Amp Dead?

[Excelsius 10+ year member]

I have installed a crappy 4 channel Boss amp to run the Assassin sub. Only two channels of the amp were connected. The installers warned that the amp might break if they connect only two the channels to the sub. Well, I said I don't care because I have to replace the amp anyways.

Now here is the thing: today I noticed that the sub has suddenly decreased it's output by perhaps over 70%. It used to vibrate my car at medium volume level and the sub setting in the almost minimum, but now even at the highest volumes the sub is very weak. I checked to see if the amp is blown, but the light were on. Even the sub is working. If the amp blew, wouldn't the sub stop functioning altogether? How come the power has decreased? I'm perplexed.

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[Raven 10+ year member]

Damaged amps will sometimes drop in output. Why I can only guess. However, regardless of lousy quality using only one channel shouldn't damage the amp in any way.

 

[matrxx dude 5,000+ posts]

boss=junk

 

[Thieroff 10+ year member]

Hmmm

CT

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

boss=junk

agreed. paper weight. i had a head unit from boss that came with a truck i bought. looked like they had pulled ou the good deck and replaced it with a boss. died in 3 weeks. i would assume the amps are of the same build quality.

 

[Raven 10+ year member]

I've seen some amps of the highest quality dead for no reason, and I've seen Legacy amps live through hell, so I'm not going to immediately assume it was a bad amp. You can, you'd probably be right, but I won't.

 

[Excelsius 10+ year member]

Someone suggested that one of the voice coils of the sub might be burnt, but my sub has only one coil:

Voice coil - Single 4 ohm:

http://ascendantaudio.com/assassin8specs.html

That means the sub is functional. That leaves only the amp it seems.

Since I need to replace the amp, please recommend me some (links if possible) based on the sub that I have. I'm looking for a clean sound. I think that this amp should definitely be below $200 b/c it's going to run only the sub. I am not sure about the channels though. I was thinking of getting a mono amp, but in case I choose to get one more sub later, I want to be safe and get a 2 channel amp (I can use that to connect 2 subs if I need to right?) and bridge it for now.

I'm still confused about how an amp can be semi-broken. I'd think that it should either work or not work. Decrease in the output is so weird unless the connections to the amplifying devices in the amp are connected in a parallel manner so that when the devices die, the un-amplified electricity is still able to flow through the amp. If the four channels have all their own separate amplifiers then you might be right about using the remaining channels. I hope I can identify the channels since I have never done a single connection myself.

 

[Excelsius 10+ year member]

OK I just tried. The other two outputs didn't work at all - the sub did not even buzz.