Sub goes from quiet to loud

[HuMz]

i was running my 2 12" subs fine no problems sounded really great, but i was using my old-first made box and constructed it pretty shitty, so as a temp solution i cut it in half and am now just using the one 12 while i build a new box, the problem is it sounds like shit most of the time, then all of a sudden halfway through a song sometimes it gets like a surge and sounds like it should usually until my car is turned off, everything seems to be connected correctly including the ground, anyone have any ideas as to why its doing this?

[Rikimaru]

try using a stronger ground or try a different place to ground it out

[spike98]

or check the connections INSIDE the box that connect to the sub.

[Weapon_R]

If the only thing you changed is the box, check to see any loose connections - ground and power going from the amp to the sub sound like they may indicate the problem.

[HuMz]

checked over all the connections and they seemed fine, it hits the higher bass notes almost the same just when it hits the low it doesnt sound good or right, tried switching the negatives and postives around too, i tihnk the problem may be in the RCA's, i unplugged the left one i think(black one) and nothing happened, but when i unplug the right(red) it obiously wont get any power, so its like the left rca is fucked or came un done at the deck, or is it supposed to be able to work with only one rca?

[rahim]

subs play on a mono signal so it only needs one rca

[Tony2]

When you "Mono" (aka bridge) an amp it is the sum of both channels so it needs BOTH RCA's. If you unplug 1 side of the RCA's you will loose bass as music is recorded in stereo and you would loose half the notes and signal.


T2

[BumpinTalon]

if only one RCA works the sound will be quieter. check the connections, if it suddenly surges then there is a loose connection somewhere. did you mean when you pulled out the right RCA nothing changed and then you pulled out the left one too and it stopped playing? so you had no RCAs running to the amp at all?
try running it just off the RCA you think doesn't work. then you can narrow down the problem. if you dropped your amp or are pushing your RCAs in too hard, you might have loosened up the RCA block inside the amp so that could possibly be where the lose connection is. if that's the case, you'll need to solder it yourself or take it in to be fixed.

[HuMz]

yeah its working with just the red one in and the black one out, and when you plug back in the black one it does nothing, and when you try to just run the black one there is no power at all, its not so much quieter with just the red, its just hitting wrong and not sounding good, im gonna check the black rca at the back of the deck though i think thats what it might be either disconnected or a bad connection

[HuMz]

just chcked the rcas on the back of the deck and it looks like its the left RCA on the amp thats broken, anyone know how to fix it or where to take it into?

[Zero102]

Stupid question, but is the amp bridged?
If it's running in stereo mode (2 channel), and your sub is only connected to the right channel, then I would expect the left RCA to do nothing.

Before you get too worried about it, let's eliminate all of the simple things.

[HuMz]

yeah it is bridged, wheather i run it through the right channel or bridge it the left rca can be unplugged on the amp and it will make no difference