Help fixing speaker fade...

\/\//\KE B()/\R|)ER · Criminal Joined: 12 Sep 2006 Posts: 65

So i recently took the boat to a professional to have a second battery installed for our stereo. In the process he discovered that one of our amps was fried so he installed a new amp as well.

We have 4 cabin speakers and two tower speakers, two amps (150 watt i think) and a sub.

Before the second battery was installed the system was wired such that the tower speakers were "front" and the cabin was "rear". This was great to pump up the volume when wakeboarding for the people behind the beat all the while not destroying the eardrums of those in the boat.

Fast forward to the second battery installed and new amp and the fade is now messed up. In fact there is no fade. When I change the fade on the head unit nothing happens. The same volume comes out of every speaker. This doesnt work as people behind the boat simply cannot hear the music.

My question is: how do I fix this? I have never installed a car stereo system but consider myself very handy and i think with the right suggestions it should not be a difficult remedy.

Do I need to mess with the wiring at the amp or at the headunit? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Second question is I want to replace my current Sony xplod (older) head unit with one that had ipod functionality. If i get another Sony xplod model headunit will I be able to simply unplug and swap headunits?

taitrt · Soul Rider Joined: 11 May 2009 Posts: 413

It depends on the stereo.

Are you certain that the boat speakers were hooked up through the amp before? If your head unit has 2 pre-amp outputs (read: RCA R/L hookups for sending non amplified signal to the amp) one could be designated as the front and one could be designated for the rear.

Do you know how the speakers are hooked up? For instance, if you hooked up the boat's interior speakers to the head unit channels (lets say the front ones for instance), you could use the rear preamp to fade the sound to the rear channel.

If you play with the fade, what happens? Does it turn the sound off completely when you switch 100% to either front or rear? If so you can probably just unplug the preamp on the back of the head unit and switch it to the other zone's preamp.

This should be a really easy fix with a little more information.

P.S. Being able to just swap head units is not likely, however, wiring in a new harness is super easy, especially since even if the plugs don't line up, all of the colors should be the same from one to the other.

kyle f · Addict Joined: 14 Aug 2008 Posts: 835 City: Norris Lake

Also be aware that like my head unit, there is one set of RCAs that are non fading. I have a single 6 Channel Amp. My head unit has 3 sets ouf out puts.

Output set 1, front on teh fader... going to channel 1 (Right) and Channel 2 (left) to power interior speakers

Output set 2, rear on teh fader.... going to channel 3 (right) and Channel 4 (left) on the 4 tower speakers

Out put set 3, non fading... going to channel 5 and 6, bridged out put to mono subwoofer.

So, given this you need to see how your CD player is wired to the amps.

#1. Is it by RCAs... sounds like it because if he used high level inputs (normal speaker wire outputs from the headunit) your fade would have to work unless he is using only 1 set.
#2. How many RCA sets (R&L) do you see at the head unit. May need to pull out your book to see the color combinations of the pairs if there are more than one set
#3. If only using one set, check your amplifiers. Some have input RCAs and then a Set to output to give signal to another Amp. If it is set up this way now, you fade will not work unless it fades from all to nothing in one direction but nothing changes in the other. Since you say your system is not doing this, it is proply not set up that way and he may have switched the RCA inputs to the non fadding output from your head unit under the assumption that you would not use this feature.

So get ou there and get your hands dirty and see how the answers to these questions come out. Then I can help you further.

pet575 · Posted: May 30, 2009 5:51 am Post subject:

What taitrt and kyle f said. Sounds like your RCA pre-outs got switched around by the guy who installed a new amp. Either that or he has changed your speaker wiring from its original configuration. More info required.

\/\//\KE B()/\R|)ER · Criminal Joined: 12 Sep 2006 Posts: 65

thanks for the response guys. Unfortunately the boat is at the shop getting its preseason tune up so I cant check the configuration at this moment. I will come back with more info once it is out.

To answer the other questions though. When i change the fade nothing happens to any of the speakers. I can turn the fade to 100% rear or front and the sound stays the same...

