[acrimoniousbear]

hey guys am i doing sumthing wrong? my amp seems to over heat pretty soon to me. im new to audio additions but i've had the amp and sub for about 3 weeks and after 45 minutes to an hour the amp cuts out to cool. ok i know it might just be the music i listen to but hey isnt the point of buying a sub to get that heavy bass out of this bass heavy music? i took it to the audio place i got it installed and he taught me sum stuff about it and lowered the gain but ts still clipping. just a little later. do i need to turn the bass down even more? its already at -2! by the way its a TMA 320 wat amp bridged to a ''10 JL w3v2 sub.

 

[basilisk4]

This is just my limited car audio experience talking here, but it sounds like a crappy (or malfunctioning) amp.

 

[thepda]

There are many articles on this..

First off, you have to look on how your amp is mounted, it should be mounted vertically. meaning it should not be laying face down on the trunk or anything like that. You want to keep the air moving near it, so dont cover it with anything.

If you have a box, you want to mount it vertically on the back or sides of the box.

It should be mounted: Unit Horizontal, Mounted Vertical or Unit Vertical, Mounted Verticle.

Please tell me how your sub is mounted. I run a 350 watt and never have this problem!

There are a couple of solutions. One, (google for amp+fan+wiring) you need to set up a fan from the power source either on the amp itself or another source. Most people do it from the amp itself. Although im not good with that kinda stuff and cannot do it myself.

If your amp doesnt have a fan built in (you would be surprised to see how many dont). Then you might have to choose that route if mounting it differently doesnt help (which it should, because my guess right now is that its laying on the back floor or just mounting face up somwhere)

Also, its cold outside here, so that helps my amp! Give me more info on the info I gave you and I can possibly help you furthur!

 

[mrbrace]

Yeah I would defintley get a different amp to power that, and like he said it could be the way its mounted...I would get a mono channel amp if you just have one JL.

 

[thepda]

ahh true mrbrace..

but if an audio shop installed your sub they should have let you know about the mono/stereo thing, or wired it correctly. At least, thats what tweeter would have done for me.

I cant wire ####.. But when it comes to box's, box placement and correct knowledge of how its supposed to be wired, I know about it.. hahaha..

But honestly, most people dont know.. The way your sub slams, is all about your box. If you want lows, I can give you lows, if you want highs, I can give you highs.. Same sub, different box..

But anyway.. Yeah, check the mounting and the mono/stereo setup..

Thanks mrbrace..!

Give us a holler!

 

[jltd]

Amplifiers all incorporate some form of thermal protection. The most common is to have a set temp at which the amplifier will mute until things get back to normal. Heat is a by-product of generating energy unfortunately in this case.
Clipping dramatically increase average power over time. It's important to limit the instance of severe clipping. If you have the TMA 3202, it's rated for 320 Watts RMS @ 14.4V into a 4 ohm mono load. In car this means the amp is capable of 224 Watts @ 12.5V. Why is this important to know? Because it's how your installer will know where to adjust the "gain".
Ask him to set your gain the way JL Audio has taught him over and over again. Ohm's Law can be used to effectively set "gain" with some overlap.
Ohm's Law: Voltage = SqRt (Power x resistance). Here's what we do:
Determine Voltage Output SqRt (224 x 4) = 29.9V
Grab a test CD with 50Hz sine wave. He'll have at least one from a CleanSweep install.
Disconnect the woofer from the amp.
Set tone controls to flat and volume to 3/4. Insert CD
Connect VOM to the speaker outputs of the amp. Reading AC voltage here.
Turn the "gain" pot until the meter reads 29.9V and you're done.
Reconnect your speaker and enjoy.
Hopefully your installer will already know how to do this as it has been out there for years!
If you would like to see the process, you can here.

 

[acrimoniousbear]

wow ok... however its not mounted face up its mounted against the back seat on driverside. u know the flap that comes up behind the driver side back seat? its mounted on that so its sitting....sideways, kinda like a PS2 i took a picture on my phone. i'll see if i can post it. i figured TMA wasnt bad since they are now owned by JL. yeah it is a monoblock amp tho as far as how my sub is mounted. well its like, not. its in a box just sitting in from of the amp. i will say tho that i know the carpet cover that covers the "trunk area" in the hatch is right above the amp so i know that keeps the heat in and i think the sub might also be insulating it too. i tried folding the seat down and letting the outside air get to the amp while it was laying face up but that was after it had already clipped once so it really didnt get a fair chance to stay cool since it was already overheated. can you see the fan sumwhere on the amp if it has one. or are they usually hidden away inside it? oh and thanks for that knowledge JLTD even tho the majority flew smooth over my head. im a automotive guy. and thats where my car smarts stop. audio is a brand new world!

