Ok I have 2 12' (800 watts)MTX subs with an MTX 800.1 mono amp. I also have 1 Infinity amp 4 ch and 1 Kenwood amp 4 ch as well. I believe the Infinity amp is 90 watts rms per ch and the Kenwood is 70 watts rms per ch. The Infinity amp is hooked up to a pair of 4x6 kappa's and 6.5 Infinity components. While the Kenwood amp is hooked up to a pair of 6.5 Kicker components. 4 gauge wire from batt to amps and ground as well. I also have a 200 amp alternator.

Alright with that out the way the problem only happens when the car is off after a few minutes of playing music the subs begin to make a poping noise even after I lower the volume. What can be causing this?

P.S. At first I tought it was the battery so I change that and got a yellow top optima but problem cont.

 

sounds like a blow voice coil or coils to me..... Then again the sound quality wouldn't be **** either then though and this is coming from someone with not a whole lot of audio experience too so take it with a grain of salt.

All i know is the numerous subs i blew voice coils in made a popping sound the way you describe it but, also sounded like crap after i *blew* them.

 

Whats the voltage on the battery when it starts doing this?


If it was a voice coil it would do it all the time...

Im guessing that the amp doesnt like the lower voltage.

 

Defiantly not a blown coil. I agree with 84z28350, check voltage @ the amp with a multimeter. Voltage to the amp is about the only thing that’s going to change with the car off vs the car running.

When you did your battery upgrade did you beef up the grounds (chassis battery & engine chassis)?

 

Ok I'll check the voltage this weekend. No, I have yet to upgrade the ground cable from the engine to chassis. I'll do that this weekend as well and post what I come up with. Also what can I do to raise the voltage when the car is off?

 

Not much. Make sure you're battery is up to the task and add another if necessary. I'm surprised you're having any kind of problem at all. Assuming you're battery is getting a decent charge with the car off you should be able to play for a decent amount of time with the car off before you run into any kind of voltage problems. How loud are you playing with the car off anyway?

 

Not loud at all. Just enough to hear while I'm cleaning my wheels. It started doing it when I change the sub amp. I'm guessing it needs a higher voltage like you said than my older rockford amp that I had. But I'll find out this weekend with the meter to make sure it's that.

 

Its gotta be the drop in voltage...


Even though the battery has a 11.5-12v charge while the car is off, that amp might need the 13-14v from the car running to function properly.

 

That's weird because you're not going to be pulling a lot of current at a lower volume so your voltage shouldn’t drop that quickly. When you swapped amps did you swap anything else (grounds, etc)? New or used amp?

Most amps are good to around 10.5 volts are so.

 

No, all I changed was the amp and it's new. I'll check the manual to see that's the recommended voltage for it.


Also noticed that the sub's pop as well when I change a cd or when I change the EQ setting on the stereo. But it's just a single pop not a continues one like when the car is off.

 

The pop when you change a cd is probably because the headunit has a bad ground and is grounding through the RCAs. NEEDAZ will have more accurate input about that.

I wouldn’t necessarily rule out the headunit in this case. Have you tried running everything off a portable CD player or something else along those lines with the car off? This will eliminate the HU as a possibility.

 

THE POP MAYBE THE AMP ACTUALLY TURNING OFF, TURN OFF POP, THERE NEEDS TO BE A SMALL DELAY OR TURN OFF SLOW IN THE AMP, WATCH YOUR LED ON THE AMP WHEN TURNED OFF. THE LED MAY SHUT DOWN FAST OR DIM DOWN SLOW, A FRIEND IS USEFUL, ALSO TRY TURNING THE GAIN DOWN. IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN TWO ITEMS TAPPED OFF THE REMOTE WIRE , YOU WILL HAVE TO USE A RELAY TO TAKE THE LOAD NOT THE HEAD UNIT

 

Sounds like a bad ground to me...

 

i just talked to my buddy, pro installer, he said to check the rca's, and your grounds,just like others have said also

 

Alright thanks for all the help guys. I'll check all that stuff tomorrow and see what I find out.

 

I'd still like to know the voltage at the amp, car running, car off, and after the popping starts. Think that may point to a bad ground.

 

I found out that it was the voltage. When running it's at 13.7 when off at 11.8 and when it starts making the poping noise it's at 10.5 Didn't have enough time to ground the engine to chassis. Also couldn't find the manual for that amp but I'm sure the voltage shouldn't be lower than 10.5. I'll ground everything properly today or tomorrow and see how much of a difference that makes. So what else would be the solution to this problem?


Also tried to lower the gain like chads89ta said and that took care of the single pop when I would change a cd while the car is on. With that change it takes longer for the subs to make that poping noise when the car is off. But not by much only about 5 min.

 

Thats bad. What is the battery voltage (at the battery) when this is happening?

 

Ya. You shouldn't be loosing that much voltage in such a short time period if you're really not playing that loudly. 10.5 = the voltage at which most amps start to crap out.

Turning down the gain = less output = slower battery drain. That's why it took longer

What kind of power (wattage) are we talking about here and over what kind of time frame?

 

What kind of hu do you have, I had the same problem with my pioneer hu and I redid the rca grounds and it works fine now.

 

Well I just decide to rewire everything. I put 1 gauge wire from the batt to the amps and ground. I also checked all the connections on the hd and organised everything since the wires were all over the place. Guess it did the trick since I had it on for half an hour and no poping. Thanks for all the help!