Hey guys,

Haven't posted in awhile but I am having a dilemma. First I will explain my setup for back ground.

I have Infinity Kappa 3 way 6.5s hooked up front and rear in the factory locations feeding off the OEM factory amp. I have a Navone LOC connected to my right rear channel that feeds a signal to a Rockford Fosgate 1000w mono amp connected to two 12" Infinity Perfect subs in a Q-logic bandpass. I have 2 tweeters that have been tapped into the rear channels that sit on the B-pillars. At a basic level, that is the extent of the audio upgrades in my car.

A few months ago my subs mysteriously stopped working. I troubleshooted as much as possible but couldn't source the problem. There is power getting to my amp from the Optima yellowtop through a 125A ANL fuse via 4AWG wire to a 1farad cap into the amp. It powered up, no problem, just NO output into the subs. I assumed I blew my amp somehow and decided it would be a future weekend project to dismantle my car.

Over the months, I bought a new Rockford 1000w amp, accessories etc in preparation for a transplant. I also noticed that my B-pillar tweeters conked out but I didn't pay much attention because they were cheap anyways.

Today I dismantled the car and noticed the REAR speakers are not working! The factory sub, front and center channels all work fine. I think the root cause at this point is my rear channel of the factory amp is out. Does anybody think it could be any other possibility like a fuse somewhere? I doubt it, right? Well that has lead me to a big AZ search frenzy on what I should do......My first question is whether anyone else has blown a channel on their factory amp? What did you do to resolve the problem?

The amp blowing gave me the idea as an opportunity to upgrade. So I am brainstorming. I am not exactly happy with the stock amp output with my Infinity Kappas. The stock amplification is barely adequate, all this time it was the amp and subs that made my system rock. I know the Infinity Kappas are GREAT speakers and I know they would fare better with an aftermarket amp. I don't know if I want to go through all that work though....(sigh I am semi-retired from this modding thing! I'm sure you guys have seen my setup on other threads)

If I had my wish, I'd like to keep the factory amp for the center channel and factory subwoofer. I would like to take the pre-amp signals and feed it to something like this:

http://pac-audio.com/productDetails....&CategoryID=28

Then feed it to an aftermarket 300w 4 channel amp for the front and rear. Has anyone tried this PAC unit? I know some have made a custom harness, but this looks like an easier splice-free idea. Most people then run fresh speaker wire from their new amp directly to the speakers. I was thinking of cutting the wires from the post-amp side off of the OEM factory amp for the front and rear channels. Then splicing IN the output wires from the new 4-channel amp thereby utilizing the factory wiring so I don't have to run fresh speaker wire to all 4 locations. Has anyone tried this as well? I searched hours on many threads but have not seen this done unless I am missing something and someone can help point me in the right direction.

Or the easy option is to screw all that and simply transplant the factory amp, reconnect everything and sell the new Rockford amp and get on with life. I also wonder; what if the problem is not with the factory amp? I guess I will only know once I get one and test it huh? I'll be pissed if I STILL have to search for an answer after that, because I can't think of what killed my rear channel. I wonder if tapping into the rear channels for the LOC and/or the tweeters caused my OEM amp to blow?

Another problem is that I have an expensive 1000w Rockford amp I bought for no reason now, lol. I bought it prior to dismantling the car as insurance because I didn't want to dismantle my car twice....now I have to. I'm gonna put the car back together for now so I can drive, lol.

Ideas? Opinions?

 

Put your voltmeter on the connections pre amp, post amp, pre LOC and post LOC and see where you drop your signal. Only then can you tell what is blown and what is not.

I know that you probably did this, but also make sure that you didn't fade your radio all the way to the front. ...just worth a look before you start to tear in.

That PAC unit says:

• Not compatible in vehicles equipped with a BOSE amplifier

You better check into that some more.

 

Forgot to update this thread. Well turns out the amp was perfectly fine. What was happening was the speaker wiring on one of the rear shelf Infinitys I installed was shorting itself to the metal mounts somehow with speaker excursion. I tried reinstalling many times but as soon as you tighten the screws it shorts at high volume. I ended up swapping L&R speaker locations and that seemed to do the trick.

But that still didn't fit the dissatisfaction of inadequate sound. ahh I'm so glad uncald came up with the PnP RF upgrade.....

 

I was just going to mention Uncald4's latest PnP solution! glad you saw it