Anyone had luck with Pawn Shop amps?

[ladysmanfelpz 10+ year member]

Title.

I got my 5 channel mtx 400 watt for trade of 10" sub and $50. Hooked it up with a buddy as my car was previously wired for an amp. Had a little speaker whine after install but nothing dramatic. had an issue where I blew up my HU and speaker whine was terrible and had to get a new HU. Speaker whine was still there. RCA's down one side, power the other. Monster cables for RCA's. Big 3 installed on car. Still get some popping and a lil alternator whine mostly at startup and I notice its worse when its cold (I live in Montana). Do amps need to warm up to perform properly?

I remember one RCA is pretty bad and you can hear the "fuzz" when moving it around. Could I also have popped something inside the amp when my HU blew even tho none of the 25 amp fuses are blown on the amp? I had it running off 8 ga power wire all the way from the battery, but recently upgraded to 4ga. Taken it to 2 car audio shops and they don't know what the whine is and both thought it was the amp.

Is it worth getting repaired at a shop or just get a new amp? It would be $25 down and more depending on the work needed. I'm guessing repair shops can fix the RCA but can they "beef" up my amp and get it running good, as it tends to get fairly hot?

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[blazeplacid 10+ year member]

easiest way to rule out the amp....

go to radio shack/wal mart/best buy and find a 3.5mm headphone jack to RCA cable. They are usually $10.

hook up an ipod or phone to the 3.5mm and hook up the RCAs to the amp inputs.

if everything sounds good then you know you have a probem somewhere else.

check your grounds. Still have noise? move your ground.

 

[ladysmanfelpz 10+ year member]

So I run the car and hook the ipod up directly to the amp? And my ground is pretty good, but my sub ground is about 24" away, which is too far to create a ground loop right?

 

[matt_bennett05 10+ year member]

Sub. Ground?

 

[ladysmanfelpz 10+ year member]

Yes where I grounded the subwoofer amplifier.

K and blazeplacid I had an rca to aux and just did that on my amp and it was still fuzzy. So does that mean its my amp?

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

check your grounds... it's always in the grounds ....

 

[ladysmanfelpz 10+ year member]

Ground is straight to the chassis. Moved it a couple times. But the amplifier end doesn't have a terminal on it, just smashed wires. Don't know if that makes a difference