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HELP! Tower Speaker Issues: Sound on only 1 side


ftlbs

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Hey all!
I just purchased a 2009 RFXi from the original owner. I am very excited about this boat as it in great condition and has very little hours, however I'm having some issues with the stereo system. The previous owner added (4) Samson tower speakers as well as a 1000 Watt amplifier and a subwoofer. He had these components professionally installed by 'Audio Northwest' in Lacey, WA. After bringing the boat home, I tried out the sound system for the first time but had a few concerns:

- First, I noticed that the amplifier is only wired to 1 of the 2 batteries making the tower speakers and subwoofer only usable if that 1 battery is selected. Does this seem odd to anyone?
- Next, I noticed that as soon as the stereo system is powered on, the system 'pops' 1 time upon startup, and then a small amount of static can be heard from the 2 port side tower speakers. This static remains on the port speaker while playing music, but can be covered up by turning up the volume of the music.
- Finally,  when playing music, the 2 starboard speakers didn't seem to be working at all. Upon further inspection, a very small amount of sound can be heard from 2 the starboard tower speakers if you put your ear right up to the speakers.

I have tried swapping the speakers themselves from left to right and I have also adjusted the L/R balance with no improvement or solution to these issues. I consider myself mechanically inclined, but electronics is definitely a weakness of mine (especially audio). Any help would be greatly appreciated. See photos for additional info.

Thanks in advance!

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A couple things to check / change.  You should wire the amp into the Battery Switch box so that is runs off both batteries. Some may not agree but that is how I have done it in the past.  Some folks are always concerned with having their starting and stereo batteries separate.  This will solve that problem.  I cannot help on the popping.  I have had RCA cables go bad, try switching or replacing to see if that works. 

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That Exile knob at your dash, the RCA's behind it sometimes get a bad wire from being bundled.  Try moving the wires around while the music on or swap the RCA's at that point & see if you get sound on the other speaker.  The popping is the amp turning on before the head unit, the inrush of power to the amp.  Disconnect the RCA's from the amp, power on your system, if the pop is still there start chasing down ground wires.  If the pop is gone it's probably the amp or head unit itself that's the problem.  You can also disconnect the remote power wire from the amp, turn on key & see if it pops.  Then while it's on touch the remote wire to the correct connection at the amp & see if it pops then.  Some head units have a delay which causes the amp to turn on first & the pop may not be a concern.

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1 hour ago, ftlbs said:

I’ll try your suggestions and report back. Any thoughts on the constant static heard through the port side tower speakers?

Ground issue, bad RCA's, sometimes you need to take the hot or ground from the stereo directly to the battery.  I'm dealing with this as well & I just did a band aid & used an RCA filter.  

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17 hours ago, ftlbs said:

First, I noticed that the amplifier is only wired to 1 of the 2 batteries making the tower speakers and subwoofer only usable if that 1 battery is selected. Does this seem odd to anyone?

If there is a multi-bank battery switch, this would be less then ideal for a few reasons

17 hours ago, ftlbs said:

- Next, I noticed that as soon as the stereo system is powered on, the system 'pops' 1 time upon startup, and then a small amount of static can be heard from the 2 port side tower speakers. This static remains on the port speaker while playing music, but can be covered up by turning up the volume of the music.

The pop is usually due to incorrect wiring. Slim chance its a head unit or amp issue. The static could be head unit, amp, RCA. 

17 hours ago, ftlbs said:

Finally,  when playing music, the 2 starboard speakers didn't seem to be working at all. Upon further inspection, a very small amount of sound can be heard from 2 the starboard tower speakers if you put your ear right up to the speakers.

Sounds like blown tweeters. Not all uncommon, but also could be a result of amp tuning or user induced. Could be the amp as well. 

If you have swapped speakers and the issue stayed on the STBD side, you ruled out speakers, pointing to amp or its signal input. 

Poor output on one chnl and static on the other leans heavily to an amp, but not proven yet.  

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UPDATE: I have messed around with the L-R balance settings, I have switched the tower speakers from side to side, I have tried swapping the L&R RCA input cables that come into the amplifier, and I have also tried swapping the F&B RCA output cables coming from the head unit. After doing all of these things, I never got sound out of the right side tower speakers and the static in the left side tower speakers never went away. The next thing I plan to do is to swap the L&R output wires coming off the amplifier... 

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  • 4 months later...

UPDATE: I ended up speaking with Brian at Exile Audio. He helped me diagnose this and we determined that the amplifier was bad. I bought a new 30.2 amplifier from him and haven't had an issue since.

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