Amplifier getting hot

I just hooked my system up, a 1000 watt class D memphis amp to a 10" audiobahn 1000 watt rmx sub usingh 0 gauge wires, but my amp is getting really hot...any ideas what is wrong?

Have you properly set your gains?? Do you have the amplifier in a place where it will get some type of ventilation, if not, do you have a fan installed with it???? What is you ohm load on your amplifier??

This can all be factors in why it is getting hot, give a little more information and maybe it will give a little more narrowing down of your problem.

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I dont know how to properly set my gains...
Its out in the middle of the open in the back of an suv.
I dont think it has a fan
and the amp is 1 ohm stable

the way i set my gain is start about 1/4, turn the radio bass level down to a mid neg. number, turn the volume up to where you will be listening to it at, and slowly turn up the gain til the sub starts distorting then back it off til it doesnt anymore. have u go any form of bass boost turned on?

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96 firechicken- kicker cvr 15's, spl 1600 watt, optima yellow top, 2.0 farad cap, sealed box and 146.8 db :)<---now upto 147.2 S2 meca class, going for 128 on a drive by :)

Do some searches here on gain setting.

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My ex once told me I have a perfect face for radio.

its a factory headunit, gmc with no bose or anything. So i dont got a negative on the bass and it has no bass boost.

the amplifiers not getting hot anymore or anything, but i cant get my subwoofer to sound right. Its distorted at almost any gain setting except 0. It hits clean for a split second but sounds like somthing is rattling inside the box. But its the subwoofer, like somthing is rattling on it. It hits clean for split seconds then it just has a rattling sound. Its like one of the voice coils is bad or somthing. Its a 2 ohm dual voice coil subwoofer. I was thinking about mounting it backwards so i could see if somthing was rattling it. maybe the speaker wires or somthing.

HEres the link to how i got my sub wired and what kind of sub it is.
https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=55310&PN=2

It's an Audiobahn!!!! That's what is wrong with it. Seriously, It sounds like it's gone. One thing I don't understand- how does it play at all with the gain at 0?

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'85 Toy

It doesnt play at all...I was just saying thats the only time it doesnt make that noise. And its a brand new subwoofer, so I doubt that its messed up. It just must have something to do with the way i got it wired or somthin.

You have audiobahn, you probably have a ported box. Turn the subsonic filter on. Are you running speaker level inputs on the amplifier? How are you doing this?

Recheck wiring.

No luck, bite the bullet and take it to a professional.

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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

Sealed box, no subsonic filter on my amp.

and im not sure what speaker level inputs are...you mean the mhz part on it or what not?

Yeah I've re checked the wiring, the only problem i see with the wiring is i got 0 gauge into my amp and it looks like the smallest it takes is around 4 gauge so i had to trim and shove it in there...doesnt look like that would affect it too much, the noise atleast. I'm thinking about taking it to the professionals, but the only one we got in town tryed to charge me 150 bucks to hook up a line converter

dude? audiobahn, not to rag on anyone's stuff, but. ugh.

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96 firechicken- kicker cvr 15's, spl 1600 watt, optima yellow top, 2.0 farad cap, sealed box and 146.8 db :)<---now upto 147.2 S2 meca class, going for 128 on a drive by :)

ksw870:

Even tho you said it wasn't happening anymore I'm kinda interested in how hot your amp was... u just say 'hot'... can you compare it to anything? Was it too hot to leave your hand on it?

Line Level inputs = speaker leads coming from your deck that in a OEM/factory situation would be powering your paper speakers with a solid 6 or 7 watts. Some amps can accept them directly or with a (usually included) adapter. Many need Line Level->RCA converters, which turn your speaker leads to home-entertainment style male RCA's. Who did your install?

I've no experience with Memphis or Audiobahn but my sense of both brands is that 1000 Memphis watts is WAYYYY more power than 1000 Audiobahn watts. I couldn't imagine running a single 10" of a 1000watt Memphis amp at all. The way you are describing the sub, it does sound like one that is gone or going quickly. However, you might very be right about a wire.. when you mouted to sub you may have somehow gotten a speaker-wire wrapped around the sub or sumthin so the spider or the cone slaps against it.. I did that once on a half-azzed componet install... I had the tweeter wire run so it was pressing directly against the cone of the midrange. Real intelligent.


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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

spyder340:

"not to rag on anyone's stuff"

Then don't.

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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

It was just hot, not too hot to touch....but pretty hot. I think it just might have had something to do with the amp running and the sun maybe hitting it, not sure tho.

