Amp on but VERY little noise coming from sub

Hey guys I just got done doing my subwoofer install.  I powered everything up and the amp came on perfectly.  No protection mode or anything.  I the proceeded to turn on some music.  The subwoofer didn't play loud at all.  There is a little vibration coming out of the sub but nothing really.  The amp is a JBL GTO 1201.1 and the sub is a TC-1000 12".  

There are some little knobs on my hi/lo converter that i'm not too sure what to do with.  Also i'm not too sure how to adjust my amp.

Is there like some mode on the bose stereo to allow a sub or something?

Thanks,
Elliott

If it's the stock bose, I think you are SOL, not sure though. 

Did you hook up the hi/lo converter? Also, try adjusting your Gain, in case it's too low, and isn't powering the sub enough.

is it the rca wires and power wire that need to be ran opposite sides of the car or is it power and remote?  i think its power and rca...anyways, one of those two could cause line noise...i'm no audio guy to my post has no credibility...
 
goodluck figuring that one out...

[quote=Caoboy;127294]If it's the stock bose, I think you are SOL, not sure though. 

Did you hook up the hi/lo converter? Also, try adjusting your Gain, in case it's too low, and isn't powering the sub enough.[/quote]


Yea the hi/lot is hooked up.  The sub is getting a signal it's just not even close to being loud.

there should be a gain knob on the Hi/Lo converter. there is also a gain knob on the amp that needs to be adjusted... also check your amp to see if it has filters, if it does then make sure its on LPF and set around 120hz, you can adjust that to get the sound you want but 120hz is a good start.

[QUOTE=VIP-UCF;127317]is it the rca wires and power wire that need to be ran opposite sides of the car or is it power and remote?  i think its power and rca...anyways, one of those two could cause line noise...i'm no audio guy to my post has no credibility...
 
goodluck figuring that one out...[/QUOTE]

Its the RCA's and the power wire should be ran seperately... the reason being that the alternator puts an AC signal in the DC wire and if given the chance this signal is sometimes transmitted from the power wire to the RCA signal wires on a very small scale but then it hits your amps and gets amplified to be audible... shouldn't be an issue since he is running stock speakers for his higher frequencies.

My amp is Low pass only.  It's the JBL GTO 1201.1.  The sub plays and everything, but it's not loud at all.  like you can't even notice it.

Have you tweaked with every knob you can while music is playing?

this is the exact same thing that happened to me the other day.... If you are using a stock system and using a line converter, it might not be good so your rca signals are weak. If you are using a aftermarket headunit, make sure SUB mode is on or AMP out is on. It really sounds like your RCA cables are getting weak signals. I found this out by doing what i did to test it...

Step 1.

-Take off the RCA cables from your "AMP"
-Plug in an IPOD if you have "PHONO-RCA cables" to the AMP . You can use a discman,walkman, mp3 player or whatever you have in your house. You can even pull your car up your drive way and use a long extension cord and plug in your home CD/or DVD player to it. 

Step 2.

CALL ME a dork? but thats exactly what i did and it turned out that my RCA signal in was no good. 

tell me me if that doesnt work. I'll help you out bro...and tell me what adjustments you have, i'll tell you what they do.

[quote=golfkid777;127558]Have you tweaked with every knob you can while music is playing?[/quote]

Si senor


[quote=jspecfuzion;127571]this is the exact same thing that happened to me the other day.... If you are using a stock system and using a line converter, it might not be good so your rca signals are weak. If you are using a aftermarket headunit, make sure SUB mode is on or AMP out is on. It really sounds like your RCA cables are getting weak signals. I found this out by doing what i did to test it...

Step 1.

-Take off the RCA cables from your "AMP"
-Plug in an IPOD if you have "PHONO-RCA cables" to the AMP . You can use a discman,walkman, mp3 player or whatever you have in your house. You can even pull your car up your drive way and use a long extension cord and plug in your home CD/or DVD player to it. 

Step 2.

CALL ME a dork? but thats exactly what i did and it turned out that my RCA signal in was no good. 

tell me me if that doesnt work. I'll help you out bro...and tell me what adjustments you have, i'll tell you what they do.[/quote]

I'm really thinking that is it.  How can I fix it?

most likely the high low convertor..where are you getting the sound from? speakers or direct to the headunit. the adjustments on your hi low convertor should also set to the highest setting and you can tweak it from the amp after that if its too much gain...accoring to the manual u can adjsut the crossover or theres a remote bass control switch..also how are you running the speaker? bridged?
 
[URL="http://manuals.harman.com/JBL/CAR/Owner%27s%20Manual/GTOAmpII%20om.pdf"]http://manuals.harman.com/JBL/CAR/Owner%27s%20Manual/GTOAmpII%20om.pdf[/URL]

The converter is tapped into my rear deck speaker.  They are at the highest setting and the speakers are wired to a 2 OHM load.

Is your sub dual voice coil??? If it is you might have one coil hooked up backwards....

Nope it's SVC

are you sure you sub is actually playing music??? does the sound level change when you adjust the gains on your amp???

Yea im sure it is.  It goes with the bass in the music.  And yea it does but very small.

have you hooked your sub and amp up to a known good input yet???

What do you mean known good input?

swap the phase.

[QUOTE=jspecfuzion;127571]
Step 1.

