Amplifier goes into protect...

[Plutoman 10+ year member]

Well, here's my setup.

Hifonics TXI4406 4 channel amplifier bridged to two channels powering two Kenwood 6982IE 6x9 speakers, which each have 4 ohm voice coils and 90 RMS rating.

6g wire from battery to amplifier, 14g remote turn on, 14g wire to speakers. Ran out of 6g, so I have 2x12g wires for ground that run about 2 feet to a sanded down section, and they're tied down to it with the bare copper.

Now, my problem - the amplifier goes into protect when the volume is turned up for more than a minute. And after it goes into protect once, it goes into protect faster each time. It usually happens when the bass is turned up. Most of the time, it's when a big bass hit is hitting that it cuts off.

I haven't set the gains at all, but I've kept it down (I'm assuming the levels are the gains on the amplifier, it says levels and gives .2v to 6v, but I wasn't sure). I've kept the low pass crossover frequency around 60hz, and the high around 120, apparently, as that's what the knobs say. It wasn't very descriptive. Sometimes, I have to change the X-over and turn off the bass frequencies to have the amp turn back on, and other times I don't.

Help is appreciated. I was brainstorming for ideas, and I came up with either of these - the amplifier is getting too hot, as it gets quite warm, and shuts itself off, or the ground is bad. And the ground being bad, afaik, could make the amp run hotter than normal. But, I'm not sure.

And I know the wiring setup is bad - this is a temporary setup. But it'd be great to know the reasons for it shutting off.

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[SPL Blazer 10+ year member]

Ok, do you have subs hooked up to this amp, or are you having these problems with just the 6x9's? And where did you find 6ga wire? I've never heard of that size, it should either be 4 ga or 8 ga.

Setting your gains depend on the voltage of the headunit's RCA outputs. The higher the voltage the lower you want your gains set. Low pass filters are normally set a little higher, like 80-120Hz. You want the lows to play where the highs cut off.

If your only using two channels then Bridging that amp will push 220 watts per channel into your speakers that you say are rated at 90 watts.

You say that the wiring is temp, but this could be one of the reasons for the problems.

 

[05fronty 5,000+ posts]

Ok, do you have subs hooked up to this amp, or are you having these problems with just the 6x9's? And where did you find 6ga wire? I've never heard of that size, it should either be 4 ga or 8 ga.
Setting your gains depend on the voltage of the headunit's RCA outputs. The higher the voltage the lower you want your gains set. Low pass filters are normally set a little higher, like 80-120Hz. You want the lows to play where the highs cut off.

If your only using two channels then Bridging that amp will push 220 watts per channel into your speakers that you say are rated at 90 watts.

You say that the wiring is temp, but this could be one of the reasons for the problems.

i had 6 guage back in the early 90's. don't know if they still have it now

 

[Plutoman 10+ year member]

Ok, do you have subs hooked up to this amp, or are you having these problems with just the 6x9's? And where did you find 6ga wire? I've never heard of that size, it should either be 4 ga or 8 ga.
Setting your gains depend on the voltage of the headunit's RCA outputs. The higher the voltage the lower you want your gains set. Low pass filters are normally set a little higher, like 80-120Hz. You want the lows to play where the highs cut off.

If your only using two channels then Bridging that amp will push 220 watts per channel into your speakers that you say are rated at 90 watts.

You say that the wiring is temp, but this could be one of the reasons for the problems.

Ok, to clarify a bit - I have no subs. Getting rid of my sub amp, and going with a clean setup of 4 6.5" speakers in my front, and the two 6x9's in the back. 6.5" speakers aren't installed yet, but each is 2 ohm, I'm wiring two on each side in series, and then in parallel to the 4 ohm 6x9 in the back to even out powers on two channels. 'Twas the only way to get an even distribution of power, as the amp isn't stable at 1 ohm if I was to wire it to 4 channels and do the front sets in parallel, and they wouldn't get enough in series.

