Kenwood KAC-5201 Power Switch
 

Is there a power switch for this unit (stock sub amplifier on MSP)? The woofer is blown and a few months ago a friend assisted me in turning off the rear sub.

I am certain that the rear sub is "off" because when I turn on the pre-amp mute on the stereo (MP-919), I hear nothing from the rear.

At this point, I would like to turn it back on so that I can demonstrate the problem to the dealer. It doesn't look like this is done on the amp itself -- perhaps on the stereo ? I reviewed all the relevant menu items, but nothing seems to do the trick.....

did you check to see if the fuse on the amp is still good? I do know that there is a subwoofer on/off switch on the radio itself but all it does is cut out the rca outputs to the amp, not the power.

If the amp light is coming on you should check the settings on the headunit. The kenwood owners manual DOES say how to turn the sub on and off...i read it when I owned my msp.

You were right on both counts. The output to the subwoofer is called 'non-faded' (NF) output which, I suppose, simply means that the signal level is not dependent on the volume setting. You depress the AM radio button for two seconds to toggle NF on/off which, I think, is not very intuitive.

Well, I figured that would do it, but no. The power light on the amp wasn't coming on. So I inspected the fuse and it definitely looked blown. To ensure that this was indeed the problem, I looked for a fuse in both fuse boxes that was of the same shape and amperage tolerance (15). As it turns out, only the ignition fuse, which is 20 amps, is similar. That did the trick. Amp roared or, rather, rattled into life.

Anyway, the fun part was disturbing the peace of the neighborhood when I put the ignition fuse back in. Yes, the alarm system seems to be sensitive to someone tinkering with the ignition circuit (imagine that). At first, the starter would not turn over. Then the alarm light on the dash started blinking precariously, as if to say, "this vehicle will self-destruct in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...). And then, the alarm activated! I had to unlock the car using the remote (with the key out of the ignition, or else it won't work) and this convinced the alarm system that I was an authorized user of the vehicle.

Fun stuff. Thanks for the tip.

no prob Bob