okay i have a 2kmax with stock bose w/ cd w/out stock sub, and i added a 12inch sub to it with a jenson amp. on long car rides, and when i turn up the bass, the amp shuts down, and the power light on the amp switchs off, and a light that says protected turns on. Is this because i just have a crappy amp? or could it be wiring? or maybe overheating <shurg>.... well any help would be apriciated.. thanks!

XeLz

 

check the speaker connections first,

is the amp bridged, is the speaker wired to an appropriate impedance?

 

Jensen's are not known for their build quality. However, if the protection circuit is functioning then everything is probably working as it should. The next time it shuts down on you, put your hand on the heatsinks. If it feels hot to the touch then it's probably overheated. When you crank it up do you get distortion at loud volumes? If it distorts then then you're probably clipping it, ie. you're driving it too hard and the amp just does not output enough clean power for your musical tastes.

 

Sounds like overheating but do the back of hand to heatsink test to be sure. Remember, everytime you turn up the base 3dB's that doubles the power the amp needs to provide. Also check to be sure the amp is stable into the load you are driving.

 

do what i did, go to radio shack and buy one or two DC brushless cooling fans and mount them to the amp. Use small dots of silicone to hold it down. Then take the red wire on the fan and put it to the remote line on the amp, and the blue wire to the ground. This way it will come on whenever you turn on your system and will prevent the amp from shutting down. MY Kicker amp shut down after about 2 hours of pumping the bass. I used 3 of these fans and it has never shut down since.

 

it's really really really hot, melts plastic hehe. it's bridged into one. i'll add the fans, and that should make it run for a long time, but it prob wont make it go louder. when i turn it loud, it doesn't chirp or anything it just turns off.

thanks
xelz

 

I used to have a jensen amp with one 12 and mine did the same thing. If the sub is a dual voice coil one, and each coil is 4 ohms, you CANT connect those 2 coils and run it to a bridged amp. thats a 1 ohm load, which the jensen wont like at all. If its a regular 4 ohm single voice coil speaker then maybe lack of ventalation?

my .02,
Ely T.

 

i'm thinking it's a dual voice... so i can't wire it any other way to make it quit shuting down on me? hmm.

 

you can wire it a coupla other ways.
You can wire one channel on the amp to each coil, then both channels on the amp are under 4 ohm load, where it needs to be. Another way, which im not sure is any louder or better or worse, is to run a wire from ONE channel on the amp(just pick one, dosnt matter) and run it to the sub which is wired in parallel. then you are running the amp in 2 ohm load stereo, which it can do. I think the first way i mentioned is going to be louder and the amp is going to run quieter though.
if your box does not have 2 terminal cups to where you can wire the 2 coils individually, then my first method would be impossible unless u get another terminal.
ill post an illustration on how all this works.


[Edited by Foo90SE on 11-25-2000 at 07:37 PM]

 

Why don't you tell us exactly which model of sub you have. Even if it has two voice coils, they could be any of a wide variety of impedences, so we can't accurately tell you how to wire it.

 

All that stuff i illustrated was if its 2 4ohm coils

 

it is a soundstream 12inch.. it is wired the way foo said it would be.. hmm i guess i should change that, try that out.. it says on the speaker, usa 12, ohm 8/2, dual coil. hmm so i'm thinking of wiring it like what foo said .. okay thanks guys!

XeLz

 

Yeah, the Soundstream USA12 is a dual-4-ohm-voicecoil sub. You really need to use a 4-ohm sub for that amp, which is only 2-ohm stable. You will need to either wire the sub to be an 8-ohm load for the amp (creating half of the 4-ohm power) or wire each voice coil to each amp channel. Either way, you aren't getting all of the power out of the amp.

 

just unbridge the amp and leave the sub wired like it is, and hook it to one channel of the amp? i ran a blaupunkt DVC sub like that to a jensen amp and it sounded good...unless it'll hurt it to run it like that.
just a suggestion

 

He could parallel the voicecoils to one channel and leave the other unused. Depends on if the amp will make enough power to be useful that way.

 

okay thanks guys i left it unbridged for now, and it sounds about a million times better =) gonna try to bridge it maybe later, but i'm really happy now. now there's has to be a way to get rid of all the rattling sounds from the car that the bass creates ... hehehe

thanks !! =)

XeLz