What went wrong? I just hooked up my outdoor audio system, with less than successful results. I had great expectations and started with 2 Boston Acoustic Voyager RK8T2 rock speakers, 1 Polk Audio Sub 10 subwoofer, 1 Russound DPA-6.12 distribution amp (6 bridged channels with 100 watts per channel), and an Outlaw ICBM. This LINK is what I was trying to do. Now, I have three blown amplifier channels and the sound seems a bit tinny, apparently lacking sufficient base and madrange transitions. If anyone has any suggestions as to what went wrong, it would be greatly appreciated. Let's begin with the blown amp channels and end with the thin sound.

Blown Amp Channels:

I split my zone 2 output for inside and outside use. The outside portion was connected to the ICBM and then connected to a Russound DPA 6.12 (e.g. 12 zones with 50 watts per channel). At the Russound amp, I bridged 4 of the channels to boost them to 100 watts, then I connected each of the ICBM's L and R main outputs to a single 100 watt bridged channel on the Russound amp, and I also connected each of the ICBM's L and R subwoofer outputs to a single 100 watt bridged channel on the Russound amp.

I connected each of the main L and R channel speaker wires to the L and R RK8T2 speakers, respectively. The RK8T2 has two sets of positive and negative wires (as it has two tweeters and can be configured as a single speaker providing a stereo signal) so, according to the wiring diagram for mono operation, I connected all the positive wires from the amp and speaker together and connected all of the negative wires from the amp and speaker together. When powered up, the RK8T2 speakers seemed to work fine (although the sound seemed a little thin, but more on that later).

I connected the Sub10 subwoofer. The Sub 10 is a dual voice coil ("DVC") speaker with two sets of positive and negative speaker wires. At the time of connecting up the Sub 10, I didn't know that DVC speakers have special connection issues. But, according to the wiring diagram, I connected the L channel amp positive and negative wires to one set of the positive and negative wires from the Sub 10, and similarly, I connected the R channel subwoofer positive and negative wires to the other set of positive and negative wires from the Sub 10 (could this setup have been problematic?). The ICBM subwoofer switch was set to stereo (not mono) (could this setup have been problematic?).

In any event, when I powered up the system, I got a low "boom" "boom" "boom" coming from the sub, and the sub amp channel lights blinked on and off. I quickly turned off the system, but noticed I had a blown amp channel. Since I had 2 other chanels I could use, I kept going! Not knowing what happened, I unconnected, checked, and reconnected all the connections (this time to another amp channel), did some internet research, and read the sub and amp manuals again. I turned on the system and the same "booms" occurred and blew another amp channel. I then checked things again, and even checked each sub voice coil by checking that sound would come out as each one was connected independently to a single channel. I reconnected again, not sure exactly what happend, but I blew a third channel! Therefore I was down to 3 channels on the amp, so I gave up trying to connect two subwoofer speaker wires. Accordingly, I changed the ICBM subwoofer connection to mono from stero, connected only one of the sub outs from the ICBM to the last remaining sub in channel on the amp, and connected all the positive wires from the amp and sub together and connected all of the negative wires from the amp and sub together. When I repowered up the system, it seemed to work, but the sub seems thin (perhaps because it is not run only on 100 watts; but then perhaps not!).

What went wrong? And what, if anything, is still wrong?

Thin Sound:

Before I set the system up, I jerry-rigged my RK8T2 speakers by connecting them to my Outlaw 7700 with 200 watts feeding each speaker and using 50' of 14 guage wire for each speaker. They seemed to sound incredible, even when outside and without the benefit of the subwoofer (but that was a week ago). Now that I have them set up as noted above (now with only bridged 100 watts per channel and with 150' of 10 guage wire) they sound a bit tinny (lacking mid range and base extension--whether or not the subwoofer is hooked up or bypassed by the ICBM). Could the 100 watt difference in amplifiers and the Outlaw verses the Russound amps make that much of a difference?

Of course, I may just be imagining things as I am frustrated right now--so my perceptions could simply be compromised. And, I am too frustrated to do a direct A/B comparison by jerry-rigging my 7700 again directly to my RK8T2 speakers; that will have to wait for another time when I can take a fresh look at things.

If the Outlaws can offer any guidance on what I did wrong and/or whether there may be a problem with the Sub 10, and/or how I might be able to improve the sound (including because I am operating my sub with with only 1 line connection between the ICBM and the amp), that would be greatly appreciated!

Ed