Tower and cabin speakers cutting out, sub still playing
 

So last night we were cruising back to the dock. and the cabin and tower speakers were cutting out for a second or two at a time while the bass seemed to play on.

Here's my setup:

• Polk DB651 cabin speakers on 4 channels of a Kicker 700.5 five-channel amp
• Two Infinity 10" subs giving a 2ohm load to the sub channel of Kicker 700.5 amp
• Kicker 6500.2 powered by class D Precision Power P-600.2 amplifier
• Wetsounds 420SQ zone controller
• Music was playing off the USB input of the MB Quart headunit

Now, I was throttling the system. we were driving the boat at 32mph and the stereo was pretty cranked playing some dubstep.


So I would think that it's not an issue with the source as the music was coming off USB. I found it really odd that the highs (towers and cabins) were cutting out when they are on different amps.

Any thoughts on this?

It stopped because you are 40 and playing dubstep

LMAO!!!!!!!!

I was waiting for a comment like that! well played!

Actually I was just informed it was Skrillex, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites.

Boat mix courtesy of "Surf Addict".



But I do believe the same comments apply!

I see several possibilities.

If it's the Kicker hybrid 5-channel amplifier (Class AB highpass & Class D lowpass) I would assume that it operates with two power supplies so it's possibly just one section could shut down due to thermal or low voltage without the other? I don't really know that amplifier well.
But I would verify your diagnostics with certainty pertaining to two zones that are shutting down simultaneously. Maybe the in-boat zone shuts down first but you only notice it when the dominant tower zone shuts down second. Or visa versa.
Treating the Kicker amplifier as two independent amplifiers (?), maybe both the highpass of the Kicker and the PPI shut down from low voltage having a similar shut off threshold.
You have to go pretty far upstream in the signal path to find a component common to both zones. The input to the EQ would be common to all three zones. The zone outputs of the EQ are all discrete. So that leaves what is common to the two zones inside the EQ. And there really isn't much that is common that doesn't also include the sub zone. The output chips are separate. The panel mount zone controls are separate.
Check how well the RCA cables are seated into the back of the EQ. If they are not well strain relieved then correct this. Again, it's very unlikely both would misbehave simultaneously but check them anyway.
It doesn't add up but with something intermittent I first suspect voltage, whether a ground or B+ termination. Triple check the security of all heavy connections.

Giving this another thought, it just about has to be voltage related even though that may seem a bit improbable. But more improbable may be an event by any other cause that includes four different signal paths including L & R tower + L & R in-boat while excluding the subwoofer.

I'm going to second David's comments. It is definitely voltage issues. I had that same amp in my last boat the the a/b portion would cut out before the d side. The PPI I'm not as sure about. What is your battery setup?

Hey now, I'm only recently turned 30, I can still listen to dubstep :p

I think what we talked about, that you found the in boats were turned all the way down on the 420, so we were really only hearing the tower speakers. With that, it could easily be just a voltage, or rca issue going to the PPI amp powering the towers. I'm leaning towards voltage/ground though.

I've had problems with zone controllers cutting out, seemed to be related to the mic. Might want to try wiring past your zone controller, since it's easy to do quickly with female to female rca jacks.

Cheers,
DC

Yeah, I found out that after I got done surfing, somehow the cabins got turned ALL the way down and in the dark I didn't realize it as we were motoring back to the dock.

So the amp cutting out was the Precision Power class D amp for the towers.


I didn't have the mic plugged into the 420, so I'm not sure if the mic could still be interfering and causing the towers to cut out??

The system performed fine yesterday (although I didn't have Skrillex on my mix yesterday). I'll just monitor things and see if I can eventually isolate the problem if it resurfaces.