So I installed a 10" powered sub/amp recently (about 2 months ago - Infinity Basslink).

I am now having issues with it. The sub itself does not move around. I have it securely attached to a small board under the carpet (screws go through the carpet and that keeps the board/sub from moving). All the connections are still solid, the in-line fuse next to the battery is still good. Here are the symptoms:

Sub/Amp power LED is LIT.
Sub/Amp Servo LED is OFF.
Sub/Amp puts out 0 (zero) sound.

I un-plugged and plugged the RCA's back in, and still nothing.

I have a used Pioneer AVIC-Z2. Could it be my outputs on the headunit? I hope not...that's a really expensive unit (it's obviously not under warranty anymore).

Someone please help. Thank you.

 

can you use/do you have a multimeter?

 

I have one...but I'm not exactly good with it. What do you want me to check and get values of?

 

From what i can recall when i still had my Basslink, the servo light can be off for a variety of reasons - the top two of which may be:

a) The amp is busted
b) The signal from your HU is turned-up too high, lower it and use the basslink's gain to bring the volume back up.

It's very likely (b) if the unit is fairly new.

 

Well now that I think about it...the servo light has never been on. When I was 'tuning' it months ago, it said to do this and that until the servo light started blinking. Mine didn't. Maybe I should have returned it at that point?

I mean, this thing was relatively cheap, and I really doubt it's my AVIC or wiring...

And can you clarifty on (a) please? How do I take care of that if that might be a cause?

I have all the ***** on the sub all the way up (my actual volume on the headunit never really go very high, but I like to feel a decent amount of bass even when I can barely hear the lyrics or music sometimes). The bass control is also all the way up. I did try turning everything all the way down to see if the sub would even put out and noise/sound any it wasn't.

 

checked out the manual and my guess is you had a unit with a defective servo light from the beginning. then because of that, combined with lack of experience, you turned the gain and boost all the way up while low-passing it very high which fried something.

 

That makes sense but I unfortunately had no other way to get bass.

If I turn my headunit bass levels up high...my infinity door speakers (which aren't made for bass or can't handle much of it) would be SOL soon. The only way to get the bass I wanted was to set the sub up high and the headunit low as to not blow my speakers from trying to force them to do things they weren't made to do (they are very crisp and clean, not low, etc.)

This is why I got a sub in the first place.

 

theres a few things to address here that should be kept in consideration even if it turns out to be a different issue.

1) gain is not a volume ****. it is for signal matching. turning it up beyond the correct setting sends a clipped signal to the sub causing distortion and failure. i won't pretend to know the technicalities of why, but it is so.

2) you are obviously expecting too much out of the basslink. if you have to max the gain for it to have the output you desire you need to upgrade.

3) just like your door speakers are made to go high your subs are made to go low. low-passing them at 125hz is too high.

4) there should be some type of high-pass on your door speakers. whether it be in the amp, head unit, or something like a bass blocker. this will keep the unwanted lower frequencies from getting to the mids/highs.

i would say you definitely need to study up on car audio before you do anything else. you're problem is most likely the result of you trying to get the sound you wanted from equipment that wasn't set up properly and equipment that can't meet your needs.

theres always the chance that its something else (check signal connections, hu settings like sub level, etc.) but even if so you need to address these things.

 

My sub is set to 50khz at 0db boost (medium setting). It's not a HU options causing the problem cause I've tried every possible combination. I might have just over-taxed the sub itself and killed it.

Thanks.

 

are your fuses blown?? my basslink blew about 4 or 5 months ago. the internal amp is screwed. i found a fried cap. replaced it but it was still blown. someone was telling me it was probably the mosfets. i had the gain set a little more than half way up. i have no idea if that is right or whatever. one thing i did notice was my bass boost was set all the way up..(i didnt do that, something rolling in the trunk musta done it.)

the servo light is almost always off unless your woofer is at max excursion. when mine blew, the amp power light was on, the servo light would blink during heavy bass notes, even when nothign is comming out of the woofer.


is the wired remote thing that you screw to your dash a gain set?.. i sometimes had that set 3/4-5/6 of the way to max. if thats a gain, it might be what blew it. if you check ebay, there any many basslinks with blown amps. its the most common prob.

 

Well, my sub itself is fine.

I connected my rear speakers to the universal connection on the sub, tuned it per instructions (where the servo light blinks on the heaviest of notes only) and everything works fine. The servo light now works, etc. etc.

So:

1) It's my RCA's (cheap EBay ones)
2) It's my subwoofer/non-fading output from my AVIC (which I am hoping is not the case because this unit cost me $$$ - used)

Question I have is...how likely is it that RCA cables go bad?

 

cheap rcas can have bad connections. i wouldn't say its common but it happens.

 

i dont think rca cables get any cheaper than the red white and yellow av ones that come with 40 dollar dvd players, and in 25 years, i dont think ive ever had any of those jsut go bad..cut ripped burned yeah..but not jsut go bad. maybe some where along the way, they got cut underneath your carpet.

 

glad you got it back up and running. it really is a good sub if you just need it for music and not to wake up the neighbors and set off car alarms.

i just bought a 4 channel amp, gonna use channels 3 and 4 to try to bring the sub back to life, and use the other 2 to power the fronts.

 

I bought cheap RCA's from Radioshack just now. Going to go see if the inputs are fine. If they are, I'm going to go buy a nice set of gold plated ones and do my best prevent any cutting, burning, etc.

 

So...switching RCA's didn't matter.

Either the inputs on the sub for the RCA's is bad, or the AVIC side is bad. I'm going to drop the sub off at a repair place and have them take a look at it for $20 and then give me an estimate of how much it costs to fix.

This sucks.

 

hmm..why don u try testing it out yourself..get an ipod and a rca to 3.5mm adapter.. plug it into the basslink. fire up the car to turn on the basslink and see if anything comes out of the basslink. if it does.. then you HU output is to blame is to blame.

 

I hope to revive some help out of this forum. I am using the basslink ii. The issue is the same as described above.
Led light on
no sound
servo light is off
I used the basslink for 2 weeks and then out of nowhere, one morning I go out to my truck and my battery is dead. I get home, jump it and then I go to use the sub and that's when it started this issue. I messed with it for awhile and couldn't figure it out. Took everything out. Messed with it awhile and did not change a single thing. I put it back in with a new rca cord and it works perfectly. I turn my truck off to put my dashboard back together. I restart it and now it's back to no sound. Amy help is greatly appreciated. I'm now utterly confused and frustrated now. Thankyou!