OK, I finally got the Empeg installed in the new car. Works like it is supposed to...except that the front left speaker has no sound, and the front right speaker is etting the signal for both FL and FR!

Is there any obvious place to look this problem? It all seems to be hooked up correctly...but I'm pretty novice with car audio.

Are you using a dedicated amp or another head unit?

If it's an amp, try unplugging the FL and FR RCA cables going into the amp from the empeg. See if the final output changes. If it does, then the problem is either with your amp or with your wiring from the amp to the speakers.

As Bitt said, it's important to narrow down the location of the problem. The possible places for a problem are:

- Inside the empeg itself (unlikely).

- Problems at the back of the sled's docking connector.

- Something wrong or miswired in the wiring between the empeg and the amplifier. For example, a sharp metal edge cutting into the RCA cables.

- A fault in the amplifier itself.

- Something wrong or miswired in the speaker wiring.

You need to go through like Sherlock Holmes and eliminate each possibility until you've narrowed it down.

It is a Kenwood 4-ch Amp.
I'll tinker with the RCA plugs and see what I can come up with.

As others have said, check everything else first.

If it's possible that the cabling has gotten miswired, you might have the left speaker powered by FR and FL, and the right by FR and GND. (ie somehow FR and GND have been transposed.) This would give the appearance of no left signal with a mono track, and very limited signal for most other tracks. Try adjusting the balance - if the left speaker signal appears and gets louder as the balance is moved further away from center then this is a possible culprit.

Actually, It seems to get louder the closer it is to the center.

...er that contradicts your original post - no sound from the left speaker. uzzled:

In correct operation, the empeg's balance works (as with most other modern stereo gear) by cutting channel levels only, ie no boosting.

The front right speaker gets noticably louder when I slide the Empeg's balance close to the center balance mark and a bit less volume when it is to the left or the right of center.

That would make some sense to me as the amp is probably getting all of the signal from both sides going to the one speaker... and as such I'd check the amp. Move the RCA's to the other set (the other 2 channels).

One thing I would certainly check is it sounds like you could have your amp set to a mono feed (usually used for subs). IIRC, my old kenwood kac744 had 3 settings, a stereo setting, a L+R setting (each speaker plays everything) and a mono setting (usually used for subs).

Check that little switch on your amp and make sure you are messing with the right side of the amp, it's easy to get the sides mixed up with all the little knobs, switches and inputs.

Thanks. I haven't had the chance to fool with it since I installed it. It had something wrong with the wiring somewhere between the amp and the speakers I think.
If I drive the car real hard, the speakers pop real loud and either there is no noise (I think the amp safety mechanism shuts itself down) or there is VERY loud static. If I pull out the Empeg after that, the static goes away and push it back in...back to normal.