Help with blowing Amps! :)

[AcidicDreams 10+ year member]

I didn't check all the specs but here are some better amps in the same power range

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-ORION-MODEL-2500-D-25000-AMPLIFIER-GOOD-CONDITION_W0QQitemZ9700117718QQcategoryZ18797QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/DIAMOND-CAR-AUDIO-D61500-1-CLASS-D-AMP-AMPLIFIER-NEW_W0QQitemZ5881166574QQcategoryZ18797QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Killer-US-AMPS-DE-1000-in-the-Box_W0QQitemZ5879051211QQcategoryZ18796QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Memphis-1500x1-Class-D-mono-block-amp-BRAND-NEW_W0QQitemZ9700938854QQcategoryZ18797QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Soundstream-Picasso-Series-PCA2000D-2000W-AMP-BRAND-NEW_W0QQitemZ5880639594QQcategoryZ18797QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/HIFONICS-BXI2006D-BRUTUS-2000w-MONO-CAR-AMPLIFIER-AMP_W0QQitemZ5881201199QQcategoryZ18797QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hifonics-BX-2200D_W0QQitemZ9701457311QQcategoryZ18797QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

BTW: this is one of the better lanzars... much diff than the Vibe

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lanzar-Opti1400D-INSANE-POWER-like-us-amps-JL-ZED-Audio_W0QQitemZ9701042486QQcategoryZ18797QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[faulkton 5,000+ posts]

The head unit wasnt turned up all that loud, i mean it was probably close to half is all i ever pushed it, like i said it was just getting broken in. the bass boost? you mean the remote knob the amp comes with? I didnt have it up at all. Clipping?? Not sure what that is. If you wouldent mind explain that to me? The gain on the amp not all the way probably like 85%, because it distorted too bad any higher, but in the headunit i had the sub only up maybe half at most. I cant remember what head unit i have at the moment its a sony cdx, model i can go look tomorrow. The amp instructions say only to use 4 gauge. Thats the only reason why i used it.

I think you should learn what clipping is and learn how to set the gains on your amps. You were not dealing with the highest quality equipment; its bound to fail quickly if you try to push it past its limits.

Here is a decent way to set the gains on an amp.

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63933

 

[amartin_72]

Make sure you have a good ground. Get a digital multimeter and set it to DC Voltage. Go to your alt. and find the red post where the positive charge comes out. Then measure the voltage between the negative battery terminal and that post on the altenator. It should be over 13 volts at idle. Then measure the voltage right at the two batter terminals. If this is dropping more than .2 volts with nothing running then you need to upgrade the wire going from the alt to the battery. You could have all your compressors on and if it goes down even more you def. need to upgrade the alt connection. That will not be the main cause of the amp failure though. Second, you said that you ran sheet metal screws four your ground, now i did the same thing on my first install years ago but that is NOT reccomended and you need to grind or sand the frame or thick part of the body until its shiny bare metal on both sides and then use a bolt with washers and a good ring terminal. Put the 150 amp fuse in and make sure it has good connecions. After you have done that, With the truck running Check the voltage on the ends of the wires that would connect to the amplifier at this point and compare it to what you read on the battery terminals. Again if there is a significant drop in voltage from the battery to the amp connection, there is something wrong. No more than .4 volts is acceptable for 4 gauge running the lenght of a truck. After your sure you have a good source of power for the amp, switch your digital multimeter to OHMs and just check to make sure your subs are reading 2 ohms on each sub setup when you ahve them wired in parallell or they measure 1ohm and no less when you have them all wire together. If all of this is good and you cannot find any other reason for your amplifier damadge, burn a CD with test tones of -3db attenuation 40-60hz on it and put it in your cd player. You can download these in any music downloading program or buy a cd with test tones. Play the cd with the vaious test tones and check the voltage on the ends of the RCA's in AC Voltage, where they go into the amp. If your deck , sony, is rated at 2 volts then you should not have any more than 2 volts coming out of the RCA's with those test tones. Turn the volume up on the deck until you get an AC reading of about 1.7 volts with each test tone from 40-60 hz in 5 or 10 hz incriments. Make sure your equalization is all set to flat before you do this. After that has been done, connect the amp without connecting the subs yet. Then adjust the gain on the amp so that when you play test tones from your cd you made, the AC voltage on the amplifier should be 32V for 1024 watts RMS or 39 volts for about 1500 watts RMS. These are very precise and any change in the voltage increases the current draw and wattage for the amp. I would reccomend setting it at 38 volts and trying it out that way for a week and see if you have the same problems. If you blow another amp I have no idea what you could be doing wrong.

