Cadence UNITED series, United Boston, United Chicago, United Vegas, United Olympia User Manual

INTRODUCTION

2

FEATURES

332

Thank you for purchasing this Cadence United Series amplier. Over the years, the technology used to create audio
ampliers has grown by leaps and bounds. We have tens of thousands of satised customers still using our rst generation
Ultra Drive ampliers which are more than 16 years old. Our competition is satised with just continuing to build the same
units year after year without thought for improvement, but not Cadence. We consider it our mission to use our expertise in
developing the latest technologies and to bring you the absolute best sounding, most powerful ampliers on the market and
of course at a reasonable price. We are very proud to introduce this fth generation of ampliers, the United Series featuring
C-FORCE technology, “ARVA” and “ADR” circuitry. You will be amazed at the quality and power that these new amps oer.
You will “Boom-Harder!” with United Series ampliers.

We have spared no expense in designing these ampliers, creating the most rugged, reliable, powerful and best performing
ampliers. In fact we are so sure of the quality we backup every United Series amplier with our exclusive two-year warranty
which exemplies our commitment to excellence in car audio musical reproduction. (See enclosed warranty card for details.)

Please read this installation guide carefully for proper use of your Cadence power amplier. Should you need technical assistance
during or after your installation please call our technical-line between 9:30 am and 5:00 PM EST at [phone]. Read this
entire guide fully before attempting your installation.

WARNING: BE AWARE! Use of this amplier at extreme high volumes for extended periods of time may cause hearing loss and
or hearing damage. During periods of prolonged high volume levels it is recommended that you use ear safety devices. Playing
Cadence ampliers at high volume levels while driving will impair your ability to hear necessary trac sounds. While driving
always keep your sound volume at reasonable levels. We at Cadence want you listening for many years to come.

When installing the amplier, secure it tightly. An unmounted amplier in your car can cause serious injury to passengers and
damage to your vehicle if it is set in motion by an abrupt driving maneuver or short stop.

GOLD PLATED TERMINALS:

All the terminals on the amplier are solid brass and gold plated for high conductivity and
minimum impedance loss. The power and ground terminals are extra large and capable of
accepting 4-8 gauge wire. The speaker terminals can accept 14-16 gauge wire. When wiring
the amplier, be sure to strip just enough wire that ts into the terminal so that bare wires
do not touch each other, or the amplier chassis and cause a short circuit. We recommend
using Cadence brand lug and spade connectors for optimum signal transfer.

POWER AND PROTECTION CIRCUITRY:

United Series ampliers feature our unique IC controlled protection circuitry. This
sophisticated circuit constantly monitors the heat sink internal temperature and various
voltages, adjusting the amp automatically and protecting it from dangerous conditions.
The 2 LED’s located on the side of the amplier provide indication of the amplier status,
the Power LED will light when the amplier is receiving proper power, ground and remote
voltages and the IC monitoring sequence indicates the amp is functional. In case the
amplier encounters a diagnostic condition as listed below, the second LED will light
indicating a Diagnostic condition. When a diagnostic condition is sensed the amplier will
then turn into a self preservation mode and if the cause of the diagnostic condition is not
corrected will eventually shut down. There are certain critical diagnostic conditions which
will turn the amplier o immediately.

1. Speaker short circuit.

2. Input Overload.

3. Thermal overload.

4. Reverse Polarity.

To reset the amplier, you must rst diagnose what caused the problem, correct the fault and restart
the system. See the Trouble Shooting page for further details.

MUTE CIRCUIT:

The United Series ampliers feature an anti-thump, mute and delay circuit. This eliminates
irritating speaker damaging turn-on and turn-o transients normally experienced with less
expensive ampliers.

BASS DRIVE EQUALIZATION CIRCUITRY:

A narrow “Q” shelving equalization circuit is included in the ampliers. The equalization
system is preset at 45Hz. The boost control allows you to add up to 18dB of Bass Drive
eect. Utilize the Bass Drive to tailor your bass response to your systems needs. Please keep
in mind that by adding Bass Drive you are adding stress on your speakers. Make sure your
speakers can handle the extra power output! It would be foolish to add 18dB of gain to low
excursion 8” and 10” Sub woofers or mid ranges and tweeters. It’s a sure way to blow your
speakers. The Bass Drive was designed for High Power sub woofers.

