Confused! Stereo issue...

Ok then, swap the woofer and full range speaker leads and RCA leads, then mirror the amp settings and test. It sounds like the half driving the full range speakers has plenty of output. if so, then they will have a drop in output and the sub will perk up if they are swapped.
 
Robf said:
Really?? So it was an issue with the amp?


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Click to expand...

Ok, he is what happened...

He installed a new Fusion head unit, 6 Fusion speakers, a Fusion Sub, and a Fusion Amp. After the initial tech support call they replaced the sub, no difference. The second tech support call they replaced the amp. The third tech call lasted 3 hours and they finally decided it was an output on the head unit that wasn't working.

Everything works now but he is very disappointed in the sound with the Fusion products.


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Can you access the back of the head unit? if so, does it have an open pair of RCA outputs. Eliminate the Ys in the RCAs and run a dedicated RCA to the amp rear left and right and reevaluate.

No correlation between the AB and D power supply topology.

Unless the woofer magically failed between the old amp and the new amp, in a manor that its nominal impedance has risen or its physically binding, then the woofer is not the issue and a new one is not the answer. May not hurt to pull the wires off the amp and measure the woofer's impedance anyway.

There is no practical way to increase supply voltage to just the amp. However, think a little broader. Your old amp suffered the same 20% drop in output between full system voltage and battery static voltage. Likely about 10% drop between the advertised 14.5V output and the more realistic 13.5V we would see engine running off idle.

From a volume standpoint, this new amp and the old amp should sound about the same. The difference between their 4 ohm x 2 output is close enough that there is not an audible difference.
 
I have tried the sub on both channel pairs. Same result with the full range sounding fine on either side and the sub being underpowered on either side.
Rob
Wylie_Tunes said:
Ok then, swap the woofer and full range speaker leads and RCA leads, then mirror the amp settings and test. It sounds like the half driving the full range speakers has plenty of output. if so, then they will have a drop in output and the sub will perk up if they are swapped.
Click to expand...
 
The head unit is the stock Clarion unit and the second pair go to another amp to drive the cabin speakers. The original Clarion amp only required one pair of RCA cables to drive both channels. There was no noticeable difference when I attempted to drive just the sub channel without the splitters.

Thanks for all the help!
Rob
Wylie_Tunes said:
Can you access the back of the head unit? if so, does it have an open pair of RCA outputs. Eliminate the Ys in the RCAs and run a dedicated RCA to the amp rear left and right and reevaluate.

No correlation between the AB and D power supply topology.

Unless the woofer magically failed between the old amp and the new amp, in a manor that its nominal impedance has risen or its physically binding, then the woofer is not the issue and a new one is not the answer. May not hurt to pull the wires off the amp and measure the woofer's impedance anyway.

There is no practical way to increase supply voltage to just the amp. However, think a little broader. Your old amp suffered the same 20% drop in output between full system voltage and battery static voltage. Likely about 10% drop between the advertised 14.5V output and the more realistic 13.5V we would see engine running off idle.

From a volume standpoint, this new amp and the old amp should sound about the same. The difference between their 4 ohm x 2 output is close enough that there is not an audible difference.
Click to expand...
 
Time to ohm out the woofer circuit, just to rule it out.

Do you still have the old amp? Are its settings still as they were? if so, can you note them and post them up and the make/model?

Also need to make sure those RCA outputs are in a fill range setting and not some how defaulted to a hi-pass like setting, limiting the band width on the lower end.
 
How do I check the RCA output setting on the head unit? I don't believe it could be the sub since it worked fine and then the amp was changed and then it didn't. I still have the old amp, but the settings, I don't believe are much off the new amp, other than gain. I believe have a picture of the settings which I will find and post.
Rob
 
Disappointing to hear that feedback regarding the Fusion system. If there another head unit that's recommended for a larger boat to power both salon and cockpit speakers?
 
Since the OP has already flipped the speakers/channels, it sounds like the problem is on the input side, not the output side.
 
I've run fusion in my last boat and my current boat. Plenty of people on here have heard both sound systems. They rock! Something else is to blame. Bad wiring, underrated wire gauge, amp settings...something.


