Wet Sounds cutting out

The horns are cutting out.I've done everything you can think of to stop the problem.I messed with the gain,crossover,swaped amp for a bigger one and it's still doing it. Are the Pro80's bad?
HELP!

I had this happen to me too. I found out I had the equalizer set too high on my head unit. If you have a head unit with an equalizer, set it to "off".

Ya checked that, its set flat.
I also have a peq and bypassed it, still having the problem.

So it's just the HLCDs that are cutting out, and the 8" speakers in the Pro 80 sound fine? If that's the case, it sounds like you need to open them up and check the connection inside the can.

Have you called wetsounds? They have good customer service.

I took the boat to Neptunes audio Jim called Tim and we did what we were told But still having the problem.I really like the speakers and they sound great until the HLCDs cut out.
AND YES THEY ARE LOUD!

Mine still do it on ocasion and its my second pair. They are very sensitive to distortion and will go into protection mode.

I hear ya but mine do it almost on every song.
That was my next step,getting new pro80s.
Steve your speakers are sounding good and loud and all of a sudden the hlcds cut out?

Steve what size amp are you running?

there's nothing wrong with the speaker, they are designed to shut off when the signal is clipping. Too much distortion will blow them just as it will with any speaker. I'm betting you are under powering them and trying to get more than what your amp is capable of. Back off on the gain some and it should help, or just turn the volume down.

Give Duane a call end of story

(Message edited by mitchj on July 01, 2007)

B52V3, me and Steve were having the same problem last year. I think the biggest problem was that the speakers were going into protection because I was using a cheap audiobahn amp. I hooked the speakers up to the Cadence that the wetsounds guys recommended and the horns didn't cut out at all. Maybe you have a good amp, but I think my problem was the equalizer and the amp.

I tied that and yes they are a great speakers designed to shut off.The head unit is about 1/2to3/4 vol.The amp 200 to each side clipped out,so i tried 300 to each side and it still clipped.Still need more?

Oh ya and the gain isn't turned up to much.
I'm puzzled!

You can't underpower a speaker for what it is worth. Common misnomer.

B52V3, Im running a Zapco 360.4 bridged at 4ohm 180 rms to each PRO80. The amp has a clipping indicater and when the horns shut down the amp doesnt show that its clipping. I run a xmd3 and clarion 7 band preamp which boosts the voltage, Im also running 12 gauge speaker wire. The thing that pisses me off the most is that I cant really hear the distortion when they shut off. Pesonally I dont care for the protection mode, I think its to sensitive. I think my next set of HLCD's will be NVS.

I'm having the same issue with mine. I'm running a bridged four channel amp as well as the Clarion seven band EQ. By fine tuning the amp and EQ, It's only happening occasionaly. I believe there has been a built-in crossover upgrade from the original run of 80's, suppose to take care of the "brightness" issue, which I suspect should help keep them out of shut down mode. Going to check on that next week.

I agree, I'm running a crossfire 400.4 bridged at 4ohm to each PRO80 with a crossfire 7 band preamp with 12ga.wire,and it still clips.
YES I'M PISSED TOO!

Stay tuned, Tim will chime in here I am sure. For what it is worth, I have 2 485's and used to send about 45o watts rms to them and never heard them clip (or atleast could not turn it loud enough to get them to go into protection). I had a problem with the amp and am now running them off of one channel until my replacement amp arrives (half the watts they used to see). I have noticed them going into protection mode now at high volume. Maybe they want to see more power?

if everything is set up right then it is the amp....i would suspect if you jumped up to a better amp like a zapco, arc, or jl audio you would be really suprised..

Hey Guys, Sorry to hear you are hitting the protection switch. For the comments about it being too sensitive. It is not too sensitive. In fact it is set so high, that most will never hit it. And if your system is set up correctly, you will never hit it. And for the thousands we have sold. We have had a handful call us with issues about it and it has always been an amp or amp setting or volume control issue.

Steve had a problem with his. I had him send his back on our dime and tested them with a high power amp at just below clipping mode and they never cut out. I let them play for 6 hours at 100% volume just under clipping and they never cut out. Then we even swapped them for him anyway, although we found no problem with the speaker.

B52V23. Get with Jim. He can try another pair for you and if it is the speaker. We will swap it out no problem. We always take care of our customers. But I would bet that it is not the speaker, it is something else in your system. Did you try another head unit? EQ? When I spoke to Jim, he called me asking because he had done so many systems with the PRO 80's and has never had one go into protection. But he will get you taken care of.

Too often people blame the speaker for something. Or say they heard this one and it sounded better than that one. Or just go by this one and it will solve it.(no likely)

But for all, please remember that a speaker is only one part of the equation. People always get on here about this speaker vs. that speaker etc..but never take into account the rest of the system.

Speakers reproduce what they are fed. The old saying is "crap in crap out." If you feed a speaker distortion, it will play distortion. If you feed a speaker a clipped signal. It will go into protection mode. It is doing what it is designed to do. Protect itself from blowing. Without this circuit you would have a blown driver. If there are other speakers out there that do not have this circuit. You will literally just blow the horn.

