Subwoofer Amps Not Working

Thread Starter

rfxcasey

Joined Mar 20, 2022
4
I'm about to pull my hair out. I have two amps for running tactile transducers which I only used for about 4 hours each and then put in boxes for a move. At my new house for about a year and finally decided to break the amps and transducers out so I could set them up again. Problem is, neither amp seems to be working. They power on but I can't get any output to the bass shakers. One is a 90 watt Buttkicker II amp with it's transducer and the other is a 90 watt Amazon amp. I first tried connecting the Buttkicker II to the Soundblaster Z card in my computer. This amp when turned on goes to sleep unless an audio signal is present. It shows a red light when asleep and a green light when the input detects a signal. The amp is always in sleep mode. I've tried connecting it to every line out on my soundcard and nothing. So then I tried connecting the Buttkicker transducer to my Amazon amp and while the amp turns on, I get no output at all. This Amazon amp does not have a sleep mode like the other.

After having no success with either amp on my Buttkicker II transducer, I connected a 50 watt Dayton Audio transducer to the Amazon amp and still I am getting absolutely no output. I know the sound card is putting out signal but I'm at my wits end. I don't know if I've accidentally blown both amps somehow, I was fairly careful about keeping the input and volume out levels about 1/3 to half. Not sure if maybe the Buttkicker transducer blew both amps, I didn't hear or smell anything. The transducer is a replacement I received under warranty for a damaged cable and appears to be brand new. It's reading about 2.5 Ohms on the coil. The Dayton transducer is reading about 3+ Ohms on the coil.

Neither one as gotten hot at all nor produced any vibration. I'm an electronics tech by trade but I work on drives and HMI's and stuff like that, I'm really not an amp guy. I use these for my Flight sim rig to produce vibration effects but I can't get any of them to work now all of a sudden. It's very strange.
 

LowQCab

Joined Nov 6, 2012
4,072
"" I know the sound card is putting out signal ""

How do You know the Sound-Card is putting out an adequate Signal ?
It's very easy to change the settings on a Computer without realizing it.
Sometimes various Programs will also change settings, and without any notice.
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Thread Starter

rfxcasey

Joined Mar 20, 2022
4
"" I know the sound card is putting out signal ""

How do You know the Sound-Card is putting out an adequate Signal ?
It's very easy to change the settings on a Computer without realizing it.
Sometimes various Programs will also change settings, and without any notice.
.
.
.
Well, first thing I tried was the headphone out as I want to use the bass shaker while wearing headphones pretty much exclusively. A Y splitter was provided, to which I have attached my headphones to both output of, as a test, and I get audio through both. I then connected the headphones to one out of the Y splitter and the input to the amp to the other out of the Y splitter. I turned the volume of the headphone out up to nearly max and still nothing. Checking all volume levels in Windows, everything is turned up. With the headphones connected to the Y and the amp connected to the other out of the Y, I'm getting headphone audio out I can hear through my headset and as said, both ends were tested and they output signal. I then tried the speaker out of the sound card, which is working fine with amplified speakers and also tried the subwoofer out after enabling it in the Sound Blaster Commander software. I've never had a problem getting sound out of the sound card and I am still getting sound out of it so I know it's still working properly. Tried line out 1, line out 2 ect. pretty much every line I have. Also run a tone generator and swept between around 150hz down to something like 4hz. I had all this connected and working fine before the move, but now, nothing. It's bizarre. Both amps and both transducers tried and still I'm getting nothing.
 
Last edited:

LowQCab

Joined Nov 6, 2012
4,072
2-Amps, and 2-Speakers ............
there's got to be some ridiculously simple and silly thing that is being overlooked.

Have You tried replacing the Patch-Cord(s) to the Amp ?
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