“ADR”: - ACTIVE DYNAMIC REGULATION

Cadence United Series ampliers feature our proprietary ADR, Active Dynamic Regulated
power supplies. 100% HexFET devices are utilized in the power supply for high speed
(100KHz) switching frequencies. The power supplies are capable of supplying the main
amplier with a considerable amount of reserve voltage for peak “high demand” situations.
The ADR circuit provides full bandwidth power for authoritative bass response, high current
output into low impedance loads and increased headroom. The ADR is supplied with power
via a high speed, high temperature capacitance bank and 100% pure copper rails on the
PCB enabling fast transient response to musical demands.

SUPER CLASS AB AUDIO STAGE PERFORMANCE

The audio output section of the United Series ampliers feature Japanese studio grade,
high current Bi-Polar audio transistors. Unlike other manufacturers who use a host of
dierent type of transistors, not originally designed for audio output, i.e.: power supply
transistors, motor control transistors to produce the audio signal, (You can only imagine
what they sound like.) Cadence uses only true audio transistors in the audio section of
these ampliers. These transistors were designed and engineered to produce music. That’s
why Cadence ampliers clearly sound better. They are cleaner with lower distortion, higher
current capable and more reliable. We challenge you to test listen a Cadence amplier and
hear the dierence yourself.

Introduction Features

5

“ARVA” - AUTOMATIC RAIL VOLTAGE ADJUSTMENT CIRCUITRY:

Cadence United Series amplifiers feature “ARVA” circuitry in their power supply. This circuit constantly
monitors the output stage and under high current demands will adjust the power supply rail voltages
so that enough power is available for peak situations. The “ARVA” also improves the damping factor of
the amplifier when playing low impedance mono loads. Cadence United Series amplifiers have tighter
sounding bass reproduction thanks to
this unique circuitry.

BATTERY VOLTAGE:

Cadence United Series amplifiers are rated and regulated to 13.8 volts and below. Increasing voltage to

14.4 volts will increase the power output of the amplifier in the same proportion. Maximum input voltage
is 14.4 volts while the minimum voltage is 12 volts.

*** DO NOT EXCEED 14.4 INPUT VOLTAGE. ***

Though capable of high power reproduction, Cadence United Series amplifiers are not competition style
amplifiers! They were designed for audiophile sound reproduction.

PROTECTION CIRCUITRY:

Cadence amplifiers incorporate many outstanding protection circuits to help protect the amplifier from
being damaged during operating conditions.

Thermal Protection: When the amplifier reaches an unsafe operating temperature of 80 degrees Celsius
the amplifier will turn off. Once the amplifier cools down, simply reset the amplifier by its Remote
connection, (turn the amplifier off and then on again once you have given the amplifier a chance to cool
down) and the amp will once again begin to play.

If you live in a hot climate we suggest installing additional cooling fans in your trunk
to exhaust the hot air which can build up in the trunk this will help keep the ambient
temperature in the trunk as low as possible so that your amps work awlessly and without any
musical interruption.

Speaker Short Circuit Protection: Should your speakers short circuit due to voice coil burn out, or should the
amplifier sense an impedance too low to handle, the Protection LED will light, indicating a diagnostic condition.
Turn off your system, disconnect one speaker at a time and tr y to determine which speaker might be faulty.
Correct the condition and restart the amplifier. You must reset the amplifier by turning it OFF and then ON again
by the Remote power connection after correcting a diagnostic condition. (Turn your radio off and then on again.)

Clipping or total shutdown may also be a result of a bad ground connection or loose
ground. If you nd that your speakers and speaker wires are not shorted, please check
your ground connection.

Input Overload Protection: This circuit will either shutdown the amplier completely or
make the amplier spurt on and o indicating that it is in a diagnostic condition. Turn the
system o and reduce the gain on the amplier or volume from your head unit, this should
result in a corrected condition.

