problem with numerous amplifier shortages

[peedystablo82]

Hello everyone. Just to give everyone a heads up, I have two Orion XTR Pro 15s in a vented enclosure. I also have a amplifier on my mids as well. I have never had a problem with my mids amp. For some reason I have been having problems recently with my subwoofer amp. Basically I had the same amp in my car for like 3 to 4 years and it worked perfect. Then one day it all the sudden started smoking and I could actually smell it so I turned it off. I turned it back on the next day and it worked fine at low volumes. Whenever I turn it up just a little bit though to barely feel the bass it goes into protect mode and when I turn it down it'll go out. I sent the amp off to my dealer to get it replaced and in the meantime I bought a amplifier from Amazon. The amplifier I bought was a planet audio 5000.1 class d anarchy amplifier . When I first hooked it up, the amp work perfect and played for about 2 weeks until I smelled a burning smell and it would stay with the power on and not in protect mode but nothing was coming out of the subwoofers. So there was a problem with that amplifier they sent me another one and the same exact thing happened another 2 to 3 weeks later. This last time I remember hearing a popping sound from what I think was coming from the amplifier and I could smell the burning smell once again and the amplifier was on and not in protect mode once again and the subs were not playing. I did not have the sound up at all one bit when it burnt out. It was even on a rock song at the time with little to no bass. The only thing I have changed since all this started happening was my RCA's cause my older ones the metal piece broke off one of the ends. When I smelt this last amplifier the burning smell is coming from the rca on the amp from what it seems. Could my new RCA's be bad or the radio or what could be the problem? My grounds are good and I have plenty of power going to both amps. The other amp hasn't done this so that's why I also assume it couldn't be a power issue. Thanks and if I need to provide more info I will.

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[peedystablo82]

I'm very knowledgeable when it comes to installing equipment In cars. I don't want to go replacing things if it is not needed but my first assumption would be maybe the head unit. Maybe the outputs on the subwoofer RCA outputs is bad. I don't know if that can happen or if I should change unit head unit and take a chance of buying one.

 

[Loudmp5 10+ year member]

How do you set your gains? And do you have bass boost up? I doubt rcas could cause this but I guess anything is possible

 

[peedystablo82]

My gain was only like a eighth of the way up and bass boost like Half way. But as I said I wasn't even playing hardly any sound at all neither one of the last 2 times.

 

[peedystablo82]

Didn't need to then gains and bass boost up cause this amp is powerful. My first amp I had my gain like half way up and my bass boost like 3/4 of the way up.

 

[peedystablo82]

like I said though, on this last amplifier I smelt where the power leads go and I smelt where the RCA's go into and where the speaker wires go and I smell the burning smell very clearly where the RCA's go

 

[bmk6795 10+ year member]

id recommend not using bass boost, also check your power/ground wirez, there might be a pinch in one of them. i had this issue a while back and the power wire was the problem.

 

[Loudmp5 10+ year member]

Do not use bass boost its a sh1t feature on every amp and have you opened the amp and loomed inside? You probably smell it better from the rcas cause there is a hole to the inside of the amp where the power input doesn't go thru like a hole

 

[peedystablo82]

I didn't wanna open it cause it would have voided the warranty. So that's a no go. I sent it back also and got my money back and waiting for my other amp to come back that I had at first. Hopefully they can see what is wrong. He is gonna try it In another car to see if it clips out or what it does. Its just confusing me

 

[peedystablo82]

I will stop using bass boost. I normally use that more than the gain. But the thing is my amp was not putting anything out when it did it. I could understand if it was pumping bass but it was basically all the way down to volume 3 on my head unit. No bass hardly whatsoever to n my car playing when it happened

 

[Loudmp5 10+ year member]

Since you're doing it to amp after amp it is probably a wiring issue or your clipping baaaaaddd what are you grounding to?

 

[bbeljefe]

"I normally use that more than the gain."

↑ This. Gain isn't something you use, it's something you set and forget. If the gain is set properly and the system isn't loud enough, the answer isn't more gain... it's more amp or more speaker. If you have your gain set just slightly above its proper setting for your source, you'll be clipping the speaker(s) and eventually, you will cook a coil or three... especially when you're running high power.

Go ahead and check the power and ground connections and wiring but also, get a meter and check the coils on your woofers. Hook them up one at a time and read them... then move the cone in and out and see if the meter shorts to zero or goes to extremely high resistance.

If you read excessively high resistance consistently, you've clipped that coil into damage. Or, if you have a 4Ω coil that won't read above 1 or 2Ω... clipped to death again.

 

[garychoffmann 10+ year member]

Ohm out your subs, check to make sure your sub wires are not frayed or pulling off the terminals. Wires that are really close together and bare can arc to each other, it can quickly fry an amp if your subs and or wiring is faulty.

By plenty of power, what electrical are you running?

 

[peedystablo82]

The floor board of my trunk. I have 2 amps and have not one problem with that one and I never had a problem with the other one not one time in like 4 years and I always have played my subs to the max. It didn't start happening until I changed my RCA's cause the other ones broke. My grounds should be good

 

[peedystablo82]

I have checked the coils on my sub's both times it happened prior to the last and they were fine and still reading perfect also. I even rewired them as well just to make sure.