Cobaltchat.com

Hey Guys,

I have a 2018 CS23 and the tower amp is blown. The speakers check out without issue. This is a Rockford Fosgate system and I've been unable to locate the amps.

Thanks
itsmike

Your choice. Call RF, box up the amp and send back to RF for a rebuild, recommend fix, or confirm is blown (I did),

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So glad you found us itsmike.

I'd upgrade to a wetsounds sinister amp for tower power.. I like JL Audio for inside boat listening.

Any pics?

And welcome aboard mate!
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Hey Guys,

Just wondering about the location of the amp. I'll decide what to do with the dead soldier once I find it. Seems like a simple 400 watt stereo amp to run the tower speakers. The head unit seems to be working fine. I'm able to select either the tower or the primary outputs without issue. Once I have located the amp, I can run quick audio testing and determine if the amp or the head unit are faulty.

I know it's not under the wheel. Wondering if it's behind the helm or underneath the throttle assembly. There's space for the amps in either location. The area behind the helm has the fuse box so it's kind of a hassle to open. The area under the throttle doesn't really look easy to open. All of the screws have covers on them to keep you from scraping your leg. I would prefer not disassembling the wrong area to go searching if at all possible.

Thanks,
itsmike

Hey Guys, Any ideas on how to take the trim off without damaging it? The broken amp is either behind the panel under the throttle or the gunwale padding. The lower panel would be the first thing to remove, but when I remove the 2 Phillips screws the panel does not want to come loose. There are four "buttons" around the panel that spin indicating that they're actually snaps. Anybody know whether they're screw covers or snaps?

I've never heard of one being behind the throttle assembly. Have you checked behind the front seat on the passenger side? There are likely carpeted vertical plywood panels that are pretty easy to unscrew and remove behind the front seats - I'd definitely check there first. And even if you don't find the amps there, perhaps you could follow the wires from your head unit. Note the PMX-1R in the photo is just the remote, and not the head unit itself - the head unit may be in the glove box, or somewhere else. The chances of the amps being inside one of the two consoles are pretty high.

Edit - here's an example of a Cobalt with a "hidden" head unit mounted to the stringer under one of the consoles - may be worth checking around there too - viewtopic.php?t=6015

I finally found the amp in the front passenger compartment. The Cobalt tower was a 3rd party install and the class D amp they used was behind a guard and difficult to identify. In Texas, the sun beats down in 100+ degree weather which overheated the amp badly. The amp was replaced with a class D amp with significantly larger heat sinks which has solved the problem. To those having similar problems, you will need a t4 or t5 torx screwdriver in order to remove the 4 screws mounting the shield in front of the amp to gain access to cables and controls. In my case, AVL did the install and substituted their logo for the cover supplied by the amp manufacturer. This was a $500.00 amp with less than 100 operating hours before failure.

I know a lot of people prefer certain brands of amps over others on here, but going with a competently made Class D amp is the biggest single thing you can do for reliability, power consumption, and sound quality. I like JL Audio's class D amps for all marine applications - they regularly have factory refurbs that are pretty cheap and covered by warranty on creativeaudio.net - a friend of the forum (we don't get a kickback, but they give forum members curiously good pricing and service).

Thanks for reporting back with your solution to the problem!

Got things identified and fixed. Thanks for the help.

Glad it's sorted, and thanks for reporting back on the fix!