kenwood dnx5140 install issue - Page 4

The Rigger · 07-08-2009, 07:24 PM

Sounds to me like your crossover isn't wired right... Or one or more of the Hertz speakers are not connected to it, and connected diretly to the Kenwood unit instead.

You should not be able to fade between door woofers & door tweeters if the crossover is set up the way most every crossover I've ever worked with is - one pair of full-range inputs from the head unit, one pair of woofer outputs, and one pair of tweeter outputs. You should be able to balance left-to-right, but the fader should kill the speakers, unless you're feeding one side of the crossover from, say the left-front head unit output and the other side from the right-rear, which is a very silly thing to do...

If the crossover is directly behind the head unit, I'm guessing you've wired the head unit directly to the crossover (or had it done by the installing shop, anyway), so I'm not clear on just why you have the wiring adaptor anyway. Is it just for tying the OEM subwoofer in?

If I were you, I'd start over from square one. But that's just me. YMMV.

ElementalDragon · 07-08-2009, 09:12 PM

the shop wired it in to the stock wiring, before the stock plugs for the radio. bought the wire harness to install the radio.

They told me to bring it in on Saturday so they could look into it. If i'm lucky, they won't charge for it, since it's the wiring job that they did, and the harness was just color-to-color from what i've seen.

John_H · 07-08-2009, 11:56 PM

Troubleshooting is about "divide and conquer" where controllability and observability are our only real tools.

Feel free to disregard this post if you feel I will not be helpful in your situation.
_____

You hear nothing when tuned to the rear right so removing the rear right RCA connector from the back of the DNX should leave everything the same. That would be the channel that should have the adapter wired to the right tweeter which you have disconnected. It could be helpful to verify this

Removing the rear left channel, on the other hand, will produce different results than what you currently experience. The RCA jack for the rear left channel of the DNX should be connected to the wires hooked up to the left factory tweeter which you have removed.

If removing the rear left channel (assumed unused) makes the speaker stop working, the left crossover input is inadvertently getting one wire from the front left and one wire from the left rear.

If you get different results than what I anticipated above, that information will help track down what's really going on.

You can see from the image that the rear channels should be in the center of three rows of connectors.

ElementalDragon · 07-09-2009, 09:03 AM

it's.... not using the RCA connections. the crossover was spliced into the stock wiring for the radio, and from there, the new head unit was connected to the stock wiring with a wire harness.

John_H · 07-09-2009, 09:55 AM

My apologies - I saw the back panel image and (unable to find an installation manual at the time) assumed incorrectly that the harness adapter connected to the labeled RCA connections. The RCAs appear to be preamp outputs now that I've found a manual online.

Bottom line: signal is getting in from the rear channel when both pairs should lead to disconnected tweeters. The only other remote possibility for feedback of this "disconnected" channel would be through the subwoofer which doesn't make sense from a design perspective but could be verified quickly by disconnecting the subwoofer at the connector under the driver's seat.

A miswired crossover shouldn't have any input from the rear channels so fading to the rear should produce zero output regardless of loading resulting in no power to the speaker, yet there is power.

I hope your troubles are resolved quickly.

ElementalDragon · 07-09-2009, 07:14 PM

might try unplugging the under-seat sub tomorrow before washing the car as i'm getting it ready for the Deutsche Classic Car Show. Convenient that the connector for it is right smack dab at the front corner of the box.

Also, out of curiosity, if anyone has any experience with the DNX5140.... is it possible to play MP3's from a DVD? I burned quite a few to a DVD and popped it in, and it just sat there at the Reading screen for quite a while. I'm kinda starting to get the impression that DVD playback is mostly just for movies/video files.

ElementalDragon · 07-10-2009, 07:41 PM

Well.... i didn't get around to trying unplugging the sub and seeing if something mystically works like it should yet. I mean... i can see that being the case... that it's still getting individual signals from the leads going to the sub possibly.... but if something IS wired oddly.... i kind of expect there wouldn't be any sound if i unplugged the sub.

Either way, i'm taking it down to the guys who installed the speakers... they should be able to figure something out. again... hopefully they won't charge for it either.... but i'm kinda doubting that.

The Rigger · 07-11-2009, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElementalDragon

Either way, i'm taking it down to the guys who installed the speakers... they should be able to figure something out. again... hopefully they won't charge for it either.... but i'm kinda doubting that.

A crossover is easy-peasy to install; it's only four wires input and eight wires output. You almost have to wire it up wrong on purpose, it's so easy. If they botched the wiring job, they should fix it for free.

dlomshek · 07-11-2009, 07:42 AM

Recently I contacted Crutchfield concerning the installation of a Kenwood DNX 9140 in my new Smart (which will be here next week). At that time they had not researched the installing of their car audio products into smarts. This has now changed as they have recently investigated the smart audio wiring system. Crutchfield now offers Kenwood's with "plug and play" installations for the Smart.

The problem demonstrated during this post; of trying to successfully create your own wiring harness and doing your own installation demonstrates the desirability of buying from a reputable vendor with a pre-engineered installation kit. I'll only be buying from Crutchfield, they do it right.

David Lomshek
Pittsburg, Kansas

The Rigger · 07-11-2009, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlomshek

The problem demonstrated during this post; of trying to successfully create your own wiring harness and doing your own installation demonstrates the desirability of buying from a reputable vendor with a pre-engineered installation kit.

That's true, but only up to a point... Once you step outside the "normal" installations, as ElementalDragon did with his Hertz system crossover inside the dash, you're out of "plug-'n-play" mode and into custom work. I doubt that Crutchfield or anyone else in The Business would create a plug-'n-play solution for such a system as ED's.

And let's not forget that all plug-'n-play solutions originally started with a custom wiring harness somewhere, which was often owner-built...

I certainly agree with the clause about dealing with reputable vendors, though, and I hope ED's vendor does the Right Thing and makes good on his X-over installation for free.