Q My system consists of this: I have a Sony CDX-C5850 that sends its signals to an Audio Control EQL. From the EQL it goes to a Kenwood KEC-301 electronic crossover that sends the signals to a 4-channel Rockford Fosgate 4080 that feeds the 1" Infinity reference tweeters and the 8" Yamaha midbass (in their proper frequencies). The sub frequency is routed to an Audio Control Epicenter and from there to an Orion 225 HCCA amplifier (bridged) that powers up a pair of JL Audio 12W6 wired in parallel form. I also have a Lightning Audio 1/2-farad capacitor wired to the Orion amplifier (the cap is in the power line before it gets to the Orion). The problem I am having is that I need to keep changing the 30-ampere fuse on the Orion amplifier just about every week because it pops. Am I asking too much for the Orion to run a pair of JL Audio 12w6's? I was under the impression that the Orion would not have any problems running these subs. Could the gain setting of the amplifier (being too high) make the amp burn the fuse? I thank you for your advice!RogerVia the Internet
A The "signal path" is one of the most important concepts in troubleshooting as well as in system design when processors and multiple amplifiers are involved. It can be compared to the understanding of the cardiovascular system in medicine or the fuel system in a vehicle. If this doesn't work right, then nothing is going to work right!
The signal path is the routing that the musical signal will take as it passes through the various components in the system. Obviously the signal begins at the source, which in most cases is a head unit or video player. The signal leaves the source unit and is routed via preamp cables to the next device in the chain. This will often be either an equalizer or a crossover, or in the case of simple systems, directly to an amplifier. The signal moves on from component to component, undergoing a change each time, until it finally exits the last component in the chain. That final component is the loudspeaker, and after that point, the signal is now acoustic instead of electrical and your stereo system no longer has any influence on it.
Each component in the signal path of a properly designed system exists for a reason. Also, the order of components in a system has a global effect as to how the signal will be modified either correctly or incorrectly as it passes. For instance, when an unmodified signal enters an equalizer, it exits with the tonal changes that the equalizer has placed on the signal. If the signal enters a crossover, then it should exit the crossover relatively unchanged, but divided into separate bass, midrange, and high frequency segments.
When designing a system, the signal path must be considered to ensure that the components are connected in the proper order. To do this, the first step is to understand the operating nature of each device. For instance, if you were to swap the equalizer and crossover in a simple system, the equalizer would only be able to process the segment of music that is being passed to it. If you were to connect the equalizer's input to the subwoofer output of the crossover, then the equalizer would only have control over the deep bass ranges. You would effectively be wasting about eight bands of a ten-band equalizer.
If you were to follow the signal path in your car you would find that the problem is occurring after the Kenwood crossover. The Audio Control Epicenter is a very unique signal processor. It "looks" at the musical information and recognizes harmonics that are the result of bass frequency notes. It then figures out what the original fundamental note should be and restores it by several decibels. That is essentially how an Epicenter functions.
The Kenwood crossover takes the full musical signal and sends only the very low bass frequencies to the subwoofer output connectors.