Audio Systems: speaker problems, alpine amp, rca cables

Question
hi there. i recently installed 2 amps.  one new and one i took out of my old truck. one amp was for 2  6x9's and the other to push my sub.  i also got a new deck and installed that with no problem.  i have done amp installs before and had no trouble but this time is a differnet story and i have no idea why.  both amps are getting power. even the speaker ports on the amps are giving power. but im not getting sound out of any speakers, only my door speakers which are running off the deck not rca jacks or amps.  i tested my 6x9s and the sub tonight with a 9 volt battery and only got results out of my sub, so i popped a door speaker out and hooked the 6x9 up and again, nothing.  so i think some how i toasted my 6x9s. thinking that the sub was working i hooked it up to my punch 40 amp, bridged, and the amp started smoking so i pulled the fuses and crapped my pants.  im thinking i toasted my amp now. i still have my new alpine amp but i have no clue what the heck is wrong so right now untill i can get into a shop or figure this out and get it fixed i got no tunes!!  please help me and let me know what to look for.  both amps were hooked up with new rca cables.  one amp was new. the deck is new. 25 amp inline fuses by the battery, remote lead is hooked and working, power cable and fuses in good working order.  im lost!  i dont know where to look anymore.  please help!  thanks!!  jim

Answer
Hello Jim,
You will need to test to see if the speaker output wires are grounded at any location from the output of the amps. Even if only one side is pinched somewhere and it is grounded out it can cause the amp not to work or even burn up. On the 6X9's you need to look at the power rating of these speakers, the amp may be too powerful for them and they simply fried. A quick test for audio that I use is a cheap set of headphones with adapters to plug into the RCA jacks on head units to verifiy that I have sound coming out and that the sound will go up and down with the volume control. Another thing that I usally do is to make a drawing of how everything is connected so if there is a problem I can refer to this drawing to figure out what is wrong. Your stereo system doesn't sound real complicated so you should be able to track down the cause/problem quickly. You can also use the headphone trick to make sure that the audio from the head unit is getting to the amps if mounted in the trunk. If you need Tech help in the future please feel free to contact me direct at: tdeser@zoominternet.net

TOM,
T&D ELECTRONICS