Help Me Confirm My Amp Is Junk

[dangercro]

Hey all,

So I bought a budget set up last year; okay quality alpine speakers and compact sub, and a rockville 1200 watt RMS 4 channel amp. The amp cost 140 shipped, I know it's garbage.

Here's what's going on:

The system was actually pounding for the better part of a year, then one day the amp started clipping/buzzing/going into protection mode. It happened a few times at high volume, so I turned everything down and ran it easy. Then it started happening at low volumes, then lower, then more often etc. Now I literally can't put any juice through it at all.

FYI - When I turn it up even a little I start to see the status light dimming, and it quickly dims to the point that the amp cuts out, at which point it goes out.

What I've done:

I have checked all my wires, polished my grounds (grounded to the frame with 2ft 4 gauge), re-wired head unit, checked voltage on power (4 gauge) and control wire - both 14.2 ish, and tightened up the fuse and applied dielectric grease.

Would you say it's the amp, or is there anything else I should be checking? I just want to make sure it's the amp before I go out to buy a new one.

Any help is appreciated!

Cheers!

Click to read more...

 

[Boomin_tahoe 5,000+ posts]

Rockville isn't junk.

Have you done the big 3 at all? Sounds like it needs to be done. Something going on within your electrical causing that amp to shut off.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Hey all,
So I bought a budget set up last year; okay quality alpine speakers and compact sub, and a rockville 1200 watt RMS 4 channel amp. The amp cost 140 shipped, I know it's garbage.

Here's what's going on:

The system was actually pounding for the better part of a year, then one day the amp started clipping/buzzing/going into protection mode. It happened a few times at high volume, so I turned everything down and ran it easy. Then it started happening at low volumes, then lower, then more often etc. Now I literally can't put any juice through it at all.

FYI - When I turn it up even a little I start to see the status light dimming, and it quickly dims to the point that the amp cuts out, at which point it goes out.

What I've done:

I have checked all my wires, polished my grounds (grounded to the frame with 2ft 4 gauge), re-wired head unit, checked voltage on power (4 gauge) and control wire - both 14.2 ish, and tightened up the fuse and applied dielectric grease.

Would you say it's the amp, or is there anything else I should be checking? I just want to make sure it's the amp before I go out to buy a new one.

Any help is appreciated!

Cheers!

might also be a loose speaker wire, speaker wire short circuit or a failing RCA cable or failing rca outputs on the head unit.

To narrow it down to the wire or amp, you need to have direct speaker connected with a different short run of wire that you can hook directly to the amp to make sure there's nothing wrong in the wire line. Then you'll want to use an Aux to RCA Y splitter cable and play music with your phone directly to the amp. If the proper persist then its for sure the amp, if the problem goes away then its one of the other issue.

 

[dangercro]

No I haven't, but I haven't had any symptoms before, and I feel like if there was an issue with power supply it would have been evident off the bat... And not got progressively and linearly worse. To me, that says that there is a slowly deteriorating component somewhere. Or am I way off?

 

[dangercro]

What do you mean by direct speaker? I get that I should use a different speaker with different wire, would a stock speaker I replaced be good enough for this?

 

[Boomin_tahoe 5,000+ posts]

Adding anything to the electrical puts a strain on it if it isn't dealt with 1st....because in the longrun, you will be experiencing issues. Just as you are now.

Your cars electrical and it's wires are only good enough to hold/sustain voltage throughout it's daily useage.....heating, a/c controls, radio, etc. When someone puts in an amp, that electrical is gonna start losing current, thus causing dim lighting.

 

[Hertz Mafia]

U need a volt meter. Sounds like your battery is junk and low voltage causing amp to protect. If it was done for a year and now gettin weaker and weaker I'd look at the battery. Need to check voltage when u turn it up

 

[dangercro]

Just to be clear, the dimming light I am talking about is the status light on the amp, not my interior or head lights. I suppose regardless of whether it's the problem, I should upgrade my wiring.

 

[Hertz Mafia]

Just to be clear, the dimming light I am talking about is the status light on the amp, not my interior or head lights. I suppose regardless of whether it's the problem, I should upgrade my wiring.

Ohhhh. See if one of your buddy's has an extra ampnu can throw in and try and see if the problem still occurs

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

I bought that amp not expecting **** from it and actually bought another and ran 2 on my mids for quite some time. They get stupid hot and would thermal protect in my truck with no air flow in Florida summer but I beat the **** out of them and they kept ticking so problem.

 

[kr15 5,000+ posts]

Rockville is surprisingly decent despite price and a name that sounds like a flea market company