MTX Thunder 81000D is Blown.. Sell it? Fix it? or Trade to MTX for TA7801?

[Crownvicon28s 10+ year member]

Fix it.

 

[shimmyz 10+ year member]

thats dead wrong bro. no offense.
this is a mono amp (1 channel). what you see as 2 ch is just the ease of hooking up more than one sub (the 2 +'s = 1 + inside...ect). this is a mono amp stable at 2 ohms so something else had to happen.

I know its not a 2 channel amp. I used the term stereo and mono to simplify what I was trying to say. The Online manual states it the same way "Thunder amplifiers are not recommended for loads below 2 ohms stereo or 4 ohms bridged".

I am currently running an old Earthquake Magma 12 I've had for years. It is dual 3.3 ohm VC. It is wired parallel inside the box. I have 2 wires coming out of the box. The 2 wires carry a 1.65 ohm load.

The amp has 2 sets of speaker terminals. I will call them term 1 and term 2. I first wired my speaker wires(+ and-) to term 1. This didn't have any power at all. It sounded like 20 watts maybe.

Not knowing anything about this amp (as stated before). I then "bridged" the amp. (+ speaker wire to + of term 1) and (- speaker wire to - of term 2) . The power was much better it sounded close to my Soundstream Reference 700.

My car was running (well over 14 volts), low gain setting, half volume if that on the head unit.

I was in the car for about 20 minutes at low volume just getting a feel for the amp and pooof it was gone.

I'm sure my wiring had most to do with it. But why didn't the amp have any balls when I had it hooked to term 1?

That compression button looks to be strictly for protection of your speaker. Either way I was not pushing the amp anywhere close to clipping. So I doubt that had anything to do with it.

jco1385, I appreiciate your help. I'm not trying to sound like a smartass toward you. But some of these people acting like I'm an idiot isn't cool. I was very knowledgeable with car stereos at one time, but that was over 10 years ago. Ive never worked with an amp configured like this before.

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

it was previously damaged then. a 1.65 ohm load will not kill this amp like that.

 

[shimmyz 10+ year member]

Like how? using 1 terminal or bridged across both?

Im kinda hoping it was damaged when I got it. I was excited to hear 1000 watts at 12.5 volts. Instead It sounded like **** compared to my Soundstream that is rated at 700 @12 volts

Maybe I will get it fixed to see what it really does before I trade it off. The newer MTX amp has my eye though. But I'm an old school guy. I'm not sure I would feel right with a nice shiny amp in my ride.

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

either way is the same. you see "2 channels" but they're connected inside the amp. you can use either side or "bridge" it. it's all the same. it's all gonna be 2 ohm stable.

you put a 1.65 load on it it's not gonna burn up. it'll either go into protect (i doubt it) or push it.

 

[shimmyz 10+ year member]

Ok, I get what your saying. The manual make it alot harder than what it needs to be.

My light was and still is red. Does it change from green to red? Or is it always red?

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

its red. there's no protect light that i know of

 

[shimmyz 10+ year member]

Can you recomend any repair shops?

Once again thanks for your help

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

i have no clue. do a search. you'll get a lot of hits

 

[alex5857 10+ year member]

Try hooking up the speakers at 2ohm or higher. the amp wont run below 2ohm without being modded.

the red light is the power light, when i first got my 1501d i also though that it was protect when it wasn't the case.

 

[shimmyz 10+ year member]

yeah i did that. Sent a few emails on monday. No responces

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

Try hooking up the speakers at 2ohm or higher. the amp wont run below 2ohm without being modded.
the red light is the power light, when i first got my 1501d i also though that it was protect when it wasn't the case.

notice pics of burnt fets on 1st page....

edit: 2nd page

 

[alex5857 10+ year member]

didnt see that, just read the last couple responses.

thats odd, these amps are built like tanks and are ran below 2ohm all the time, hell i run mine at 1 ohm daily.

maybe it was f'd up before you got it, and you blew another fet?

i know some amps work even with blown fets, my shitty lanzar does lol

 

[shimmyz 10+ year member]

Try hooking up the speakers at 2ohm or higher. the amp wont run below 2ohm without being modded.
the red light is the power light, when i first got my 1501d i also though that it was protect when it wasn't the case.

If I do get this amp fixed I will either get 2 more magmas(if I can find nice ones). This will get me a 2ohm load. Or just Go with something new school. I just got back into car audio and I'm having trouble coping with what happened to this industry since the late 90s. New stuff kinda scares me (Quality wise)

 

[alex5857 10+ year member]

sell it blown and get a 1501d, there's one in the classifieds for 250 right now..