Mr. Blue Sky

iTrader: (1)

I have a new PA gothic series OV2-1200 amp that is scalding hot to the touch when I play loud music for any period of time. After about 10 minutes of music at top volume, it makes a fast clipping noise and is really hot to the touch. I have it bridged at 4ohms mono with Dual brand Dual 1200 Watt subs. How can I remedy this problem, should I just do some more tuning to it and see if that helps the problem? It is also on full crossover. thanks in advance for your help. I am an audio setup noob so any help will be greatly appreciated.

AscendantMax

iTrader: (7)

put it to low pass, crossed around 80 hz or so. also how are the gains set?

Mr. Blue Sky

iTrader: (1)

Ok, I will do that. I will also check how the gains are set, since I don't remember at the moment.

Mr. Blue Sky

iTrader: (1)

Tried it again today on lowpass with it being set to about 70-80hz(no frequency gaps as far as I could tell) and the gains set about 40-45% and it still heats up pretty quickly when at full volume with bass set at mid strength in the HU. I am thinking it might be the gauge wire that I am running. I am running 8 guage which worked well before with the same speakers but different amp(not a 1200 watt amp). Should I move up to 4 AWG?

mattj10

i am not familiar with your amp but it is usually smart to feed the amp the largest power wire its terminals will allow, as that is usually the recomended guage as well.

mendon99

iTrader: (15)

how are the sub(s) wired? sounds like you have it wired down to 1 ohm on a non-1 ohm stable amp...

Mr. Blue Sky

iTrader: (1)

the subs are bridged, they are in an enclosure which came that way from the factory.The amp itself says it has 4ohms mono(bridged) (2 ohms stable in stereo) on the packaging

AscendantMax

iTrader: (7)

a lot of amps are not stable at 2 ohms when bridged. maybe the final load of the subs are below the amp's stable operating range. and yeah, 8 gauge is too small IMO for anything above 800 watts.

mendon99

iTrader: (15)

yep. anything above 600 watts really needs to be 4 awg. IMO, should be 400 watts and up for 4...

nismos14

iTrader: (56)

Safe bet that you need to change the wiring on the enclosure.

Mr. Blue Sky

iTrader: (1)

thanks guys, I am going to buy some 4 guage power wire and ground wire.

arkainshadow

well the dual, dual subs systems are all 4 ohm so it sounds like there probably is something wrong with the amp... if im right to small of power wire wont heat the amp up it will heat the wire up.

Mr. Blue Sky

iTrader: (1)

well these subs fried my last amp after a year, which was a dual brand amp that had only 300 Watts RMS. I think that was due to low wattage of the Amp(was a 420 peak watt amp),and that amp only overheated when I was running 10 guage wires. Once I went to 8 guage, it was fine for a year. this amp has the same symptoms as my last one, so I do think that it is a wiring problem. I mean the subs sound worlds better now than they did with the old amp, but it heats up quickly when I have it on high volume or strong bass settings. Here is a link: Power Acoustik OV2-1200

btw I am running it as 1 channel(bridged)

kpr10is

iTrader: (9)

I had one of those OV2 series amps blow up on me (in my friends car) about 5 years ago running it at too low an ohm load. Literally. Went up in smoke. Never touched power acoustik since.

Ill bet yours is running at 2 ohms bridged. Unbridge the amp to run it in stereo and see if the problem still remains.

Mr. Blue Sky

iTrader: (1)

how should I do that?? It has something like this + - | + - and I have it on the far left positive and far right negative. Should I put it on the far left positive and negative or the far right positive and negative, and if I do how should I get rid of distortions that will occur in the sound????

nismos14

iTrader: (56)

No, go in the box and do this :

AscendantMax

iTrader: (7)

^ but that will give you 8 ohm. his subs won't get much power. IMO he should just get a monoblock, wire it down to 2 ohm, set the gains properly and be on his merry way.

nismos14

iTrader: (56)

The way he's wired now is gonna blow his amp. So either less power or blown/overheating amp OR buy a new amp thats 1 ohm stable.

Mr. Blue Sky

iTrader: (1)

so I should just return it and get myself a monoblock amp???

now gs

iTrader: (1)

just rewire your subs, it's a two channel amp. use them or blow the amp. pa is not realy a good brand, if this one goes try jl,rf,ppi something like that. i bet you will not have does problems anymore.