6 ga wire came from Home Depot. I did the math, and I wouldn't pull enough to warrant the 4 ga wire, and it was half the price. ^^ That's not the problem, I am sure of that.

I don't actually have a gain setting on the amp - but the levels would make sense - the pre-outs are 2v, so I should set it there. And the amp goes into protect pushing much less than 220 watts per speaker, it does it when its going at lower volumes too (relatively - it's still fairly high, about as high as it goes on head unit power without distortion). I'll try playing with those settings and changing that. I'm going to go grab the few extra feet of wire, too, and set up a correct ground - I wondered if it went into protect during the slight bumps, when it pulled more than the 12 ga was able to effectively handle.

 

[Horsemanwill 10+ year member]

6 ga wire is still around scosche likes using 5 ga it might be the amp don't liek the way you have it wired

 

[SPL Blazer 10+ year member]

Ok, to clarify a bit - I have no subs. Getting rid of my sub amp, and going with a clean setup of 4 6.5" speakers in my front, and the two 6x9's in the back. 6.5" speakers aren't installed yet, but each is 2 ohm, I'm wiring two on each side in series, and then in parallel to the 4 ohm 6x9 in the back to even out powers on two channels. 'Twas the only way to get an even distribution of power, as the amp isn't stable at 1 ohm if I was to wire it to 4 channels and do the front sets in parallel, and they wouldn't get enough in series.
6 ga wire came from Home Depot. I did the math, and I wouldn't pull enough to warrant the 4 ga wire, and it was half the price. ^^ That's not the problem, I am sure of that.

I don't actually have a gain setting on the amp - but the levels would make sense - the pre-outs are 2v, so I should set it there. And the amp goes into protect pushing much less than 220 watts per speaker, it does it when its going at lower volumes too (relatively - it's still fairly high, about as high as it goes on head unit power without distortion). I'll try playing with those settings and changing that. I'm going to go grab the few extra feet of wire, too, and set up a correct ground - I wondered if it went into protect during the slight bumps, when it pulled more than the 12 ga was able to effectively handle.

So your only running a pair of 6x9's right now, thats 220 watts to each one. I've never seen a pair of 2 ohm 6.5"s before, not saying they don't exist, just never seen them. When you wire them up later on you shouldn't be wiring the 2 ohm speakers and the 4 ohm speakers on the same channel. Take advantage of the 4 channels and do it right. Keep the 2 ohm speakers running off the front channels and the 6x9's running off the rear channels on the amp. The 2 ohm speakers have a lower resistance and they are going to use a lot more power than the 4 ohm 6x9's, it's not going to "even" the power like you think.

The levels that you mentioned that say 2v, those are the gains. Every amp has a gain setting. And it sounds like you need to turn them down too, you shouldn't hear any distortion when you crank it up, unless your gains are set too high.

Doing the math on wire like that doesn't matter, you use a bigger gauge wire for less resistance and an easier flow of power to the amp.

Your problems look like a combination of bad ground wires and improper gain settings.

 

[Here2Learn 10+ year member]

Well, here's my setup.
Hifonics TXI4406 4 channel amplifier bridged to two channels powering two Kenwood 6982IE 6x9 speakers, which each have 4 ohm voice coils and 90 RMS rating.

6g wire from battery to amplifier, 14g remote turn on, 14g wire to speakers. Ran out of 6g, so I have 2x12g wires for ground that run about 2 feet to a sanded down section, and they're tied down to it with the bare copper.

Now, my problem - the amplifier goes into protect when the volume is turned up for more than a minute. And after it goes into protect once, it goes into protect faster each time. It usually happens when the bass is turned up. Most of the time, it's when a big bass hit is hitting that it cuts off.

