Alright, I have as follows:

American Bass 1000w 1 ohm Amplifier pushing 2 Kicker CVR12 4 ohm subs. Yes, not the most efficient setup, but it's what I had from previous system that CCity blew up.

Infinity kappa 60.7 component system speakers up front, 2 ohms, and two stock 6x9s in the rear, powered by an older Alpine MRP-F200.

Head unit is DEH-P6900UB.

I have a rear out, a front out, and a s/w output on my head unit. The rear out and front outs are connected to ch1 - ch4 on the alpine amp, and s/w output is into american bass amp. All via RCAs.

So I have a stupid problem. When I first turn the radio on after the car has been started, no speakers, just subs. Get out, unplug any one of the ch1 - ch4 from the alpine amp and plug them into the pre-out jacks on the alpine, then back into the proper channel, it works. It works until the car gets restarted again.

I can't really explain this too well, I don't know what the hell is going on, and haven't ever had a problem such as this. The Alpine amp has been bench tested with a portable audio player and a laptop, and checked out just fine.

It's SO annoying, it's like the head unit has an auto switch for the rear/front outs, and it's not seeing the resistance in the RCAs to turn on the front and rear outs. When the speakers are working, they sound just great. I've switched ch1 & ch2 with ch3 & ch4 (front to back), and that didn't change a *dang* thing.

Any ideas?

_________________
- Josh


1994 Bonneville SSEi - 136k mi - FWI, 180* T-stat, Fresh upper gaskets
1997 Bonneville SE - 110k mi - H4U, 3.06:1, Tinted Tails, Bridgestone Potenza G009 225/60/16s
Performance: INTENSE PCM, INTENSE 180* T-stat, Gutted air box, K&N air filter, Ported LIM, Borg Warner Wires, NGK TR-55 Plugs, Adjustable Trans Modulator.
Bells and Whistles: Flowmaster 80 crossflow muffler w/ quad tips, 2x Kicker CVR12 Subs in vented box, 1000W RMS 1-ohm American Bass Amp, Alpine MRP-F200 4-channel amp (temporary), Infinity 60.7CS 6.5" Component System (front), Blaupunkt 3-way 6x9s (rear), Pioneer DEH-P6900UB Head Unit, Hardwired Whistler Pro 58 Radar Detector, Hardwired Navigon 2100 GPS

Is there an input configuration switch on the amp at all?

_________________

'96 Bonneville SLE "Twilight" ( sold :( )
'72 Mustang Hardtop
'01 Grand Prix SE
'06 MINI Cooper S
'88 Ford Mustang Convertible (roller/for sale)

Only configuration switches for sets of ch1 & ch2, then ch3 & ch4 is a high pass filter, low pass filter, and nothing. The ch3 & 4 have a bass boost option as well. Gain is up about a third of the way til I get around to testing it.

_________________
- Josh


1994 Bonneville SSEi - 136k mi - FWI, 180* T-stat, Fresh upper gaskets
1997 Bonneville SE - 110k mi - H4U, 3.06:1, Tinted Tails, Bridgestone Potenza G009 225/60/16s
Performance: INTENSE PCM, INTENSE 180* T-stat, Gutted air box, K&N air filter, Ported LIM, Borg Warner Wires, NGK TR-55 Plugs, Adjustable Trans Modulator.
Bells and Whistles: Flowmaster 80 crossflow muffler w/ quad tips, 2x Kicker CVR12 Subs in vented box, 1000W RMS 1-ohm American Bass Amp, Alpine MRP-F200 4-channel amp (temporary), Infinity 60.7CS 6.5" Component System (front), Blaupunkt 3-way 6x9s (rear), Pioneer DEH-P6900UB Head Unit, Hardwired Whistler Pro 58 Radar Detector, Hardwired Navigon 2100 GPS

First off, that's quite the nice system you have there. I demand pictures soon.

As for your issue, I would check your RCAs. What brand are they? How long have you had them? The other thing to do is to thoroughly recheck all of your wiring. If you can eliminate those two things, that means it's either your head unit or your amp.

