Tower speakers stopped working

[Dman223]

I was diagnosing why my tower speakers sounded like there was static while music plays, I disconnect the RCA wires and plugged them back in and all of a sudden the tower speakers stopped working. This is a 2017 tige z1 with dual amps.

[chpthril]

Yeah, never a good idea to unplug/replug RCA with the system powered up.

[Dman223]

welp, whats the damage?

[Dman223]

I didn't hear any pop or anything. I'm also an idiot and didn't pay attention to which RCA jacks I removed them from on the amp, but theres only so many combinations to try and none seem to work.

[Dman223]

I fixed the tower speakers, but my original problems remain. I have a noticeable amount of static coming from all speakers, but it’s most noticeable on the tower ones. And when the volume is low the sound cuts in and out. I have the syn dx 2 and 6, neither have any adjustability.

[Dman223]

Here is the sound it’s making


https://imgur.com/a/BHapeLL

[Dman223]

chpthril won’t let me quote your reply. Can you please try to help me with this? Static from all speakers, 2 amps, everything seems tight, static is still present when RCAs are disconnected.

[chpthril]

The first year DSP amps developed a static issue after a number of heat cycles. With no inputs connected and the noise is still there, points to the amp. One last step to be sure, is to a spare RCA and plug one chnl into the LEFT and the other end of that same chnl into the RIGHT. This grounds the inputs, preventing them from an antenna. If the noise is still there, its the amps. Given the year and the symptom, im 99% its the amps.

[Dman223]

chpthril thank you so much. I’ll try to get my hands on an RCA cable to test that. Would that also make the static stop if there was a grounding issue somewhere? It’s pretty crazy that $1400 amps would just both go bad like that.

[Dman223]

I just got a new cheap amp to try out for the tower speakers but I didn’t realize it does not have built in fuses. The wet sounds one does, and there’s no in line fuse in the power lines. This is obviously a problem right?

[Dman223]

I read that the fuses in the wetsounds amp are not to protected the whole circuit but only for the amp itself. I think I saw fuses on the positive bus bar ? Are these what serve as the inline fuses for everything?

[Dman223]

Here to confirm I swapped the tower speakers with a kicker from Best Buy and the low volume issue and static are both gone. Any chance of getting new wet sounds amps on a 2016 boat I just bought from a dealer? lol

[Dman223]

chpthril I replaced the amp with a kicker and all the problems went away. Is it okay to split the 4 gauge wire small enough to fit into the new amp? I know there’s more professional ways to do this but is it safe? Here’s the final install.

[Dman223]

Also do you know if the positive power bar in the back of the boat holds the fuses? There is no inline fuse in place in either amps. I did see what looked like fuses on the positive bus in the stern.

[chpthril]

The reason the noise "went away" when you swapped out the wet sounds for the kicker is because the wet sounds compression driver is 10X more sensitive compared to the kicker traditional dome tweeter. The noise was still there, it was just harder to hear.

I would not whittle down the power cables to make them fit. Proper terminals, new cabling, amp that can accept the existing cable gauge or a distribution system that will allow for the cable to be stepped down.

I do not know if that boat has fuses or breakers for the amp B+. Would need to trace them to their source.