Amp myth question

[accuab 10+ year member]

Some people say if you don't use a channel on an amp that it can be bad for the amp. Is this true at all or just a myth?

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[mast240 10+ year member]

myth

 

[accuab 10+ year member]

That's what I figured. I'm not sure where it began but I have heard it a lot over the years.

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

Dont know who came up with that... but if your not using a channel, all you'll have on it is potential... no actual flow, so there's no real current to do any damage

 

[accuab 10+ year member]

Dont know who came up with that... but if your not using a channel, all you'll have on it is potential... no actual flow, so there's no real current to do any damage

I know some electronics don't like not having a load on them. The internals keep trying to make power but have no where to put it.

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

not having a load, and not having flow are two seperate things tho... having only potential, with no flow at all is seperate all together.

 

[stevew007 10+ year member]

hifonics Goliath had a problem when you would gain match amps with no load they would go up in smoke.

happened to a friend of mine with a z1 he took out the sub and still had the amp remote hooked up so one day hes driving along and the amp went up in smoke.

so i say its a fact that with no load being on the amp (load being a speaker) they can go up in smoke.how many of them will do it I have no idea but i do know of 2.

how about the fact that the first sundown 1500's would burn up the slave amp if you used a certain brand RCA ?? true it happened to many people including my self

 

[sacsking916 5,000+ posts]

hifonics Goliath had a problem when you would gain match amps with no load they would go up in smoke.happened to a friend of mine with a z1 he took out the sub and still had the amp remote hooked up so one day hes driving along and the amp went up in smoke.

so i say its a fact that with no load being on the amp (load being a speaker) they can go up in smoke.how many of them will do it I have no idea but i do know of 2.

how about the fact that the first sundown 1500's would burn up the slave amp if you used a certain brand RCA ?? true it happened to many people including my self

he actually made a thread about that on another forum about the FAQ. that just so happened to be one of them. yeah he was saying certain brand RCAs wouldnt work with the slave amp cause something how the terminal was or something.

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

setting your gains without a load can run into serious problems... but i've never seen an amp fry from just not having anything hooked up to it. all the cases that i've seen where that was what the person thought it was, it ended up being caused by something else

 

[svtcontour 10+ year member]

I have a class A amp at home and it run pretty **** HOT at idle and I think I read somewhere that actually playing the stereo loud will make the thing actually cooler because instead of dissipating the unused energy through the heatsinks, it will go to the speakers. It kind of makes sense if class A is basically running all out all the time even with no signal. This could all be a theory and unfounded of course. Someone probably just made it up //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

I have a class A amp at home and it run pretty **** HOT at idle and I think I read somewhere that actually playing the stereo loud will make the thing actually cooler because instead of dissipating the unused energy through the heatsinks, it will go to the speakers. It kind of makes sense if class A is basically running all out all the time even with no signal. This could all be a theory and unfounded of course. Someone probably just made it up //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Nope, but it won't hurt it just sitting there, either //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

This isn't a myth at all for tube-based amps - the output transformers need to see a load or you'll be replacing them because of shorted windings.

 

[CAT MAN 5,000+ posts]

myth. but in some cases may be true with internally strapped amps...who knows.

 

[rjay 10+ year member]

I'm running an Eclipse XA5000 5 channel amp and am only using the sub and front channels, not the rear and haven't had any problems.

 

[dragonrage 10+ year member]

True for some amps. False for most.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

Here is another related question. If some channels are unused, does RMS wattage of the plugged channels go up?