I haven't set the gains at all, but I've kept it down (I'm assuming the levels are the gains on the amplifier, it says levels and gives .2v to 6v, but I wasn't sure). I've kept the low pass crossover frequency around 60hz, and the high around 120, apparently, as that's what the knobs say. It wasn't very descriptive. Sometimes, I have to change the X-over and turn off the bass frequencies to have the amp turn back on, and other times I don't.

Help is appreciated. I was brainstorming for ideas, and I came up with either of these - the amplifier is getting too hot, as it gets quite warm, and shuts itself off, or the ground is bad. And the ground being bad, afaik, could make the amp run hotter than normal. But, I'm not sure.

And I know the wiring setup is bad - this is a temporary setup. But it'd be great to know the reasons for it shutting off.

your ground is TIED DOWN WTF? thats your problem right there. bolt that **** down man!

 

[phantom240 5,000+ posts]

Fail-o-matic.

6x9's aren't really for "bass"

 

[SPL Blazer 10+ year member]

your ground is TIED DOWN WTF? thats your problem right there. bolt that **** down man!

lol, I'm glad someone else was reading that, I missed that important detail.

 

[Plutoman 10+ year member]

So your only running a pair of 6x9's right now, thats 220 watts to each one. I've never seen a pair of 2 ohm 6.5"s before, not saying they don't exist, just never seen them. When you wire them up later on you shouldn't be wiring the 2 ohm speakers and the 4 ohm speakers on the same channel. Take advantage of the 4 channels and do it right. Keep the 2 ohm speakers running off the front channels and the 6x9's running off the rear channels on the amp. The 2 ohm speakers have a lower resistance and they are going to use a lot more power than the 4 ohm 6x9's, it's not going to "even" the power like you think.
The levels that you mentioned that say 2v, those are the gains. Every amp has a gain setting. And it sounds like you need to turn them down too, you shouldn't hear any distortion when you crank it up, unless your gains are set too high.

Doing the math on wire like that doesn't matter, you use a bigger gauge wire for less resistance and an easier flow of power to the amp.

Your problems look like a combination of bad ground wires and improper gain settings.

Ok, to address a few things - running it on 4 channels, and running the front sets of speakers is going to mean I have the equivalent of a 4 ohm speaker that wants 120 wrms, when I only put through 55 to it. Not to mention the rear ones will be a bit starved for power. I'm trying to get the most volume wise out of this here - as I'm not one to care for fading all that much. Doesn't bother me. If I bridge it, and wire it down to the two ohms, I'll have speakers wanting 210 wrms and getting a bit more than that.

As in - wire front two in series - to 4 ohms. Parallel with the back 4 ohm speaker down to a 2 ohm load. On the two sides of the car.

And, I don't have any distortion - I was meaning the amp cuts out in the same relative volume level of when I was running them off the head unit at max undistorted volume - sorry for poor wording -.- I kept the levels around the 2v mark, and it ranges from .2v to 6v. I know how to set the gains (theoretically - I did read on how to do it), but I didn't know that was a gain knob. My zx750.1 I'm dumping off had a knob that actually said gain -.-

Also, I did the math with resistance. I didn't pull enough to warrant the bigger wire regardless - but my ground does quite ****.

Anyways, consensus seems that its my ground wires here. My problem was that I had no extra wire, and I wanted to get this working. I'm picking up some more wire today, and I have the ring terminals and bolt marked. Will this fix the problem of the amp shutting off into protect?

Btw: 6x9's aren't for bass - but I do like the hear the drum kicks, and I don't get much of those when the amp shuts off as soon as they hit.

 

[phantom240 5,000+ posts]

Ok, to address a few things - running it on 4 channels, and running the front sets of speakers is going to mean I have the equivalent of a 4 ohm speaker that wants 120 wrms, when I only put through 55 to it. Not to mention the rear ones will be a bit starved for power. I'm trying to get the most volume wise out of this here - as I'm not one to care for fading all that much. Doesn't bother me. If I bridge it, and wire it down to the two ohms, I'll have speakers wanting 210 wrms and getting a bit more than that.
As in - wire front two in series - to 4 ohms. Parallel with the back 4 ohm speaker down to a 2 ohm load. On the two sides of the car.

