2018 Z1 RCA's problem... Thoughts?

[NG572]

Looking for advice from Boat Stereo experts:

I have a 2018 Z1 with the factory 10" Tige Clear as source unit as well as the standard two amps, one to run the 6 internal speakers and one to run the tower speakers. I have been getting static and muffled sound out of the right tower speaker and static (at times but not always) out of the other speakers especially the bow speakers.

Testing results: I have unplugged the RCA's going out of the tower speaker amp and all static problems go away, unfortunately so does the sound coming out of my tower speakers. I then tried plugging the red RCA into the white and white RCA into the red in the tower speaker amp. The static moves from the right tower speaker to the left tower speaker when I do this, problem solved (bad red RCA cable).

However... I then grabbed an RCA cable from the house and ran it from the source unit to the amplifier, in essence, just bypassing the existing red RCA while leaving the white RCA still plugged in. When I did this the sound was perfect out of both tower speakers and other 6 in boat speakers. Only one problem, when I selected to turn off the tower speakers at the source, the right side bow speaker would turn off along with the right side tower speaker. The left was still on! How do you explain that? Just to make sure, I plugged the original (bad) red RCA back into the amp and connected it back up at the source and again turned off the tower speakers and it worked as it should, both tower speakers turned off and both the bow speakers worked fine. I am stumped!


Appreciate help from the experts... NG572

[chpthril]

Quick response. Im not sure whats going on, but I do hope you are not unplugging and plugging in RCAs with the system powered up. This is not good for the source unit and amps.

Id first have the dealer check and see if your amps fall under the Tige tech bulletin issued a few months back.

[NG572]

Nope... always unpower system then turn back on. Will look into tech bulletin but Wetsounds has already said this is not an amp problem. NG572

[chpthril]

Dis not say it was an amp problem, but simply common sense to eliminate the known. if your boat fits within the built time of the amps with suspect capacitor issues, get them replaced.

Swapping the left and right, does the issue stay or move? Swap the tower zone and in-boat, does the issue stay or move?

[NG572]

"Swapping the left and right - issues moves from left side to right side. Do not know what you mean by swapping tower zone and in-boat. Please explain process... NG572

[freeheel4life]

"Swapping the left and right - issues moves from left side to right side. Do not know what you mean by swapping tower zone and in-boat. Please explain process... NG572

Most the new Tiges have sharpie dots on the RCA cables at both ends. #of dots is zone.
Zone1 is Bow (1 sharpie dot)
Zone2 is Aft (2 sharpie dots)
Zone3 is Sub (3 dots)
Zone4 is Tower. (4dots)

So taking the 4 dot rca and moving it to channel 2 on the upper amp would now be the tower "zone" playing through the rear inboats. If you muted or changed volumes for tower zone you would hear it through the rear inboat speakers.

I use a 3.5mm to male RCA cords straight to my phone and start at the amps. Check each channel. Then move to RCAs at the back of the screen and plug in 3.5 cord to rach RCA one at a time. If everything work its the pigtail coming from the back of the screen. You meed some RCA barrels to test at the back of the screen.

[chpthril]

Swapping "zones" would be like swapping "front" and "rear". Its feeds the suspect amp/speakers/rca with a different output from the head unit.

[Ralphmuller]

It is the wetsounds amps. I have 2018 z3 and been through 2 of them replace by dealer bc of bad amps from wetsounds. Contact ur dealer and it will be fix pronto.

[KoolAid]

It is the wetsounds amps. I have 2018 z3 and been through 2 of them replace by dealer bc of bad amps from wetsounds. Contact ur dealer and it will be fix pronto.

He is having a completely different issue than the one you are talking about. His static is coming from the source unit/wiring. Yours came from the amps themselves.

[freeheel4life]

Though he did say some of the noise comes and goes, and bow speakers are the worst. Does sound somewhat symptomatic of the amp issues, except the caps are mpre of a squeal, and they keep squealing with RCAs disconnected, so probably not....

[NG572]

Thanks for the feedback, have been out of town and unable to test. Will get back at it in a couple of weeks when work travel schedule slows down. Again, thanks for the advice. NG572

[UNSTUCK]

I had similar problems this past week. No right side tower speakers and no sub. I think the towers were due to a bad rca connection at the Tige Clear. The first thing I did was swap the two RCA's at the amp and the problem moved to the left side. So I climbed under the helm and twisted all the rca's under there and tried again. All the towers then worked. The sub took a little more troubleshooting, moving RCA's around and such. No matter what I did I couldn't get sound out of the sub. In the end I pulled the sub out and found one of the wires had been pulled out of the speaker terminal. I plugged it back in and it worked. The speaker wire to the sub is too short. It's a tight pull to get it to the speaker and I couldn't pull any slack. I think I want to add some length to the wire, but am not sure the best way to do it. Can I just use butt connectors to add two feet of new speaker wire to the existing? Better to solder and heat shrink? Or something else?

On a side note, to have a system that sounds like it has a sub included, I have to run the sub zone at 100%. I really have no idea how long my sub has not been working, as I don't hear/feel it unless it's maxed out. So I tried it at 100% and it was better. I then turned all the other zones down to 75% and it sounded ok. All of this was in my backyard, on the trailer. Even at these levels with a hip hop/ bass song I wasn't worried the neighbors would be bothered. Just not that loud. I'm convinced my amps are way detuned. I talked to Wetsounds a few weeks ago and they were no help at all. Sure wish it was easier to tune these new amps. On the water, my towers provide all the sound. The inboats do pretty much nothing. I guess my question is, can i run the whole system at 100% while underway? Will it hurt anything?

[chpthril]

To extend the sub wires, you could use a heat shrink butt splice or solder/heat shrink on an extension. I would first follow the wire back a few feet and see if theres a zip tie or other anchor that the wires could be released from to gain the little extra yo need.

Are the RCA connections at the ICE box pigtails or fixed right through the side of the box? If they are pigtails, are the connecting taped with electrical tape or covered with a piece of heat shrink to hold them together? Also, are the RCA cables tied up right before they connect to the ICE? This gives them some strain relief so that connection does not get pulled or bounced around and come loose.

Yes, you can run the volume 100%. Its tuned in this manor.

[NG572]

Okay - was able to do some testing over lunch. I found out that I had the wrong RCA's under the helm. They were labeled "RT Zone 1" so I assumed that was "Right Tower". I was wrong. So I found "RT Zone 4" and unplugged it. That was the correct set of RCA's that fed the tower speakers. I unplugged and plugged back in, and everything started working. Need to do some on-water testing when I get time but it could have been a bad RCA connection. Will update after doing a lot more testing. NG572

[NG572]

Issue fixed.... It was RCA's that were taped with electrical tape that had pulled apart. With that said, I previously owned a Moomba Mondo with the fusion head unit running all six in boat speakers (kicker) with a separate JL audio amp running an 8" woofer and it hit stronger and louder than the wetsounds system, it's not even close. I am not sure if it has to do with the speaker placement being at your feet vs ear height or JL Audio/Kicker/Fusion just makes better sounding stuff but my amps were half the size of my current wetsounds amps, speakers are same size and I can tell you as a fact that the JL Audio sub, and kicker speakers with fusion head unit were louder and brighter than current setup. With that said, love the Z1... what a fantastic boat! NG572