_________________

Audio: 12" Alpine Type R in 2.3 cu. ft. box tuned to 31 hz, Audiobahn A8000T, Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.1, Kicker wiring
Mods: Cross drilled and slotted rotors, hopefully more to come soon

He said that the amp was bench tested with a known good head unit. That limits it to the head unit or wiring. RCAs have been known to go bad, but I don't see how unplugging them then replugging them back in would make them work. My guess is the head unit. You or any of your friends got an extra one laying around that you could slap in there for a while to check it out?

_________________

'96 Bonneville SLE "Twilight" ( sold :( )
'72 Mustang Hardtop
'01 Grand Prix SE
'06 MINI Cooper S
'88 Ford Mustang Convertible (roller/for sale)

Good catch. Sorry, it's still a little early for me right now.

Yeah, I also don't understand how unplugging and then replugging the RCAs would make them work. Good idea with switching it out to check it out. Pioneer makes some good head units but they do tend to have problems with RCAs.

_________________

Audio: 12" Alpine Type R in 2.3 cu. ft. box tuned to 31 hz, Audiobahn A8000T, Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.1, Kicker wiring
Mods: Cross drilled and slotted rotors, hopefully more to come soon

I'm no professional installer, but this sounds like it might be a resistance issue or a cable issue.
The Alpine you have can operate at 2 or 4 ohms.
# 40 watts RMS x 4 at 4 ohms
# 50 watts RMS x 4 at 2 ohms
# 100 watts RMS x 2 bridged output
# 2-, 3-, or 4-channel output

I'm wondering if having your fronts @ 2 ohms and your stock rears @ 4 causing any issues. Not sure if the difference in resistance is causing your problem.
Here are my suggetions:

Try unhooking your rear RCAs (fronts and subs only). If that fixes it, then you've isolated it to your rears or that cable.

If not, try unhooking your front RCAs (rears and subs). If that fixes it, then you've isolated it to your fronts or that cable.

If that doesn't work, try using the bench tested head unit. If that fixes it, then you've isolated it to your head unit.

It kinda sounds to me like the Alpine isn't turning on initially. You do have the remote turn-on wire connected, right? Can you verify with a multimeter that the remote turn-on wire goes from ground to +12V when the head unit is turned on? Measure this with it disconnected from the Alpine amplifier, and at the end of the wire that connects to the Alpine amplifier.
is there any LED or anything on the Alpine that indicates when it is turned on with the remote turn-on lead?

-Mark

_________________
PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

Alright - I'll try to answer everything.

First - Thank you :D. Pictures will come after I get everything cosmetically satisfying. The front (ch1 & ch2) RCAs are Stinger (high quality stuff, but were sitting in my trunk for a year unopened, and they have like a sticky residue on the outside and smell bad). Rear are Scoche (ew, but had it laying around), but even with them unplugged it makes no difference. And Just UNPLUGGING them doesn't work, I have to unplug from, say, ch1 in this case, and plug into the pre-out of the alpine amp, then the speakers will kick in. I then go ahead and plug the ch1 rca back into ch1 rca jack on the alpine amp, and we're in 4 channel business.

Second - My friend has a newer 590??? pioneer in his car, I'll ask to borrow it for a test. I hope it has front and rear outs. My HU was purchased in October.

Third - I've tried unplugging front, back, and certain RCAs and powering down and back up to no avail :(. I got all excited when I got that idea, in hopes that it would resolve my issue, but no go lol. But you could be right on the impedance issue, but it sounds fine once you unplug and replug?

Fourth - The Alpine is powering up, there's a bright blue LED on the top. I was thinking that when I first sat down and found out it wasn't working lol.

My ideas: I'm thinking that maybe I'll leave the amp exactly where it is, and try running a laptop into the Alpine amp with some kind of AV RCAs, and if that works, I'll take the head unit out and try plugging into those RCAs. That should isolate whether or not the RCAs are bad.