If you dont mind can you explain a little more in general how the systems are typically configured? So i have 2 amps so is it likely that the 4 cabin speakers are hooked up to one amp and then the two tower speakers and the sub hooked up to the second amp?

Is there a specific configuration with regards to speakers and amps necessary to get the fade to work properly? meaning do all the "front" speakers need to be wired to the same amp?

Next, fade is determined simply by how the the RCA cables are plugged into the back of the head unit right? So if 4 cabin speakers are connected to one amp then is there one RCA cable running from that amp to the HU, thus designating the "front" speakers?

Lastly, Just so i can better know what to look for when I get the boat back. Knowing the equipment I have:

-2 amps (150W 4 channel i think)
-4 cabin speakers
- two tower speakers
- sub
- extra battery and an isolator for managing charging for the two batteries

What is the "typical" or standard method of wiring this system?

Thanks for all the help.

JeffreyCH · Posted: May 30, 2009 10:58 am Post subject:

Here ya go, except all your cabin speakers would be run in series on the back channel instead of just the 2 shown in the diagram.

This is provided you have front, rear, and sub out rca connectors.

\/\//\KE B()/\R|)ER · Criminal Joined: 12 Sep 2006 Posts: 65

great thanks....this is very helpful....

a couple other basic questions:

Is the headunit likely not powering any of the speakers? In that diagram, if I wanted all 4 speakers to be front would I just not run the rear cable from the 4 channel amp? Would plugging just the front rca cable into the head unit power all 4 of the speakers?

JeffreyCH · Posted: May 30, 2009 11:13 am Post subject:

In that diagram the head unit is not powering any of the speakers. Picture your 4 cabin speakers on the right side run in series and the ones on the left represent your tower speakers. The other option is if you don't have a sub out rca(refered to patch cables in the diagram) If you only have a front and rear you would have to have a pair of 'Y' splitters in your rear rca's to go to the sub amp. This way you can fade off the tower speakers when not riding and still have all cabin speakers and sub running off the rear rca channels.

JeffreyCH · Posted: May 30, 2009 11:19 am Post subject:

I forgot to ask, after the new amp was installed can you fade left to right? Something is whack if you could fade front to back before and you can't now.

\/\//\KE B()/\R|)ER · Criminal Joined: 12 Sep 2006 Posts: 65

i do not believe that any fade works at all. Yes definitely weird. The only thing that was installed was a new amp and a second battery.

Could the installer have switched the configuration due to the new battery? Wouldnt think that would matter from a fade perspective though right?

JeffreyCH · Posted: May 30, 2009 11:26 am Post subject:

No the power supply would have nothing to do with how your speakers and amps are set up. To tell you the truth I can't even wrap my mind around WTF they could have done to make none of the fade work at all, something is crossed up someplace. This was a stereo shop that did this? Or a boat shop?

\/\//\KE B()/\R|)ER · Criminal Joined: 12 Sep 2006 Posts: 65

this was a individual who used to run a stereo shop but now does work out of his house.

JeffreyCH · Posted: May 30, 2009 12:24 pm Post subject:

Hmm a simple amp swap shouldn't be that big of a deal, unplug the old one, plug in the new one. When you get your boat back post up some pics, maybe we can see what's going on.

edit: It just occurred to me what the problem might be. Some 4 ch. amps have a switch to run various bridge configurations, they will have a 4,3,2,1 channel switch on the control face, check to make sure the amp is set to run 4 channels. If it's bridged down to run mono you will get this problem.

taitrt · Soul Rider Joined: 11 May 2009 Posts: 413

Honestly, it sounds to me like the guy decided to fix the problem by just running all the speakers in series off the same amp, and charged you for installing a new amp that doesn't exist. Have you actually seen this new amp with your own eyes?

JeffreyCH · Posted: May 30, 2009 4:08 pm Post subject:

taitrt, If that was the case then fading the speakers would either turn them all off or all on.

taitrt · Soul Rider Joined: 11 May 2009 Posts: 413

\/\//\KE B()/\R|)ER · Criminal Joined: 12 Sep 2006 Posts: 65

I have seen the new amp. It definitely exists.