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how do i know if its the RCA input on the AMP?

50K views 40 replies 7 participants last post by  burakol 
#1 ·
i have a bad feeling that one of the RCA input on my amp is flawed...

although i still get sound out of it... it is somewhat distorted in nature and a very low whine is coming out.... i tried switching the rca's but still had the same effect so im thinkin its not the rca cable...

may it be the RCA input itself? or should i rewire and use another cable?

this is not the 1st time i've installed a simple system in my car and never had the issue in the past... the amp is SS Ref700...
 
#34 ·
I've had a few SS Ref's...





^^^ There WAS another 500 to go with the above, it was in parts, stripped and ready for paint.. lol..
 
#35 ·
see... this is not the 1st time i installed a system in this car.. before this i had 2 RF punch installed under the front seats and all was perfect... no unwanted noise at all...

this time, i am putting the SS amp in my trunk and i noticed that the top cover of the fuel pump is also visible from the trunk near the amp...

is a going bad battery also have any dreadful effects???

if i am to do the RCA stalks shiel myself, would you mind letting me know how to??? i do know how to solder but i just don't know which components to touch... PLEASE???

Thanks!

>>>> Aaron <<<<
my wife's car in the philippines have the 644s and 700sx which until now has not proven to be a "smokestream"...
right now i have a ref200 and this 705s...
i just love these amps... i don't think i'll ever use anything else provided that they work fine... but then again, if i had the extra dough it may be a different story... :)
 
#36 ·
ok.. i again tried to trace the problem... i ended up trying my spare a300 art series and hooked it up... the sound was clear as water.... no distortion/whine at all!!! i used the same RCA cable that i ran to the car.. same grounding point as with i used for the SS amp... grounded the HU via the stock harness... in short, i did nothing special and just hooked it up... result was, problem was not evident....

so..... do i now conclude that the one RCA input on the SS amp is bad?
how do i get to fix the RCA shield stalk? i opened the amp a while ago to closely check for any burnt/loose solder but all else looks clean...

i actually sprayed on some lube over the switches and will try again tomorrow if that will make a difference...

any thoughts? amp or something else???
 
#38 ·
Damn man, that sucks... quick question, is the amp mounted to metal on the car, or on a board? Sometimes a ground loop can be created, through the amp chassis..


Yeah, doing the proper re-soldering on that amp would a real *****, because most of the actual soder "blobs" are on the side of the board you CAN'T see... and it's a real bugger to tear down and put back together.. propery..

If you don't know much about soldering, then, this isn't the amp you want to test your skills on...

You got something that is garbage that you could practice on first, because I CAN think of a way for you to "re-flow" the solder, but it's usually best to apply a little as that is done..

Do you have a soldering iron? If so, is it good condition?

This is a little snippet from a install tutorial I did on another forum, just to get you pointed in the right direction...

Now, the SOLDERING LESSON....
First and for most, it needs to be HOT, the hotter the better, plug it in before you begin and by the time you are ready to use it, it'll be GOOD and HOT...
Next, the soldering iron needs to be in good shape for good soldering, NEVER, NEVER file or sand a soldering tip to clean it... once hot, a damp paper towel or sponge "should" clean it, if it is in half way decent shape... If you can't get a nice bright silver/chrome look from it, consider some fine seel wool, if that doesn't do it, a new tip or iron...
Now, you need to "tin" the iron, which is nothing more than melting some solder in the tip, this needs to be done often to keep a thin layer of solder on the tip. The tinning acts as a conduit for heat transfer. Clean the tip often on the damp whatever you have and re-tin after each cleaning...
Depending on the wattage of the iron and the thickness of your solder this can be easy or difficult... Thick solder for sweating copper pipes is not recommended because it removes a lot of heat from the iron... It CAN be used, but it's better to have thinner "electrical" solder.... And "flux core" solder is a good idea as well...
Flux it a acid/rosin mix that helps strip impurities from the wire and solder and makes the job LOADS easier... if you don't have flux core solder, little tins of flux can be bought near ANY solder in the store...
Now, now that you have your first pair of wires twisted and your iron ready, get set to solder...
Tin the iron and give it a quick "flick" toward the floor (doing this in the house in the carpet/vinyl flooring NOT recommended) to remove the excess...
Place the tip of the iron on the wire for a few seconds, let the heat rush into the wire, now touch the solder to the iron, right where the iron and the wire meet... If you are hot enough, the solder will melt and start flowing INTO the wire via capillary action... once you see the solder flowing, you can move it (both the solder and the iron) around a little on the wire, feeding in solder until you see the connection is completely silver, remove the heat and let it sit for a few seconds...
 
#39 ·
i just got back in from testing the amp again.. this time, i installed it in my brother's car... DAMN!!! it had the same problem!!!

i tried his on mine and another spare amp i had and no issues at all...

i guess its really a bad input huh???

AARON: thanks for the soldering tips... i gutted out the amp last night and fortunately i was able to put it back together... cleaned the inside with some lube hoping it would make a difference today but none... i really didnt see any bad solder on both sides of the board... or should i say, i really can't determine which is good and which is bad... all seems to be in an ok shape...

how does a ground loop work???
 
#40 ·
Hold up, what did you clean up on the amp?? The white grease stuff??? If so, DON'T continue to use the amp....

That white paste is heatsink paste and NEEDS to be there.. if you removed that, you need to go to a Radio Shack and buy a small tube and re-paste all the MosFET's like they were..

So, something is definitely up with the amp.. you doing what you did shows that..

If you had the amp taken apart, did you see anything out of the ordinarily..

The reason I never really think/thought it was a solder is because they use a 4 layer board, heaver than most and stronger.. so, much less likely to have bad solder...

Now, bad solder can be a well defined crack or removal of the trace from the board altogether, or it could be a very thin ring around a terminal you can't hardly notice.. Again though, with those boards, it very difficult for any of that to happen...

Ground loop... http://www.bcae1.com/ topic 126 on the right of the page... goes through it a lot better than I can..

I donno man, i've never repaired one of them myself, you may try pointing the member here Envisionelec to this thread and see what he says, though he's a very busy man, and I hardly ever see him post... I could be in the wrong sections though... He's repaired a few or more now, including most of the ones you saw above I had on the wall... as he owns them now...
 
#41 ·
i just cleaned the board itself.. not the thermal paste... i know those had purpose... thanks for looking up though... i did not see anything out of the ordinary... what i thought was al seems to be intact... board was perfect.. solders seems fine... none at all

i may just end up sending it to a shop... there's one thread in this section about SS repair shops... i'm also waiting for db-r's reply if i can send him my amp... hopefully it is not going to cost me much more than the current value of the amp...

just disappointing... after im done with all my setup and all... i now this amp worked flawlessly the last time around so i didnt bother to check before i did my install and everything...
 
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