I got a Jensen 600watt 4ch amp. But I just want it hooked up to my single 10" subwoofer. I brought over 2 channels (Left and Right) from the rear speakers and hooked up an adapter to tie into RCA cables. Then I hooked up the RCA cables to channel 1 and 2 Low Level on the amp(one from Left and Right from the back speakers). Then from the output 2 wires + and - to the Subwoofer. I tried both- hooking up these subwoofer wires to only 1channel + and - and also bridged them (this amp is bridgeable) to + on 1channel and - on 2 channel. The switch on the amp is set to LPF for bass tones. So I hear the subwoofer but the bass seems to be all meshed together, not distinct bass sounds. So not sure if I hooked this up right.
Any ideas?

 

Not off the top of my head, but I will refer you to the MB @ www.roclife.org; it's the local Rochester car MB, and there are plenty of stereo people on there locally that would be happy to check out your system personally and figure it out. I'm on there, but I live in B'Lo...

Something doesn't seem to be hooked up correctly, but from your description, I'm not 100% sure what.

 

It could be a combination of a crappy amp (i.e something wrong with the pre-amp section), and a crappy signal from a line level converter.

I would try tapping into the wires for your front speakers right at the back of the deck, and if you have a decent quality line level converter, playing with the gains on it. Also try turning the gain down on your amp, since setting the gain really high sometimes can give you the effect that you're talking about.

I would also try a higher quality line level converter if you only have one of those RCA -> Speaker wire leads-type line level converters. Try something with adjustable gain.

Obviously doing an aftermarket deck would help immensely, however it seems like you're trying to either keep it looking stock or you're on a really tight budget. With what you have, try turning down the gain on the 4 ch. (It should blend in nicely with the HU volume at 3/4), try a better line level converter (But only if the one you have doesn't have adjustable gain) and maybe see if you can borrow a buddy's amp to see if that makes a difference.

 

Sounds like you may have the input wires on the converter out of phase. Take one side of the input wires (either right or left, doesn't matter) and switch the positive and negitive wires around, then see if it sounds better. Let us know what you find out.

Shawn

 

assuming that your in line converter is hooked up properly and is reliable, mabye your gain needs to be adjusted on the converter. Now, in order to bridge an amp you can do it one of two ways. It is only possible to bridge a 4 channel amp into 3 or 2 channels. You cant bridge the 4 channel amp into 1 channel.

What you need to do is look to see if there is a switch on the amp which allows you to bridge the sub onto one channel. exp: the switch would allow you to bridge the 2 rear channels by putting the swith on and using only the right, or left outputs.

If no swith is present, then you can use the left rear negative and right rear positive to conect to the sub.