Subwoofer Working at Approximately 50%

[WPABoater]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 2023 GS22 and when I got it back from storage this spring the sub wasn't working at all. Volume settings on the head unit and LINC Panoray looked normal across the tower, cabin speakers, and sub. All wiring appeared firmly connected and both amps had solid green lights.

I turned the battery switch off and reset the breaker near the battery switch — after that it came back and worked fine. A few days later it started acting up again, this time running at roughly 50% output. I can feel it working but it's noticeably weak. Tried the breaker reset again with no luck this time.

I've reached out to my dealer but haven't heard back yet. Has anyone run into this before? Any troubleshooting tips or leads on what might be causing it would be really appreciated.

[bturner]

There are probably a bunch of guys here with more experience on this or better knowledge but my guess is that you have a channel possibly going out or a bad ground. A lot of times a sub will be set up bridging 2 channels off the amp effectively doubling the power going to that component. It would be possible that if one of the channels were going bad that you would get 1/2 the power to the sub or if the channel went out entirely you could get no power.

As far as an action plan goes..... it depends on.......

Do you still have a warranty?

• If so take it to the dealer and have him fix it. Don't do anything that could void your warranty.

If you don't have a warranty.

• How comfortable are you with stereo gear? If you know what you're doing or think you can educate yourself enough to so some troubleshooting then the next step if I were working on it would be to.....
  • Document or find documentation on how the amp is wired/configured.
  • Once you have that locate the sub connections on the amp and see if the amp is configured to bridge multiple channels going to the sub.
    • If they are try moving the connection to the sub so you're only using one channel then test to see if the sub comes back on. You would do this test isolating one channel then the other. If it starts working on one side but not the other you'll know you have a bad channel.
  • Another approach would be to swap channels with another component. Switch the amp output from one of the other speakers with the sub and see if the sub starts working. This would be to just see if the issue is channel related, not a fix or even temp solution due to the configuration differences between a speaker and a sub.

If you have a bad channel there is no fixing it, the amp will need to be replaced. This is why going after loose or bad connections is always going to be the fix you're looking for. When it comes to low or no output it's almost always a channel that's bit it. In my experience it's rare to have a sub or speaker go especially in comparison to losing a channel on an amp.

Everything I mention above is based on my experience with traditional boat stereo installations. The stuff I'm seeing on the newer high end systems with sound processing and pages of configuration options are beyond what I've worked with but in general the basics still seem to apply. In short, as they used to say on Jeopardy.... I'll take bad channel for $100 Alex....

[WPABoater]

Thank you for the detailed response, this is exactly the kind of information I was looking for!

I've had a hard time tracking down a wiring diagram for this setup. There seems to be very little information out there, and I have a feeling that is not by accident.

The boat is still under warranty, but my dealership is about two and a half hours away. Being in PA, the season is already too short and the last thing I want is my boat sitting in a shop for weeks. That said, after reading through your breakdown, I think this repair might be slightly above my comfort level, especially without solid documentation on the wiring.

I will probably reach out to my dealer again, but I already know what they are going to say, bring it in.

I appreciate you taking the time to lay all of that out. Very helpful!