-Take off the RCA cables from your "AMP"
-Plug in an IPOD if you have "PHONO-RCA cables" to the AMP . You can use a discman,walkman, mp3 player or whatever you have in your house. You can even pull your car up your drive way and use a long extension cord and plug in your home CD/or DVD player to it. 

[/QUOTE]

x2

if the cone is not moving much then swapping phase won't do anything... if you gain is already all the way up and your still getting nothing for output I'm guessing your signal is weak or your amp is fried. Start with Jspec's idea to see if its a signal problem.

make sure the hi low is hooked up rite...  most of the ones i hook up have four wires....for example, two soild colors wires and two color wires with stripe...  take both the soild wire and twist them together and do the same with the stripe wires...  now hook those wires up to ur output wires from rear deck...

Yup I did that.

[QUOTE=bighitbiker3;127946]Yup I did that.[/QUOTE]

Did you try hooking the amp to a different source yet?

A LOC (line output converter) will only supply the bare minimum 45mV of RCA current.  If you change your source like jspecfuzion suggested it should be MUCH louder.  That means you will need to change the location of the LOC or get an aftermarket headunit.

Unless I missed it somewhere in this thread..what car?

97 Y33 Q45

If that is the case how come many people are running LOC's and getting MUCH louder results.

[QUOTE=bighitbiker3;128971]97 Y33 Q45

If that is the case how come many people are running LOC's and getting MUCH louder results.[/QUOTE]

It may be a problem with your LOC or the way the LOC is hooked up. That's why we recommended using another source to make sure the amp wasn't the problem. Once we've determined its a problem with the LOC then we can begin do address the different possibilities there.

[quote=bighitbiker3;128971]97 Y33 Q45
 
If that is the case how come many people are running LOC's and getting MUCH louder results.[/quote]
 
 
here running $5 LOC's
 
[URL]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Jb7eC5r6g[/URL]

did you try what i told you to do and hook up a different source to your amp???

I'm about too tomorrow.  I'll let you know what happens.

One thing.. that i found out with my sub.. is that.. lol its sorta dumb and something a lot of people might miss is.. the speaker wires on the inside  thats connected to the voice coil, is it in the socket.... i had this same problem after a drive to portland Oregon thinking my amp might be hot so i let it cool for a day, then the next morning still not working.. so when i got home.. i tryed everything, from taking it out and putting it all back in, with new speaker wires and everything.. then i when i was finally going to give up i took out the neg/pos connecter for the speaker wire on the back of the sub.. and the wire on the inside came loose:pat:.... or.. it can be a broken tinsel and your just getting vibrations from your regular speakers in the car.. i have a Acura rl. with a Phoenix gold Outlaw and a Jl w6 12 Using my stock Bose Headunit and its working Perfectly now. With my rcas running Right under my 4awg power wire.. No interference at all and its hitting fine.  so i suggest, check your tinsel and your wires on the inside of sub!

im using Loc also and i find no problem using a cheap pac loc from best buy. maybe your gain on the loc needs adjusting? just my contribution. Hey im from seattle to lets work on it together=]

just an educated guess.. but like mentioned briefly before it sounds liek something is out of phase.
 
for example.. on your LOC you've got two inputs. a left and a right. well if you wired the left and right out of phase with each other then your amp will be getting two exact opposite signals to amplify. which will cancel each other out giving the sypmtoms that you are describing.
two easy ways to check to see if this is your problems. the easier of the two is to unplug one of the two RCAs going into the amp. if when you unplug one and all of a sudden you've got BBBBBBBbass then that was the problem. if it doesnt fix it then clip one of the two inputs to your LOC.
 
i've seen this many times, even today on a car i did (2008 chevy fullsize). 
 
if this doesnt seem to help and you've got two subs in a box. try unplugging the speaker wire from one sub to see if that that does it. 
 
 
if you try the before mentioned and still have little to no sound.. then its possible the signal that you grabbed might be highpassed somewhere, meaning that it has no lower bass tones for your LOC to grab. try changing where you grabbed signal to soemwhere thats not highpassed.
 
 
if you do all this and still do not have any good answers.. try paying a professional for some troubleshooting. i can usually troubleshoot any and all problems in less than an hour. so it shouldnt be so expensive to at least find out what the problem is.

Checking the phase is a good piece of advice, but the problem with BLOWSE stereos, and yes, I have them and LOC headaches in my own car, is that they are generally 1-ohm, where LOC are designed for 4-ohm applications.  This means that the impedance on the input of the LOC is so high that it is attenuating the signal (which is what it is supposed to do) too much, resulting in low output.

Every BLOWSE system that I've added LOC's to had to be cranked all the way up, and I've found that the LOC's that claim lower power handling tend to give greater output at the RCAs due to their lower degree of attenuation.

i've never had that problem with LOCs. usually i use a sni45t but recently switched over to a SOEMT which is nice because i get greater control over the signal coming out of the LOC.

You've never had that problem, or never had it with BOSE?

never have had the problem that i can recall. but i usually tag at the speaker itself where i can get the amplified signal. sometimes going behin the deck on amplified systems i cannot seem to get enough signal. would rather have too much than too little.
 
to the OP... do you have any updates on this? has the problem been resolved or what?

[QUOTE=GrumpySteelMan;310089]You've never had that problem, or never had it with BOSE?[/QUOTE]

im using a schosche loc with my bose headunit.. and there is no problem:biggthumpup:

I'm using a scosche as well, my first LOC from PAC had too much input impedence and resulted in low output.