Ok, I am very new to car audio, and this was my first install. Here is what I have:
Crunch GPV1100.2 amp, x2 Sony xplod 10's, 4 gauge power and ground, 12 gauge speaker wire, Ported box.
Question is this: I have all of this wired with a 2 ohm load. Now, I have set everything pretty good (i think, lol). Bass does not over ride the lyrics, and its clear. Max volume on the HU is set at 45/62. Any higher than 45, and i start to hear the "static" in the lyrics. Last night after about 2 hours of listening, at about 1/2 to max (45 on volume), the amp went into protect mode. Is this normal, or do I have something set wrong?
Amp was very hot to touch before going into protect mode.
Last edited by blackdragon159; 08-11-2012 at 10:24 PM..
Reason: forgot details
also just noticed i have it bridged at 2 ohms, but there is no output rating for that. Should i change my wiring and wire it bridged at 4 ohms? would that help with overheating?
That is a 2 channel amp so it is NOT designed to run at 2 ohms mono. That ia why it is over heating. You might be able to lower the gains enough to keep it at a reasonable temp but you will get less output. You either need to swap amps or subs or accept the lower output level and wire those subs in stereo to that amp.
Did the amp protect because it thermaled out? (got too hot, then worked fine later). Did your voltage get too low? Couple hours thumping subs can drag a normal car battery down to where it hits 10v on a hard bass note and trips the protection, even though it may still start your car. Maybe the amp needs a fan on it.
I do agree if its 2ch amp and rated 2 ohms/ch then you should not run it at less. That would be 4 ohms minimum if you bridge the (2 ohm) channels together. You need to look up the amp, but typically mono will have ++-- speaker terminals and 2ch will have +-+- terminals, but not always.
Bridge means you use a 2ch amp as a one channel amp, typically you use only the + of each channel sometimes + of one and - of the other depending on the amp. One channel is inverted so they can work together, on one or more speakers. ohm load is determined by the speakers (or voice coils actually) that you hook up and how you hook them up. Check out 12v here lots of info on that. So you could hook up a pair of 4ohm in parallel to one amp channel that would be 2ohms, hook up a dual VC 4 ohm in parallel would be the same thing because its two VC. Or not bridged the 4 ohm would be 4 on each channel.
Pioneer 880PRS~boston comps/alpine coax on Kappa 4 Z~back to Alpine mrd-m500 v12 on pyle 15s IB
Ok, well i went outside, and put each sub on its own channel. Reset all the gains to zero, and started over. theres a switch on it labeled full, lpf, and hpf. it is currently set to full, and i can now set the volume up to 50/62 before i start hearing distortion. Also, just played it at 50 for about an hour, and the amp was warm, but not near as hot as it was getting.
Low ohm loads will make them run hot and often even if they do protect for low load it will be at high volumes only. I assume this amp runs your subs, then likely you will want the amp on LP (low pass) so only bass sounds come out of the subs....unless your HU has a crossover you are using then you can use the LP to increase the slope or leave it on full and only use the HU xover.
2 ohm load only gets you so much more anyway, it is usually not that much louder at full tilt.
Pioneer 880PRS~boston comps/alpine coax on Kappa 4 Z~back to Alpine mrd-m500 v12 on pyle 15s IB
Thats what i ended up doing. Setting it on full, then using the HU to set treble, mid, and bass. Bass is on 0, treble on 6 (i think), and mid is around 4'ish.
theres a switch on it labeled full, lpf, and hpf. it is currently set to full,
Set that switch to LPF. That stands for LOW PASS FREQUENCIES. This will let you play just sub bass frequencies from your subs insted of vocals as well.
If you HU has a built in x-over then you can use that. But I am thinking it doesn't as you did not respond to sqs with that info.
Amp question
Linear Mode
