Ok, so this is my first pack build. I’ve been having some trouble with distortion when I turn the volume above 50%. I have a Crix sound board, 7w canakit amp, 2- 120w 4 ohm speakers, a Jupiter light kit, and I recently purchased a distortion/battery eliminator from Spongeface.
I’m using 22 gauge wire for all connections. My volume pot is directly connected to the amp (not wired to the wand), I’m using a 12v battery supply, and my speakers are wired in parallel. I’ve tried wiring them in series, but there’s no improvement in the sound quality. Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks man. I haven’t taken electronics since high school building mini robot wars robots haha I’m a little fuzzy on the whole good bad thing with all of this stuff
I don’t agree that it is your speaker’s wattage rating causing the problem.
The first problem I see is that you’ve connected two 4 ohm speakers in parallel. That is like connecting a 2 ohm speaker and will overload the amp.
Connecting your speakers in series is also not a good idea. That will create an 8 ohm load, and then you will be utilizing less than half the potential output power of your amp. A single 4 ohm, or two 8 ohm speakers in parallel would be best with that amp.
Connecting the speakers in series however should not result in distortion. What is probably causing the distortion is the volume / voltage being output by the sound module / distortion module. If that is greater than ±1.7V then that could mess with the amp. Unfortunately, you’d need a multimeter to check this.
If you do have a multimeter, the sound chip probably outputs a DC voltage, and the distortion module probably outputs an AC voltage. The sound module almost certainly outputs 5V (the average reading while playing sound may be half this), while the distortion module should output ±1.7V peak, though if the meter is reading the average it too may be around half this. If it reads more than that, then that might be your problem.
If that is the problem, you may be able to fix it by adding a resistor or potentiometer to lower the voltage / volume going into the amp. To do this, you would take one of the leads going from the sound module to the distortion module, or one of the leads going from the distortion module to the amp, snip it in the middle, and attach one side to the first pin of the pot, and the other side to the middle pin of the pot. This would make it function as a variable resistor.
when I brought Crix soundboard I brought the Canakit amp too… and I never been able to get a clear sound… always a distortion… so I messaged Crix… he suggest me the Quality Kits 15watts amp (kit # FA607)
It’s make the difference… the only problem with this amp… the volume pot is on board and need to be adjusted with a screwdriver… not rod to use the pot for the crank knob or to let the pot out on the mobo side to adjust the sound… each time you need to open the shell to access the amp…
but it works really well… I connected it to a (only one from the set) car speaker :180watts 4ohms 6.5 "/ 2 ways
I promised myself I wouldn’t go to sleep until I figured this out. Go figure, it’s because I had 2 speakers hooked up. By wanting more power (insert Tim Allen grunt), having 2 speakers was the problem. Seeing as they’re 4 ohms a piece, and the amp is rated for 4 ohms, I really only needed 1 speaker all along. Thank you for putting up with my noob questions
you can still have 2 speakers if you want so… with 2 speakers 4ohms you can pluged them like if you where having a 2ohms speaker, a 4ohms speaker or an 8 ohms speakers
It’s actually pretty loud with just one speaker. Its 120w max and 60w rms, so it puts out plenty of sound (espically now that I can turn the volume up past 50% w/o any distortion). The middle diagram shows speakers that have 4 terminals, which mine do not have. Either way, I’m happy.
Except the canakit amp he’s using isn’t rated for 2 ohms, the series setup for 8 ohms will get him less volume, and he probably doesn’t have a speaker with dual 4 ohm voice coils.
Yeah, no dual 4 ohm voice coils here. Just plane jane 120w Kenwood car speakers. If only I could plug this thing into my 150w Crate half stack/Line 6 head. Now that would be awesome! More power! Argh argh argh
I too am using Crix sound,7W Cana kit amp, 12v blue rechargable battery (for amp) and one 4 ohm car speaker that’s brand new. I am currently upgrading my resin gun to all alluminum one and while its a part Im determined to fix this distortion issue I’ve had forever now. Distortion is mostly heard when I hit start up sound/followed by hum is turned on and you hear some crackling and static. The GB theme song and most of the other sounds however sound a lot clearer . It’s real weird. Sometimes it’s worse than other days I hit the start up sound. I did remove the volume pot so that it can be accessed outside pack but before I removed it I did check the sound before it was removed and still got it. I’ve tried hooking up the chip directly to speaker bypassing amp and I can still hear the static. It’s not as loud obviously because it’s not amplified but it’s there . Iv heard other people using pre amp or some kind of distortion fix kits but I don’t want to purchase anymore additional parts till I know exactly what’s casuing it. Thinking about just for hell of it buying a new $10 sound chip in the GBFan shop to see if a new one will sound better. I’d like to hear if anyone else has had similar issue and what I should do. I’ve contacted Crix and had him send me diagrams for my hookup and I’ve checked it over and over making sure my hook up is correct according to Crix. If anyone has any recommendations or input it would be greatly appreciated !!! Thanks for sharing your issues as well!
I’m having the same issue. I’ve contacted heavy props to see if I can get a diagram or something, did you get one?
The crackling is none stop and very loud, I’m onto my 5th speaker and second amp, nothing is making a difference. The last latest amp has a pre amp built in.
I’ve got no idea what’s causing it. I’ve got 2 types of packs so I have 2 crix boards, both have exactly the same problem. When I put the batteries in it starts humming straight away, not sure it’s supposed to do that or could it be connected to the crackling problem?
I had a problem with audio distortion with my crix board and I did notice the signal to the amp was a bit “hot”, so I added a volume potentiometer, similar to watch would be the GAIN adjustment in standard amplifiers..
I turned it all the way down, powered up, turned it up till I heard distortion, then backed it slightly. That was the sweet spot for my setup.
