New SoundStream amp going into protect

I just got a new SoundStream Rubicon 1.700 this week along with a pair of new JL 10W3v3s. I got everything wired and connected with the subs wired in series at 2 ohms. The first time I powered up the amp, the speakers popped and the amp went into protect immediately. I turned the car off and made sure all connections were solid, as they were. Turned the car back on and the amp goes into protect again. I verified that:

*14.3v power coming into the amp
*13.5v coming from remote wire
*Amp is seeing a 2.1 ohm load from speakers

I turned the car off and disconnected the RCA leads and speaker output wiring. Turn the car back on with just power, remote, and ground leads and it STILL goes into protect. Is this amp defective?

What's your ground look like? Did you make sure nothing is being shorted out?

sounds bad

Yeah unfortunately sounds like a bad amp.

Did you ground to the body and scrape the paint? make sure it wasn't a seat belt bracket or something... Otherwise sounds defective.

First I grounded it to a new location on the car's body. Drilled a new hole and scraped the paint around the area. Now it is grounded to the same point where the battery is grounded (my battery is in the hatch close to the amp). I guess the last thing I'll try is grounding directly to the battery in the slight chance that amp's ground connection still isn't good enough since I have 3 ring terminals stacked in the same grounding location (sub amp, mid amp, battery ground). I have a mid/high amp grounded to the same point I'm trying now and it doesn't have an issue.

Ran the 4 gauge ground wire direct to battery, 18 inches of wire, with no ring terminals or other connectors. The amp still goes into protect as soon as it turns on without RCA or speaker connections. It reads 12.4v across the power and ground terminals with the car off. One thing I noticed is usually the ground wire sparks when I actually connect it to ground.... this isn't happening with this amp.

Make sure you do not have any stray strands of wire shorting out at the amp terminals.

Other than that, my vote is a bad amp.
The pop you herd was most likely the amp sending a DC signal to the speakers....thus kicking in the protection circuit.

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