Wetsounds HTX-4 No Sound other than regular popping noise. Please help!

[d_coyne1984]

I know a lot of you guys are using Wetsounds amps so I am wondering if any of you have seen this problem before. This is a 4-channel amp with single speakers wired to channels 1 and 2, and two each to channels 3 and 4. The boat came this way (Supreme S211) and has worked fine the past 3-4 weeks. That all changed after I added my old MTX class A/B amp to run my new tower speakers. It works fine with the cans, but I get no sound out of the main speakers on any channel except for a consistently timed "POP" from the mains about every 6-8 seconds.

When adding the new amp I did nothing to the Wetsounds amp so I have a hard time believing the install had anything to do with it, but the timing is very odd. The only place these amps meet is where they connect to the load side of the wetsounds fuse block off the battery. The Wetsounds amp is fed by the front channel RCA's from the Clarion head unit and I connected the tower amp to the rear channel RCA's that were not in use previously.

The Wetsounds amp is throwing the error code for DC protection. I tried unhooking the speakers and power cycling the amp to clear the code per Wetsounds tech support, but even without the speakers attached, still got the error code. Has anybody else seen this before?

I am now F@$%ed without any audio for the planned outing with my friends on Friday and my family for Father's Day.

 

[Dean P]

That all changed after I added my old MTX class A/B amp to run my new tower speakers.

If you disconnect this can you go back to what you had? I would also check all you inline fusses.

 

[d_coyne1984]

If you disconnect this can you go back to what you had? I would also check all you inline fusses.

Yeah, I forgot to mention, I completely disconnected the amp I added for the tower speakers after all of this and it had no effect. I should also note that I am a Electrician/Electrical Tech so I typically know what I am doing around power, but where I am not super familiar is in audio electronics. I am kind of wondering if class A/B and Class C amplifiers won't play well on the same power source.

 

[scokill]

Sounds like both may be connected to same speaker/speakers or you don't have or you don't have enough voltage.

 

[d_coyne1984]

No the not enough voltage isn't something I had previously considered. I will plug the charger in when I get home and give things another go. I am 100% positive the speakers aren't inter connected. My towers have completely different wire ran to them. The house system came connected to the amp from the factory.

 

[Dean P]

This is a 4-channel amp with single speakers wired to channels 1 and 2, and two each to channels 3 and 4.

Are you running a pair of speakers of each channel? Each channel needs to have only one speaker. That how I ran mine.

 

[d_coyne1984]

Are you running a pair of speakers of each channel? Each channel needs to have only one speaker. That how I ran mine.

Off of the Wetsounds amp the two front channels have individual speakers. The rear channels in my boat have two speakers on each side so four total. They are wired two to each channel in parallel so each rear channel sees a 2 ohm load, which the amp is rated for, so there shouldn't be a problem there.

 

[d_coyne1984]

The amp worked fine over last weekend, but towed it 2 hours home and never turned it on before adding the new amp so I don't know that something in the amp didn't brake while towing it unfortunately. The timing does seem odd though.

On the bright side, you guys with Wetsounds amps should feel good that the Wetsounds customer service has been great so far should you ever have a problem. I had a response to my email from their tech support within about 2 hours this morning when most places take 2 days (or more) to respond. I followed up with a call to the same tech with a direct line of contact. No jumping around through an answering machine to get directed to the right person 5 times.

 

[Dean P]

Off of the Wetsounds amp the two front channels have individual speakers. The rear channels in my boat have two speakers on each side so four total. They are wired two to each channel in parallel so each rear channel sees a 2 ohm load, which the amp is rated for, so there shouldn't be a problem there.

I'm not an expert by any sense. I can share what I did. Maybe the pdf can help?

 

[swatski]

Off of the Wetsounds amp the two front channels have individual speakers. The rear channels in my boat have two speakers on each side so four total. They are wired two to each channel in parallel so each rear channel sees a 2 ohm load, which the amp is rated for, so there shouldn't be a problem there.

Those amps have built in fuses, too. Maybe worth checking which I’m sure you did, just thiniking out loud.

—

 

[PaulyB]

How many speakers total are you running? 6 off the 4-channel amp and two off the mtx amp? What kind of head unit?

 

[PaulyB]

Sorry, I see now it’s a clarion, have you tried swapping the RCAs on the amp to see if the problem moves to the opposite amp?

 

[d_coyne1984]

Sorry, I see now it’s a clarion, have you tried swapping the RCAs on the amp to see if the problem moves to the opposite amp?

I didn't swap them, but I unplugged the RCA's from the Wetsounds amp and it still continued popping. At this point I know the amp is bad and their tech support agrees. I just want to make sure that I don't get it fixed, hook it back up, and have it blow again. The only thing I can think of is that my class MTX class A/B doesn't throw some bad noise into the power system that the class D wetsounds amp can't handle. I don't want to ask the Wetsounds guys because they may not replace it under warranty. If this was an issue though, I would imagine there would be numerous articles out there about it. The only thing I can find articles on is the sometimes common pop from powering on and/or powering off.

 

[PaulyB]

Have you tried disconnecting a speaker at a time to make sure a speaker didn’t go bad and is shorting it out?

 

[d_coyne1984]

Have you tried disconnecting a speaker at a time to make sure a speaker didn’t go bad and is shorting it out?

The Wetsounds rep had me disconnect them all and then completely reset the amp by completely discharging the caps. I then turned it back on without the speakers connected which should have cleared the fault code if it was a bad speaker, but the fault code came back.