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I would be hesitant to lay blame on a brand, for a not yet isolated issue. Even a defective component, should not paint the entire brand as poor. And this coming from a person who does not even use fusion on a regular basis.
 
Just so everyone knows, been working with the Fusion support, but still no luck. Verified the settings on the head unit and even flipped the outputs from the rear to the front, but no difference. Will check the resistance on the sub this week to ensure it is in the 2 to 4 ohm range, but can't imagine that is the issue, since as I mentioned before, it worked fine with the Clarion amp. I am truly baffled by this and will let everyone know what the resolution is. I am not down on Fusion as a brand by any stretch. Had Fusion speakers in my last boat, and they were great. Considering upgrading my head unit to Fusion to better match the amp, or possibly upgrade to a larger Fusion amp if I can't resolve my current issue.
Rob
 
Will check the resistance on the sub this week to ensure it is in the 2 to 4 ohm range,
Click to expand...

The woofer should be 4 ohm, give or take a couple tenths of an ohm. A 2 ohm difference would be major issue.

Considering upgrading my head unit to Fusion to better match the amp
Click to expand...

Marketing pitch. Unless you have a bad pre-out, the fusion amp will make its full wattage on your current head unit. The fusion amp does not know the difference between the current head unit and a new fusion or any other brand, it only sees voltage.
 
I have no idea if this even applies to this situation but i'll tell you what happened to me this past WE just in case it does.....

for the past several weeks I have been working on a significant upgrade to my stereo system (I will post pics later).....the last step was to connect the power and ground cables to the amps and new head unit....

I installed a double Din Pioneer head unit (model FH-X731BT) in the dash of my boat....this past WE I finally was able to power the head unit up and check out the upgrades I have done to the amps and speakers in the cockpit.....the front cockpit speakers and the sub worked as expected and sounded great....but the rear cockpit speakers were not working....so I started trouble shooting all the wiring I had done during the upgrade....after a few hours of troubleshooting I was drawing a blank and the problem persisted....

so I slept on it and started thinking about the next steps......then I remembered reading in the user manual that this head unit can be set up in two different operational modes.....one mode is called 'standard' where two sets of speakers (front and rear) and a sub are used...the other mode is called 'network' where only the front set of speakers is used and a sub....in the network mode the head unit can be linked to other units....

so the next morning I checked and sure enough the head unit was in 'network' mode....as soon as I changed it to 'standard' mode the rear cockpit speakers came alive.....

is it possible your head unit has a setting somewhere that is affecting the output to the amp/sub?.....does your HU offer different operational modes like my HU does?

cliff
 
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If you have the Clarion XMD3, when disconnecting power the unit will revert back to factory settings. There is a hi/low pass filter as well as a sub-out setting that gave me fits in my old boat and until I figured it out I thought there was an issue with the sub amp. Also, you can set the output on the head unit for the sub and leave your amp in full range mode and see if that increases your sub volume. Same goes for the CMD series Clarion head units.
 
The CMD actually has a full-range non-fade, rather than a dedicated or selectable sub output. But like the xmd woofer output, the non-fade level is adjustable.

IIRC, the OP swapped the RCAs so the sub chnls were receiving the same full range input as the speaker chnls, which seem to play at an acceptable level. This would have eliminated everything upstream of the amp.
 
I think the issue is about ohms. You need to identify if you have 4 or 2 ohm sub speakers and whether they are single or dual voice coil. Then you need to identify whether your subs are wired in series or parallel. Get a multimeter and check.
 
I have yet to get back to the boat to test the ohms on the sub, which I plan to do this weekend. I have also worked through the settings on the rear channel from the Clarion unit running through the full range, and various low pass settings, and other than cutting out the full range speakers when switched off the full range setting, doesn't affect the level of the sub. I did not run across a way to actually increase the pre amp output on the rear channels, only the filter settings. If someone knows how to increase the level, maybe that is the answer since I am splitting the RCA outputs to feed two amp channels?
I really appreciate all the feedback everyone has provided, and will keep everyone posted through resolution.
Rob
 
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