This amp is hot!

[ga93sle]

Having a problem with my amp, as you could probably tell from the title, lol. In order for you to understand everything, I'm gonna tell you the whole story from the beginning.

I started out with a TIS 10" sub that I got from Aaron88 and a 325w Visonik amp. The amp pushed the sub great, but after a while the sub started to rattle, so I bought a Pioneer 10" sub that I got from a pawn shop for $30.

Now the Pioneer sounded great with the Visonik amp, but the amp was getting really hot. The location I had it in wasn't the greatest. It was on the side of the sub box, with the face of the amp up against the trunk carpet. I removed the amp from the box, and attached it to the back of the seat with nothing in front of it in hopes that it would move more air around it. Well it still got really hot so I thought to myself, "I plan on buying 2 12" subs in the future, so I'll go ahead and buy a new amp.

So I found a really good deal on a Kenwood amp. It is a Kenwood KAC-7204 2 channel with 1000w peak. It has 2 built in cooling fans and protection mode. It is attached in the same place the Visonik was, on the back of the seat on the black plastic piece next to the pass through door. Now I am having 2 problems with this amp. It pushes my Pioneer sub great (btw, 400w peak, not sure RMS), but according to Kenwood, running the amp bridged like I do, it should run at 500w RMSx1 at 4 ohms-1kHz-0.8% THD. Now pushing a 400w sub with a 500w amp does not add up to me, but that's not even my real problem, the amp is still running hot! Now I understand an amp should get warm, but I don't see how this amp should get so hot you can barely touch it just pushing my little sub. It is not getting hot enough to go into protection mode, but I also haven't pushed it for more than about 10 minutes at a time since I got it, please help!

[Pontiacdad]

A few q's.
What size of cable are you powering the amp with?
Also the ground wire size and is it a good secure connection to the frame or similar?

Aside from that you may want to add a capacitor?

[mntnbkr]

Chris,

As you said, amps get HOT. The size of the speaker doesn't really matter, however the resistance (ohms) of the speaker does. The specs on your amp say 500W X 1 @ 4ohms. I didn't research too thoroughly, but I assume that 4 ohms is the lowest that you can go with that amp. If your speaker is a 2-ohm speaker, or has (2) 4-ohm voice coils and is wired to 2-ohms, then your amp is pushing too much juice through the speaker and will overheat.

Does the amp go into protect mode when you turn the volume up loud? If you haven't tried it, you should, but don't turn it up to where the bass is distorted as you could blow your speaker. If the amp goes into protect mode, then you probably need to make sure your sub is set up correctly for your amp (ie. 4-ohm resistance). If the amp doesn't go into protect mode, then it's probably just a hot running amp. My amps (when I used to crank the bass) would get VERY hot on a regular basis.

As far as pushing a 400W speaker with a 500W amp, that is perfectly acceptable. In fact it's usually preferred to have a amp with a higher power rating than the sub. The amp will only put out 500W when you have the volume cranked all the way up. In order to prevent blowing your speaker, you adjust the gain on the amp such that when your stereo is at full volume (or max volume without distortion or clipping) your sub does not distort the bass on even the most bass heavy songs. They make tuning CD's for this.

Let me know if you need more help.

[swampthing]

I agree with everything stated you need to check the ground wires and connections to the sub

[ga93sle]

OK, just scoped the sub. All wires are good, connected right and all. The sub is a 4ohm, single voice coil. I've had the sound fairly loud, it seems like about the point where if I go any louder it will start to distort the bass, and it's not going into protection mode, and I've ran it like that for about ten minutes straight. It may be just a hot running amp, I may just be kinda paranoid. I'm used to my uncle's amp staying cool to the touch no matter how hard you push it, and with my first sub the amp never put out to much juice anyway.

[rmac694203]

I was trying to set my gains earlier with some test tones and after about 10 minutes of usage my sub amp was QUITE hot to the touch. I've had it for about 4 or 5 years and it's always gotten very hot, but never gone into protect mode. Amps get hot. If the heat sinks do their job, then it shouldn't be a problem.

[gxp937]

I recommend just getting a hiphonics amp. I paid $230 for mine. Its 1200 watts at one ohm. and I was running 3 JLaudio 12s but now I'm just running 2. I blew one and the other one I blew the cap off(glued it back on)!! And the amp never gets hot and its one ohm stable. If you want a new amp with a 2 year warranty. Go to www.techronics.com..

[rmac694203]

I have a Hifonics amp, but I've been reading a lot of car audio forums lately and it seems Hifonics is losing a lot of favor in the community. Overrated specs and a lot of problems with going into protect mode. I was considering getting another, but I may look elsewhere now.