DC Oset Protection: Should any DC voltage try to enter the amplier via the speaker
terminals it will cause the amplier to shut down and not operate until this condition
is remedied. This circuit will also protect damaging high DC voltages from reaching your
speakers should your amplier ever malfunction.

INSTALLATION BASICS:

Before you begin with your installation, disconnect the NEGATIVE (-) terminal from your car’s
battery. This safety precaution will avoid possible short circuits while wiring your amplier.
Cadence ampliers operate on 12-volt negative ground systems only.

It is recommend that you layout your sound system design on paper rst. This will help
you during the installation so that you will have a wiring ow chart and not miss-wire any
of your components.

Mount the amplier in the trunk or hatch area of your vehicle. Never install an amplier in
the engine compartment or on the rewall. Please be sure to leave breathing room around
the amplier heat sink so that it can dissipate the heat it produces eciently. The amplier
can be installed either horizontally or vertically.

When mounting the amplier on the trunk oor, be sure to watch for your gas tank, gas
lines and electrical lines. Do not drill or mount any screws where they might penetrate the
gas tank of your car.

SETTING THE CONTROLS:

AUDIO PREAMP INPUT

The United Series ampliers feature RCA pre amp inputs. Run RCA cables from your sound
source to the inputs of the amplier. We suggest the use of high quality shielded RCA patch
cords to help reduce and eliminate unwanted electrical noise to your system.

Be sure to run the RCA cables on the opposite side of the vehicle that you used to carry the
power and ground leads of the amplier.

USING THE BUILT-IN LOW PASS ELECTRONIC CROSSOVER

All the United Series ampliers feature 12dB per octave fully adjustable low-pass and high
pass electronic crossovers.

For Low Pass sub woofer systems, set the CROSSOVER MODE switch to LOW PASS. Now the
knob marked FREQUENCY will control the low pass frequencies depending on the model
anywhere from 40Hz to 150Hz. A frequent error made is setting the low pass frequency
too low, especially when using vented sub woofer enclosures. We recommend that for
most installations you do not set the frequency knob lower than 80 - 100Hz (the 12 o’clock
position).

When using the ampliers for component speakers or co-axials, you will want to set the
CROSSOVER MODE switch to HIGH PASS. The FREQUENCY control knob adjusts the high
pass frequencies between 50Hz and 500Hz. Do not attach tweeters directly to the amplier,
(even in the high pass mode) without a secondary passive crossover to protect them. 500Hz
high pass is not a frequency high enough for tweeters.

SUBSONIC FILTERING

For sub woofer installations with a passive LP crossover, you can set the amplier’s
CROSSOVER MODE selector to HIGH PASS while setting the FREQUENCY KNOB to 30Hz, this
will act as SUBSONIC FILTER for all signals below 30Hz. This is especially useful for vented
enclosures where the port tuning frequency falls below the sub woofer tuning frequency to
protect against sub woofer unloading.

REMOTE TURN ON CONNECTION:

The remote turn on connection is located on the barrier strip next to the power and ground
connections. This connection is responsible for turning the amplier on and o with the rest of the
system. A smaller gauge wire can be used to make this connection to your radio’s power antenna
lead. Should your system not have any turn on leads, you can wire the remote terminal to an
accessory lead, which turns on, with your cars ignition.

POWER/GROUND WIRING:

The United Series ampliers are supplied with built-in fuses, never replace the fuse that the amp
came with, with one of a larger value.

We suggest you construct a Red wiring harness with 2 additional fuses. One fuse should be located
near the car battery. This fuse near the battery oers protection against damage from shor t circuits
to the car chassis between the battery and the amplier. A second fuse closer to the amplier oers
additional safety to the amplier itself. This fused red power wire should be attached to the amplier
power terminal marked 12V+.

The wire harness should be made of red primary cable of at least 8 gauge for the F200-2 and at
least 4 gauge for all other larger models. The harness should terminate in a large ring terminal for
connection directly to the positive terminal of the car battery. Use a spade plug to attach the wire,
which connects to the amplier location marked 12V+.

