New amp blew my sub, don’t know why

[twigan 10+ year member]

I just got a new amp and was hooking my sub up to it, I thought everything was good, hooked the rca cables up and then my sub flexed (don’t remember what the correct name is) all the way out and in for a second, without making any noise and now the sub is blown, I thought I hooked everything up right but, I don’t know exactly what happened, I tried to look this up online to find anything, but couldn’t figure anything out, so ill figure ill ask you guys to see if anyone knows what could of happened, it probably was my fault somehow, but ill just like to know what happened so I don’t do the same mistake again

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[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

From the sounds of it, you have a DOA amplifier.

Subs just do whatever they're told. If a sub blows within seconds and acts as you say it did, that means the amp is putting out some weird signal. I've seen amps just plain old not turn on, make the same noise George Jetson's car made, throw out pure DC, and have the toriod sing along to the music...but nothing like you experienced. My guess, it's a weird oscillation from the power supply section and it mechanically broke your sub.

 

[esmokah 10+ year member]

what kind of amp and sub? what amp did you replace?

 

[twigan 10+ year member]

its a sundown saz 2000 and a 18" fi btl my original amp died a while back and finally got a new one, I just hope that my new amp is a doa, it powers on and everything im just afraid if I hook it up to another subs, that itll blow those also, is there a way to see if the amps good without hooking everything up and blowing something else?

 

---------- Post added at 09:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:31 PM ----------

 

is not a doa lol

 

[esmokah 10+ year member]

you could use a dmm on the amp sub outputs to see what it is doing.

 

[DaveVT 10+ year member]

you could use a dmm on the amp sub outputs to see what it is doing.

try this. play a 50hz tone, set to ac and see what its putting out. then switch to DC and see if it reads anything.

 

[cx-7heaven 10+ year member]

I just got a new amp and was hooking my sub up to it, I thought everything was good, hooked the rca cables up and then my sub flexed (don’t remember what the correct name is) all the way out and in for a second, without making any noise and now the sub is blown, I thought I hooked everything up right but, I don’t know exactly what happened, I tried to look this up online to find anything, but couldn’t figure anything out, so ill figure ill ask you guys to see if anyone knows what could of happened, it probably was my fault somehow, but ill just like to know what happened so I don’t do the same mistake again

Waitaminute, you hooked the sub and rca's up while the amp was powered on? That's how this reads to me.

If this is the case, it kinda doesnt surprise me one bit that something died.

 

[twigan 10+ year member]

yeah like I said it was probably something I did lol, this is how I hooked everything up, from first to last, power wire, ground, remote, speakers wires, then rcas, let me guess thats the wrong way to hook everyhting up

 

[DaveVT 10+ year member]

yeah like I said it was probably something I did lol, this is how I hooked everything up, from first to last, power wire, ground, remote, speakers wires, then rcas, let me guess thats the wrong way to hook everyhting up

If you had the deck on then you had power to the remote line meaning the amp was fully powered up when you hooked up the rca's. Thats one way to chance blowing your subs....and.....you did. If the deck was off then it appears to be a amp issue.

Generally you want everything connected before you supply juice to the amp. I always hook it all up and at the end I reconnect my neg battery terminal.

 

[cx-7heaven 10+ year member]

Not necessarily, the question is was everything powered up at the actual time of hookup?

BTW, for future reference, here is the correct path:

Speakers, rca, remote, batt +, ground. The last three are somewhat interchangeable with each other, but the first two should be like I said. Ground is usually last in case you accidentally hit the chassis of the amp with the Batt+ cable you wont make sparks and shorts.

 

---------- Post added at 10:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:22 PM ----------

 

Davevt beat me to it

 

[cx-7heaven 10+ year member]

BTW OP, what you did falls in the realm of "hotswapping" which is generally a big NONO.

 

[twigan 10+ year member]

yeah it sound like I screwed up big time, two stupid question thou, on my old amp I had red and white color on my amp to tell me where the rcas schould go, now with the sundown amp, it doesnt have any colors, so is there a way to damage something if I hook up the wrong rca wires wrong and also if I hook the speaker wires backwards could that do anything also, like the positve on the amp connect to negative to the sub and the negative on the amp to the positive on the sub, just for future reference

 

[IonRL205 10+ year member]

Not necessarily, the question is was everything powered up at the actual time of hookup?
BTW, for future reference, here is the correct path:

Speakers, rca, remote, batt +, ground. The last three are somewhat interchangeable with each other, but the first two should be like I said. Ground is usually last in case you accidentally hit the chassis of the amp with the Batt+ cable you wont make sparks and shorts.

Idk I've always connected mine the other way and never had problems. Batt, ground and remote were first, then the RCAs then speaker wire.

 

[Flipx99 5,000+ posts]

yeah it sound like I screwed up big time, two stupid question thou, on my old amp I had red and white color on my amp to tell me where the rcas schould go, now with the sundown amp, it doesnt have any colors, so is there a way to damage something if I hook up the wrong rca wires wrong and also if I hook the speaker wires backwards could that do anything also, like the positve on the amp connect to negative to the sub and the negative on the amp to the positive on the sub, just for future reference

I do not think that would have caused an issue. It is my understanding that the amplifier sums the two signals into a mono signal.

If the speaker itself was wired incorrectly, you could get mechanical failure.

 

[daboyfrumdabx 10+ year member]

yeah it sound like I screwed up big time, two stupid question thou, on my old amp I had red and white color on my amp to tell me where the rcas schould go, now with the sundown amp, it doesnt have any colors, so is there a way to damage something if I hook up the wrong rca wires wrong and also if I hook the speaker wires backwards could that do anything also, like the positve on the amp connect to negative to the sub and the negative on the amp to the positive on the sub, just for future reference

The Sundown isn't marked because for a mono amp, left and right don't matter. So no issues with that.