 

[acrimoniousbear]

aww crap on a stick! i just looked at the picture and its not a picture of the amp. i thought i took one but its just the sub. i'll take one this afternoon and show you guys but the amp is like, mounted on the back seat sideways but mounted so the face is pointed out the back of the car. Hey i know like this:

_[___]_
l l

[ T M A ]
l______ l

oooo i know yall like that picture. im so cool

 

[thepda]

alright so its probably not the fact that its overheating because of the mounting.

try doing what jltd wait to do. although at first glance it seems difficult. your best beginners bet is to bring it back, tell them you did some reasearch and say, its not the way its mounted, its the way its set up, this is whats happening and I need that fixed. they shouldn't charge you for a tweaking, because they all should know how to do it, if they cant, take to a best buy or tweeter(if you have one) and have them do it.

hit me up if you need further help!

 

[acrimoniousbear]

ok im definately gonna take it back and tell them fools to get it right. its starting to seem like the amp is faulty. it clipped yesterday in about the same time, and hour and 45 minutes and i didnt even have the radio set to anything but like 13. i usually ride at 45 (OEM MP3 Player Pioneer HU) but i was on the phone. when i got off i noticed my amp was apparently overheated. WTF!? overheating at a fraction of the loudness? and this morning on my 15 minute drive to work it cut the freak out AGAIN! i had moved the Sub over to the other side b4 work to let the amp get more fresh air! it still has that hatch cover over it since i kinda dont want my ish stolen b4 its fixed. about how long SHOULD the amp be able to go b4 overheating? any guesstimates?

 

[eddiemoney]

Does the amp really have thermal shutdown, or is shutting down because the resistance on it is too low. The only time I had trouble with an amp shutting off is when I was running it at 1.67 ohms instead of 2 ohms, even it was fine until i turned it way to hell up. I have my amp buried, as I show in my pic, and it has never shut off, even after 5 hour road trips.

 

[thepda]

Alot of them do shut off, I used to have that problem actually. But its really hard to tell the difference between a wire shut off and a overheat shut off. We ruled out the overheat factor because of mounting, so it has to be the wiring.

Do not, its suggested by all amp companys to have it mounted vertically and not be covered. But thats up to anyone, thats just what they say. I thinks thats why when you take it to a shop, they always mount them like on the back of the box or something, cuz its vertical.. at least thats what they always do for me. BTW, 45 might be a little loud, I never go over 35, sometimes I do, but I feel like im pushing the speakers too much.. until I can get better speakers.

 

[acrimoniousbear]

ok so if 45 is too loud then....should i just get new interior speakers and amp them? cuz i kinda like my music loud with that big thump. the system actually sounds great but i just cant listen to it very long. i still want my ish loud. cot dang i dont feel like dropping to many more dollars into it. lastly, are you saying that 45 is just too much for the Amp or the Sub? you have a stock HU?

 

[jltd]

Originally posted by AcrimoniousBear@Dec 2 2005, 05:21 AM
ok im definately gonna take it back and tell them fools to get it right. its starting to seem like the amp is faulty. it clipped yesterday in about the same time, and hour and 45 minutes and i didnt even have the radio set to anything but like 13. i usually ride at 45 (OEM MP3 Player Pioneer HU) but i was on the phone. when i got off i noticed my amp was apparently overheated. WTF!? overheating at a fraction of the loudness? and this morning on my 15 minute drive to work it cut the freak out AGAIN! i had moved the Sub over to the other side b4 work to let the amp get more fresh air! it still has that hatch cover over it since i kinda dont want my ish stolen b4 its fixed. about how long SHOULD the amp be able to go b4 overheating? any guesstimates?

Amplifiers do not drive themselves into clipping just like cars don't drive themselves into trees. I am not sure you understand what "clipping" is. Clipping is what you're doing for the 45 mins that causes the amp to protect itself.

 

[eddiemoney]

^^^Exactly, you are overdriving the amplifier from what it sounds, its like the guy that says "I turn my gain all the way up because its louder"