Help needed resolving issue with Xtant 1001/x amp

[solarys]

Help needed! My JL Audio 13" W7 sub stop working yesterday, after hitting a pothole. Before that, it was intermittently working. What I mean is, the sub would fade in and out of a song(Candy Shop/50cent). The sub is powered by an old (11yrs) Xtant 1001/x amp.

I had the amp checked out at a local mobile shop. The tech could only say that the amp was getting power and ground was good. He did notice that a yellow light came on for a nano second at times, so he deemed the amp to be dead. Is there a way to confirm, before I shell out another 1000 bucks. Don't get me wrong, I got atleast 11yrs out of the amp. I just don't want to replace something that is not broken.

Ok say the amp is done. Is the JL Audio 1000/1v2 a good amp to replace it with? ANY/ALL suggestions are welcomed. Thanks in advance

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[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Last thing I would try is to take the amp out,take it to the car battery,and wire together the poss, andthe remote together,and then ground out the amp to the - conn,and touch the poss,and it should light up,as long as the fuse is good in the amp??If not.. then I would open the amp up to see whats going on,May be a simple solder joint/ connection that just needs be solderd back together.Some times you may find that a resistor/cap/ect? may be burnt out,and can possibly bought at Radio Shack,or a computer repair place for almost nothing,and save you some money on a new amp???IMO that Xtant amp is something Id keep forever.GREAT AMP!!Worth repairing!!!

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

A sub fading in and out leads me to believe it's not an amp problem but some RCA's that wiggled loose or are now corroded. Amps either work or they don't. But you said you're getting an idiot light, so it's probably not the RCAs.

There's a few LEDs; yellow, orange, red, green. Red means the amp is on. Green is the noise gate. Yellow & Orange are protect modes; thermal & low impedance. I forgot which is which.

What I'd look at 1st is the terminal cup going into the sub box. It could be melted & causing a short when it gets warm causing the low impedance problem. If your amp is going into thermal protect; when was the last time you cleaned the fan? A Q-tip & some of that PC 'air in a can' stuff will make a huge difference as those aluminum channels can get quite grungy...especially after a decade.

Other things I'd look at are the condition of the speaker wires. If they're old & brittle, that can cause issues and freak out the amp.

I've owned a lot of Xtant amps...maybe 10...but never one of the big monos. Is yours pre or post Mitek? You can tell by looking at the case; square cutouts = Xtant design & hexagonal cutouts = Mitek/MTX design.

They're quirky, but I love 'em. IMO, those are some of the best amps ever made...gorgeous too.

 

[solarys]

Thanks guys for your feedback.

 

[akheathen Premium Member]

definitely purdy amps. have you tried powering it up with the speaker wires off? is the light on the left side of the board coming on? can you hear it buzz or ring? i have a few that i'm about to run through the bench, and, from what i've seen the transformer windings are the main weak point, but they are built pretty good other-wise. if you do get it to power up without going into protect, check the output for dc voltage (should not be any) also, check for corrosion on the jumpers, etc.