And, I don't have any distortion - I was meaning the amp cuts out in the same relative volume level of when I was running them off the head unit at max undistorted volume - sorry for poor wording -.- I kept the levels around the 2v mark, and it ranges from .2v to 6v. I know how to set the gains (theoretically - I did read on how to do it), but I didn't know that was a gain knob. My zx750.1 I'm dumping off had a knob that actually said gain -.-

Also, I did the math with resistance. I didn't pull enough to warrant the bigger wire regardless - but my ground does quite ****.

Anyways, consensus seems that its my ground wires here. My problem was that I had no extra wire, and I wanted to get this working. I'm picking up some more wire today, and I have the ring terminals and bolt marked. Will this fix the problem of the amp shutting off into protect?

Btw: 6x9's aren't for bass - but I do like the hear the drum kicks, and I don't get much of those when the amp shuts off as soon as they hit.

Either you have no earthly clue what you're doing, or you just **** at explaining. I'm pretty sure its a combination of the two.

So let me get this straight. You have a 4 channel, and it's running 2 6x9's, correct? Those 6x9's are on their own channels on the amp, which are bridged channels (1+2 on one speaker, 3+4 on the other), correct?

So where are you coming up with 210 RMS and 120 RMS and "wanting" power? Their RMS power rating is how much they can HANDLE, not how much they draw, or "want".

I honestly have no idea what you're talking about if I'm wrong.

I get an assload of drum kick from 6.5's.

 

[SPL Blazer 10+ year member]

Ok, to address a few things - running it on 4 channels, and running the front sets of speakers is going to mean I have the equivalent of a 4 ohm speaker that wants 120 wrms, when I only put through 55 to it. Not to mention the rear ones will be a bit starved for power. I'm trying to get the most volume wise out of this here - as I'm not one to care for fading all that much. Doesn't bother me. If I bridge it, and wire it down to the two ohms, I'll have speakers wanting 210 wrms and getting a bit more than that.
As in - wire front two in series - to 4 ohms. Parallel with the back 4 ohm speaker down to a 2 ohm load. On the two sides of the car.

Wiring two 2 ohm speakers and a 4 ohm speaker to the same load isn't going to work like you think it will, but good luck with it. Same thing goes with wiring subs, you can't wire a dual 2 ohm coil sub and a 4 ohm sub. Any audio company will tell you the same thing. The lower resistance of the 2 ohm coils will draw more power than the 4 ohm coil will, no matter how you wire it the resistance of each coil won't change. Wiring them all to a 2 ohm load will give the amp a 2 ohm load, but the speakers will be using more power than they need, a lot more. You need a different amp.

 

[Plutoman 10+ year member]

Wiring two 2 ohm speakers and a 4 ohm speaker to the same load isn't going to work like you think it will, but good luck with it. Same thing goes with wiring subs, you can't wire a dual 2 ohm coil sub and a 4 ohm sub. Any audio company will tell you the same thing. The lower resistance of the 2 ohm coils will draw more power than the 4 ohm coil will, no matter how you wire it the resistance of each coil won't change. Wiring them all to a 2 ohm load will give the amp a 2 ohm load, but the speakers will be using more power than they need, a lot more. You need a different amp.

Ahh.

I see now. Well, doesn't leave me with any other option than to run it 4 channel then, as that'll give me the best results.

Can't get a different amp really, so I'll live with this ^^

However, the protect mode should be fixed by the proper ground, am I right? Until I have the other 4 speakers installed, I'll just be running it to these two, and it shuts off rather fast at even moderate volumes, which gets quite annoying - have to turn off and on the HU to reset the amp.

 

[SPL Blazer 10+ year member]

That should take care of it.

 

[1rockford1 5,000+ posts]

ground issue.