08 Roswell lightbar tower speaker combo

[jeilers1]

I'm having trouble with the tower speakers cutting out on higher volume at random times. It seems to be associated with songs that are high in treble. The speakers cut out and more sound comes through or is routed to the boat speakers, then after a moment it starts coming back through the tower speakers normally. This only happens at higher volume, high treble songs. Is it a setting in the Kenwood unit such as pass through, or the amps? I'm not a stereo guy and the shop has no simple suggestions. The Roswell bar has kicker speakers.

I'd appreciate any info or suggestions.

[jonyb]

Either the amp is getting hot, or the speakers are so loud that they're distorting. If they're distorting or one speaker is blown, it shows as a dead short to the amp.

What amp do you have on these speakers, and what speakers are they?

[jeilers1]

The amp doesn't seem to be getting hot as the issue happens as soon as I turn on the stereo and up the volume. The amps and speakers are all kicker. I've isolated the power to the tower speakers as lp pass thru setting in the head unit and the power is controlled by the sw level. I'm not sure if this is correct as the manual is very vague. It seems maybe the speakers have a safety feature and cutout if the sounds seems to loud or the vibrate too much.

[jonyb]

Controlling the tower speakers through the SW level control is wrong. The SW level is the subwoofer. Also, the tower's should at least have the high pass crossover set no lower than 60 hz, with 80hz being ideal.

If the speakers are distorting, then that's the problem. It could also be that the wires going from the amp to the speakers are shorted out in the tower. My boat was wired without using grommets in the holes where the wire came through, so it would be really easy for the speaker wire to get pinched or the insulation be rubbed through, and that causes a dead short and shuts the amps down.

I assume all 4 speakers do it? You could swap the 4 tower speakers to other amplifier channels to see if they still cut out, and if they do, then it's something in the wires to the speakers, or the speakers themselves.

don't think I mentioned this, but make sure the tower speakers aren't blown. That causes a dead short and will make the amp cut off.

[NAW]

Turn the gain down a bit on the amp that runs the tower speakers. The adjustment is right on the front of the amp and it's a simple fix. They come from the factory set with the gain too high. My 08 did the same thing until I dialed it down a notch.

[Diggs]

other thing to check is your battery power. are you running one or two batteries? what are you running for amps and speakers in the rest of the boat?

[jeilers1]

Thanks for the input guys.

The boat has 2 batteries and 2 amps, everything is factory. However, one of the amps had been changed out by the dealer before I got the boat as they robbed parts for someone else. I'm thinking the wires did not get hooked back up properly when the amp was replaced. That may be why the SW level now controls the tower speakers. Looks like a job for the dealer to remedy.

[jonyb]

I worked on a mastercraft the other day that had the aux input rca going to the sub amp, sub didnt' work, gains turned all the way down, and the crossoverrs for the boat speakers set at 200hz.

In your case, it'll just take a few minutes from a person that know's what they're doing.

[21vGravityCustom]

If you have the factory Kenwood head unit there should be 3 outputs, 2 that are on cables coming out of the head unit (front and rear) and then one set that are just the jacks in the back of the head unit (sub woofer). Sounds like they have the RCA cables for the Sub Woofer wired into the input on the amp for the tower speakers. Simple fix because you can do it right at the amp, unplug one set of RCAs at a time and then turn things on, whatever doesn't work you know which RCA cable it is now. There can only be a total of three, you just have them in the wrong combination.