I just got my components and amp installed from Don. Today the amp that's powering the components just cut off atleast 6-7 times at volumes that were a little loud, not too loud. When I opened the trunk to look at the AMP. It was EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY HOT. So much so I couldn't touch it for more than .1 seconds. What can it be?

 

bad grounds..amp is probably runing at a lower ohm, and isnt probably stable at that ohm. or your gains could be too high.

call Don he should fix it for u

 

What should the OHMs be? I have SLC265 Components (Rainbow), and Rainbow Soundline Coax's in the rear, just 1 400.4 amp powering all 4 speakers. Hooked up to Eclipse AVN Headunit. I think the gains are in the middle.

 

From what I can see there are 4 sets of speaker wires hooked up to the back of the Amp. These are running from the speakers, and 2 sets of RCA Jacks, running from the headunit. I have not and will not take anything apart but if I recall correctly the only ground and power wires were running to the amp for the SUBS ONLY. Also the amp is mounted upside down on the sub box.

 

Gains are set at a little less than half.

 

upside down? please explain....or take a pic

Or is it just laying flat on its back the box....

This is odd, i know many people running that particular amp without issues.

Is the amp directly underneath the rear deck?
How loud can you go on the Ecxlipse AVN before it gets too loud and distortion comes in? Is it an avn2v or 5v series? perhaps the gains a lil too high, not enough air circulation considering the summer heat, could be many things or a combination of...

The amp has speaker protection and of the sorts...you check to make sure all connections are clean?(ie...no speaker wire strands lose, wandering...)

 

Well everything is hooked up correctly. When I say upside down I mean the name "arc audio" on the amp is reversed. I don't think that will cause a overheating issue though. I mean Don knows what he's doing. I am leaning towards a bad amp. This post is simply to gain more information on what could be a problem. It is not intended to discredit Arc Audio, Don the installer or anyone else. Arc Audio designs great products, and Don installs them and works with them with very reasonable prices.

 

possibly your gains are a lil' high-f you are the type that cranks your music pretty loudly for good periods of time-thats why i'm asking at what volumes on the AVN do you feel it gets the loudest.....or you really get on it?

 

Bump Up the gains and dont crank the volume.

 

The gains are a little less than in the middle. The volume for the AVN at the loudest would be about 65-68 and that's quite loud.

Don,

I will try that.

But today I was barely pushing any volume AVN was running at Volume 30 and after 20 minutes of driving the AMP was still quite hot, I could lay my hand on it for 3 seconds before it started to burn. Whereas, the Kicker which is in a very unventilated area was barely even warm.

 

all i know is that its been unbearably hot for the last week or so.....

it doesnt matter how hot it gets, thats what thermal protection is for- as long as its not cutting out, you are ok. It will get hot, its an aluminum casing afterall w/ no heatsinks.
Not sure what Kicker you have but its got heatsinks or a fan, its reason as to why it may run cooler.

But you are running a 50 x4 into thermal protection , my thoughts lie in that you are simply pushing the amp too hard (due to high gains) in combination with the heat, lack of circulation.

What speakers are you running bTW?

 

Can i get my amp sold! pls

 

buahaha- lowering the price?

 

Ok I agree that it has been quite hot for the past few days. The amp has cut off on me a number of times yesterday. I have a kicker KX600.1 yes it does have slits for air circulation. The gains are a little less than half. Today I was running it and not pushing it hard at all. My highest level of volume on the AVN was 45 and only for a few brief seconds usually it was between 20-30. And I was driving quite a bit today. When I got home I felt the amp and yes it did feel QUITE HOT. Perhaps not as hot as last night, but it was still VERY HOT. BUT, it did not cut off on me at all today probably because my highest level of volume was 45. My speakers are Rainbow Audio SLC265 Components and SL165 Coax's.

 

I run (3) 12 yr old PPI amps (with no heatsinks) under a false floor w/no ventialtion whatsoever. The false floor sits directly on the amps. They run all day rain or shine. 0 to 110 degrees outside. My amps have never shut off.

