Derp

I recently bought my first xj.

It came with an aftermarket headunit, an amp, a 12 inch sub, and aftermarket kenwood speakers.

With the amp off and no subs hitting, I can turn the music up really loud and the speakers sound fine, but when i turn the amp on i can barely turn it up at all or it will make an ugly *** noise, then keep skipping until i turn it down.

I'm guessing the headunit isn't good enough to power the amp and subs, and it's keeping the speakers from blowing or something? is that correct?

If I hook my speakers up to an amp will that fix this problem?

Oh and sorry if this isn't the right place for this thread. I wasn't really sure where to ask.

96_xj

have you checked voltage when doing so? if you have a bad alt then it wont power anything or bad grounds on the amp

Derp

I did check the voltage and everything seemed to be recieving power fine. and the ground is good too. Everything seems to be hooked up correctly. The sub hits good when on, but i can only turn it up to like 25 before it starts screwing up. without the sub i could turn it up to a volume of 40 and have it sound clear.

Derp

I did check the voltage and everything seemed to be recieving power fine. and the ground is good too. Everything seems to be hooked up correctly. The sub hits good when on, but i can only turn it up to like 25 before it starts screwing up. without the sub i could turn it up to a volume of 40 and have it sound clear.

mr white

Make/model of the amp, speakers, sub and hu please.

kyledye25

Sounds like the headunit can't power the speakers and amp amp for the sub at the same time. I bet the speakers alone are barely getting enough power. I would buy a cheap 4 way amp for the speakers. Then maybe a cap to hook up to your subs amp. That way when its hitting hard the cap has power in it for the sub and its not taking so much at one time from the battery. Depending on your headunit though a better one could be in order. You may be able to just buy a better head unit that puts out more power to the speakers. But I would buy an amp for them. Sound much better that way. Much clearer and more crisp.

96_xj

the HU should not power the amp... the RCA cable's carry no power.

and I mean Voltage while the sound is up, I bet the jeep cannot handle the peak power

96_xj

A cap wont help any. nearly all people dont know what a cap really does and how it is not needed.

MWildmann

Why wouldn't a cap help? It stores and releases elec. current at high rates, so more power will be available when the sub amp asks for it which in turn leaves more power available for the head unit. I do agree, however, that the jeep is likely having trouble providing sufficient power to correctly operate the head unit and the sub amp. What wattage is the amp? This might be a little out there, but is it possible that the vibs from the sub are making the HU skip??

96_xj

please do a little research on capacitors...

read this whole article and learn

http://www.nanopulser.com.sg/capacitor.htm

mr white

Capacitors are better power filters than "anti-headlight dimming" devices and surely won't do a damned thing in this case.

And without the specifics of his equipment, there really isn't anything we can tell him...

mrfajita

I had a problem like this when I had my amp running on speaker level inputs from my stock head unit. Hooked it up the right way with RCA cables to line level from line outs on the head unit, works great. If that's not it, its a crappy amp. Also, yes other than looking cool, capacitors are completely useless.

daverulz

Sounds like the gain is maxed on the sub amp and you are clipping the signal at the amp. My guess is that the other speakers are probably not distorting, you just think they are because of the distortion coming from the sub.

Do this:

1. Turn the gain all the way down on the amplifier
2. Disable any bass boost on the amplifier
3. Set your crossover to around 80hz (either on the amplifier or in the head unit, but only do it in one place, make sure the other is set to full-range)
4. With a good dynamic track, turn the volume up to about 2/3 on the head unit
5. Slowly raise the gain until a: it distorts or b: it is too loud
6. Test with other music at various levels and adjust for taste

Or it could be a voltage problem. Easy to check if you have a multimeter. You need to make sure that you've got over 12v with the system pumped.

Derp

Thanks guys for the quick responses, and sorry it took so long to get back to y'all on this. I've been really busy with school and all. So my specs are:

XHD6425 CD Receiver 200w
MTX Audio TR75 sub
and a Rocksford Fosgate p300-1 amp.

@Daverulz,I'll try it and get back to you if it works or not.

Again, thanks guys.

daverulz

Is the headunit actually skipping, or does it just sound like crap?