I have RCA's running from my amp into the back of my OEM deck with a line converter...this one to be exact
https://www.electronixwarehouse.com/car/sgl-prod/accessories/line-converters/pac-sni15.htm
I'm using Stinger RCA's by the way... All my wire is Stinger

I did buy the sub off E-Bay, but when i recieved it, it came with all of its original packaging, a window sticker, and the warrenty paperwork still sealed in plastic. It looks brand new and not a blemish on it. So I dont think the sub is going out. I took it out the box today and looked over everything, but it doesnt look like much is wrong with it. I was also thinking it might have something to do with the box. I had to run the speaker wire to these metal prongs on the back and I black taped them onto it. Then on the back of the box it had where you can connect the speaker wire onto the box and into the amp. Maybe if I could find a way to run the wire direct from the sub to the amp, it might work better.

Hmm.

Okay, if you take ur woofer out again.. this will sound weird.. but shake it. If you hear something moving around about where your magnet is.. your woofer is damaged is going... the VC burns off or whatever when a sub is pushed beyond its thermal limits and the things get a wee-bit lighter and you can hear stuff rattling around inside the speaker. At least.. thats what happens to the subs I've blown.

Your saying you used electrical tape on your speaker terminals and ran them to a speaker post built into your (pre-fab?) box? That all sounds just right ... definately not the source of your problem.   Really not to sure here what to tell you except that your sub really does sound like the weakest link in that stereo.. From the way you've described it, you've eliminated the wiring and the input so about the only thing left is the sub.

You said it yourself "It sounds like somthing is rattling on it" I've damaged quite a few subs in my day and that's *exactly* how I would describe them. Usually the rattling from the speaker just gets worse and the speaker gets quieter until it just stops playing.

The amp is *not* to hot to touch? Yea that sounds like normal operation to me.. amps can get quite warm.. even class-d monoblocks. My e6450 is an A/B amp and it gets so hot during extended operation that you can touch it..but not hold your hand there for long... So many amp makers are putting amps into really nice aluminum and metal cases too... those conduct wayy more heat than a comparable plastic-encased amp of the mid-90's or so.

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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

but damn, I just hooked the amp up saturday, and I havnt really even had time to play it enough to blow it. that is why i came here. I figured I installed it wrong or something. I really didnt hear anything when i took it out the box last, but i will try tomorrow. I'll give an update if I come up with anything new. Like i said, I might mount it backwards and see if i can see anything wrong with it....will it hurt anything if i mount it backwards in a sealed box?

This was just a budget system I bought to get me by, but i guess it wasnt that great...I want to get some JL Audio stuff, but damn, its expensive. I see that you got a 13w6, whats the RMS on that? I looked at some 13W7 and I liked the RMS on them, but if the w6 has good rms I wouldnt mind having one of them

Yea man, I'm not saying your speaker is damaged, just that the sound you describe sounds like how I would describe woofers that are on the brink of blowing. Then again this medium is *horrid* for this sort of diagnosis.

Not a fan of the 13W6..not at all. Honestly, I'm not really a fan of any of the JL woofers... I've used the entire line excluding the W7 and I'm just not really that impressed. For some reason I just think they sound unnatural. I can't quite explain it. The W6 I have now would be okay.. I mean it sounds great.. it just isn't all that loud.. and I'm drastically overrunning the thing. I think perhaps I didn't have the best ideas in my head about cone area/enclosures/efficency.. that sort of thing. Before the 13W6 I hate a pair of Infinity Perfect 12's... now those woofers are *amazing* ... I describe the 13W6 to my friends as "the overpriced behemoth." In all honestly, I think it would be okay if it just had a buddy.

I hate to admit it, especially here, but i'm kinda an SPL freak. I started out with the system below just buying some new coaxials to replace the factory rears... the surrounds had rotted out.. I caught the car-stereo bug like I was 17 again. Two-years, some $5000, one break-in later, I still can't get enough. The only thing I'm really happy with is my amps.

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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

well after some testing, i couldnt find anything wrong with the sub.

but after some research i found this
https://www.audiobahn.com/tech/2002/Box%20specs/Audiobahn2002boxspecs.pdf
which leads me to believe that it is my box

Let's not forget that nearly EVERY amp gets hot. I don't care what you have. Audiobahn or Arc. Amps release heat, it's going to happen regardless. There are a few amps out there that seem to run fairly cool, but for the most part it's gunna get warm at the least.

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Dave

Pioneer Premier DEH-P660
15" Kicker CVR
Profile AP1000M
It's Loud

so i went to the pros....they told me i had to much power going to the sub. He said I need to get about a 500 watt amp