Power problem after certain volume

[adblink182 10+ year member]

my setup:

three 12" CerwinVega HED Subs

Kenwood 8101D Mono Amp

Alpine 4-ch amp

was driving home today, and had the music up, after about 7-8min, the bass suddenly stopped. Now it didnt shock me TOO much, because I did have a problem with the amp cutting out for about 10 sec then comming back on (some sort of safety mode)....but this time I looked at the amp, it still had power, but no bass...

when I got home, I felt the subs in the trunk and they still were vibrating just enough to tell they were still getting a signal. If you listen closly, with the music very low, you can hear the bass, but when you turn it up, it cuts in and out, sometimes totally out at all....

//edit

ok I was out trying it again, and I found that at volume level 14 (goes up to 35) the subs are on, very low of course. But when I go above 15, the power indacator on the amp (kenwood) blinks once every sec or 2, almost like its a power problem, and thats when there is no bass

Click to read more...

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Sounds like either a wire came loose, or you blew the amp.

Where are settings like your gain, bass boost, etc etc set to?

 

[adblink182 10+ year member]

bass bost is off, and gain isnt set very high (not sure where exactly)

this setup with these settings arent new, I've been running this setup for a few months now no problem, I didnt touch a thing...

wouldnt one of the fuses of blown before messing up the amp? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif (if thats what happened)

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

bass bost is off, and gain isnt set very high (not sure where exactly)

How did you set the gain??

this setup with these settings arent new, I've been running this setup for a few months now no problem, I didnt touch a thing...

Doesn't matter. If you had an improperly set gain or something that was causing the amp to clip, it could damage the amp over time and not immediately.

wouldnt one of the fuses of blown before messing up the amp? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif (if thats what happened)

Nope.

 

[adblink182 10+ year member]

the gain was set on the amp with the dial labeled input sensitivity

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

the gain was set on the amp with the dial labeled input sensitivity

I know that.....but, did you just do it by ear? What steps did you take in setting the gain?

 

[V6beretta31L 10+ year member]

I jsut turned it all the way up.. it worked for awhile then jsut shut off, i unplugged both subs n tried to ge tpower wihotu subs n the fuses blew again, this sucks

 

[adblink182 10+ year member]

i was having problems before where the amp would go into protection mode for about 10sec then turn back on....so what me and the shop who installed the shit did was turn off the bass boast, and lower the gain until the amp stopped going into protection mode, then backed it alittle bit off after that

 

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

HOLY HELL

Posts: 9,500

Anyway, get a multimeter. You can get them at radioshack or walmart for like 10 bucks. Set it that way following the gain setting tutorial, if you can get the amp to power on. If not, time to buy a new amp.

Also, you said you have THREE subs. The Kenwood 8101D is

400w x1 @ 2 ohms

200w x1 @ 4 ohms

And the subs are

DVC4

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/rftech/wiringwizard.asp

How do you have it wired? You might be putting too little resistance on the amp.

 

[Decipha 10+ year member]

the only way you can wire it would be have the dvc's wired in series for an 8 ohm load on each speaker then wire the speakers in parrallel for a 2.6 ohm load otherwise you blew your amp from ohming it out

 

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

2.67 mate

 

[adblink182 10+ year member]

first the subs are SVC, not DVC

but anyway i brought it to my buddys shop to have a look at it 30min ago, and what it turn out to be was one of the positive leads from one of the subs had somehow broken off. Took the sub to the shop I bought them from, replaced both positive/negative wires, overall cost me $10 //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

everyone (including me) always assume the worst......sooo **** glad I dont have to spend another X number of dollars to buy a new amp and/or subs //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

thanks for the help tho!

 

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

Ah, must have found a dvc version 'cause the sight I saw said dvc. Good to hear it worked out.