Amp not putting out anywhere near as much power as it should? O/S Kicker 500ss

[Suicide Bobb 5,000+ posts]

My buddy got a Stillwater Designs/Kicker 500ss amp and two 10" type r's in a box for $250, solely for the amp. The amp is so sick...something I don't say often about Kicker. It has a beefy power supply, I'll post pictures later. The rest of the interior of the amp is beautiful as well, just like the exterior. It has three 40amp fuses, so I know that it should be able to deal at least 1300wrms. Keep in mind, it was only rated at 850wrms@4ohms bridged! What an awesome amp.

...or it would be, if it would do over 800wrms //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif Now I know my power supply is terrible to say the least (dying alternator, single battery, 4ga power and ground), but it should be making my RE hit waaaay harder than it is. My power wire has a 60amp fuse, which I know can handle more than 800wrms, but should blow with over 1000.

Before, I had the RE (D2) running to the sub channel of a Memphis Baby Belle @ 1 ohms, which sent it 400wrms. This, by the way, was when I was running 8ga power wire //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif I then switched amps to the Kicker, still at 1 ohm, and bridged it. This was before I found out what the amp was stable at as far as resistance goes. It hit harder than when it was hooked up to the Memphis, but only by maybe 3db or so. When I found out it put out it's full power at 4ohms bridged, I figured it may have cut the power at lower resistances to save the amp or something like that. But, after I wired the sub in series...it barely hit at all //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif Sounds like maybe 100-200wrms.

Something is wrong with this situation. If anyone knows the old Kicker amps, you should know about the crossover module thingy. All I know for sure is that one switch has an H and L marking, so I would assume that the L at least stands for low, but I'm probably wrong. I tried flicking the other switch into each of it's 3 positions, but it didn't do anything different, nor did moving the rca's to the other input (it has two? idk...they both don't alter the sound of the sub so I don't think one is an output). I didn't move the H/L switch, because I figured it would make it high-pass or something, but now I'm wondering if I should go find that out now...

Also...when running @ 4ohms, I can only turn the gain up maybe a 1/4 of the way without it distorting...The kind of distortion you can see, where the sub moves when it's not hitting the main sub notes.

I feel like a noob right now, and I know that I'm doing something wrong that is probably really obvious. If I'm not, though, I fear the amp might be suffering old age...which is probably impossible, but I wouldn't know.

Someone please help me out here!

Thanks,

-Dylan

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[Suicide Bobb 5,000+ posts]

Nevermind.

 

[Suicide Bobb 5,000+ posts]

I found a manual for the amp finally. Under trouble shooting, one issue listed was "Stereo image is unfocused and bass is reduced". It says to "check system phasing by turning the balance control to the left and right speakers. If bass is more prominent when turned to either side, check speaker wiring for proper positive and negative connections. Reverse connections on one speaker if necessary". I'm going to try this out tomorrow, but I don't really see how this makes any sense...

 

[Suicide Bobb 5,000+ posts]

I figured out the chip. It's the SWX module, explained here - http://blog.acrossnetwork.com/~erublo/archives/070607-04.pdf.

I set the crossover to high-pass and removed the chips, which sets it at a 25hz subsonic filter mode. I'll see how it does tomorrow.

The issue still stands though...why is this amp so weak?

 

[blazeplacid 10+ year member]

fuse rating has nothing to do with amp output. The fuses are there to protect your amp.

Sounds like you have a wiring issue.

i dont know the specs on the amp but it seems to be an older amp

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

fuse rating has nothing to do with amp output. The fuses are there to protect your amp.

This...as I was reading the OP's post, I'm like, wtf? Just because it has 3 40A fuses doesn't mean the amp is going to do more than rated...

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

wouldn't ever do that power with music anyways

 

[Suicide Bobb 5,000+ posts]

It has been known to do over 1200wrms though, all of these old kicker amps did way more than rated. The last birthsheet I saw for this one said it does ~1250wrms@4ohms bridged. And the fuses almost always correlate to the power output, but not always. In this case, it's true.