this is weird feeling...

i need some advice guys...


well, with the babes born, i'm not toting around my 3 yr old anymore. so, i'm back in the S.

well, i'm cruising on a quick errand, and as i'm returning, i start to notice that my sound is REALLY right channel weighted.

so, when i get home, i do some testing and this is what i get.
(Fader 100% forward and repeated at dead center for both tests)

when i balance to the right, i get 100% sound out of the right.
when i balance to the left, i STILL get a strong signal from the right, and now i can hear things out of the left.
dead center -- very heavily weighted sound on the right.

i get out a test tone CD. same.

i pull the connections on the highs amp (Adcom) and plug them into a Discman and run the test tones. sound seems 100% balanced left to right. (i don't have a left to right balance on the discman)


i'm thinking the Alpine has freaked it's beans. i set it to defeat on, and no change. i tinkered w/ all major settings, and no change.

can you guys think of anyway that the front to rear interconnects could short somehow and cause this??


plan for tomorrow:
go by the Shack and get some adapters to let me go RCA out into headphones (female RCA to 1/8" female), then try to see if i can discern a balance differential at the amp side of the RCA's. then move to the front and check there...


anyone got a better idea? good news is that i'm still under warranty...

 

try the tiny reset button on the face yet?

 

Hmmmm....interesting....basically, no matter what you do, you only hear sound out of 1 speaker???

You said the ADCOM is fine (not worried about a blown channel)....

How did you run the RCA's?? Is there anyway they could have gotten sawed/pinched/cut at all?

I guess your idea for hitting up the shack is best for now........if that doesnt work, and you figure out its the alpine, send that bad boy back for and exchange.

 

didn't try the reset button just yet... that might be a tad easier, but i'm not hopeful.

well - i get sound from the left channel, it's just much softer than the right. and when i balance completely to the left, i still have a noticable signal in the right channel - almost equal to the signal in the left channel.

the Adcom seems fine... (considering its age, that was my first suspect.)

oh, and here's an interesting fact that i've since tested for and discovered...
if i turn the balance 100% to the left (thus hearing signal in the left and right) and:
pull the connection for the right input into the amp, the left remains, but the right disappears. (no surprise i guess.)
pull the connection for the left input into the amp, both left and right disappear. (surprise?!)

i also tried alternate RCA to mono XLR adapters, and they were fine.

i ran interconnects up the side of the center console under the carpet, into the trunk behind the rear panel, then down under the cross brace, around the well edge, below the well liner and up into the tool holder and to the amp.

i couldn't completely rule out a pinched or grounded interconnect. that would also possibly explain the weird behavior i was getting with the disconnecting inputs at the amp....

doh, edited. i said something stupid...

 

Phil, you probably already considered this but it's oftentimes easy to over look the obvious:

Do you have an old HU lying around? Or one that you can borrow?

I would switch out your HU to see if that was the problem. If you still have the weird balancing act with the new HU, then you know it's a wiring issue.

now that I think about it, the Radio Shack RCA test would essentially do the same thing, only from the other end. Either way it doesn't sound like a wiring probelem, it sounds like a burned pre-amp channel.

 

naw... i don't actually.

and that would be a heck of a lot of solder work to swap harnesses. but, i can try to go to my local Alpine dealer and see about using a different head on my harness perhaps... they usually don't get thrilled about that kind of stuff though. still, i can go to the shop where i bought it and work it as part of a warranty claim.

and you're right - it is VERY easy to overlook the obvious, which is why i posted... after my initial head banging session, i figured some good input wouldn't hurt.

and i'm hoping that if i test using headphones and test tones at the amp side of the RCA's and the head unit side of the RCA's - i should be able to determine if it's a wiring issue.

 

Big Daddy Phil,
Didja get to the bottom of this one yet?
Find that warranty card! I think you're gonna need it.

 

i got the adapters i needed to test everything w/ headphones... so as soon as i get the 3yr old to nap and the newborn taken care of... i'll be out in the garage checking.

i don't know whether to hope for the warranty or not... maybe the local shop will do a swap out for me? i hope so...

 

They should. ALPINES are not "spark-o-matics."

 

well good thing you bought local....