burned out two amps

this is my first post. i would like to know if anybody knows what could have caused this. back in September i bought a new diamond audio d61000.1 mono amp. rated at 1000w rms at one ohms. i had a brand new diamond audio d912d2 wired in parallel to the amp. for electrical. got a 93 civic hb w/ stock alternator and a second yellow top battery apart from the stock one. everything is wired with 2 gauge. after i installed it i went for a ride for about 5 minutes it sounded good. the next day after driving the car for 30 minutes i noticed that smoke was coming from the amp. it was bad!! i opened the amp and found it was very hot. the fuse holder were starting to bend. i think what is the main transformer was black and very hot. the red light did come on after i noticed the smoke but (which i then turned off my system) when i got home five minutes later it was green again(i opened the amp after wards).

month later i bought a used hifonics bx1500d and ran it to the same electrical system and was fine. never gave me problems even at one ohms. it wasn't as loud though. i sold the amp and bought a 160 amp alternator. got rid of the yellow top.

now a week ago. i bought a used mtx thunder series 1000w rms amp. its got a 140 amp fuse rating. i hooked it up to a fi audio ssd 10 at 2 ohms. played it but was never happy as the sound was very distorted. as for the amp settings i kept the input less than a volt. for a preamp i had my eq with the subwoofer level set to max. the sub never really hit hard and i was very disappointed. few days later the second time driving the car i was ten minutes in and the amp started to smoke. i shut off my head unit till i got to my college 20 minutes later. i opened my hatch and found the amp to be hot to the touch. i'm about to loose my mind! i can't figure out what is going on. can any one help? thanks.

It could be that your power wire has rubbed on something and shorted out. Check that first.

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draggindakota wrote:

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It could be that your power wire has rubbed on something and shorted out. Check that first.

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but i have had other setups such as a hifonics 1500d brutus hooked to the same diamond audio d912d2 and currently a 400wrms older mtx amp wired to two tens in a ported box. i didn't have any problems with either one of these setups and i didn't change a thing as far as wires.

Sounds like you are overdriving you amplifiers  (clipping).   Ditch the Eq and run your Rca's from your amp directly to your headunit.  Make sure your gains are set properly.  To find information on how to set your gains check the Hot topics.  Also you might want to try running your next system at a 2 ohm load, there is less stress on your amplifer this way, which translates into less heat, and just overall less problems.  As for the Fi ssd did you use a pre fabed box?,  Or did you model and build your own?  If you used a pre fab box then this is most likely the problem with the output.  When you design and build your own box made for the specifications of the subwoofer you are using, you will yeild better results every time..

I forgot to add in, you say you have upgraded your alt.  Did you also upgrad you big three?  If not this has to be done as well.  (You can also find this is the hot topics section)

did your amps have a good ground screwed tightly to bare metal. a bad ground could be your problem because some amps do better than others under an electrical stress like a bad ground. and the fact that you had a eq/preamp turned all the way up could also be a bad thing and cause clipping. as far as the MTX amp you had that was smoking that could have just been the amp, i had an MTX nearly blow up in a car even though nothing was wrong with any of the wiring and it was also a smaller amp than yours.

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amps ground was tight and yes it was bare metal. okay i took my car to the nearest stereo shop which was a 1 1/2 drive. i took my car and amp set up. they looked at it and couldn't give me an answer as to why it smoked. the dude their said that with the first setup the alternator should have gone first (it was stock). with this mtx-fi audio setup, well he too thought the amp could have been defective.

these are some suggestions that others have given me:
-hook the amp's ground directly to the batteries ground
- toss the eq and go straight from HU
- upgrade the stock battery to a kinetik that can take the abuse
already got the big three so should the above do the trick? im saving up to get another amp. this time im going bigger. im thinking on blowing my money on a sundown saz1500d amp or somehting from audioque. hope it doesn't smoke. also purchasing a fluke meter. i'm not an entire noob this coming setup will be my 15th. just never used a meter because i have never encountered any issues of this caliber. what sort of test should i be running with a meter to ensure that everything is running properly?

you need to check the resistance between your ground pt. and battery, you need to check the voltage when the car is running. There is no need for a direct ground to the battery unless your resistance is very high from your ground point, but even if it is high you can usually find a good ground. I still say take out the eq as it just causes distortion, and causes people to overdrive their amplifiers there is just no need for them anymore as your source unit should be able to do alsmost everything an eq can do. As for the battery it wouldent hurt, but i dont think it is necessary. Also what about the box? is it prefab, or custom built for the driver? And finally what are the specs of the driver you are planning on using for your new amp? Maybe we can give you some suggestions. And what is your budget for this amp?

ragsports wrote:

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you need to check the resistance between your ground pt. and battery, you need to check the voltage when the car is running. There is no need for a direct ground to the battery unless your resistance is very high from your ground point, but even if it is high you can usually find a good ground. I still say take out the eq as it just causes distortion, and causes people to overdrive their amplifiers there is just no need for them anymore as your source unit should be able to do alsmost everything an eq can do. As for the battery it wouldent hurt, but i dont think it is necessary. Also what about the box? is it prefab, or custom built for the driver? And finally what are the specs of the driver you are planning on using for your new amp? Maybe we can give you some suggestions. And what is your budget for this amp?

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thanks for the input! the box is a custom made box. like you said always go custom. its net 2.5cu^ft at 30 htz. for this new amp i have $600 to spend and since the sub is a dual one ohm i gonna run it at two ohms. even if i decide to pick out another ssd 10 im still gonna have to run it at two ohms unless i wire them individually in parallel and then wire them to each other in series to do a one ohm load. im really weary of buying an amp with this budget because i have already burned out the other two so what makes this one any different? its gonna require alot of power from my electrical and i think i just cant deliver that much. currently it has a 160amp alternator which i thought would be enough but its not.

Well lets say your Civic uses 60 amps of that alt for the functions of the car, this leaves you with 100 amps.  100 amps times 14 volts gives you 1400 watts of useable power under perferct conditions.  Now depending on what amp you are going to get, your efficiency can rang from 60 percent to around 90 percent.  So lets say you get a good class D amp that is around 90 percent efficient you will be able to get around 1260 watts out of that 100 amps.  How much power do you want to run to this subwoofer?

ragsports wrote:

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Well lets say your Civic uses 60 amps of that alt for the functions of the car, this leaves you with 100 amps. 100 amps times 14 volts gives you 1400 watts of useable power under perferct conditions. Now depending on what amp you are going to get, your efficiency can rang from 60 percent to around 90 percent. So lets say you get a good class D amp that is around 90 percent efficient you will be able to get around 1260 watts out of that 100 amps. How much power do you want to run to this subwoofer?

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i guess its going to have to be 1000wrms.

Go with the alpine PDX 1.1000 Run it at 2 ohms

Step out of the entry level amplifier situation is the first suggestion I will make. The price leaders in the business are usually also the warranty leaders in the service shops. (same goes for used and abused amps). Definitely deep six the eq. Definitely ensure that you have a good and proper ground. I have a sticky here on the site for this very topic that you need to read. Learn how to set the gain properly as well. Use proper wiring throughout. A high output alternator is going to be highly beneficial. There are other amps out there to consider, add me to msn if you like. forbidden@telus.net

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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.

Sounds like you are overdriving your amps. 2awg wire should be more than sufficient to provide the appropriate amount of current to the amp. It's not shorting out anywhere, otherwise you would have blown the in-line fuse. Check that you have a good ground, ditch the equalizer, and stay away from that flee market crap