peejay

On a shakedown run tonight (still not leaking coolant, still idling smoothly! ) the stereo quit playing out the left side speakers. I thought it was just a faulty tape, so I popped it out to listen to FM - same thing. Probably the amplifier going? I tried wiggling the joystick around thinking it could be a bad connection inthere somehow, nope doesn't help any.

If it is the amp, would it be possible to wire in an aftermarket amplifier? Y'see, I actually prefer tapes to CDs for car audio because CDs seem to get scratched and ruined rapidly, and quality tape decks are getting rather hard to find. I do have one already, but I'd rather not take out the (rather good IMO) factory setup with EQ to put in a single-DIN with the wrong color backlighting, no longer flush with the console, etc.

Rotor13B

I have a 83" gsl, and the left speaker in the back sometimes would short out on the body. Give that a try, better yet, check them all. My sa22c would do that with just the front speakers, but that is because someone had replaced them and did a crappy job on the wiring..

FJ

Sure. It takes a little time but it's easy and worth it. I mounted a Blaupunkt 60w rms (only go by rms) in one of the storage boxes and 6x9 Alpine speakers in the storage box lids. Sounds great. Not a killer system, but great quality sound and more than enough to make yourself deaf, if you're so inclined.

I kept the stock dash setup: I find it rather good also.
I made DIN plugs to connect to the stock plugs at the stock amplifiers, and fed the line level signal to the Blaupunkt. You'll want to run a separate battery line for the amp and a line for the remote turn-on for it also (you can tap off the antenna relay output), but that's easy.

The only problem was when I tried it, the punch was not there: the line level O/P of the radio was too small for the amp. (Some amps have a variable input level.) So I had to add a small preamp from Alpine before the power amp. Problem solved: lots of punch.

-John.

peejay

Oh, so it's two separate amplifiers vs. one amp? Okay, that makes life easier then. (I take it they're are two-channel amps?)

All of the amps that I have in my collection are adjustable so no need for a preamp. Thanks for the help!

BTW - Glad to see someone else who only goes by RMS. Irks me to see "300W amplifiers" being sold, and it's 150W peak per channel, 50W RMS... and 50W at some stupidly high distortion level like 1-5% Yes I have seen an amp with RMS rated at 5% distortion...

- PJ (my roommate is planning a system with almost 4000W RMS going to the subs Just tell me to leave the county when ya fire it up chief!)

FJ

Anything but rms is advertising.

"so it's two separate amplifiers vs. one amp? Okay, that makes life easier then. (I take it they're are two-channel amps?)"

Yes, two channel amps, but not two vs one. In your gsl you have two amps, for front and rear speakers. I use the Blaupunkt to drive the 6x9 speakers only. You could leave the other stock amp for the front, but I also replaced that one with a Kenwood I had laying around to drive the front: added larger 6" speakers in the kick panels in place of the originals, and added a small midrange and tweeters to the "magazine pockets" on the door panels, with capacitors for a crossover.
I also put a CD player in the glovebox. I don't use the cassette anymore, but wanted to keep the matched stereo bits in the dash.
No subs. I like punch, but don't feel the need to have my guts pummeled.

Does your roommate have a spare set of windows for his car? (Not to mention a spare set of eardrums?)

-John.

FuLLsMoKe

I have a GS...
The driver side amp goes to the rear speakers and the passenger side goes to the front (i'm pretty sure)...
When i put in my deck, i did lots of modifications to the frame upon which my new deck rested on. my 2 stock amps are disconnected--how can i remove them without breaking those bolt-type things?

peejay

Oh it's front and rear amps? Then they're most likely not the problem, as BOTH left side speakers are dead. Well, not DEAD dead, just very muffled sounding, and if you turn up the volume enough, they start distorting badly (even though not much sound is coming from them!) So my problem lies elsewhere...

BTW - Eight 15" JBL Power Series subs in an old Caddy station wagon. Plus a pair of 10's (same model) and other minor stuff. I'm not particularly fond of loud music, especially while driving, but I always appreciate things done with extreme overkill. I was wrong on the power rating, though... 400W RMS times 8 speakers is only 3200W, still a ways away from 4000. (Testing the speakers in pairs at only 200W in a very poor quality cabinet in the basement cracked the house's foundation. ) The hard part will be making enclosures that suit the speakers while still fitting in the car. That part will make beefing up the electrical system look like a piece of cake. Stack on two additional high-output alternators connected to a pair of huge deep-cycle batteries in the back...

TheAMAZINGNorad

Hey peejay, look at the Sony Explod raidos. Red Backlighting and silver trim or black trim, depending on the model. I got one put in and the backlighting matches almost perfectly with the red on my GSL. The sound quality is much better than what it was, i was really amazed what a difference it really made. As far as the not bieng flush thing, i painted the rim the color of the silver console and got one of those neet pockets from maztrix to go in the bottom part. It actually looks pretty damn good, IMO. You can also get the Explod raidos with a tape deck instead of a cd player.

