Kicker 500si

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

I picked this amp up on CL about a week ago. When I saw it, I noticed that the POS input was burnt and obviously has been quite hot. I was skeptical as shit, but didn't have any tools to test it. Bought it anyways (for a good price //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/greedy.gif.5a53e6246569d7ab79867170f3b06629.gif). Dude seemed cool, and guaranteed it would work.

Anyways, I hooked it up on Saturday in my 95 Marquis. 2ga welding cable. Pushing an IDMAX 12 @ 4 ohms on one coil (the other is coil is bad). Well it does power on, and it will rock the shit out of the sub. After about 2min, it is so hot you can't touch it. The gain was a little past half (the gain pot seems sticky/twitchy also).

What do you guys think? I cracked it open to see if the inside looked ok. It looks fine. I honestly don't think it's ever been open before. Should I live drive my RCA to boost the voltage and keep the gain down? Is the amp damaged?

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[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

Turn the gain down and see if it still gets that hot. If you turn the gain down and boost the input voltage it will still get hot. A gain knob is not a thermostat adjustment. You need to try to get this amp to produce less power to make it run cooler.

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

I know how a gain works. I figured a higher voltage input would create less work for it. It gets hot regardless. I have it way down and it's still hot. It doesn't put out much of anything until you get the gain up towards 2/3.

It's not putting out anywhere near it's rated 850 @ 4 and I can cook bacon on it.

 

[mat3833 10+ year member]

if its a class A/B(i beleive it is) they naturally run hot. MUCH hotter than class D amps. im too lazy to look up the amp, but it should have thermal protect. as long as its not going into thermal it is fine.

Matt

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

If you were to see the inputs on this thing, it's obviously not 'fine'. Lol. I'll post a pic.

Yes, it's A/B.

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

 

[mrharley123]

That is normal for these amps. I have 2 that have done that. If you can find someone who repairs amps they can run a direct power wire from the board.

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

So it's just bad engineering? I can see that. I also thought having a bare wire POS input that close to the chassis was bad engineering.