2016 R21 Boat Speaker Issue

[TX_16R21]

New to the forum and Tige boats. We bought our 2016 R21 last Thursday. I took the boat out Friday with no issues, all speakers working great. Saturday I launch the boat waiting on the wife to arrive at the boat launch so I am listening to some music while waiting. She finally gets there and we are headed out of the no wake zone, and all the sudden I notice that the boat speakers are no longer playing music, but the tower speakers are. I immediately look at the amp, no flashing light codes, fuses are good, and all the wires have good solid connection. Later when we got home I double check the fuses, wires to the amp, and for flashing light codes from the Wet sound amp, and still nothing out the ordinary.

Our boat has the two amp setup, one for the boat speakers and sub, and one for the tower speakers. The tower speakers are working fine. All the speakers on the boat speaker amp are not producing music. If you place your head up to any of the boat speakers you can hear a hiss or static sound (really low), but no music. Our boat has the MA300 head unit, and I have also tried all sources in the radio, AM/FM, Aux, Bluetooth.

Thoughts are that the amp is not able to pick up what the radio is playing, or the radio is not able to send a signal, or voltage is to low in the battery the amp is using. I am not an audio expert, if someone can lead me to some simple tests or has any thoughts it is greatly appreciated. If not I will be taking the boat into the dealer to put that warranty to work.

[chpthril]

No flashing codes. but was the normal power light illuminated? If you could at least hear some noise from the speakers, ill presume the amp is at least powered up.

Dual battery setup or single?

Voltage at the amp's main power cables and small turn-on terminal?

Was there any output from the sub woofer?

[TX_16R21]

No flashing codes. but was the normal power light illuminated? If you could at least hear some noise from the speakers, ill presume the amp is at least powered up.

Dual battery setup or single?

Voltage at the amp's main power cables and small turn-on terminal?

Was there any output from the sub woofer?

Yes the normal Blue light is illuminated, and stays solid.

Dual battery set up.

I didn't check the voltage from any of the power cables, due the time of day. I did however, check the voltage reading in the display screen. It showed 13.1 to 13.6.

No output from the sub woofer.

[SKSailboatshop]

if you play with the fade and balance does anything change? Are all of the leads on your battery properly hooked up? Are all of the AMP connections actually plugged in(i would verify everything is actually plugged in and a wire did not pop out).

[TX_16R21]

if you play with the fade and balance does anything change? Are all of the leads on your battery properly hooked up? Are all of the AMP connections actually plugged in(i would verify everything is actually plugged in and a wire did not pop out).

I have tried playing with the fade and balance, still nothing out of the boat speakers or the sub. I have checked all the AMP connections, everything is secured and plugged in.

I have not checked the battery connections, as mentioned due to the time of day, it was late.

[chpthril]

I dont know if that display indicates the main cranking or the house battery, but checking voltage right at the amp tells us exactly the voltage the amp is receiving. No guessing about fuses, connections or state of the battery charge.

The Marine Audio/Jensen head unit looks to only have a single RCA output pair. This means that somewhere after the split, the problem arises. This assumes that they are using low level RCA only and not using the speaker level converted to an RCA. This also means the full-range and sub are fed via a single source, which explains why both zones are not playing.

So outside of a voltage issue, we could have an internal amp issue or RCA cable issue. Odd that both chnls are out, but could be that the cable is tied up too short and both left and right popped off.

I would confirm the voltage at the amp
power off, unplug the RCAs from the large in-boat amp, noting where they are plugged in, plug in a 3.5 x RCA into the amp, plug up phone, make sure volume is turned down on phone/MP3 source, turn system on and turn up volume on phone and see if you get music. This tells you if the problem is upstream of the amp or not.

[TX_16R21]

I dont know if that display indicates the main cranking or the house battery, but checking voltage right at the amp tells us exactly the voltage the amp is receiving. No guessing about fuses, connections or state of the battery charge.