 

HarrisH, take the amp back to the dealer, see if you can duplicate the problem- most likely gain setting can alieviate it being overdriven into protection. Thats a 5v/55ohm signal, i'm sure your gains can be backed off a little-40-50% gain sounds high IMO, considering the sensitivity on those amps....

There's always a possibility of a bad amp, but that doesnt sound the case. I've punished Arc amps for 3yrs, numerous models- never had one thermal on me.
Your kicker-which i've owned BTW, has ventilation and fan system aside of class d operation. A class a/b without heatsinks is simply going to run hot, afterall making power and dissipating heat is what they do....

 

Funny, I have the same EXACT setup....

AVN5435, Arc Kar 400.4. Except I have em bridged to my SLC265's, no rear speakers. Gain is a bit higher than half, if I recall but I'll check in the morning. No problems here, no distorting either, at very high volumes.

 

Well I tried messing around with the gains, I.E., turning them up as per Don's tip and keeping volume low. This caused it to cut out. Then I tried lowering the gain to 25-30% this caused it to cut out too! So no matter how much I play with the gains the damn thing still cuts out after a little while. And that's not even with the volume being cranked. I guess I have a bad amp . I hope the warranty or exchange method is fast. Don when can I come see you to get this resolved?

 

I don't mind it running hot, for all I care it can run at 1000 degrees but it cutting out on me on a consistent basis with a little more than subtle volume levels is annoying me.

 

I mean when you spend good money on amps and speakers (this isn't a $100 cheap amp from pep boys) you expect good quality. I'm leaning towards a defect which is probably what it is based on the fact that I've been in my car for 6-7 hours today running erands and simultaneously messing around with gains and volumes.

 

i know your pain, i have an even more expensive arc amp 4150XXK and its been cutting off on me too. Mine is due to blowing speakers because i didnt prep them properly but dam, the way i prepped this setup is the same way i did my Diamond Hex's, and every other speaker setup i had in the past. I need to go back to don and get my setup looked at again cause my amp heats up real bad. I finally disconnected some speakers so it doesnt cut off like it used to but i knkow your pain, spending mad money on a setup and not seeing the benefits.

Don's been real busy with personal issues but i'm sure he'll make time to look at your setup. I also have to schedule a time for him to see mine cause i'm getting pissed off at the way my setup is running too.

my setup consists of AVN 5435, arc acs comps, 4150XXK amp and arc coax.

 

So then it's probably a issue with the amps that Arc is designing?

 

Hmmm....

I've had the KAR 400.4 and KAR 1000.2T both under a false floor with no ventiliation for the entire summer now. I have run them in the extreme heat, such as last week, and the KAR 400.4 never shut off or had any issues.

Interestingly enough, I do have an issue with the 1000.2T every now and then. Occasionally (seems random) when I start my car up and the amps turn on, I hear a loud "pop" from the subs. Whenver this happens, the amp doesn't put anything out. The power LED is on, but nothing is coming from the outputs. This has only happened maybe 5 times in the past three or so months, so I've been ignoring it. If I just turn the radio off and back on, the amp turns on and works fine.

But definitely no problems with my 400.4. Good luck!

 

But we both know your issues. You have the amp that ran in My personal car for quite some time with no issues. You blowing speakers was the problem here...

 

No not with the manufacturer at all. According to Arc I am their largest dealer in the NE area. Ive sold well over a hundred amps to date of theirs with about 3-5 of them coming back with an issue.

Alot better statistics than any other manufacturer that Ive ever dealt with, and theres ALOT of them.

Simply put...nothing is perfect, incidents do occur and thats what warranties are for. I will attempt to internally adjust that amp, and if its not resolved itll be sent in. The amps do run hot, thermal protection is set at 190

 

you also have no subs, and try to squeeze sub bass out of components in a non dampened door to boot- listening to rap at insane volume levels- its not loud enough, so you push'm into clipping....coming from having an L7 you are not going to duplicate that with front speakers, if you used common sense and were setup properly you wouldnt be blowing quality speakers- you know your issues....

 

DUDE, trust me, you HAVE heat sinks! not opinion, fact.

