Hi all,

I need some help with diagnostics of my sound system. I have a 2000 ES300 with Nak Sound. This morning, when I started up the sound system I noticed that all of a sudden my rear "sounds" a little raspy. I'm not sure if its coming from my side speakers in the rear or actually the subwoofer. I'm thinking the subwoofer right now because the "raspy"-ness is especially loud during a heavy bass "thump" in the music.

I constantly have my system on and running, so I know when it sounds different. I don't think I did anything that would cause this problem. I turn the system pretty high, if the volume control was like a compass, I am usually 2-3 degrees of N to either side. Last night I was on the 3 degrees NE, but I definitely know I turned my system louder than that and for a longer period of time. Can I possibly blown something? Its not the song because I tried it with a different song, and the volume was turned down this morning, so its not like I have it spiked right when i start the engine.

I can't really tell what's going on, all I know is that it doesn't sound quite right and definitely not like it used to. Especially on the bass side of things.

Thanks in advance

 

You may have partially toasted one or more of your door speakers or woofer. You may want to pull your door panels and check the speakers, especially looking for foam surrounds that may have pulled away from the cone. Turn on system and watch the speakers as they move, also check carefully with fingers. You may also want to check all mounting hardware to see if anything came loose and is rattling and making noise.

 

in case its the amp heres info on replacing it. the nakamichi amp 86100-33041on the es300 was made by pioneer so very inexpensive new ($421.42)compared to the 1998 gs,ls sc nakamichi amps. you should be able to get one working used for less than 100.00. the other 98 up nakamichi amps sc, ls, gs are $1204.00 new and go for 250.00 up used. so your lucky it wasnt one of those going bad.
as to the cause if its the amp. the amp is mounted behind the glovebox near the a/c evaporator which could be the cause of some water gettong in the ampion the summer. . is your a/c drainge tube working. is there water under the car after driving on hot days when you run the a/c.

 

Thank you both for your help. I think I isolated the problem to be specific to my subwoofer in the rear. There is definitely "broken-ness" to the thing. I noticed the problem happened right after I installed my HID setup. Could it be a power problem? Can there be not enough power to drive my subwoofers thus causing the raspyness? Also another possibility is the amplifier getting torched. Now I was working on my HIDs to install and everything. The hood was up with basically the whole front exposed. It started a light drizzle when I was working on the vehicle but not a downpour or anything like that, just a really light drizzle, can that mess up the amp?

I called my dealership, since it is still covered with the dealership (something about a 12month warrenty directly from then), they said they can take a look at it. I asked if the problem would be covered and they said yes, so hopefully they can get it fixed without costing me anything aside from time away from my baby =)

I really like my stock sound system and how it sounds. I'm known to be an audiofreak although I don't have the knowledge for it =) I know what sounds good and what doesn't, and I definitely like how my baby sounds. I don't plan to upgrade the sound system at all, and if I do, it will probably be the last of all my mods.

Thanks again for the help.

 

Guys,

Just an update. I took it to my dealership and they had it checked out. Turns out the subwoofer is blown....that's what they told me. I thought a blown subwoofer would produce "NO" sound? Mine still produced sound, its just very bad. Well anyway, they are replacing it free because it is still under their warrenty. They are waiting for the part to come in, 3-4 days.

Thanks again for the help.