amp dropping below 1 ohm and overheating?

I bought a factory refurbished Kenwood Kac-X1R amp a week ago. I hooked it up and tested my load with a ohm meter and it read out 1 ohm with four, four ohm, subs. Right away it wasnt playing so hot. It overheated fast and not too long later the fuses blew. So far I've went through seven fuses which separately blew. I've had the subs wired into 1, 2, and 4 ohms, each time it blows. Sad thing is that my old doodiety amp plays just two of the subs harder than the kenwood at less than 300 watts rms. I called a local kenwood dealer and they told me the amp may just be stable at one ohm at low loads. My problem is that I cant tell if the amp is just defect, or if the amp is really just stable at one ohm at low loads? Because I don't want to exchange this one for another amp that isnt going to work like I want it. Anybody have any knowledge with this?

https://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entertainment/eXcelon/Amplifiers/KAC-X1R

The amp supports 4,2,1 ohm loads, so it shouldn't be that, good luck troubleshooting the rest. seems its refurbished, may just be defective?

Yeah thats what I was hoping. It just sortof mentions that its stable at one ohm as a side note at the bottom so I'm wondering if theyre like oh we'll say it can play at one ohm and just not focus on it or something. Ik kenwood isnt famous for making efficient non-overheating amps. If the next one I get is defect I'll have spent one and a half months waiting for this thing. Does anybody have experience with issues like this?

Aphix] wrote:

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So far I've went through seven fuses which separately blew. I've had the subs wired into 1, 2, and 4 ohms, each time it blows.

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If they are still blowing at 4ohm then something is wrong with your amp....

If I read correctly...

A few questions.

What size power and ground wire do you have?

Have you measured the resistance on the ground wire?

How much current can your vehicle support? Are you overloading your alternator and causing large voltage drops?

How is your gain set?



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2009 0-1000 Trunk WR 154.0DB 2009 1001+ Trunk WR
2007 USACI World Champion
2007 World Record
2006 USACI Finals 2nd Place

I'm running four guage power and ground, which is the largest size the amp clips can take. Ik that ideally 0 gauge would be best but it wouldnt fit and its wat I have on hand already. I could check the resistance tmrw but its a direct bolt into the sheet metal in the trunk. I can see the interior lights dimming if I watch CLOSELY and the voltage would drop .5 volts at most according to the readout on the amp. And my gain was set pretty conservatively since anything over a small humm from the subs popped fuses.

how is your amp grounded??

what is the voltage at the amp terminals??

The amp is grounded directly to the metal in the trunk area. It will have a fairly steady 14v current.

Sounds to me like the amps toast.

So you guys think its just a bad amp and that if I had a working one it would run 1 ohm fine?

It may run one ohm fine but probably not for very long, better to run it at 2 ohms or better. Thats alot of stress on a budget amp.

Yeah. I was thinking I may just exchange it for two mono amps that can run at 2 ohms instead of one at one ohm. Thanks for the help guys.