The sound from my subwoofer cuts every few minutes.?

Question

So I was driving down the fwy yesterday and my subs were acting up. They would simply turn on and off every few minutes, so I would get the kick of the bass for few minutes at the time. Trust me, it gets pretty annoying on a long trip. I have no idea what's causing this to happen. Does anyone know how to fix it? Also, along with the problem, the sound from the subs seems to worry me as it responds with humming once I do something electrically related, like rolling down windows, or just turn on/off the car (it makes this sound when no music is played). The sound is similar to one from a microphone turned all the way up. I think its the connectors on the headunit, because when I've moved the connectors around, it was fixed but only temporarily. There was a lot of noise happening as I was moving the cables on the back of my headunit. Does anyone know what causes it? Your help is appreciated!

Answer 1

the noise could be from bad insulators on the RCA plugs and/or how they are ran- the power wire and RCA cables need to be ran on separate sides of the car

the reason the bass cuts in and out is because you have your gain set incorrectly at the amp- its not volume or power it is used to maximize clean signal strength from your amp, also known as input sensitivity settings: here's how

Set the input sensitivity controls of your amplifier to their minimum level (counter clockwise).

Put in a CD and turn the receiver's volume control up (you might have to raise the amp's gain just a bit to hear the music).

When you hear distortion, stop. Turn the volume down until it disappears. As much signal as possible is passing from the receiver to the amp. This maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio, and leaves your system less prone to engine noise problems. Keep the volume setting here.

Now turn the gain controls on the amplifier up until it's as loud as you'll play it. If you hear distortion, slightly decrease the gain settings.

Now you've optimized the amp's output with the receiver's volume set near maximum. You can turn the volume almost all the way up and not damage your speakers or amplify distortion. If you're hooking up a subwoofer, a test disc (or bass-heavy CD) is helpful for making final adjustments.