The Marine Audio/Jensen head unit looks to only have a single RCA output pair. This means that somewhere after the split, the problem arises. This assumes that they are using low level RCA only and not using the speaker level converted to an RCA. This also means the full-range and sub are fed via a single source, which explains why both zones are not playing.

So outside of a voltage issue, we could have an internal amp issue or RCA cable issue. Odd that both chnls are out, but could be that the cable is tied up too short and both left and right popped off.

I would confirm the voltage at the amp
power off, unplug the RCAs from the large in-boat amp, noting where they are plugged in, plug in a 3.5 x RCA into the amp, plug up phone, make sure volume is turned down on phone/MP3 source, turn system on and turn up volume on phone and see if you get music. This tells you if the problem is upstream of the amp or not.

What should the voltage read at the amp? I will have to go buy a 3.5 X RCA and test this with my phone. I am assuming if the problem still exist then I have an amp issue?

[chpthril]

Voltage at the amp should be same as it is at the battery. Battery voltage should be at least 12.5V engine off.

[SKSailboatshop]

did you verify the connections coming out of the Headunit are good?

[jmhatchett]

IDK where you are located in Texas, but for a couple of trips after first getting my boat new in 2009 it got so warm that the amps would go into safe mode and shut down before overheating. They were factory mounted and nothing altered when this happened... my simple fix for our temperatures was to install a small circulating fan in the compartment aiming towards the amps to keep them cool(er). I have no idea if that would help you or not, but it has helped me and i haven't had them shut down since then. The Fan cost me $15 and 30 minutes time and it is nice when we idle and aren't moving to open the hatches and let it run to circulate air.

[TX_16R21]

IDK where you are located in Texas, but for a couple of trips after first getting my boat new in 2009 it got so warm that the amps would go into safe mode and shut down before overheating. They were factory mounted and nothing altered when this happened... my simple fix for our temperatures was to install a small circulating fan in the compartment aiming towards the amps to keep them cool(er). I have no idea if that would help you or not, but it has helped me and i haven't had them shut down since then. The Fan cost me $15 and 30 minutes time and it is nice when we idle and aren't moving to open the hatches and let it run to circulate air.

I am in the Fort Worth Area.

When your amps would go into a safe mode would the lights on the amp indicate they went into said safe mode? My amp is not indicating it is in a safe mode, and I even touched the amp when this happened. It didn't seem hot at all just warm to the touch.

I am thinking that I either have a voltage issue or something internally wrong in the amp. I have looked at all the wiring from the radio to the amps and everything seems to be connected properly and secure. I have not yet checked voltage or the 3.5 X RCA test as suggested by chpthril. I will hopefully have time this evening to do so. If not I will be calling the dealer tomorrow to see about dropping it off. Since we haven't even had the boat a week I feel like they should be fixing this issue, not me.

[jmhatchett]

I dont think operating temp is gonna be the problem for you since one amp is working and one isnt, i think the problem is somewhere else. That was just a side note on this topic. I am from Lubbock but the first times my amps did that was at PK and the temps there were very hot.

[chpthril]

An over heated amp should return to normal operation after being off for a short time. You would experience no sound omitting from the speakers while in hot mode. With the white noise, leads me to believe the amp is lacking a signal on the input side.

[TX_16R21]

Well I tried the 3.5XRCA trick and got nothing. So what next?

[TX_16R21]

Since I was coming to a dead end and pretty much narrowed down the problem, I decided to take the boat into the dealer on Tuesday for them to repair it under warranty. Well I picked the boat up yesterday after work. They replaced the amp, and the head unit. The amp needed to be replaced because it wasn't producing sound to the speakers. It had power but wouldn't do anything with it. The head unit was replaced because it wouldn't communicate properly with the remotes in the boat, and it thought there was always a button pressed. Something that I was not aware of, but I am glad it was repaired and we will be on the water enjoying the boat listening to music.