 

Oh ok wasn't aware of Mecca's issues which is why I thought it was Arc. I don't have any crazy setup. Just a AVN 5435 hooked up too two amps, on KX600.1, one KAR400.4, SLC265 comps., with SL165 coaxs. Arc amp runs comps., Kicker runs two subs.

Don,
Hopefully what you will try will make it run better.
Thanks.

 

......'it's an aluminum casing afterall w/ no heatsinks."
......'you are simply pushing the amp too hard (due to high gains)"....give me a fudgin' break! Harrish, put this guy on your ignore list cause what he's saying isn't worth reading. pure ignorance.
the case may be smooth but it IS a heatsink and w/o the fins you commonly see, it just means it has a higher thermal resistance(less efficient). the engineer knows this. he also knows what the thermal properties are for all the MOSFETS and/or transistors. thus he will pick a heatsink w/ the needed dissapative properties to keep the amp from killing itself.
Amplifier gains have NOTHING to due with heat issues. i'm not going to elaborate on this. just believe.
try removing the component/coax speakers, bridge the amp, connect the subs. WARNING-if your subs aren't each a 4ohm load, DO NOT connect to amp in bridged mode. if this is too confusing, have it checked out. it's almost like the amp was serviced and the tech forgot to use heatsink paste or not enough. doubt it though. the best advice has already been mentioned-HAVE IT CHECKED OUT BY SOMEONE QUALIFIED!

 

...I would say Manny is qualified to make the suggestions/comments he did.

 

Absolutely no need to bash me. I simply offered troubleshooting ideas. What i meant by 'no heatsinks', I obviously meant a finned heatsink design. Yes an amp with the sensitivity of the Arc's can be driven into clipping with an improper gain(therefore going into protection ), afterall he's using a hot signal in the Eclipse of over 5v. I'd like to think I know this, I've been using/installing Arc amplifiers short of 3 years- their amps have an input sensitivity of 250mV-2.5v @1khz, gain setting although not an issue w/ high voltage, needs to be properly set so....



That is until you pump up the volume there sparky....dont tell me as output increases , the by product isn't more heat !?!




Now that is an ASSumption if I ever heard one....

I dont know HarrisH. I dont know first hand his installation. I dont know his listening habits. I dont know if the amp accidentally fell a few feet :\
WhaT i do know is that his amp is going into protection- therefore I provided troubleshooting ideas as to why so, rather than ASSume the amp is bad immediately.

 

Uhhhh..................nope, no he is not, in this case

 

ohhh i so wish Richard Clark belonged to this forum. i'm sure he would be gentle but say you're ignorant, too.

 

You also quoted me on a post that i had left sitting on my pc for a lil' while, within the time frame of minutes, in which he posted it was cutting at low volumes. If you werent so quick to take a grip on my sack, you would have noticed that and further read other posts I made....

Put me on ignore list?Ignorance?

All i tried to do was help from my computer chair, the best I could, being the products involved i'm familiar with.

 

10 chars.

 

Just go to this site, http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/, join, post in, "car audio" forum, telling readers about your gain theory.

 

Well I hate to break up a good argument, and this is a bit OT anyway, but I have a quick question. It seems there are a couple of people in this thread who have a very similar setup to me. (see sig) You guys listed having your KAR 400.4 powering the SLC265s only. I guess you are then running the SL165s on the HU's amp? I tried this out once but didn't play with it too much, so I really didn't notice a difference. Do you guys actually notice a significant difference when you bridge the amp for the comps?

 

I personally have the 400.4 bridged to the SLC's, no rear fill.

Sounds fine to me
(doesn't sound like its missing the rear)

And the fronts sound amazing bridged.

 

Yeah, but I mean, did you ever have the fronts not bridged? I'm not saying I don't trust your judgement, but they sound pretty good unbridged, too. Just seems like they lack a little bass sometimes.

 

Good point. From the day I powered it all up, they have always been bridged. I'm curious about how they would sound un-bridged with a pair of coax's in the back.

You're right about lacking bass, however you can't expect THAT much from a 6.5" driver.