Dharn55

I am having trouble with the front left channel on my stereo cutting out. To provide some background I am running the OEM CDR200, RCA jacks to a JL Audio M6450 6 channel amp, Focal 100 KP speakers with crossovers in the dash, Focal 5WS subs in the doors and Focal slimline 100 with crossovers in the rear. The system has been in place for 4+ years and prior to this I have not had any problems.

Now the front left dash speaker is cutting out. At low volumes it often is not working. If I turn it way up it will usually cut back in but then will go in and out. At lower volumes it goes out. It is intermittent, but becoming more frequent.

When it has cut out I have tried swapping the RCA cable for the left and right front and the channel still is out. So I don't think it is the head unit.

Perhaps the amp is going bad. Is there a way to test the amp?

chuck911

Check speaker connections to the affected speaker at both ends- connection to amp, connection to speaker. Best way to do this is to disconnect at each terminal, re-twist and solder the wires (or clean terminal if using spade etc lugs) and clean the contact terminal before reconnecting. If the connections look good then while you are there you can connect the speaker to your head unit using a known good length of wire. Since you already confirmed the head unit is good by swapping channels, if it works with the wire but not with the routed wire then you know the problem is somewhere along the routed wire. Otherwise it will be a bad driver. And by driver I mean speaker! LOL!

Dharn55

I don't think it is the wire but I will try swapping the two front speakers. Then the two front crossovers. But it seems to me that it might be the amp going bad.

chuck911

Then swap channels on the amp, connecting one of the good amp channels to the "bad" speaker. If the speaker then works, then connect the bad amp channel to another speaker. In a few minutes you'll narrow it down.

wc11

JL's are famous for "cold solder joints".
Just needs a tech with an hour or so to touch up the solder joints on surface mount chip resistors. Seen it too many times.