Heres the basic problem. The max volume on my Alpine deck is 35. when i turn the volume up to about 10, its listenable, when i turn it up to 15-18 its almost unbearably loud... In my other car this same alpine wouldnt get very loud until about 25... The xB is acting like it has amplifiers somewhere in the car. Now, since i thought that might be the case, I installed a Scosche FAI-3 for line level adjustments between my wiring harness and my Alpine deck, but then the sound was WAY too quiet and when i turned it up loud it became garbled and distorted...

The reason i need to get this sorted out, is because the subwoofer volume that comes out of the RCA's on the back of my deck is still controlled by my main volume ****, and if LOUD is only 15 which is not even half of my full volume, its going to be impossible to ever get any sound out of my subs...

PLEASE HELP

 

Depening on which model alpine you have, you can control the sub output.

I have the 9831 and it lets you control the Sub Output. Also try playing with the EQ levels, different levels let you go up and down on volume.

 

I think it might have just been crappy speakers in the previous car or some power related issued. I had an alpine deck in a sunfire and I couldn't go any louder than 15/35 either. I mainly kept it at 11-13.

 

and you had a sub hooked up to your deck? how did you get your sub amp to play @ any sufficient volume @ only 15/35.

 

Well, if your HU has a sub volume adjust just turn it up. Otherwise you need to turn your gain up on the sub amp to match the mids/highs. What kind of subs/amp do you have?

 

its an alpine sub amp. it has a gain control but ive had it turned up all the way since i bought it and it doesnt do much... its an MRV-100M.

 

i have alpine too and the sound is fine. i do like it loud too. i think you just dont like it loud

 

Get ride of the Scosche FAI-3 and check your wiring throughly. Make sure you arnt mixing the grounds, etc. etc. Are you using a harness adapter or did you hard wire it? If you are using a harnes adapter, all the wire colors should match up perfect. If they match then make sure the harness is matching up with the factory wiring. Ive seen it many times where the pins in the aftermarket harness are crossed.

 

i bought my adapter from car domain, its the model that is recommended in the FAQ @ the top of this forum. I removed the FAI-3 from the system and wired it back up but im still having the same problem as before... it gets really loud @ 14-16 and thats not enough volume on the master dial to send any amount of signal to my sub amp in the trunk... ive checked and re-checked the wiring. when i originally tried using the FAI-3, in addition to running the deck through the FAI-3 i also ran the ground wire from the deck through the FAI-3 and then to the harness... could that have caused any problem?

 

the fai-3 will only limit the output coming out of your headunit. It is only designed to covert the hi level signal out of your high powered deck into low level signal that amplifed stock systems require.

remove it completely, there is no need for it.

What is your sound setting at? Does it still make the noise even if the loudness if off and all your setting are flat?

What head unit the that deck come out of?

 

I got everything sorted out. I took the FAI-3 out of the system, and use the gain on the sub amp and the "bass eq" in moderation on the sub amp to match the bass output to the mid/highs... btw its an alpine deck and an alpine sub amp. heres a link to pictures of the setup.

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23024

 

OUt of curiousity... do you have an alpine with V-Drive? Did you wire the power directly to the battery in this case?