Cadence Xenith Xa125.2, Xenith Xa400.1, Xenith Xa125.4, Xenith Xa175.4, Xenith Xa300.1 Installation Manual

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SERIES

AMPLIFIER INSTALLATION GUIDE

Thank you for purchasing this Cadence Xenith Series amplifier.
Cadence has been producing quality car audio electronics for more than 16 years and while so many car audio brands have

come and gone, Cadence has withstood the test of time which is a testament to our success. But we know that our success
couldn’t have been achieved with out you our customer whose faith in our brand has taken us so far.

As with all Cadence amplifiers, you will be amazed at the quality and power that these new Xenith amplifiers offer. You will "Boom­Harder!" with Cadence Xenith amplifiers.

No expense has been spared in the designing and testing of these amplifier. Our goal was to achieve the most rugged, reliable,
powerful and best performing amplifiers. In fact we are so sure of the quality we backup every Xenith Seriesamplifier with our
exclusive two-year warranty which exemplifies 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 amplifier. 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 732/370-5400.
Read this entire guide fully before attempting your installation. You can also get technical help via e-mail at
[e-mail]. Kindly allow us 24-48 hours to respond to e-mail technical assistance.

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

WARNING: BE AWARE! Use of this amplifier 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 amplifiers at high volume levels while driving will impair your ability to hear necessary traffic sounds. While driving
always keep your sound volume at reasonable levels. The folks at Cadence want you listening for many years to come.

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POWER AND PROTECTION CIRCUITRY:

MUTE CIRCUIT:

BASS EQUALIZATION CIRCUITRY:

BATTERY VOLTAGE:

Xenith Series amplifiers 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 top side of the amplifier provide indication of the amplifier status, the Power LED will
light when the amplifier is receiving proper power, ground and remote voltages and the IC monitoring sequence indicates the amp is functional. In case the amplifier encounters a
diagnostic condition as listed below, the second LED will light indicating a Diagnostic condition. When a diagnostic condition is sensed the amplifier will then turn in to 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 amplifier off immediately.

1. Speaker short circuit. / 2. Input Overload. / 3. Thermal overload. / 4. Reverse Polarity.

To reset the amplifier, you must first diagnose what caused the problem, correct the fault and restart the system. See the Trouble Shooting page for further details.

The Xenith Series amplifiers feature an anti-thump, mute and delay circuit. This eliminates irritating speaker damaging turn-on and turn-off transients normally experienced with
less expensive amplifiers.

All Xenith mono block amplifiers feature a narrow "Q" shelving equalization circuit. The equalization system is preset at 45Hz. The boost control allows you to +6dB or +12dB of Bass EQ
effect. Utilize the Bass EQ to tailor your bass response to your systems needs. Please keep in mind that by adding Bass EQ you are adding stress on your speakers. Make sure your
speakers can handle the extra power output! It would be foolish to add 12dB 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 EQ was designed for High Power sub woofers.

Cadence Xenith 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.

The audio output section of the Xenith Series amplifiers feature Japanese studio grade, high current Bi-Polar audio
transistors. Unlike other manufacturers who use a host of different type transistors, not originally designed for audio output, i.e.: power supply transistors, motor control transistors to
produce the audio signal, (you can only begin to imagine what they sound like.) Cadence uses only true audio transistors in the audio section of their amplifiers. These transistors were

designed and engineered to produce music. That’s why Cadence amplifiers clearly sound better. They are cleaner with lower distortion, higher current capable and more reliable. We
challenge you to test listen a Cadence amplifier and hear the difference yourself.

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

WIRELESS PCB DESIGN

DO NOT EXCEED 14.4 INPUT VOLTAGE.

Cadence Xenith amps, feature black pcb designs with a clear solder mask. All circuitry has been designed on to the PCB and all high current traces are provided through heavy duty bus
bars or secondary pc boards. You wont find any wires looping around a Xenith amp typical of cheap amplifier designs. By engineering all circuitry directly to the PCB we are able to
produce a more powerful amp, that is more efficient and has lower distortion rates.

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PROTECTION CIRCUITRY:

INSTALLATION BASICS:

POWER/GROUND WIRING:

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

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 flawlessly and without any musical interruption.

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

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 amplifier.
Cadence amplifiers operate on 12-volt negative ground systems only.

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

Mount the amplifier in the trunk or hatch area of your vehicle. Never install an amplifier in the engine compartment or on the firewall. Please be sure to leave breathing room around the
amplifier heat sink so that it can dissipate the heat it produces efficiently. The amplifier can be installed either horizontally or vertically. When mounting the amplifier on the trunk floor, 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.

The Xenith Series amplifiers 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 fuse. One fuse should be located near the car battery. This fuse near the battery offers protection against damage from

short circuits to the car chassis between the battery and the amplifier. A second fuse closer to the amplifier offers additional safety to the amplifier itself. This fused red power wire should
be attached to the amplifier power terminal marked 12V+.

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.

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 try 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.)

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

DC Offset Protection: Should any DC voltage try to enter the amplifier via the speaker terminals it will cause the amplifier 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 amplifier ever malfunction.

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The wire harness should be made of red primary cable of at least 8 gauge for the Xa125.2 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 amplifier 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 amplifiers, mount them in close proximity so that they can all share the same ground point. Attach the black
ground wire to the amplifier screw terminal marked Ground.

We recommend that you use the Cadence AMP1000 or AMP1500 amplifier installation kits, which contains all the cabling and accessories necessary for a good, reliable installation.
Over the years we have received amplifiers 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 amplifier 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 amplifier 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.

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 amplifier on and off 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.

The Xenith Series amplifiers feature RCA pre amp inputs. Run RCA cables from your sound source to the inputs of the amplifier. 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 amplifier.

All the Xenith Series amplifiers 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 from 40Hz to 160H on

stereo amplifiers and 40Hz to 250Hz on mono block amplifiers. 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 amplifiers 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 40Hz and 6000Hz. Do not attach tweeters directly to the amplifier, (even in the high pass mode) without a secondary passive crossover to protect
them.Typically 600Hz high pass is not ahigh enough cut-off frequency for tweeters.

For sub woofer installations with a passive LP crossove installed on the woofer, you can set the amplifier’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.

REMOTE TURN ON CONECTION:

SETTING THE CONTROLS

AUDIO PREAMP INPUT

USING THE BUILT-IN LOW PASS ELECTRONIC CROSSOVER

SUBSONIC FILTERING