Zed Leviathan

[Volvo_S80]

I'm really disappointed with the zed amp right now.

I've been using it with a jbl-ms8 using 1/2 for highs 3/4 for mids 5/6 for rear.

All was well until I broke my sub amp and had to reconfigure my system.

1/2/3/4 are all still the same. I bridged 5/6 for the sub its a single voice coil 4 ohm sub In a 1 cube box I threw together just for some bass

I re calibrated the MS-8 and the output of the sub is insanely low, not only is it almost non-existent but when the bass hits the zed logo dims out and a little orange light on the board lights up.

I played full tilt for about 3 minutes and the amp must have overheated? The sub just shut off but the front still played.

I thought it might be an issue with the MS8 tune so I re-calibrated it 4 more times with the same result no bass

The zed should put out 600 watts bridged @ 4ohm the sub is rated at 400

The gain is set to 2v Because that's what the MS8 wants. I did try to turn the gain up after MS8 calibration but the slightest turn make the zed logo dim and that orange light flash with each bass note.

I don't think it's clipping because the amp has a red light to indicate clipping.

+ is connected to + and it's bridged the way the amp tells me to.

all the eq's are set to flat because that's the MS8's job.

I thought maybe the ground could be better so I used the Sub amp ground with the exact same result. (all my grounds are 0 ohm resistance to the battery anyway)

Any ideas?

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[hispls 5,000+ posts]

LOL. The orange light is to show when the power supply switches to the higher rail voltage AFAIK. It should begin to light up when you drive hard but not be on when it's playing at lower volume. As you say, the clip light is there to tell you when the amp is putting out max voltage. There is a low impedance LED as well but that should say something to that effect on the board next to it.

I can't believe you overheated it in 3 minutes unless you have a serious problem. I've used mine for active fronts + single 3 ohm sub and didn't have any trouble and was pretty happy with output and I've run them all channels sub duty into 1.4 ohm without trouble overheating or going into protect.

How did you break your sub amp? What was it? What sub? What's the DC resistance? What coil(s) is the sub supposed to be?

 

[Volvo_S80]

Okay the orange light was making me nervous glad to know its okay lol. but the zed logo dimming out seems odd also the bottom left led of the Z flashes randomly with music playing.

I went out today and messed around some more 15 minutes of music and it stayed cool to the touch. Maybe yesterday the constant re calibrating was heating it up more than usual.

The sub is a kenwood single 4 ohm coil. I measured with a DMM and it's 4.0

The amp I blew is a DD M2C I was adjusting gain with a DMM and dropped one of the speaker wires on to the other at max output on a 50 hz tone... worst case I would assume. It's now stuck in protect.

 

[kcr357 10+ year member]

Are you interested in selling the dd?

Lmk if so, I've been wanting to try repairing an amp.

 

[Volvo_S80]

Are you interested in selling the dd?Lmk if so, I've been wanting to try repairing an amp.

I'm sending it out to DD to get a repair quote once I know what they want to charge I'll go from there. Right now I plan to keep it but if the repair cost is ridiculous I'll have to think about it.

So I got out of work today started my drive home and was jamming out to some Metallica absolutely maxed and again half way through the song everything shuts off.

 

[NSTALN 10+ year member]

ZED amps = failure

I learned this after $1500+ worth of ZED amps failed on me....tried multiple times to get service and never even got any return correspondence. I was very disappointed with the company and product. That really ***** about your amp.

Maybe you'll have better luck than I did with ZED's 'customer service'.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I'm sending it out to DD to get a repair quote once I know what they want to charge I'll go from there. Right now I plan to keep it but if the repair cost is ridiculous I'll have to think about it.

So I got out of work today started my drive home and was jamming out to some Metallica absolutely maxed and again half way through the song everything shuts off.

My LEDs flicker some if I'm really pushing things, I'm not so worried about that. Everything shuts off? Is your battery good? Alternator? I've never had a Leviathan in protect or overheat and I've run a few and done all sorts of things with them including sub duty. The only thing that should power them down is too low voltage or they'd protect with some big problem.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

ZED amps = failure
I learned this after $1500+ worth of ZED amps failed on me....tried multiple times to get service and never even got any return correspondence. I was very disappointed with the company and product. That really ***** about your amp.

Maybe you'll have better luck than I did with ZED's 'customer service'.

Stephen had some serious health problems over the last year and that may be why you had trouble contacting him. He has always done me right so if you still have the amps you might want to try again.

 

[Volvo_S80]

My LEDs flicker some if I'm really pushing things, I'm not so worried about that. Everything shuts off? Is your battery good? Alternator? I've never had a Leviathan in protect or overheat and I've run a few and done all sorts of things with them including sub duty. The only thing that should power them down is too low voltage or they'd protect with some big problem.

Considering I could max out my volume with the DD m2c for and hour+ ride with no issues before I don't think it's my battery or alternator. Maybe just a bad MS-8 calibration. I'm going to take the rear fill off of the MS-8 power then try with just the front stage and the sub running off the zed to see what happens. I really don't get it. I could play longer louder before and now I'm having issues with much less power.. It is hot here but if it's never happened before why now?

 

[NSTALN 10+ year member]

Stephen had some serious health problems over the last year and that may be why you had trouble contacting him. He has always done me right so if you still have the amps you might want to try again.

This was about 6 years ago. Amps are long gone...I took the loss and moved on.