 

[Dal33tdude12 10+ year member]

WOW you guys know your shit, jesus you lost me amartin 72 i wish you guys were local. when it warms up some i will get outside and try what i understood you said lol. acidic dreams Thanks much for the info on better amps i will keep those brand names and models in mind when i go to buy a new one, i think i could get what i paid for my lanzar because i checked ebay and theres a company selling the same amp for 339.00 buy it now, plus shipping. and offers no warranty. mine will be brand new in the box never opened, with a extended phillips 2 year warranty that covers parts and labor. I dont know maybe im wrong but i hope i can get atleast 350 + shipping, id be happy with that. When i sell it and get the cash i will update my wiring, and all that, then when im not so broke i will start lookin for a new amp. Thanks again all i think ive got a good idea on what to look for and the fact that im just buying cheap amps.

 

[AcidicDreams 10+ year member]

WOW you guys know your shit, jesus you lost me amartin 72 i wish you guys were local. when it warms up some i will get outside and try what i understood you said lol. acidic dreams Thanks much for the info on better amps i will keep those brand names and models in mind when i go to buy a new one, i think i could get what i paid for my lanzar because i checked ebay and theres a company selling the same amp for 339.00 buy it now, plus shipping. and offers no warranty. mine will be brand new in the box never opened, with a extended phillips 2 year warranty that covers parts and labor. I dont know maybe im wrong but i hope i can get atleast 350 + shipping, id be happy with that. When i sell it and get the cash i will update my wiring, and all that, then when im not so broke i will start lookin for a new amp. Thanks again all i think ive got a good idea on what to look for and the fact that im just buying cheap amps.

if you get 350 for that lanzar you'll be in good shape... those amps I listed will all do a reasonable job of pushing your subs... also keep in mind your Boss was not likely doing the amount of power it was supposed to do... you'll know when you check the voltage with a DMM... good luck with your install and you'll find most people on here pretty helpful if you ask the right questions and take our advice with some respect. People get into trouble when they start talking out of their ***** and telling people they don't know what they are talking about... enjoy the forums //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Just to help yourself out and have to spend even more money down the road to save a couple bucks right now, either get a good butt splice instead of the Al block to connect the two pieces of wire or replace the wire with one continuous piece. If you go the splice route, crimp the connector and then once ou have a good mechanical connection, solder the connection as well. Then shrink wrap the whole area (twice for added protection), don't use electrical tape as it will break down and get gummy. Aluminum corrodes very readily and the Al oxide formed by the corrosion is non-conductive. The increase in resistance of the junction will cause a voltage drop and that drop will increase with an increase in current consumption. Dropping voltage to an amp with minimal protection circuits (the category into which most budget amps fall) will cause an overcurrent condition in the powersupply of the amp. As the voltage drops, the power supply attempt to produce the same amount of power but requires more current to do so with the decrease in voltage. Because the resistive losses of the bad wiring increase with an increase in current, as the current draw continues to increase, the voltage drops further and the amp attempts to draw even more current. As you can see this is quite the self destructive cycle. Good wiring practices: solid connections, quality terminals properly used, heat shrink instead of electrical tape, etc... will all help keep your amps alive and kicking.

Once the mechanics of the install are taken care of, the tuning portion of the install is next. Clipping, both from the amp and the HU are component killers. Clipping an amp or running an amp at full tilt while feeding it a clipped signal can exceed the designed duty cycle of the output transistors and cause them to build up more heat than they were designed to be able to shed. Heat is the enemy of electronic components. As heat increases, so does resistance and then more heat. Eventually the heat gets to be more than the magic smoke inside can bear and it bursts forth from the output deveices and they output no more. For this reason it is important to set gains correctly. Ideally you need an O-scope or a clipping detection circuit to set gains the right way. You can do it by ear, but that will give you merely a rough wag and with subs it's a REALLY rough wag. Clipping will begin before you can hear it.

