Hifonics in winter

[bobbyboy987 10+ year member]

i've noticed that when its been really cold here like -20C that my hifonics BXi1206D does not send full power to my sub. once the amp get warmed up(which may take 10-15 minutes because of the heat sink) it is able to send full power to the sub.

does this happen to many of the larger amps or is it just hifonics?

because this doesnt happen with my MTX amp i use for my component speakers

thanks

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[UMGixxer 10+ year member]

my guess would be yes this is normal just like any other electrical device, just think of it as your car " the heater doesnt blow warm air until the vehicle is warmed up", it probably has a normal operating temperature that it has to achieve before it can perform normally, but im no pro or anything but thats just my opinion

 

[XTRProBoy 10+ year member]

^Yeah but the heater in a car is not electrical. The blower motor is but not the heater--in nearly every liquid-cooled automobile, that heat is provided by the coolant flowing through the heater core. If the coolant has no temperature your fan just blows cold air.

There's no such relationship in the working of an amplifier, which is a solid-state electrical device.

 

[Team Maxxsonics 10+ year member]

Subwoofers and head units are affected by cold also //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Actually, the amp requires no warm up time and in fact, the warmer it gets, the less power it will produce.

It's dumb I know but if you have some time on the weekend, bring your amp in the house over night, install it in the morning and see if your system is still lower power.

This will tell you if the amp is the cause.

 

[UMGixxer 10+ year member]

^Yeah but the heater in a car is not electrical. The blower motor is but not the heater--in nearly every liquid-cooled automobile, that heat is provided by the coolant flowing through the heater core. If the coolant has no temperature your fan just blows cold air.
There's no such relationship in the working of an amplifier, which is a solid-state electrical device.

I was not trying to make a direct relationship but anyway you get my freaking point.

 

[DetroitBass 10+ year member]

Amps are affected the least of all car audio components. HUs get almost unresponsive in very cold temperatures, and subwoofers get very stiff.

 

[sniper007 10+ year member]

yea i feel sorry for people with negative temps, the coldest its down her in texas where i live is like 50 degrees or sumthing and i noticed my HU was crapping up and wouldnt play disks until my trucked warmed up or sumthing but its gotten warmer and my HU has no probs.

 

[Goldenknob 10+ year member]

you must live next to the border of mexico, because here in the dallas area it got down to about 28F a few weeks ago and snowed.

 

[CBFryman2 5,000+ posts]

How do you know the amp is putting out less power. Electronic devices are generally more stable with higher outputs when they are colder. When a Pentium 4 was first overclocked to 5gHz they used liquid nitrogen to cool the processor. If you didnt clamp it to measure current and use a DMM to measure voltage when it is warm and when it is cold (all other things the same including sub temperature and head unit temperature) then you can not assume it is the amp.

Your sub's suspension is probably just a little stiffer, and consiquiently it takes more power for it to move. COLD WILL NOT DAMAGE YOUR SUB but it could possibly be causing it to become a little more stiff. I persoanally tested sub softparts down to -22 degrees celcius and there was no noticable change in strength or integrity...only flexability.

 

[Cutra 10+ year member]

it has not been that cold for me yet my old hifonics vii gemini amp is running awsome...all in 2 ohm stereo.