Clarion / Kicker Trouble

[kartz]

I have a 20i w/ Clarion tuner,cd player and Kicker speakers and tower speakers. I can't get the rear or tower speakers to work all the time i.e. they cut in and out when I use the fade button. Local stereo shop says left side battery is shot; bought new battery; problem still exists. Anyone know what battery is for the stereo and if this is accurate; local Tige dealer didn't know much. The front 2 speakers work all the time?

[chpthril]

I'm guessing you have an amp that is powering the tower speakers and rear cabin speakers. Dual batteries as well. Really kinda hard to say what could be wrong as that system could be factory installed, dealer installed, sublet by dealer or customer installed (if you are not the 1st owner)

Does it do it at a curtain volume level? Rough water? after playing for awhile? On hot days? I would start with a simple wiggle test. Turn the system on and get in there and wiggle the harness by the batteries, head unit, and amp. See if you can induce the problem. Next, check the voltage level of the batteries. If the speakers that are cutting out are on an amp, see if you can duplicate the problem and watch the light(s) on the amp, they will tell us something.

[philwsailz]

X2. I want to chime in with CHP. You will need to dive in and trace wiring and figure out where the wiring goes, and share it with us.

Some thoughts:
Even a new battery might need charging. A Kicker amp will turn on and off with voltage swings if the battery drops below 10.5 volts during a bass hit.

That being said... Go read here: http://www.kicker.com/sites/default/...0d01%20web.pdf Find the section that talks about the amp fader button.
The fade button on the amp is a switch that allows you to select the best input configuration for your system. If you have a single pair of RCA cables going to your amp, you want the fader button in the OUT position. If you have two pairs of RCA cables going into that amp, you want the button in the IN position.

Based on your description, you have a single set of RCA's and you are complaining that the sound quits when you push the button in. That is normal. If that is exactly and precisely your complaint, and nothing else funny is happening, there is probably nothing wrong. The fader switch is a set-it-and forget-it control. If I am right, just put it in the OUT position and call it a day! Easy!

Phil
Kicker

[kartz]

I did a little bit of digging around like you guys suggested; thanks for the tips. As of tonight; the system works flawlessly? The Red Badge Light is on all the time. I did notice the 2 fuses on the Amp were not exactly sitting perfect so I pushed them in tight ? who knows. I do have a question about the Crossover Switch; I tried Off / Hi / Lo and it didn't seem to make a difference. Any suggestions here? The only time I got the system to crackle was when I adjusted the gain on the kicker AMP2. I don't see a push button fader button anywhere. Only fade control I have is the turn knob on the clarion stereo right beside the bass and treble. By the way; both batteries are Marine Starter Batteries; does this matter?

[philwsailz]

I did a little bit of digging around like you guys suggested; thanks for the tips. As of tonight; the system works flawlessly? The Red Badge Light is on all the time. I did notice the 2 fuses on the Amp were not exactly sitting perfect so I pushed them in tight ? who knows. I do have a question about the Crossover Switch; I tried Off / Hi / Lo and it didn't seem to make a difference. Any suggestions here? The only time I got the system to crackle was when I adjusted the gain on the kicker AMP2. I don't see a push button fader button anywhere. Only fade control I have is the turn knob on the clarion stereo right beside the bass and treble. By the way; both batteries are Marine Starter Batteries; does this matter?

Kartz-

I hate to say it, but we need to know more. a LOT more...

Thanks for clarifying that the fader issue you are having is in the radio and not the amp, (hopefully). As for the fader control, I seem to recall on the Clarion radios used at the time that the fader and tone controls were simple knobs. They probably are connected to simple 10-kilohm variable pots and they may just be dirty. With the stereo off, turn the fader knob back and forth about a bazillion times; this will work the contacts and maybe clean them. This might prevent the drop out. Barring that, realize the very real possibility that the radio might need replaced.

The crossover is there to control spectral content. Let me explain. Say, you have a system that has a woofer and then 4 cockpit speakers all on an amp. The crossovers allow you to limit which frequencies go where. The subwoofer is designed to play low sounds, so we set the crossover to low pass and then set the crossover to an appropriate crossover frequency for the system. Then for the cockpit speakers, they are better at playing mids and higs, so we set the crossover to hi pass on the amplifier section(s) that the cockpit speakers are connected to, and set the crossover to a frequency which prevents low frequencies from being fed to the cockpit speaekers. This allows a stereo that will play louder with less distortion. I do not know if you have a subwoofer; I was only using the situatio above as an example. You may not have a subwoofer I know, but the example allows an explanation of what the crossovers do.

For your tower speakers you for sure want the crossover for that part of the amp set to hi-pass. This will keep the woofers from bottoming out at high volumes when you are cranking the tower. For the part of the amp running the cockpit speakers, you may want the hi-pass crossover turned on, or you may want it off, but you do not want it set to lo-pass. For the towers you want the bass boost turned completely off. Without a subwoofer, (if that is the case) you want the bass boost turned completely off for the cockpit speakers as well.

Sorry for the long explanation on crossovers, but you need to understand they are important.




My comment about needing a lot more information is due to the fact that Chpthril pointed out. Without knowing which amp, which speakers, which half of the amp is connected to which speakers, one amp or two, etc, there is no way we can do a good job of helping you out. If you are uncomfortable digging on the system to be able to provide a detailed explanation that we can follow, it might be worth your time and way more comforting to go spend some time at a good local stereo shop. Get with someone who is knowledgable and willing to look at the system in the first person to determine what is going on. Otherwise, we are left to do a bunch of guessing, and that doesn't really help you out! Don't discount the radio being faulty; after all, it is when you adjust the fader control that you have the drop out. This to me does not immediately point to the amplifier...

At this point the batteries do not matter....


Can you help us with getting some more information on your system? Otherwise can you tell us where you are located? If we can't help you, we might be able to point you to a local shop that can! Let us know! IF you are close to Chpthril, he might even be able to help out!

Phil
Kicker