 

[Dal33tdude12 10+ year member]

I try to respect people who do know there shit. I know and will admit that i do not know everything. lol all i know is basics how to hook the wiring up. Thats why i thought i would go to a online community I love forums soo helpful. And i apologize if i seemed like i was trying to be an ***, i wasnt trying to be, i was only trying to put all the information that i knew out there to answer questions so i wouldent haft to keep answering more and more questions about my setup, i try looking a little bit intelligent. and with the boss amp i meant just by listening it sounded like it hit harder, i agree with you though. It was the first boss i had ever bought, now i know there junk //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif Also helotaxi where do i find a connector big enough for 4 gauge wire? What does it look like? Maybe i will just buy a new piece of 4 gauge. Do you guys think 4 gauge is big enough for the power im trying to push or should i step it up to 1/0?

 

[AcidicDreams 10+ year member]

I try to respect people who do know there shit. I know and will admit that i do not know everything. lol all i know is basics how to hook the wiring up. Thats why i thought i would go to a online community I love forums soo helpful. And i apologize if i seemed like i was trying to be an ***, i wasnt trying to be, i was only trying to put all the information that i knew out there to answer questions so i wouldent haft to keep answering more and more questions about my setup, i try looking a little bit intelligent. and with the boss amp i meant just by listening it sounded like it hit harder, i agree with you though. It was the first boss i had ever bought, now i know there junk //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif Also helotaxi where do i find a connector big enough for 4 gauge wire? What does it look like? Maybe i will just buy a new piece of 4 gauge. Do you guys think 4 gauge is big enough for the power im trying to push or should i step it up to 1/0?

I didn't think you were being an ***, just making a point... as for connectors/wiring etc check out knuconcetpz.com (spelling might be off, they spelled it funny). They have all the wiring acc you need... also check out partsexpress.com for other misc crap... I imagine 4ga would be ok for the Boss but I'd run 0/1 just so you don't have to re-do it down the road

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

You can get a basic 4ga buttsplice at a hardware store in the automotive section. It is basically just a copper sleeve and you stick one piece of wire into each end and crimp it down. Techniques abound for crimping methods but I like a center punch and a hammer. Punch it in from 3 different directions per wire and then solder and shrinkwrap. I've seen small dia. copper pipe used as well for this.

 

[Dal33tdude12 10+ year member]

my fault i sent the boss back already and got a refund, i apologize if i didnt make that clear, and what was awesome about it was i got sounddomain to price match it for me and when i got refunded they refunded me the full price i made like 50$ on the deal lol. im waiting to get another lanzar back from etronics. it comes in thursday and then i will be placing it on ebay. I once had a rockford fosgate 1000bd, oh buddy that was a nice amp it was pushing 2 audiobahn 12's but it all got stolen //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif will do acidic dreams thanks again for your help. and thanks for the idea helotaxi i have a copper terminal like for a battery, i may just cut the end off and then have a tube and do what you suggested.

 

[faulkton 5,000+ posts]

you might as well just upgrade to 0 gauge. If your upgrading your amps, just do it right with 0 gauge from the start. Screw some janky *** connectors

 

[baggedmazda1 10+ year member]

well the only way to resolve this is a BODYDROP it worked on my mazda but it only solved the problem with a 4 1/2 incher layin doors then and only then did every thing sound good. Ohhh shit wait i didn't even have a cd player that was the sound of the body dragin my bad. Just b.s.in good luck and listin to these guys they know there stuff

Good luck to a fellow mini trucker

May your head stay high and your truck stay low

Jesse

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

Even if you don't run a bigger power wire, it couldn't hurt to upgrade the hell out of your grounds. The best bet for grounding an amp is looking around under the carpet or rear seats for any tips of bolts that run through the body of the car to secure suspension components underneath.

In my car, there was a perfectly placed bolt under the rear seats holding part of the rear k-frame to the body, that was a #8-1-1/4 bolt, just got a proper ring terminal, and a wingnut, perfect ground with no new holes in the car.

Just my $.02