Emvaz 10+ year member
Junior Member
Hi everyone,
I recently had two JL HD900/5 installed to replace my old Memphis amp. While I had this done, I also upgraded my electrical by having an 80 amp hour Shuriken battery installed under the hood; the ground wires for the battery and engine were doubled up as well as the alternator to battery cable replaced. My old power cable was replaced by a 2 AWG cable, wired through a breaker switch.
I no longer have dimming issues at the dash unless I'm idling and at extreme volume, but the amps still get extremely hot, even at the volume level I was accustomed to with my old 600w system. While I understand that more power means more heat, the amount of heat generated seems vastly disproportionate to the amount of power being demanded. The amps went into thermal protection mode (red light on top) after about 2 hours of continuous play at highway volume last time I went on a trip.
I voiced my concerns to the shop where I had the install done and who sold me the amps. We ran the system and the voltage was where it should be, and all the cables were checked as far as being adequate for the amount of power going through them. Upon seeing that nothing is obviously awry with the install, he acted as if it was a normal temperature for the amps to get and that the issue was that it was hot outside and the amps are bolted to my sub box and pressed too closely towards the back seat (exactly where my old amp was).
His suggestion was to move the sub box back from the seat a few inches. During the return trip, I dropped the back seat so that I could not only see the status light on top of the amps but also the voltage on the 2 farad capacitor mounted next to them (and obviously for the improved cooling and airflow). During the trip, the AC was on the whole time to the point of the cabin being uncomfortably cool, and the voltage on the capacitor never read below 13.5v (the same reading I get from my head unit). Sure enough after 2 hours, the red light came back on. No matter the ventilation, the amps just plain overheat, and quick. The amps also sometimes give off a burning plastic smell after only a few minutes of playing...I'm sure this is normal too though, right? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif
If it was just one amp, I would send it back because it is obviously defective, but both amps behave exactly the same, so there is either a fatal flaw in my install that two professional high-end audio retailers and installer overlooked, or these amps simply have no endurance.
What do y'all think? Am I overlooking something or are these amps glorified firestarters?
As always, thanks.
I recently had two JL HD900/5 installed to replace my old Memphis amp. While I had this done, I also upgraded my electrical by having an 80 amp hour Shuriken battery installed under the hood; the ground wires for the battery and engine were doubled up as well as the alternator to battery cable replaced. My old power cable was replaced by a 2 AWG cable, wired through a breaker switch.
I no longer have dimming issues at the dash unless I'm idling and at extreme volume, but the amps still get extremely hot, even at the volume level I was accustomed to with my old 600w system. While I understand that more power means more heat, the amount of heat generated seems vastly disproportionate to the amount of power being demanded. The amps went into thermal protection mode (red light on top) after about 2 hours of continuous play at highway volume last time I went on a trip.
I voiced my concerns to the shop where I had the install done and who sold me the amps. We ran the system and the voltage was where it should be, and all the cables were checked as far as being adequate for the amount of power going through them. Upon seeing that nothing is obviously awry with the install, he acted as if it was a normal temperature for the amps to get and that the issue was that it was hot outside and the amps are bolted to my sub box and pressed too closely towards the back seat (exactly where my old amp was).
His suggestion was to move the sub box back from the seat a few inches. During the return trip, I dropped the back seat so that I could not only see the status light on top of the amps but also the voltage on the 2 farad capacitor mounted next to them (and obviously for the improved cooling and airflow). During the trip, the AC was on the whole time to the point of the cabin being uncomfortably cool, and the voltage on the capacitor never read below 13.5v (the same reading I get from my head unit). Sure enough after 2 hours, the red light came back on. No matter the ventilation, the amps just plain overheat, and quick. The amps also sometimes give off a burning plastic smell after only a few minutes of playing...I'm sure this is normal too though, right? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif
If it was just one amp, I would send it back because it is obviously defective, but both amps behave exactly the same, so there is either a fatal flaw in my install that two professional high-end audio retailers and installer overlooked, or these amps simply have no endurance.
What do y'all think? Am I overlooking something or are these amps glorified firestarters?
As always, thanks.
