Can Speakers blow an amp??

[Topless Stang 10+ year member]

I have a RF Power 1000 5ch amp. The front channel is driving my component set up front and the coaxials in the rear. FR = front right component & Rear Right Coaxial & the same for the left. The rear channel is driving a pair of Kicker CVT 8" subs in my doors. I just added in a Pioneer 12" Champion sub after blowing my previous Kicker CVX sub. Earlier this week my amp started cutting in and out. I popped my hood and found that the input side of the in-line fuse hlder had melted and the lead coming from the battery was badly charred. Also, the one side of the fuse holder that came from the battery had melted. I quickly disconnected everything and ordered a new fuse holder. I got that in on Thursday. I installed it and tested everything and it sounded great, even better than it had sounded in a while so I'm guessing that wire had been bad for a while.

This brings me to my current problem......I was driving home yesterday when the sound cut out completely and I started to smell burnt wires. I pulled over as soon as possible. I popped the hood and checked the new fuse, it was not damaged. I checked the rear fuse and it was not damaged at all either. However there was smoke seeping out of my box. I pushed the cone in and more smoke came out (the box apparently is not completely sealed). I drove home and disconnected the sub from the amp and pulled the box out. The amp appears to be dead. I didn't bring out the multimeter or anything yet because I was so disgusted that this happened. What I really want to know is this....can a sub blow your amp? Can a box not allow the sub enough room and cause the sub to blow and also fry the amp? I'm limited on space so I have an ABS Thunderform box for the sub. MTX ThunderForm Unloaded Enclosure Holds a single 12" sub — fits 2005-2009 Ford Mustang (Black) at Crutchfield.com Using this box I have blown the current Pioneer, My Kicker CVX (After 18 months), A custom built hybrid from Team PSI (My old RE XXX Motor and his soft parts) and the MTX sub that came with the box. Could my amp have been faulty this whole time? I'm at a loss...I thought the box was the issue and planned to change to an MDF enclosure for two 12s. Any insight would be appreciated....

Click to read more...

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

wait for it

wait for it

.....

 

[Topless Stang 10+ year member]

wait for it


wait for it

.....

Really??

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

all jokes aside...

did you match the resistance(ohms) correctly. what are the voice coil specs of the subwoofers you have run? Is your amplifier stable at that resistance?

 

[WashYourWinky 10+ year member]

Am I reading this right? You have two sets of speakers hooked up the the front channel of the amp?

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

^^ this

 

[Topless Stang 10+ year member]

Yes. I have two sets hooked up. The amp is stable @ 2Ohms on each channel front & rear and the sub channel is stable down to 1 ohm. That's how I had it wired....the two fronts bridged down to a two ohm load on each channel. The amp specs are below:

1400W Total RMS Power, '25 to LIFE' Special Edition Staggered 5-Channel Amplifier

Class bd Subwoofer Channel/Class AB Main Channels

RMS Power Output:

4 ohms: 50W x 4 channels plus 300W x 1 sub channel

2 ohms: 100W x 4 channels plus 600W x 1 sub channel

1 ohm: 150W x 4 channels plus 800W x 1 sub channel

Bridged rating for front/rear channels:

4 ohms: 200 watts x 2 channels

2 ohms: 300 watts x 2 channels

Front Channel = 2 Ohm Stereo

Front Right = Front right component set (4 Ohm) + Rear Right Coaxial (4 Ohm)

Front Left = Front Left Component set (4 Ohm) + Rear Left Component set (4 Ohm)

Rear Channel = 2 OHM Stereo Load

Pair of Kicker 8" SVC CVT speakers (2 Ohms each)

Sub Channel = 1 Ohm Load

Pioneer Champion Pro 2 Ohm DVC sub wired to 1 Ohm

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

normally when you bridge a 2 channel into 1 the ohm spec goes from 2 ohm stable to 4 ohm. or similarly when you bridge 4 channels into 2 channels usually the ohm spec will change to 4 ohms(in most amps but not all)

Not a good idea to bridge the channels and run 2 sets of speaker. why not just use the 4 channels and not bridge them?

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

it sounds like you are running the amp with the total resistance for each channel too low. This would cause your overheating problems and you may have blown the amp at this point

 

[tat2bass 10+ year member]

If you had the front channels bridged and had your front comps and rear speakers hooked up, then you were running 4 single 4 ohm loads which would have put you at 1 ohm if done right, which the amp is not stable to 1 ohm bridged. From the way you described it, that's what it sounds like you did to me.

 

[Topless Stang 10+ year member]

normally when you bridge a 2 channel into 1 the ohm spec goes from 2 ohm stable to 4 ohm. or similarly when you bridge 4 channels into 2 channels usually the ohm spec will change to 4 ohms(in most amps but not all)
Not a good idea to bridge the channels and run 2 sets of speaker. why not just use the 4 channels and not bridge them?

I'm connecting 7 speakers in total, so it wouldn't work if they weren't bridged. The amp spec states it can handle those loads, so it should be ok. I have only had issues with subs blowing. When the kicker blew I ran just the speakers in the car without a sub with no issue. I wonder if I just had a lemon (amp). I bought it from a non authorized dealer like 4 years ago and right after I installed the amp it blew the first sub and the amp had to be repaired. I sent it in to RF for repair and it was working fine since then, except every so often I would blow the sub. I thought either the amp was too much or the box was too small. I never thought the load was too much for the amp since it's within what it's spec'd to handle.

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

its not within the rated specs from the setup you have described

 

[Topless Stang 10+ year member]

If you had the front channels bridged and had your front comps and rear speakers hooked up, then you were running 4 single 4 ohm loads which would have put you at 1 ohm if done right, which the amp is not stable to 1 ohm bridged. From the way you described it, that's what it sounds like you did to me.

The front is not bridged at the amp. It's run in stereo at the amp.

Front Right @ the Amp = Front right components (1 Mid & 1 Tweet @ 4 Ohms) & Rear Right coaxial speaker @ 4 Ohms = 2 Ohms

Front Left @ the Amp = Front Left Components (1 Mid & 1 Tweet @ 4 Ohms) & Rear Left coaxial speaker @ 4 Ohms = 2 Ohms

Rear Right @ the Amp = 1 Kicker SVC 8" sub @ 2ohms

Rear Left @ the Amp = 1 Kicker SVC 8" sub @ 2ohms

its not within the rated specs from the setup you have described

How is it not? Each front and rear channel have a 2 ohm stereo load and the sub is at 1ohm mono.....am I missing something?

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

for example a 2 ohm 1 channel amp is not rated to power two 2 ohm speakers connected to it.

even though each speaker is 2 ohms the total resistance the amp sees will not be 2 ohms

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

you have way too many speakers hooked up to the amp.

Im not sure of the technical happenings here but if you would just run 4 speakers on the 4 channels and a subwoofer on the sub stage I would think you wouldn't have this issue

running different subwoofers is not good either....you can have cancellation effects.

I think you are pushing your amp to do more than it was designed for