Anyone had any troubles with a WS 420??

gx205 · Outlaw Joined: 23 May 2007 Posts: 118

I've been in the long process of installing my new stereo system in my boat, and after almost being completely done, I decided to try the new system out before I completely mounted all of the amps, wire tied the wires, etc, and mounted my wetsounds ws 420.

Went through all of the setups to install the ws 420, and then proceeded to turn everything on.

The Tower speakers, worked great, and the microphone did what it was suppose to do, the subwoofer worked fine also, but the boat speakers just didn't seem to be working right. The boat speakers seem to be running under powered, and you could also hear a low hissing sound.

After a lot of brainstorming, and unhooking, and then re-hooking each amp back up, and checking all amp settings, I finally concluded that the ws 420 might be the problem.

As soon as I unhooked the RCA connecters for the tower speakers amp, and hooked the boat speakers amp to the tower hookup on the ws 420, the boat speakers sounded awesome. So then I plugged the tower speaker RCA's in the boat output section on the ws 420, and then the tower speakers seem to be underpowered. Immediately unhooked the tower speakers from the boat section, and re-installed them in the tower section, and once again they played fine.

So the conclusion is that the Boat output on my ws 420 is not working, and therefore not supplying my amp. Also if you don't put any RCA jacks on the boat output, on the ws 420, the hiss goes away.

Anyone else have any problems with their ws 420??

From some of the calls I made to wetsounds before I decided to buy this equalizer, they seem to be a company that will absolutely stand behind their product, so I'm not worried about that, but I just hope there isn't multiple problems with this unit.

I'm hoping that I just got a rare "bad" one.

Thanks for any and all responses

Brit Rider · Posted: Jan 05, 2009 4:34 am Post subject:

gx205, I think you already diagnosed it pretty well - sounds like a one off bad unit. It happens.. and as you say, Wet Sounds will 100% stand behind this as they are all great guys.

Just as a sidenote - you did try messing with the gains on the boat speaker side didn't you?

jonyb · Addict Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 844 City: Paducah

You know the volume for the towers and in-boats are separate on teh 420, right?

wetsounds1 · Criminal Joined: 05 Feb 2006 Posts: 60 City: austin

GX,

As jonyb mentioned. Did you have the boat volume up to the same level as the tower volume?

Did you adjust the gains on the entire system?
Did you follow the step by step guide I wrote on the site for set up and tuning?

If you start with that. Set your gains on the 420 about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up. I prefer to have the 420 higher as it is better to have more input voltage into the amps. So I set mine with the 420 about 3/4 of the way up.

Since you will have more input voltage into the amps. be aware that your amp gains may not need to be more than 1/4 to half way up.

The hiss noise is called "gain hiss" This happens when you have improperly set gains.

Sounds like that could be your problem. As that is 99.9% of the calls we get on the 420 are all related to improper tuning.

Yours flipping volume level is the only weird thing. So go over the tuning of the system and see what that does for you.

If you are still stuck, call the office at 877-938-7757 and ask for Gyver in tech support. He can walk you through some more things and if you want, you can send it in and he can bench test it.

Tim
Wet Sounds

gx205 · Outlaw Joined: 23 May 2007 Posts: 118

Thanks for the replys guys, this forum is great!!

Yes to just about all of the questions you all asked me. I downloaded the setup instructions from wetsounds website, and went through them throughly.

I knew the tower speakers could be adjusted seperately from the boat speakers, as that was my first indication that something was wrong. With the boat speaker knob almost wide open and the tower speaker knob less than half, the tower speakers still was what you could really hear.

Anyway, I called wetsounds this morning, and talked to John, he told me a few things to check, and if that didn't work to call him and he would set up getting it shipped to them.

I got home this afternoon, and went out to try what John told me, but now absolutely nothing happens out of the boat side of the ws420. I can plug the boat amp into the tower output, and they play fine, same with the tower amp, but plug either one of those intop the boat output, and absolutely no sound happens.

I called John back, and told him what was going on, and now it is being shipped back to wetsounds. He assured me he will, get right to the root of the problem as soon as he receives it, and that if it is in fact bad, that he will send me a new one to replace it.

WetSounds is an absolutely GREAT company to work with, they have been right to the point, and more than helpful. It is easy to see that they are a company that completely stands behind their products, and that is a great comfort.

So in the end it will still be a few more days before i get to finish my stereo install, but that's no big problem as I'm still awhile from starting boating season in my area.

Thanks again for all of the replys, and a special thanks to Tim from wetsounds for always answering questions also.

jonyb · Addict Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 844 City: Paducah

Glad you got it worked out...... I admire how these guys roam the forums and help out here.