I set ours very high. Meaning that you have to be sending a very distorted signal to them to get them to cut off. That is why when you back off one notch on the volume, they will come right back on. You are somehow sending a clipped signal to them.

It is called "unity" gain. This is what you are looking for when setting up a system. You should have everything matched perfectly. If you are set up in unity. You will be able to play as long as you want with no distortion and nothing cutting out. It doesn't matter where the gain is on the amp. A gain is not a volume control. You do not put out more power the more you turn it up and vice versa. All you are doing is matching the incoming voltage to the amp and using this to set it in unity with the other amps in the boat. What happens most of the time, is an under powered amp with very little voltage incoming. Then the gain turned up all the way to try to compensate and the head unit maxed out. When you turn the gains on an amp maxed out or when you have a head unit maxed out, this will cause distortion. Think of it as a car. You are running it on the red line all the time. It is going to overheat and start to run bad. Same goes with your system.

For those who have heard my boat. I can play at 100% max volume for 6+ hours with no cutting out, no distortion. The system is set at unity. Very Loud and very clean.

A lot of times, it is an amp issue. Either a bad amp or too small of an amp. Sometimes it is even a head unit that is sending out a clipped signal before it even gets to the amp. Marine head units do this a lot. But most of the time, it is a situation of not having the system at unity and cranking on the volume knob.

B52V23, work with Jim and try to find a solution. Let me know at twhite@wetsounds.com if you can't find a solution.

Tim
Wet Sounds

^^^^^^^^
Nice to see a company step up for their product!!!


Quote" You can't underpower a speaker for what it is worth. Common misnomer."

I completely disagree. I have seen more systems that are running under powered blow speakers than ones that have a monster amp driving the speakers. it has to do with quality of signal going to the speaker. Often times when you underpower a speaker it distorts and burns up the coil. I think Tim would agree.

Tim I really like how you back your product and I know that they are a really good and very loud speaker, however I feel that I have tried everything that everyone has suggested and more. Is it true what Sparky Jay said, that the speakers had an crossover upgrade added to them from the original run of Pro80's?

B52V23. I called Jim at Neptunes and he said that he was going to try a new pair out of his inventory to double check for you and see if we can't get you fixed up. So get with Jim and let him see if he can figure it out. I changed the crossovers after the first production run to tone the horn down. I am not sure which ones you have. E mail me at twhite@wetsounds.com and I can get the details from you.

Tim
Wet Sounds

Tim thanks for the quick response! I had already contacted Jim before you had a chance to respond. There isn't enough time for me to go over there and check it out before I leave for Shasta, so I will be taking my boat over there next week.

O.K. Tim, two questions maybe you can answer for us here. Would purchasing and installing the later version crossovers help any at all? And, does "bridging" four channels to two, create more distortion than the same power coming from a two channel amp? Thanks.

the common problem I see is that all of you guys with problems are bridging your amps, that drastically increases the total harmonic distortion. You should not bridge the amp for that reason. I'm running a Kicker 400.2 on my Pro80s and it's plenty of power. The first time I used them I had about half the power I do now and I had one cut out on me.

Sparky,

The newer version of the crossover adds attenuation to the horn. It still has the protection circuit on it and it is still set in the same place. I do not think it will help becuase if set up properly, you shouldn't be hitting it anyway regardless of what version. The bigger problem is why you are hitting the protection. You could just have some levels not at unity as I mentioned or it could be a very common problem and that is the volume control knob. I set my system at max volume at 25 on the head unit and 3/4 on the EQ's. Then I set my gains acordingly. That is the max volume no matter what. It never goes over that and will never go into protection. E mail me and I will walk you though some easy steps on setting up your system.

Tim
Wet Sounds

"the common problem I see is that all of you guys with problems are bridging your amps, that drastically increases the total harmonic distortion."

I had a feeling that this might be the case. Shane, are you positive on this issue?

Sparky, with your amp bridged is it pulling down to a 2ohm load or 4ohm?

4 ohm.

I'm 100% positive on that, I tried looking for some specs on amps that show the THD at 4 ohms and 2 ohms but no one list the THD at 2 ohms. It's different for every amp, but the THD usually more than doubles when bridged.

Shane, when the Zapco 360.4 is bridged to a 2 channel amp its 180rms at 4ohms not 2ohms. This is what the manuel says "The 360.4 bridges the front channels to left and rear channels to right. This allows you to switch the 360.4 for "Dual Mono" use. You know have a stereo amp with 180 Watts RMS per channel at 4 ohms." Would there still be alot of THD set up like this even though its 4 ohms?

If a single channel is 2% THD a two channels bridged will be 4% everything else being equal from a input/load standpoint. Power, distortion, waveform, etc. all of the parameters are additive. That said you are pushing twice the power so you are less likely to get into a level that produces distortion, the real world situation is not as simple as the math.

Wet Sounds and Neptunes are great companies that really have good customer service and they were able to take care of my problem. The PRO 80'S don't clip and they rock.

what exactly did they change to stop them from cutting out?