posted
If I turn up my bass/volume fairly loud, after a little bit the amp will turn off and the protection light will come on, and it will do this quite frequently(every few seconds) after that (initial turn off occurs after 5-10 of play time). Is it that I'm just turning it up too loud for itself to handle?(it's pushing an american pro 12" 1000w dvc @2ohms, and it itself is max 1000w@2ohm) Or is it just not getting enough power from the battery/amp and what should i do about it?
quote:Originally posted by tempest_q3a: If I turn up my bass/volume fairly loud, after a little bit the amp will turn off and the protection light will come on, and it will do this quite frequently(every few seconds) after that (initial turn off occurs after 5-10 of play time). Is it that I'm just turning it up too loud for itself to handle?(it's pushing an american pro 12" 1000w dvc @2ohms, and it itself is max 1000w@2ohm) Or is it just not getting enough power from the battery/amp and what should i do about it?
Most amplifiers have thermal protection built into them. They will shut off if the inside of the heatsink reaches a certain temperature. They do this so the transistors don't reach a critical temperature where they will malfunction (IE blow). Since your amp plays for 5-10 minutes before shutting off the first time, I would say it is just getting too hot, and you aren't letting it cool back down. You could try a fan to circulate air around it. Alot of the time this will lower the heatsink temperatures enough as to keep the amp from shutting down.
PS Low input voltage will cause an amplifier to get hotter( the amp is drawing more current to do the same job), so this could be a contributing factor also. It NEVER hurts to upgrade your power supply. Your best bet for an inexpensive upgrade would be an additional battery, preferably close to the amplifier.
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Ok, thanks, that helps alot, my car has no a/c and the amp is all the way in back so it's an oven back there.. the amp was so hot this morning (didn't even use it yet) i could barely touch the heatsink... and it's about 100deg F outside... I think i will put some fans or something in there, and i was suggested to get another battery by someone else also, thanks again.
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i would like to add a point i myself considered adding a second battery but there are a few things to consider first how good is your altanator adding another batt. is a heaver load on the alt. and secondly if the alt checks out make sure you get the exact same batt as the one under the hood i learned that different batts have different resistances an this could cause the alt to short the batt to go kabooom or other such nasty stuff if you are interested check out carsound.com signal to noise a couple of months ago the did an article about this it is worth reading..................oh yeah try a capacitor or two made ahugh differenc e for a friend of mine ......ok ill shut up now
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