FJ

peejay Yes, I should have mentioned that before, if you lose one side, the problem is not the amps: I was just trying to encourage you to install power amps.
If you use the "defeat" button to bypass the e.q. and it still plays on one side only, it is probably in the stereo itself. As it uses line level O/P it's not the same as when the power IC's go out and you lose a channel, so it's likely a switch on the stereo or the volume control, which usually doesn't quit all of a sudden. It didn't make noise on that channel when you rotated the volume? It was not intermittent on that channel before? I doubt the joystick is the problem.


Fullsmoke : I'm not sure what you mean by the "bolt-type things", it's been too long since I've seen the stock amps, but they don't weigh anything and they don't have enough power to use elsewhere so I would just leave them there. If you really want them, drill out the "bolt-type things".
-John

peejay

Hmm... too bad I have zero trust in Sony electronics - EVERYTHING I've bought of theirs failed after a year. Plus the ergonomics of Sony headunits is all wrong - I prefer Pioneers because they're simple to work with while driving down the road and actually watching the road.

(plus I will never put a part in any of my cars with a name like "Explod". )

Looks like I'll just live with the faltering radio for a while..

Directfreak

iTrader: (2)

PJ,

The stock radios use more than the Joystick, they also have a
left/right, front/rear fader on the head unit itself.

Sometimes, while messing with the volume, you could inadvertantly move the fader. Try centering them.

If that's not it, try removing the Joystick, and connect the two Din cables it was connected to. They Joystick is only a "Bridge" that is not necessary for the use of the system, so the two cables should bolt up right up to each other.

Good Luck.

FuLLsMoKe

peejay: ditto--i distrust sony now... their old products are great... newer ones just plain SUCK. they are now like windows98
Also, listen to the speakers that are working. if you hear static from playing a tape (or just play something that should not have static in the music) then your radio is about to go... Have you checked the rubber around the cone of your speakers? after awhile, weather starts eating away at that rubber/paper (if your speakers are stock)

peejay

I didn't know there was a balance **** on the radio - hmm. WIll investigate.

Also - I tried disabling the EQ but when you do that it's so quiet I can't tell if the left side speakers are working or not.

I'm going out fer a bit, looks like i get to play with it some more

mar3

iTrader: (8)

When you get back and if your factory headunit is OK, I've posted the breakdown of the DIN wiring to help you build an adaptor if you don't feel inclined to buy an aftermarket one...

FJ

Actually I, for one, misread it as 400W anyway so it works out.

As an aside, 400W is 400W whether you put it into 2 speakers or 10. You increase the SPL with more speakers (if the amp can handle the current) but not the power.

"Testing the speakers in pairs at only 200W in a very poor quality cabinet in the basement cracked the house's foundation"
That's a joke, right?

You didn't know there was a balance control on the stereo? Don't you like to play with your **** and *****?

-John

peejay

Nope. After testing the speakers, the basement has a good-sized water leak whenever it rains often enough to saturate the ground. (That's 200W per speaker, by the way...)

I still don't see any kind of balance **** on the radio. Fader control, yes, but no balance.

Furthermore, the setup failed to act up on me. IOW it's working perfectly again.

FJ

peejay

IOW = in other words

I'll go out and recheck it, but I'm pretty sure there is no ring around the volume ****, at least, I didn't see any notating written above it. Maybe it's just so far away I can't focus on it cleanly. And again, like you say, it wouldn't make sense that I'd have bumped a balance control because it's fine again.

Trust me, the speakers are terribly efficient. I had a powerful stereo in my first car, I used to listen to it at 126dB continuous (well insulated car - nearly inaudible from the outside until you opened a window), when I drove the car with open headers at full throttle it was only 123dB. Anyway I used to listen to music that loud no problem - while my roommate was testing the subs I had to leave the house because the bass was making my heart act funny and I felt like I was going to pass out. He was using test CDs and was concentrating on tones just at and below the lower frequencies of human hearing - that's all he cares about is the very low frequencies, hence eight 15's

Felix Wankel

Are those the DVC subs? In high school I had 4 of those wired in parallel, then bridged (running at 1 ohm! ) on two punch 60's in my Chevette

Talk about some amps that got hot! Never shut down on me though.

peejay

No, JBL Power Series. BIIIIIIIIG magnets and voice coils on them suckers, too.

He used to have the 10" subs in a '79 sedan de ville, using an enclosure he modified to eliminate practcally all sound above 40Hz - it was ALL low end. Had a battery isolator under the hood, 2/0 welding cable from that to a huge marine battery in the trunk, and an amplfier that had to have been 3' long. All to power two 10"s. It ended up shaking to death the spot welds for the trunk latch, basically blowing the trunk open. (No Exaggeration!)

My T-bird had an all-Pioneer setup... believe it or not, all the sound came from just a pair of 6x9's, but the acoustics in that car were PERFECT. They bounced the sound off the rear glass directly at the driver's ears. (Never was a passenger in that car so I dunno 'bout them ) 126dB was measured at driver's ear height.

smnc

Hehe, it's kind of ironic you say that. I feel the exact OPPOSITE way, lol. I can't stand the controls on most brands (Pioneer, Kenwood, JVC), and I love using the Sony controls