Amps upside down w/forced cooling?

I've always heard that amps are designed where the heat rises into the heat sinks, so mounting upside-down is a bad idea...but what if the amps are mounted in a sealed enclosure (except for the ends) and have fans pumping air over them? I'm needing to mount two amps under the rear deck of my car, and upside-down mounting would be a great way to do it...but only if it's feasible.

Also, does anybody know any good places to get information on building amp racks? There's tons of information out there on subwoofer enclosures, but good functional amp racks seem to be a mystery science.

You can mount amps rightside-up in that location. Build a mount that is attached to that deck. Attach the amps to the platform on the mount. You can use a piece of plywood and long bolts to make the mounting platform. Fan-cooling an upside-down amp will not likely solve the heat problems.

Amp racks are "designer's choice". Use your imagination. In my personal car I have amps mounted onto plastic-coated wire shelving which are then mounted to a carpet-covered piece of vertical plywood. The shelving is held in place by angled braces called "shoe brackets" (or something like that), all found at Lowes in the closet department.




-------------
Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

Hows that Cerwin Vega sub sound Steve??

aznboi3644:

You know, we always talk about how important the setup details are in a car system...damping, crossovers, enclosure design / strength, locations of speakers, and all that.  I put more in time spent to get everything to sound its best rather than money spent on equipment.  For a lower mid-grade system, this sounds very good.  $50 sub driver, less than 200 watts, gives me more sub bass than I need.

Of course, I'm getting on in years a bit now.  Not trying to attract attention at red lights...

-------------
Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

I like that "floating amp" kinda setup...its "neat"

Hell my dad doesn't like my kinda bass setup but I let him listen to some of his music in my truck and now he wants a sub and new speakers

I designed that so that the wire shelving takes the energy and dissipates it before it goes into the amps.  It works good.  You can hardly feel a thing when you put your fingertips against those amps, system cranked.

Hook your Dad, that's good.  Soon Mom will be rolling her eyes when he starts gathering up stuff for his "install".  My wife rolls her eyes like a madwoman whenever I start hinting at needing an upgrade in anything audio...but on the other hand she's the first one to crank up the sound to show off for people.

-------------
Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

That sounds like my girlfriend. She flipped out when I said I was thinking about going with two amps instead of one. She was like "You can have two amps?" She thought you only used an amp to have a sub... But in her car, she blew a 10" Kicker L5. (I don't think she understands that clipping is bad) As soon as she hears my all Diamond system with dual amps, she's going to want one for herself.

Steve so you basically added on a "cooling" system for the amps??? That is a good idea...may have to try that out

No, not cooling.  Damping.  The amplifiers still get as warm as they usually would, but without the vibrations (energy) transferred into them from the car body I feel more comfortable with long life out of these amps with their (I assume to be) delicate circuits.

BTW, the class D mono amp never gets warm, but the same manufacturer's class A/B stereo amp gets almost hot.  Shows the difference in the two types' efficiency.  USacoustics...I think they may be a thing of the past.  I never see them anymore.

The popular way of making amp racks, in that the amp is recessed into a plywood or MDF panel in order to hide wiring, seems to me to be a bad way to mount them.  Yes, they look good that way, that is true.  But heat transfer is lessened because of the recessed, tight-fit mounting, and nothing is done about minimizing energy transfer from the car's body.  The vibrations may not be as much of an issue as I imagine, but there definitely has to be airflow under the amplifier to allow for heat escape out the top.

-------------
Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.