and cut out untill you turn the volume all the way down to zero agian? the speakers and sub in the boat work fine, but its just kind of annoying when you are riding and listening to your favorite song when poof it goes out and you are left tuneless.

any suggestions would be marvy!

First question, how many tower speakers do you have, 2 or 4?

[MTtigekid]

just 2

[G-MONEY]

It could be because your amp is overheating......

[MTtigekid]

could be.. we took it to our dealer and the tech said that he couldnt make it do it when it was in the shop

[G-MONEY]

could be.. we took it to our dealer and the tech said that he couldnt make it do it when it was in the shop

That's odd..

seems like every time something is not working correctly you take it in and it works perfectly

[MTtigekid]

haha no no.. i trust that the guy is telling the truth.. sometimes it would work fine out at the lake.. i think it was jsut murphy's law that the day it was there it worked fine

[Boyd Culp]

That sounds rather unique to me, I can't really think of a good reason to mention. They are all wired up as per the instructions? or did they come pre-wired?

[Boyd Culp]

Let me correct that, I meant "or did they come pre-installed"

[MTtigekid]

umm as far as i know there factory installed.. but ima hafta ask my dealer

[chpthril]

Here are a couple of things to look at first: On the side of amp, where the speaker wires attach and the RCA signal cable come in, there are 2 3-position switches labeled: Xover1 and Xover2 and your choices are OFF/HI/LOW - set both to HI (see pic)

Next, on the face of the amp you will have 2 groups of 3 dial knobs - Gain, Crossover Frequency (Hz) and Bass Boost.

Bass Boost - roll all the way down, dont need it.

Xover Frequency - set to about 90Hrz

Gain - need to reset per instructions:

Gain setting tutorial: Courtesy of Spharis.
First a brief explanation of gain adjustment. One problem many people make with a gain is that it is a "volume" knob. It of course is not. It is a way to match the head unit output RCA output power to an acceptable level for the amplifier, so that signal is at an optimum level when passing through the driver. Many radios have 3+, 5+, 1.5+ etc voltage. The gain sets this for the amp.

Tools you need......
1. A multimeter that can display AC voltage

2. A tone cd with tones in the ranges you play....
I usually use 40Hz for sub channels and 800Hz - 1400Hz or so for my mids and highs. If you have your highs on a channel, you can use 18000Hz+ for them. I can make tones for anyone who needs them. Just ask

Figure out what voltage you need to have on each channel using the manf. specs:
Ohms law regarding voltage
volts = sq.root of watts x ohms

So if your amp is rated to 200 watts @ 2 ohms, then you want to have 20 volts leaving the speaker terminals.
200x2=400.....sq root of 400 = 20 volts......

To setup......
1a. Turn the amp gain all the way down.

1. Put the tone cd in and set it to loop on the track, unless you have a length track.

2. Unplug at least one side of your speaker output.

3. Turn the headunit up to about 3/4 volume, this is a safe zone for most head units.....higher will result in the HU clipping the signal before it even gets to the amp.

4. Take a reading on the amp terminals in volts.....

5. Adjust the gain until it falls into the previously configured formula.

Repeat for the other inputs.

Once it is all done, hook all the speakers back up , and then adjust the levels for the speakers playing to loudly by turning them down....you do not want to turn up any gains as they are already at max.


Try this then get back to us, we have real experts (not me of course) on here and we will get it rock'n right for ya.

[MTtigekid]

Here are a couple of things to look at first: On the side of amp, where the speaker wires attach and the RCA signal cable come in, there are 2 3-position switches labeled: Xover1 and Xover2 and your choices are OFF/HI/LOW - set both to HI (see pic)

Next, on the face of the amp you will have 2 groups of 3 dial knobs - Gain, Crossover Frequency (Hz) and Bass Boost.

Bass Boost - roll all the way down, dont need it.

Xover Frequency - set to about 90Hrz

Gain - need to reset per instructions:

Gain setting tutorial: Courtesy of Spharis.
First a brief explanation of gain adjustment. One problem many people make with a gain is that it is a "volume" knob. It of course is not. It is a way to match the head unit output RCA output power to an acceptable level for the amplifier, so that signal is at an optimum level when passing through the driver. Many radios have 3+, 5+, 1.5+ etc voltage. The gain sets this for the amp.

Tools you need......
1. A multimeter that can display AC voltage

2. A tone cd with tones in the ranges you play....
I usually use 40Hz for sub channels and 800Hz - 1400Hz or so for my mids and highs. If you have your highs on a channel, you can use 18000Hz+ for them. I can make tones for anyone who needs them. Just ask

Figure out what voltage you need to have on each channel using the manf. specs:
Ohms law regarding voltage
volts = sq.root of watts x ohms

So if your amp is rated to 200 watts @ 2 ohms, then you want to have 20 volts leaving the speaker terminals.
200x2=400.....sq root of 400 = 20 volts......

To setup......
1a. Turn the amp gain all the way down.

1. Put the tone cd in and set it to loop on the track, unless you have a length track.

2. Unplug at least one side of your speaker output.

3. Turn the headunit up to about 3/4 volume, this is a safe zone for most head units.....higher will result in the HU clipping the signal before it even gets to the amp.

4. Take a reading on the amp terminals in volts.....

5. Adjust the gain until it falls into the previously configured formula.

Repeat for the other inputs.

Once it is all done, hook all the speakers back up , and then adjust the levels for the speakers playing to loudly by turning them down....you do not want to turn up any gains as they are already at max.


Try this then get back to us, we have real experts (not me of course) on here and we will get it rock'n right for ya.

thanks alot for the advice, im going to try what you said next time i can get at the boat (its in storage for the winter) i got what you said already printed out and on the fridge so as i dont forget it

thanks to everyone, hopefully i can get this thing figured out before next summer rolls around- god im already think about next summer and its not even really winter up here yet!!

[philwsailz]

Woah.

Sorry, I just found this. Here is the probable deal.

* You almost certainly have the ZX350.4 amplifier in the boat for the tower speakers.
* You have 2 speakers only.
* The amp is probably wired in bridge mode.
* You probably also have the isolated dual battery option from the factory.


The amp puts out way more power in bridge mode than is needed, and sees ever-so-slightly too low an impedance in bridge mode, as a result of the component crossover. You also have a .7 volt drop as a result of the diode in the dual battery isolator. This results in a less than optimum battery voltage.


The combination of a .7 volt voltage drop through the battery isolator, a dynamic load impedance of around 3.2 ohms, and a bridged amplifier is what is causing your problem in my opinion.

If you re-wired the tower system so that you were only using half of the amp, with one speaker only per amplifier channel, you will find that the cutting out totally goes away.

You will not hear a noticeable difference in volume, especially after setting the rest of the controls on the amp properly.

If and when you add another pair of speakers, use the other half of the amp at that time.

By the way, one other thing to add; the way most people wire in bridge mode results in a mono-summed signal. The tower speakers are probably not playing in stereo.

I will not go into the pros and cons of mono vs. stereo for the tower speakers, but for most ears it sounds better in stereo, which is what you will get if you go back and re-wire for non-bridged operation.

[chpthril]

If and when you add another pair of speakers, use the other half of the amp at that time.

I would just go ahead and upgrade with another pair of tower speakers now

[zad0030]

Its probably that chitty music you listen to.