A second black color wire of equal gauge should be used as a ground connection to a welded chassis
member. When connecting the ground wire make sure that there is no paint or other insulator
blocking a good ground connection. When installing multiple ampliers, mount them in close
proximity so that they can all share the same ground point. Attach the black ground wire to the
amplier screw terminal marked Ground.

We recommend that you use the Cadence AMPKIT4 or AMPKIT8 amplier installation kits, which
contains all the cabling and accessories necessary for a good, reliable installation.

Over the years we have received ampliers back to our service department with melted power/
ground terminals. The cause of this is a bad ground connection. When there is a lack of good ground,
heat builds up at the weakest point which happens to be the contact screw of the amplier terminal.
Over time the heat generated will begin to melt the terminal. It is a good practice to feel the power
and ground wires with your hands, near their amplier connection after having played the amp for
a while. If the wires feel hot to the touch you probably have a bad or loose connection. If you are sure
of your connections and the wires still feel hot to the touch, you should upgrade the gauge of wire
to next heaviest gauge.

Features Installation Basics

6 7

ADJUSTING THE SYSTEM

Once the system is operational, the rst thing to do, is set all crossover points to approximate
settings. In the case of the basic sub woofer system Low Pass lter crossover at 100 Hz or so. Set the
Bass Boost equalizer controls to 0 dB ( Flat Switch Position.)

Now you should set the ampliers Input Sensitivity adjustment. The knob accessible on the side of
the amplier marked INPUT GAIN adjusts the input sensitivity from 150mV to 8 Volts.

To adjust the input sensitivity, turn the control using a small at head screwdriver fully counter clock
wise to the minimum position. Do not apply any pressure while turning as this might break the
control unit. Adjust your radio volume level to maximum volume. Now turn the level control on the
amplier clockwise towards the Maximum marking until audible distortion occurs. When you begin
to hear any distortion in the sound, back down one notch and your amp is set. It is helpful to have a
second person to help you set the gain.

When setting up a multi-amp system, set each amplier’s gain separately. Start o with the bass
amplier, then adjust the highs amplier’s level control to match.

Once you are satised with the level control settings, use any equalizer controls to adjust the system
tonal level for personal preference. Keep in mind that after equalizing, you may have to go back and
reset the ampliers level controls.

*** The level control of any car amplier should not be mistaken for a volume control. It is a

sophisticated device designed to match the output level of your source unit to the input level of the
amplier. Do not adjust the amplier gain to maximum unless your input level requires it.

If your unit has been professionally installed please do not change the gain settings set by the
installer, he is the professional!

Your system can also be extremely sensitive to noise when the LEVEL is set to maximum and does
not match your input signal. The gain adjustments need to be made only once when rst setting
up the system.

USING THE ELECTRONIC CROSSOVER - 4 CHANNEL MODELS (VEGAS + CHICAGO)

The four channel models feature separate crossovers for channels 1-2 and 3-4. All the
United Series ampliers feature 12dB per octave fully adjustable low-pass and high pass
electronic crossovers.

FOUR CHANNEL AMPLIFIER CONFIGURATIONS.

1. All four channels High Pass for internal component speakers in doors and rear decks.

2. Channels 1 and 2 High Pass for front component speakers, while channels 3 and 4 are

wired to sub woofers.

3. Bridge channels 1 and 2 for single high power sub woofer channel. Bridge channels

3 and 4 for second high power sub woofer channel.

For Low Pass systems, set the CROSSOVER MODE switch to LOW PASS. Now the knob
marked FREQUENCY will control the low pass frequencies from 40Hz to 150Hz. A
frequent mistake made is setting the low pass frequency too low, especially when using
vented sub woofer enclosures. We recommend that for most installations you do not set
the frequency knob lower than 100Hz (the 12 o’clock position).

When using the ampliers for component speakers or coaxial, you will want to set the
CROSSOVER MODE switch to HIGH PASS. The FREQUENCY control knob adjusts the
high pass frequencies between 50Hz and 500Hz. Do not attach tweeters directly to the
amplier even in the high pass mode without a secondary passive crossover to protect
them. 500Hz high pass is not a frequency high enough for tweeters.

