protection light

Just bought and installed a 4-ch Soundstream amp. Brand new. Got it all hooked up and all was working fine at low volume levels, but as soon as I turned it up it shut down and the protection light came on. I have a new style Pioneer double din head unit (basic setup, nothing flashy). I do have a small battery which makes me wonder if its trying to pull amps that are not there. Power and ground are good, checked that. They are CDT Audio two ways all around. My only ideas is that its the battery or can me having one speaker wire rolled and it do the same thing? Ideas? The book it came with said I may have wiring rolled or the amp is bad which I hope is not the case.

There are many reasons for an amp going into protection.  These include: defective woofers, woofer impedance too low for the amp to handle, defective speaker wiring, amplifier gain is too high, amplifier bass boost or EQ is too high, vehicle system voltage dropping too low, bad ground connection, defective amp.  What impedance is loading the amp, how did you set the gain, and do you have a volt meter?Support the12volt.com

All speakers are 4 Ohms and I tested each one. No bass boost on and I have the gains set at the half way point on the amp. All speakers are brand new as well with the amp. Never been hooked up. Have a volt meter and know how to use it. Besides testing for the Ohm load across the speakers and the voltage at the amp what can I test?

Will have to check the ground. Im pretty good about setting gains and I doubt that is the problem. I will update this thread when I find out more. thanks.