The past few months, I have noticed some really lacking bass in my car stereo... one that I put together when I was still in HS, I've since graduated from college and this car was sitting in the driveway for 4 years... I've even seen condensation on the subwoofer's enclosure, so I'm not suprised that something has gone bad. Anyways, how do I isolate this problem? I did the trick of taking a AAA battery and wire and using it to see if the Vega 12" sub makes any noise (just tapping the circuit closed)... I hear a quick little pop when I do that, so that's good, I think.
The cheap old Jensen 250Watt(max) amp says it's got power ok... I pulled out a standalone HT type CD player and wired the RCAs of that into the amp, played a really bassy track (yes, it's a bridged amp with Low Pass Filter) off that new Eminem CD, nothing.... seems like a bad amp.
I tried plugging in my headphones to the RCA out (well, the exposed end that's in the trunk) of the CD head unit... couldn't hear anything more than a low-noise static (very faint, didn't sound like music at all).... would I be better off getting an adapter from radioshack to see if the head unit is gone too?
I'm trying to figure out what's wrong without going to a car audio place, because I believe they would want to sell me something and I really am not sure it's worth fixing this sub in my old car.
EDIT: I found a connector which changes the rca outputs of the amp (the pass to a second amp) to a stereo connector and was able to hold my headphone connector to it and hear audible/understandable radio signals... meaning that my rca jacks are fine... amp is no longer doing any amping. Since I want something only to power my vega 12" V124 which does 400W nominal (I assume that's RMS) and 800W Max, I'm thinking about one of those sony XPlode XM-2150GSX models which is rated for 380W bridged RMS and 760W peak... seems a good fit and should only run $200.
The cheap old Jensen 250Watt(max) amp says it's got power ok... I pulled out a standalone HT type CD player and wired the RCAs of that into the amp, played a really bassy track (yes, it's a bridged amp with Low Pass Filter) off that new Eminem CD, nothing.... seems like a bad amp.
I tried plugging in my headphones to the RCA out (well, the exposed end that's in the trunk) of the CD head unit... couldn't hear anything more than a low-noise static (very faint, didn't sound like music at all).... would I be better off getting an adapter from radioshack to see if the head unit is gone too?
I'm trying to figure out what's wrong without going to a car audio place, because I believe they would want to sell me something and I really am not sure it's worth fixing this sub in my old car.
EDIT: I found a connector which changes the rca outputs of the amp (the pass to a second amp) to a stereo connector and was able to hold my headphone connector to it and hear audible/understandable radio signals... meaning that my rca jacks are fine... amp is no longer doing any amping. Since I want something only to power my vega 12" V124 which does 400W nominal (I assume that's RMS) and 800W Max, I'm thinking about one of those sony XPlode XM-2150GSX models which is rated for 380W bridged RMS and 760W peak... seems a good fit and should only run $200.
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