Just started digging into the 2021 SX250/AR250 audio system

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

What's the model # of the amp? Does it have a high-level/low-level switch?

 

[hanskapur]

Yeah the high low switch is a good point. Also any adjustable gain that you can increase? Any chance you can attach another source like from your phone or some other music player through a separate rca wire to bypas those rcas ?

 

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

Yeah the high low switch is a good point. Also any adjustable gain that you can increase? Any chance you can attach another source like from your phone or some other music player through a separate rca wire to bypas those rcas ?

That trick works great. An RCA to 3.5, a good thing for an installer to have.

You make a good point though, gains all the way down + wrong setting on amp could lead to almost no sound.

 

[Jeebus]

Okay, somehow was able to rig up my phone to rca out, it’s not pretty, but it produces sound just fine.

so, are all my rca tie ins junk? I’m so confused by that, them all being bad seems so unlikely.

 

[hanskapur]

That was my main issue. Plus my Initial splices were crap. I only had one pair of CESS rcas since I was Just adding in a two channel amp to power the towers I was adding. In my case one rca was clearly Shorting out and I think that directly affected the other channel. I changed to Rockford rcas and bingo everything worked perfectly. Then I changed my Splices to make sure they wereSolid. In your case since you are
Soldering in your rca tap wires your splices sound solid. My money is on one or more
Potentially bad rcas.

Did you check for a high / low level switch and gain adjustment? That could still be a factor.

 

[Jeebus]

Can you send a link or photo of the Rockford ones you used?

 

[hanskapur]

On Amazon like 9.95 each pair.
Search for:

Rockford Fosgate RFIF2SW Speaker Line to Female RCA Adapter

 

[Jeebus]

I’ve got to be doing something wrong then, rfif2sw is a female version. Did I screw something up here?

 

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

Pictures of install?

 

[hanskapur]

Sorry I did use a rca female version but then had a short 1 ft male to male rca patch cord between the Rockford rcas and the amp. The reason for this is so I can eventually y branch my rcas to my led controller so my led light Beat to the music. You would want to find male versions or use a patch cord
Like I did.

 

[ugamarkj]

All of my port side speakers are crackling really bad on my 252SD. With the volume turned to zero, I hear a very noticeable buzzing noise coming from the speakers. Any ideas on what would cause that? I have no experience with audio.

 

[hanskapur]

I’ve got to be doing something wrong then, rfif2sw is a female version. Did I screw something up here?

Did you have any luck resolving your issues?

 

[Jeebus]

I’ve got the new harness all soldered up, hoping to install it this weekend and see if it fixes it.

 

[Jeebus]

well I’m still in the same spot I was before. New Rockford rca ends soldered on, and nothing but static through the speakers. My amplifier is only low input, so I’m guessing my problem lies there.

I can plug my phone with rca cable output to my amplifier and it works just fine....

 

[Jeebus]

Well something is off somewhere and I just don’t know what it is.

turned the boat off, sit for a while, turned it back in a bam, audio. Sounded fantastic! Tuned the amp, set all the cross overs up and it was great. Turned the boat off again, and back on..... bam, nothing but shit static again.

I don’t know where to go to on this now.

 

[hanskapur]

I’m really stumped.

When you get crap static sound, without turning the boat / amp off and back on are you able to get good sound when you plug your phone into the amp input RCAs as the source? I wonder if there is some kid of bad relay in your amp so it would be useful to know if the crap sound is still there when you change the source without power cycling the amp. However, I’m not an expert at the internals of how amps work. It sounds like you have checked all the right things and since you have soldered things your connection points are crappy like mine initially were.

Also, are your batteries fully charged? Could a low battery be causing some of this erratic behavior?

 

[Jeebus]

I have to lean towards the amp being the problem, so I ordered a new one just to test it.

battery’s are full charged (I tried this first becasue I was nearly sure it was a low battery issue), the problem still comes and goes, more often then not however the audio will not work correctly.

Idk, this has turned into a 4 week project lol, hopefully I can get it solved this weekend.

 

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

well I’m still in the same spot I was before. New Rockford rca ends soldered on, and nothing but static through the speakers. My amplifier is only low input, so I’m guessing my problem lies there.

I can plug my phone with rca cable output to my amplifier and it works just fine....

what is the model number of the amp. If your phone works fine it’s not the amp.

 

[Jeebus]

what is the model number of the amp. If your phone works fine it’s not the amp.

I will look for the model number on the amp when i get home, but i think the problem lies in that the amp does not have high level input selection, only setup for low level. So, my assumption is that the RCA ends that im soldering onto my speaker inputs, is not really considered low level. Im honestly just not sure what else to try.

The new amp i ordered has high and low level, so it should work properly, i hope.

 

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

I will look for the model number on the amp when i get home, but i think the problem lies in that the amp does not have high level input selection, only setup for low level. So, my assumption is that the RCA ends that im soldering onto my speaker inputs, is not really considered low level. Im honestly just not sure what else to try.

The new amp i ordered has high and low level, so it should work properly, i hope.

Most modern amps can auto-detect between the signal and adjust accordingly. Have you checked voltage on the tips? You can try something like these, it sounds like the RCAs aren't the easiest to solder.

Kicker 46KISL Wire-to-RCA Adapters

2-channel speaker wire adapter (bare-wire connector to RCAs)

www.crutchfield.com