Front door speakers not working - need help with amp setup!

This past weekend I ran all new wiring for my new speakers, amp and headunit. Although the headunit isn't new, the speakers and amp are. Speakers are Polk Audio DB571 Front & Rear. Amp is Kenwood KAC-8405. The front door speakers were working the other day before I adjusted the amp for more bass which only worsened everything. I clearly didn't know what I was doing and thought I could just play with the controls to figure it out but now I'm lost...Any help to tuning the amp would be great! thank you in advance

 

see if your amp is getting power first. if it isnt check your power wire fuse and remote wire. if thats not it check all your fuses. you may have blown one. there should be a fuse on your amp too. if those are good check all your wiring on the speakers, amp and headunit. one may have come loose. a lot of times its the remote wire that runs from the amp to the radio. when tuning your amp turn everything down on the amp and set everything on the headunit to halfway, right in the middle. them tune your amp until you like how it sounds. just dont give the speakers too much bass it could blow them or your amp could go into protection mode. good luck!

 

What year is your truck and what model was your system? When I upgraded my JBL system, I found out the amp on the subwoofer box was the only place I could tap into the lines. Tapping before the amp (which seemed like the right answer) gave no signal. Like an idiot, I cut the wires before the connectors and repairing them was a big hassle. I ended up replacing the head unit. You can see my build in my signature line below:

 

I have a 2003 and the headunit is just an old Panasonic CQ-VD6503U Double Din piece...I'm waiting for my mic to come in so I can install my new headunit which is a Kenwood KDC-BT952HD Single Din...The front speakers were working yesterday morning on my way to work and I didnt set up the amp, my boyfriend did. And I wasn't so thrilled with his settings because the treble was so high, you couldn't hear any bass. So after work I grabbed a flat head and decided to play with it and of course didn't remember where it was originally set! And while I was tweeking it, the front speakers cut out! The music wasn't loud but I recall when we originally set it up, the front speakers weren't working until he adjusted it properly and I have no idea what the heck I did haha. And I sure as hell don't understand HPF,LPF, Channel A's and B's, Inputs and Ohmz haha.....maybe i just shouldnt have an amp! Oh, I also don't have sub.

 

Thanks! I'll give this a try after work! They were working perfectly fine yesterday morning until i messed with the amp after work...

 

EDIT: it is the front drivers side speaker that isn't working

 

sounds like a loose wire if only one speaker isn't working or you may have changed the balance to one side resulting in that one speaker muting. you can always disconnect the battery to reset the head unit and see if that helps change settings back to factory

 

Pull a multimeter out and check for voltage on the power wire and remote wire, use the ground wire on the amp. If thats fine check the HPF/LPF/ make sure its set to HPF(this will only allow midrange/highrange to go through the speakers). IF its set to LPF(Will only allow low bass to pass) and you adjusted the gain's high its possible you froze the voice coil.

EDIT: Take a picture of your settings of the amp it would be easier to see what MIGHT be wrong if you already checked for voltage on the amp

 

Try swapping the front left and right speaker wires at the amp, and see if the problem follows the speakers. Meaning if you swap the wires, the pass. side wouldn't work. Other problem may be that you fried the voice coil of the speaker, and now it's not working at all. In this case, if you swap the wires and the drivers' side still isn't working, we're onto something. Next step would be to open up the door panel and check the speaker, by lightly pushing on the cone. If it moves, but feels like it's dragging, or if it doesn't move at all, you've killed the speaker, and need to replace it.

 

oh no! I hope it's just a loose wire! Here are the settings right now...

I'll try everyone's advice tonight and let ya know..i definitely don't have a multimeter but i can go buy one of course. And I thought the sound system would be easy to set up!

 

I'm going to assume that on the amp "A ch" is the front speakers, and "B ch" is the rear speakers. First thing I notice, is that you've turned the gains all the way down on the front channels. If you look at B channel, the gain is set to 1, where on the front A channel it's all the way down to 5. Turn the A channel back up to 1, and if you want more bass, turn the LPF/HPF Frequency knob down to 70 Hz. The part of the knob that you want pointing at the setting you want is that flat part. That's the way you know it's the pointer on the knob. Try that, and get back to us.

 

even if it was set to 1 it should still play some sound at a higher volume.. Have you checked if the amp is getting proper voltage?

also a easier way to check if the speaker is working is if you take anything smaller then a 9 volt battery tapping the speaker wire -/='s and hearing a popping sound.

 

Ah, work slammed me the past 2 days but I'm gonna dig deep tomorrow and let you guys know where I get. Thanks again for helping me out, you guys are awesome!

 

The speaker is most likely a loose wire, short, or you have managed to turn the balance on the head unit (HU) to right. Wiggle the wire and if it cuts in and out its a bad connection or short in the wire. If your left one works then the right should too so its not your amp if they are on the same channel. Once you have that reset you head unit back to default. Change it to Loud and w/e else you want on the HU (don't mess with the EQ yet). Set all channels on Amp to Stereo unless the Chan B is a sub. Set all the filters to off. If you are installing 6x9s or component speakers u prob will like the sound better with no filter. Its a High pass (treble) and Low Pass (Bass/Sub) filter which is used when you have dedicated speakers to do each. Your input (Gain) will be set all the way to low and you will tune it til it sounds good to you. You will probably find that you will not increase this past half way or your speakers will begin to distort and crack (sound). There are very technical ways to tune an Amp but this way will is free and you prob wont notice. Just remember the more power (higher the amp is tuned) the more likely u will hear distortion. Once you have the amplification taken care of then go to your HU and change the EQ and fine tune the sound for your ear and system.

For all those that disagree - This is how me and my friends have always done it. If you do it diff good for you.

 

Ok, SO I hooked up the new amp and off the bat, the music was playing except for this time...the front RIGHT door speaker isn't working.. I must not have it hooked up correct? Thanks!

 

Have you traced the wires from the speaker to the amp? Easiest way is to run a new wire while taking the speaker off to access the back terminals. Just run enough test wire from the amp to the right speaker and if that doesn't work then your speaker is DOA and needs to be replaced. If the speaker works then your wiring is messed up and you'll have to tear apart the scuff plate, kick panel and run the wire.

 

Bah, with the other amp..the left speaker didn't work and with this one..the right one does t work lol

 

You may have unintentionally switched the RCA's coming from the back of the deck to the amp. That's why the channel not working switched. Try switching the RCA's from the front channel and see if the dead speaker follows. That would mean you have a pinched RCA cable and need a new one.

 

Ohhh ok I'll look as soon as I get back

 

So I switch the RCA surround and there's always one speaker that does not work. Should I just replace both RCA's?