OK, hrere's the deal. Just bought a Sony Xplod 2 Channel Amplifier yesterday to hook up to a Kenwood EZS900HD Head Unit and and some Polk DB6500 Component speakers... just want a cleaner signal getting to those speakers... no real need for a subwoofer or anything fancy.

So, I am doing the install last night, and this is my first amplifier install... I just got through my first stereo and speaker installs without issue, so I was fairly confident I could pull this one off as well... WRONG.

Here's the issue... When I turn on the stereo the amplifier appears to try and turn on (the light inside flickers for about 3 seconds), but it never completely turns on...

So, I feel as though the the turn on lead from the head unit is ok, as it is signalling it to turn on... the fuse in the power line appears to be ok (and if that was blown, would I even get the flickering light on the amplifier?).

My best guess is either it is not grounded properly, or the unit is defective... would the symptoms I have described occur if the system was not grounded properly? Is there a trick to getting the terminals onto the groundwire/12v power cable? i'm starting to regret trying out an amp...

any help would be greatly appreciated.

Derrick

ps - i know a lot of you no likey the xplod amps... and that's fine... but telling me how much they suck doesn't solve my immediate problem... and I'm not interested in getting a whole lot out of an amp... 20% increase in volume over my current max without distortion.

 

easy test would be to jump a wire from the 12V supply coming from the battery to the remote turn on lead (disconect whatever wire you have going to the remote turn on lead before doing this - along with the RCA's).

If your power and ground are OK the amp should turn on - if not then use a multimeter to check your ground connection (#1 amp issue for most folks) and your power lead. If both power and ground check out then replace the amp.

 

thanks,

I'm taking it into a local car audio shop tomorrow to take a look at it... I don't have the equipment for testing all the connections and the money spent on getting that stuff would probably be best spent by letting a pro look at it.

Derrick

 

local shop should be able to diagnose for you without a problem.

 

make sure your ground isn't too far from the amp and that you've scraped away the paint there to bare metal (i actually used a dremel since I'm lazy)

 

I've run into similar symptoms on 2 installs recently, they were bad grounds.

Take a meter and measure DCV across the + and - terminals at the amp, you should be getting at least 12V there.