car audio amp question

[soccrstar]

hello, gots a question

friend of mine has an amp... after it gets turned on the over voltage protection gets activated n the amp loses power


could this be a blown fuse that is causing this or what could be the reason for this to happen?

[spldart]

The first test is get solid 12 volts to the B+ terminal and solid ground on it's terminal. With nothing else hooked up jump from the B+ to Remote terminal. Amp should come on and show no problem indicators. If it still does confirm your 12 volts is good and if so your amp is bad.
Does the amp have a fuse in it? Is it good?

[soccrstar]

i think it does...

would it be wise to open it up and check the fuses??

[spldart]

Most amps have fuses accessible from the outside. If it doesn't there's only a 5% chance their are fuses inside. Most amps have one cover that is easy to take off to give the inside a quick look wont hurt anything. Make sure you don't break any stickers if you have a warranty though.
What's the Make and Model of this amp?

[ATF_Syris]

maybe not enought juice from the battery? try a capacitor?

[soccrstar]

Originally posted by ATF_Syris
maybe not enought juice from the battery? try a capacitor?

even with no sub on it. it'll turn on... power protection light goes on, amp shuts off

[soccrstar]

Originally posted by spldart
What's the Make and Model of this amp?

Sony Xplod XM-475GSX

[ATF_Syris]

Well right there is your problem its a Sony Xplod. They are cheap so you get cheap stuff. But have you tried the system in a different car?

[Player0]

Ive had that problem where the ground wasn't proper and it was only getting like 10v. Make sure your getting 12v to that amp, a multimeter is nice for this.

Could be a bad amp as well. When you blow a circuit they'll act like that.

[soccrstar]

could it be that they were runnin' a 12" sub n 2x 6x9s on that one amp??

could it have stressed the amp n blow the circuit? system??

would it ever work again??

can nethin' b done to fix it?

or just trash?

[spldart]

Sony car amps in general are very repairable. I'm downloading the service manual for that model right now. (being the Sony Select authorized servicer that I am ;) )
If your sure you have a solid 12 v to that amp and still getting the fault indicator with no speakers hooked up then the amp has failed. Fixing it will depend on warranty status or how much you want to spend to fix it.

[spldart]

Ok. I'm looking through the schematics and there should be a blade fuse holder just beside the power connectors on that amp. The fuse should be a 40 amp. That amp does about 275 to 300 watts REAL power and is a good performer for small systems.
Its worth fixing if you can get a good price on the work.

[tripodal]

we can talk about this all day, but we will keep spinning our wheels until we get some facts.

Go to radio shack or walmart and buy a cheap multimeter.
After you get that measure the DC voltage on your battery terminals.

Then measure the voltage at the power terminals on your amp.

Let us know what the readings are.

[Burnt Offering]

Yo dudes, If you havent solved this problem yet I might be able to help you. I have done car audio installs for over 20 years. I have done $20k systems in everything from Lamborghini's, Testarosa's, to a Voltzwagon bug.
Almost always in a situation like this the person has too many speakers hooked up. All Major car audio amps(Rockford Fosgate, MTX etc.) are stable down to 2 ohms bridged, 4 ohms stereo. What this means is, if you are bridging the amp, you can only use one 4 ohm speaker as the amplifier sees half of the speaker impedance in the bridged mode. The most common mistake made is the person will hook up two 4 ohm speakers in the bridged mode. Everytime you parallel two speakers together it cuts the impedance in half. If you put two 4 ohm 12" speakers together in parallel, you got 2 ohms. So guess what? the amp in the bridged mode sees half that. 1 ohm. So you are esentially running your amp at a direct short, and that means protection light or worse, by by mosfets. It would be the same as if you took the speaker outputs tied them together at the amp, and turned the volume up all the way. You will fry the amp. If you diconnect the speakers from the amp, and make sure there are no shorts, you should be able to turn the amp on and the prtection light should go out. If it doesn't. Time for a new amp! Hope this helps!

[tripodal]

except that the amp acts up with no speakers connected

[Burnt Offering]

Like I said, if there are no speakers connected and the sucker still is acting up, it pretty much means that the damage is done already, and it's time for a new amp. This time, get a Rockford or a MTX, or other American Made amp. The Japenese do Some things right, but there car stereo amps flat suck, period! Use that Sony for a boat anchor!

[spldart]

Originally posted by Burnt Offering
Yo dudes, If you havent solved this problem yet I might be able to help you. I have done car audio installs for over 20 years. I have done $20k systems in everything from Lamborghini's, Testarosa's, to a Voltzwagon bug.


I may have gone against some of your installs at the comps...
http://67.10.210.195:91/trophies.jpg
Top 10 in the world USAC 501-1000 and later 601+ And lots of first places DB Drag including one from Spring Break Padre
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And yes. That's Alma Gates ;)

[/reminisce of the old days]

[AciDDreamZ]

hey......wutz up............soundz crazy.....but seriously.......dbl check your speaker wires..............that all ground and pos'z goin where they supposed to be..........if wrong or out of spec for the amp, it will cause ur situation.........GOOD LUCK.

[AciDDreamZ]

OH..........sorry.........and while ur in there.....make sure that nothin is shorting out as far as speaker wires are concerned.......

[AciDDreamZ]

haha...............hey, i just read SPLDART'z repley.....woops....maybe i should read on before opening my mouth......but yeah.......wut he said, and mine in short...........lol.....hey, wutz up SPLDART

[spldart]

Whaddup :cool3:

[tripodal]

WAAAZZZZZZUUUUUUUPPPPP!