Kenwood KDC-X696 problems

[Ibstrange1]

Hello, I am new here. I will track down the introduction thread to properly introduce myself, but I figured that I would start with seeing if someone can help me figure out what is going on with my system.

I have a 99 corolla, which has the above mentioned deck, an Alpine amp, and an Alpine 12" subwoofer. When I first bought the deck the system sounded pretty good, and it was bumping some solid base.

One day it stopped bumping. I thought that maybe my amplifier had failed, seeing as it is getting along in years. I noticed that the power light had turned off. I tested the remote wire, and it was reading about 3 volts. I ran a wire from the positive terminal on the amp to the renote, and the amp turned on. I then checked the remote voltage at the deck, and it was low. I pulled the deck and took it back to where I bought it, and when they hooked it up to their test system, it worked fine.

I reinstalled the stereo, and not the amp was powering up, but still no bass. I bought an adapter cord from amazon for a few bucks which let me plug my phone directly into the amp inputs. I had bass. Thinking that perhaps my rca cables got a short in them, I replaced them. I still had no bass from the deck. Out of curiosity I plugged my rcas into the front output instead of the sub output on the amp, and I heard the subwoofer make some attempt at working. I set the meter to read ac voltage, and was getting about 1.75v from the front outputs, and 0.05v from the sub output. I made sure that the subwoofer was set to on in the audio settings, and I turned up all of the bass options, but still no signal out of the decks subwoofer output. I pulled the deck and took it back to the dealer, asked them to hook up all the wires to see if maybe that was the difference, and the thing worked. I double checked to make sure that they had set it up like I had it in my car, and it was pushing the sub they had for testing. I did notice that they had to turn the head unit up pretty high to get the sib to move, and when I mentioned that, they said that the test amp had some issues, but that the deck was clearly pushing it.

I am stymied. Does anyone here know what might cause this strange behavior in my system?

[JeremyC]

It sounds like a bad deck.

Lets start with the easy stuff. Take a picture of the settings on the amp, and upload it for us to see.

Tell us where the settings currently are for the deck. Sub out, x-over, bass and trebil.

If you want to do a little more t/s. Install everything in the car like you normally would, but don't connect the RCAs on the back of the deck.

Start everything up and make sure the door speakers are playing. Now use your phone adapter (through the rcas connecting where the deck normally would) and see if the subs play.

If they do, hook the deck back up and check one last time.

Report back here with everything, and we will tell you what to try next.

[Ibstrange1]

I have found the discrepancy. When I am playing music on the stereo, I am streaming it via bluetooth from my phone, and when the shop tests it, they are using the tuner. When I was testing the rcas from the back of the deck (with a voltmeter, the male plugs didn't want to connect) I was seeing voltage in the range that indicates proper functioning. I then tested the voltage at the output of the amp, and it was pushing about 40 volts. I wiggled the wires and the sub started hitting. (i had switched subs to an old one to see if the speaker was bad, and apparently I exchanged my good sub for a bad one.) I put the alpine sub back in the trunk, turned on the radio, and there was my bass. To test and make sure that my phone hadn't forgotten what bass is, I plugged it into the head units auxiliary port, and the bass was hitting hard. I will go back to the shop on Sunday and show them my findings. I would consider that to be a malfunctioning head unit that should be covered under warranty.

[JeremyC]

Glad you found the problem. If you need any more help let us know.

[Ibstrange1]

Will do, I appreciate the help!