Should I have my amp repaired or buy new?

[FadedSpy 10+ year member]

Hey guys,

I currently have a Brutus 2400.1d with a blown power supply and a few other things. It'll cost about. $175 to fix. I was thinking about buying a Ppi bk1800.1d and just scrapping the Brutus. I plan to run two obsidian 12v3's which are 600 rms each. If I get the Ppi amp I will run the amp at 1 ohm giving each sub 900 watts rms. if I fix the Brutus and run it at 2 ohm then each sub will get 850 rms.

I'm not sure which path to choose, both options are going to cost about the same so what would you do? Any thoughts ?

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[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

Hey guys,
I currently have a Brutus 2400.1d with a blown power supply and a few other things. It'll cost about. $175 to fix. I was thinking about buying a Ppi bk1800.1d and just scrapping the Brutus. I plan to run two obsidian 12v3's which are 600 rms each. If I get the Ppi amp I will run the amp at 1 ohm giving each sub 900 watts rms. if I fix the Brutus and run it at 2 ohm then each sub will get 850 rms.

I'm not sure which path to choose, both options are going to cost about the same so what would you do? Any thoughts ?

in reality the ppi black ice will do just as much or really close to the brutus even tho it is rated higher. The brutus 2400s usually do about 2k @ 14.4 clean while the Black ice 1800 do rated power as far as i know and have read on them. so for a estimate the brutus does 2k and the ppi does 1800 you will not hear in a difference in the 200watts between them. even if they were 400 watts apart you probly would not hear a difference. i would get he PPI Black ICe over the brutus as because its more efficient and less power hungry. Black ice > Brutus IMO

 

[murph 10+ year member]

Get the amp fixed. You can have the internals beefed up and have better parts installed. 175 seems a bit steep unless the power supply is entirely gone or if that includes shipping costs then that seems resonable.

 

[FadedSpy 10+ year member]

I'm leaning more towards the pp just because this is the 3rd Brutus I've had to send in for repairs!! I've about had it . I was running a single power acoustic mofo at 2 ohm which was about 1700rmd to that sub and It fried the amp . I thought it was the sub that was bad so I tossed it ;/ sometimes being a newb blows !

 

[murph 10+ year member]

I'm leaning more towards the pp just because this is the 3rd Brutus I've had to send in for repairs!! I've about had it . I was running a single power acoustic mofo at 2 ohm which was about 1700rmd to that sub and It fried the amp . I thought it was the sub that was bad so I tossed it ;/ sometimes being a newb blows !

I think they keep blowing because user error. Don't "send them in" for repair find someone who repairs amps and have them fix it. If you send it in they will just put in their cheap Chinese parts. If you get someone to repair/upgrade it you can have a quality amp on your side.

 

[FadedSpy 10+ year member]

Hmm. I would like to think its not user error. I've done the big 3 upgrade and followed all of the wiring diagrams on each setup I've had. Maybe my dial settings weren't set correctly? I guess I'll try to find someone local who works on amps, I'm in a small city so that may prove challenging.

 

[murph 10+ year member]

Hmm. I would like to think its not user error. I've done the big 3 upgrade and followed all of the wiring diagrams on each setup I've had. Maybe my dial settings weren't set correctly? I guess I'll try to find someone local who works on amps, I'm in a small city so that may prove challenging.

I think your gain setting is wrong and or you have a bad ground. Just post on here looking for someone. They don't have to be local shipping the amp will cost you 20-25 one way, 40-50 total. It will be well worth it to have it upgraded/repaired.

 

[FadedSpy 10+ year member]

Any ideas on who might be a good goto person ?

 

[Nutdawg651]

Any ideas on who might be a good goto person ?

Cfox10

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

Any ideas on who might be a good goto person ?

Steve at Amp-Medics

 

[FadedSpy 10+ year member]

Thanks guys

 

[bbeljefe]

Regardless of what amp you end up using you should do some due diligence and find out why you keep burning up amps.

Improper gain settings usually wipe out subs so I'd start with looking at electrical. You said you have a big three done but that doesn't help if the alternator and battery you have aren't able to send enough power to the amp. Likewise with fuse and ground connections. Ergo, you can have the best alternator and battery(s) possible but if your connections are bad, so will be your electrical supply to the amp.

If you don't have zero gauge power wire, I'd get it. You can use reducers at the amp if your amp has 4 gauge inputs but for anything over 1500 watts you will see an appreciable benefit from 1/0 wiring. Also, make sure all of your cable terminations are sound. That means the crimp/solder points on the wire as well as the other end of the terminals. I would also replace the power line fuse and if you have a circuit breaker, toss it an put a fuse in its place.

 

[FadedSpy 10+ year member]

Thank You for the advice. I never let my gain or bass boost on the amp go above 50% so I know that's not the issue. I recently had to replace my battery after the amp fried so maybe I had a bad battery. I have a friend who is going to come over and test some things with his voltmeter. The other amps that were fried were in different cars over the past 6 years so I can't test those.

I did the big 3 with 0 guage wire and i have 0 guage running back to a distribution block in the trunk. The distribution block sends an 8 guage wire to a 4 channel sony amp and a 0 guage wire to the Brutus. I'm thinking I need to run 2 separate lines off of the battery? I did have both amps grounded to separate locations. My Brutus is grounded to the bolt that my rear seat belt attaches to the frame of the car, I scraped away all paint so I know it's nice and tight with no interference. The ground to my 4 channel amp was loose but that shouldn't affect my Brutus should it?

Am I missing something? What all should I test? I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

Bass boost //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eyebrow.gif.fe2c18d8720fe8c7eaed347b21ea05a5.gif NO!

Should have a second battery as well IMO

Bet you are killing them from low voltage.

 

[FadedSpy 10+ year member]

OK, How about a capacitor? Are they helpful, I've always thought of them as useless? I'll look into a spare battery