IF the laptop does not work without unplugging and replugging, I'm going to assume that the issue is in the Alpine amp and the speaker impedance.

_________________
- Josh


1994 Bonneville SSEi - 136k mi - FWI, 180* T-stat, Fresh upper gaskets
1997 Bonneville SE - 110k mi - H4U, 3.06:1, Tinted Tails, Bridgestone Potenza G009 225/60/16s
Performance: INTENSE PCM, INTENSE 180* T-stat, Gutted air box, K&N air filter, Ported LIM, Borg Warner Wires, NGK TR-55 Plugs, Adjustable Trans Modulator.
Bells and Whistles: Flowmaster 80 crossflow muffler w/ quad tips, 2x Kicker CVR12 Subs in vented box, 1000W RMS 1-ohm American Bass Amp, Alpine MRP-F200 4-channel amp (temporary), Infinity 60.7CS 6.5" Component System (front), Blaupunkt 3-way 6x9s (rear), Pioneer DEH-P6900UB Head Unit, Hardwired Whistler Pro 58 Radar Detector, Hardwired Navigon 2100 GPS

Update: It's something the Alpine amp. I unplugged all four channels, plugged two channels in from the laptop, and no sound. Took the front speaker channels from the HU, popped em in the pre-out on the amp, and voila... sound. Didn't do it when I'd unplug one from the laptop and into the pre-out, though.

_________________
- Josh


1994 Bonneville SSEi - 136k mi - FWI, 180* T-stat, Fresh upper gaskets
1997 Bonneville SE - 110k mi - H4U, 3.06:1, Tinted Tails, Bridgestone Potenza G009 225/60/16s
Performance: INTENSE PCM, INTENSE 180* T-stat, Gutted air box, K&N air filter, Ported LIM, Borg Warner Wires, NGK TR-55 Plugs, Adjustable Trans Modulator.
Bells and Whistles: Flowmaster 80 crossflow muffler w/ quad tips, 2x Kicker CVR12 Subs in vented box, 1000W RMS 1-ohm American Bass Amp, Alpine MRP-F200 4-channel amp (temporary), Infinity 60.7CS 6.5" Component System (front), Blaupunkt 3-way 6x9s (rear), Pioneer DEH-P6900UB Head Unit, Hardwired Whistler Pro 58 Radar Detector, Hardwired Navigon 2100 GPS

The only way you could not be getting sound out of the amp with it on, is if it has a protection circuit that is enabling. They typically have a short-circuit-output protection, and the low impedance speakers might look close enough to a short circuit for the amp.

DO THIS: disconnect the low impedance speakers from the amp, and the RCA's driving that pair. JUST keep the RCA pair driving the factory 6x9's. -See if the amp turns on with the head unit and gives sound.

Then disconnect the factory 6x9's and connect them to the amp's speaker outputs that were driving your low-impedance front speakers, driving them from the RCA pair that is supposed to drive the front speakers. (disconnect the RCA pair that is supposed to drive the rear speakers.) -See if the amp turns on with the head unit and gives sound.

IF THAT WORKS, I think it's pretty clear that your front speakers look too much like a short circuit to the amp and are driving it into short circuit protection mode. The only decent solution I could recommend would be to get higher impedance front speakers. [edit: Also, it's possible the amplifier actually has a faulty short-circuit protection circuit. I *have* seen faulty protection circuits in amplifiers before, usually in an amp that was blown and repaired, where the tech missed the damage to the protection circuitry.]

IF THAT DOESN'T WORK, then something is wonky about your amplifier.

Your amps are grounded well, yes? The ground cable should be the same gauge as the +12 supply gauge cable.

-Mark

_________________
PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

With the pioneer head unit you have to turn it off and then hold the center dial in until it gives you more options.

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96 SE Pioneer AVHP5700 head unit(ipod connection) new are intake, clear corners, new foglights. HID head lights (Soon to have new rims) as soon as it gets warm enough.