PASSIVE SUBSONIC FILTERING

For sub woofer installations with a passive LP crossover, you can set the amplier’s
CROSSOVER MODE selector to HIGH PASS while setting the FREQUENCY KNOB to 40Hz,
this will act as SUBSONIC FILTER for all signals below 40Hz. This is especially useful for
vented enclosures where the port tuning frequency falls below the sub woofer tuning
frequency to protect against sub woofer unloading.

MOUNTING THE AMPLIFIERS:

Choose a convenient mounting location with unobstructed airow.

The United ampliers feature four mounting tabs located at the ampliers four corners.
Using the supplied screws and grommets, gently mount the amplier in to position.

*** Do not over tighten the screws.***

The United Series ampliers are supplied with built-in fuses, never replace the fuse that the amp
came with, with one of a larger value.

We suggest you construct a Red wiring harness with 2 additional fuses. One fuse should be
located near the car battery. This fuse near the battery oers protection against damage from
short circuits to the car chassis between the battery and the amplier. A second fuse closer to
the amplier oers additional safety to the amplier itself. This fused red power wire should be
attached to the amplier power terminal marked 12V+.

The wire harness should be made of red primary cable of at least 4 gauge for all United Series
ampliers. The harness should terminate in a large ring terminal for connection directly to the
positive terminal of the car battery. Use a spade plug to attach the wire, which connects to the
amplier location marked 12V+.

A second black color wire of equal gauge should be used as a ground connection to a welded
chassis member. When connecting the ground wire make sure that there is no paint or other
insulator blocking a good ground connection. When installing multiple ampliers, mount them
in close proximity so that they can all share the same ground point. Attach the black ground wire
to the amplier screw terminal marked Ground.

We recommend that you use the Cadence AMPKIT4 or AMPKIT8 amplier installation kits, which
contains all the cabling and accessories necessary for a good, reliable installation.

BATTERY

FUSE

GROUND
REMOTE
TURN ON

Terminal of

head unit

Installation Basics Mounting and Wiring

4 Channel Amp with 2 Channel Input

8 9

If your head unit has only one pair of Left and Right
RCA out put jacks, plug them in to RCA input Jacks
1 and 2 of the amplier and set the Input model
switch to the 2CH position.

The amplier preamp circuit will automatically mix
the signals to channels 3 and 4 thereby preserving
your Left and Right Balance control but with no
Fade control Front to Rear.

TO AUDIO OUTPUTS OF HEAD UNIT OR SIGNAL

PROCESSOR WITH STEREO OUTPUTS

INPUT MODE

SWITCH SETTING

SWITCH IN 2CH POSITION

If your head unit has 2 pairs of RCA output
jacks, input Front Left and Front Right in to
Channels 1 and 2. Then attach radio output
Rear Left and Rear Right to Channels 3
and 4. Set the Input Mode Switch to 4Ch
position. The pre amp circuitry will not mix
any signals thereby preserving full Left
to Right Balance and Front to Rear fader
control.

Should your head unit have an additional
subwoofer RCA output, that typically needs
to be attached to a separate subwoofer
amplier.

When conguring a 4 channel amplier to
a 3 channel system, you can use an RCA Y
adaptor to send the subwoofer preamp
signal to channels 3 and 4 and bridge those
channels to the subwoofer. Use Y adaptors
to mix channels 1 and 3 and input them in to
RCA Channel 1, then mix channels
2 and 4 and input them in to
RCA Channel 2. The result will be preserved
Left and Right balance with constant
subwoofer output.

L

R

TO AUDIO OUTPUTS OF HEAD UNIT OR SIGNAL

PROCESSOR WITH STEREO OUTPUTS

GROUND FUSE BATTERY

REMOTE TURN-ON

TERMINAL OF HEAD UNIT

4 Channel Amp with 4 Channel Input

INPUT MODE

SWITCH SETTING

SWITCH IN 4CH POSITION

GROUND FUSE BATTERY

REMOTE TURN-ON

TERMINAL OF HEAD UNIT