Blew something on stereo-need troubleshooting assistance!

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Apr 9, 2014 | 04:59 PM

HD32

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From: Williamsville, IL

Blew something on stereo-need troubleshooting assistance!

I'll try to be short but detailed. Ride a Road Glide. Went for a shakedown run, smoke rolled out of my left speaker grill and stereo cut out. A pretty heavy bass song came on and volume was about 75%. Blew before I could get it turned down/song switched. Both tweeters work and vocals (highs) work on right speaker. Left speaker is all white noise. No signs of any wires being burnt/damaged, head unit seems to be working properly, all fuses are good, and protection light not lit up on amp. Soundstream PN4.320 amp. Polk DB651 speakers (4ohm, 55 continuous, 165 peak watts) and Polk DXI6500 1" tweeters with Arc Audio crossovers. Sony DSX-MS60 head unit. Head unit has front and rear A/V cable plugs, and I'm running off the front, and split at the amp to bridge for 2 channels. Amp bridged per all instructions. Wired from amp to crossovers, then to each speaker accordingly. Front and rear crossover switches on amp set to full (no switches on arc crossovers). Gain set at about 1/3 per normal procedures (flat line audio curve on head unit, volume @ 3/4, adjust gain to distortion and then back off, then set audio curve on head unit to fine tune. I'm not sure how to troubleshoot what I have blown and what I need to adjust so it won't happen again after I replace something. I know enough to be dangerous, but am definitely not an audio guy! HELP!

Apr 9, 2014 | 05:50 PM

AAWAV

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From: Las Vegas

appears the speaker(s) are gone. might have thrown too much watt at them.
I would eliminate speakers first . i.e. test them with another amp (home receiver, whatever...).
your amp probably provides too much RMS Watts for the DBs unless you bring down the gain on the amp... I would use UN's calculation to dial in the Amp to the RMS wattage the speakers can handle... if you dial in to the RMS Wattage the Amp CAN deliver, you are going too high. just my 2 cents...

Apr 9, 2014 | 06:01 PM

Pioneer74

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From: Michigan

OK. I'm assuming here that you only have the two fairing speakers. Only the highs work on the right speaker and nothing comes out of the left? You have a couple of things you could do.

First thing I would do is take the crossovers out and just power the DB651's with the amp and see what happens. If everything sounds good it's the crossovers.

If it's still bad, bypass the amp and play the speakers directly off the head unit. If everything sounds good, it's the amp.

If you're still having problems, it's either the speakers or the head unit. Only way to test it is to get another set of speakers. If you hook new speakers up and it sounds good, the DB's are fried.

You could just jump to testing the speakers if you want. Hook the stock ones up and see if you have full sound, just don't crank it.

Apr 9, 2014 | 06:13 PM

heavymetalthunder

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From: Kansas City, Missouri

Kinda sounds like your left speakers got strait DC voltage and it roasted them. Speakers like AC votage it causes the cones to go in and out. If you have a VOM you can set it to DC hook it up to the speaker leads with the system on and see if you have DC voltage. If so the amp is bad on that channel and it caused the problem.

Apr 10, 2014 | 04:09 AM

ridedaddy

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From: chatham il

Seems common for the polks with external crossovers to blow only one side of the speaker, meaning bad woofer but tweeter still plays or vice versa. I Fried the tweeters out of mine while the woofer on one still worked, the other speaker didn't work at all. My bet is you fried the polks!

Apr 10, 2014 | 07:03 AM

UltraNutZ

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From: East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Quote:

Originally Posted by heavymetalthunder

you will not be able to accurately test for DC voltage unless speakers are disconnected. You only want to test the speaker leads. This will tell you if there is any DC voltage running down the output rails. I highly suspect this not to be the case but it's certainly worth checking out.

Apr 10, 2014 | 11:18 AM

HD32

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From: Williamsville, IL

Thanks for the responses guys! I'll do some troubleshooting based on these suggestions and see what I come up with. Naturally, this happens before a much needed sunny and 75 degree Saturday in Central IL. Might be riding without tunes this weekend...could be much worse!