Is My Amplifier Blown??
Hey Guys how r u all goin??
Well I have a 2000W American Boss Amp, last week was hooking it up 2 sound system and protection mode keeps coming on when the bass line kept kicking in... Wasnt running to much power just 2 subs and 2 ****ty speakers... My thought was it was only a 10G power/ground wire...
Now my amp is perminately stuck in protection mode!
I tryed isolating each sub/speaker, that didnt work... I tried disconnecting the power/ground and rewire the whole thing, it still stuck in protection mode.
I also wired the same wire up to a 250w amp (Theres a big diff I know) and that amp got power & was fine (I know that probably doesnt mean anything, but thort Id better mention)
I have pulled my amp apart, nothing seems unusual and there is no burnt smell or any smell of any kind... Does anyone have any ideas? All of the fuses are fine and i'm completely stumped. I can provide pics if anyone asks someone please help if you can help me fix this amp you will be forever GOD!
Banned
honestly, its not worth fixing.
it probably does about 200watts rms total, thats real world power, not magical made up power figures.
chances are its dead, and for no real reason other than it was a cheap and nasty amp to begin with.
Custom Car Stereo Systems
Nah, sorry mate...sounds like youve stuffed the amp from running power cable thats too small for the amp, you could take it to a repair place but honestly, buy a brand name amp. Even Response amps will give you good value for money (i recommend the $299 4 x100wrms model to most people). But please, spend the extra $70 and get 4AWG power cable.
Theres a lesson for alot of people here, use 8AWG MINIMUM for all amplifiers, but if it puts out more than ~300wrms go with 4AWG, more than 1000wrms (especially monoblocks) go with 2AWG or 0AWG. In General, the thicker the power cable the better, plus your amp puts out more power as the voltage drop is less with larger cable. Also make sure your earths are sanded/grinded back to bare metal and on a suitable place (not the parcel shelf or back of the rear seats).
Sorry milkandjuicecomein2litres, but i would say the amp has had its day.
Edit....i just saw you had 2 subs and 2 speakers running off this amp, i assume the speakers were running off the front outputs but how were the subs hooked up? i.e. one off each rear channel or both subs running off the rear outputs which were bridged?
You really don't know what you're talking about, do you... I've seen your posts all over the place and they're always negative and in this case, wrong.Originally Posted by TheyDontWantMusic
Do you realise that "American Boss" and "Boss Audio" are different products? Do you realise that "American Boss" are actually decent products?
If you're on a forum to help, try keeping the negative comments to yourself and just stick with the helpful parts
To the original poster, if a different amp works in it's place, the American Boss amp is faulty, as the other guys have said. If you really want to, and you have a multimeter, put it on diode check and test the big transistors... If any of them beep constantly between any of the legs, they're most likely dead and it'd be best to replace all the transistors on that channel. It probably isn't worth fixing unless you can do it yourself.
Banned
You really don't know what you're talking about, do you... I've seen your posts all over the place and they're always negative and in this case, wrong.
Do you realise that "American Boss" and "Boss Audio" are different products? Do you realise that "American Boss" are actually decent products?
If you're on a forum to help, try keeping the negative comments to yourself and just stick with the helpful parts
To the original poster, if a different amp works in it's place, the American Boss amp is faulty, as the other guys have said. If you really want to, and you have a multimeter, put it on diode check and test the big transistors... If any of them beep constantly between any of the legs, they're most likely dead and it'd be best to replace all the transistors on that channel. It probably isn't worth fixing unless you can do it yourself.
I know exactly what I'm talking about.
"American Boss" is just as crap as any other "Boss"
if it says 2000watts on the amp, then obviously its crap! because it doesn't do that much power, and only crappy manufacturers have to lie about power figures to make sales!
the amplifier isn't work fixing, even if you can do it yourself.
get a new, reasonable brand amplifier, or possibly even two if your budget can stretch that far?
a monoblock for the subs, and a 2, or 4 channel for the cabin speakers.
lol, "American Boss"
http://search.ebay.com.au/search/sea...oss&category0=
Banned
from another thread:
sounds like a quality product to me
Yeah...it DID work for 2 years with out an issue, it never overheated, and never gave me any trouble. Exact same set up except for the 10G wire with a 50A fuse
Keep in mind, that the other amp i wired up was a 250W xplod, which is a bit of diff... 2 channel aswell... and I was only running one sub to see if it worked
Now, is it actually POSSIBLE to blow an amp by using a small wire? I dont know much about audio to be honest, but if anything I thought it would of given less/no power, not overload?
If its a cheap fix job I would do it myself, just need an idea on what parts I need and what im in for, obviously if its too dear I would be better getting a new amp. but still...
Of course you do
I cant see why an amp would die because the power cable is too small. You would simply be restricting the amount of power the amp is getting. I can see over-voltage being a problem for an amp, but it should tolerate a bit of under-voltage. When the amp turns off it takes time for the capacitors inside the amp to discharge, and they will continue to supply a lower voltage as they discharge. If the amp died because of under-voltage you would kill the amp every time you turned it off.
milkandjuicecomein2litres if you have given up on the amp I would be happy to have a quick look at it for you if you were happy to cover the postage.
Banned
lol, I'm not the one here saying that a $40 "american boss" amp is a good amp!Of course you do
hmm well in the past i had a 600W clarion AMP which couldnt power my 2 subs, how come this one could and did for 2 years whilst the clarion lasted 4 days?
Banned
if it only lasted 4 days, then either you wired it wrong, or it was faulty to begin with.
I said decent in comparison to the Boss Audio available here, I never said it was a good amp.lol, I'm not the one here saying that a $40 "american boss" amp is a good amp!
Banned
a $40 amp bought off ebay, of any brand is not going to be decent.
may we please see pics of the amps internals?
as someone said, chances are its blown one or more output transistors, so it basically detects a short circuit on one of the channels, and therefore goes into protect.
booosted
So your trying to say cheap, second hand, reputable stuff off ebay is no good? If i picked up an Alpine or Pioneer amp for $50 on ebay why is that not going to be decent??
American boss is actually an OK brand. So what if he bought it off ebay.
346 cu/in
The Clarion amp I had was wired by a professional and second hand yes, maybe it was faulty but not wired wrong, it kept going into protect mode then it never powered again.
Ill put some pictures up of the internals of the amp!!
Ok here are some pictures of the internals (if that helps)
I also noticed something weird, but if I am right I guess someone will notice from the pics, here they are:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...4102008003.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...4102008004.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...4102008005.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...4102008007.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...4102008013.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...4102008014.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...4102008015.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...4102008460.jpg
See... Always think you're right
And trying to steal my diagnosis now
milkandjuicecomein2litres... Do you have a multimeter with the diode check function? If so, check between the legs of each of those 8 larger transistors.
Custom Car Stereo Systems
I dont think running power cable thats too small will directly blow an amplifier, but seeing as the amp was going into protect everytime a decent bass tone hit (when the amp is pulling max current) then i would say the voltage is dropping below 10.5v or whatever its protection is set on. Anytime an amp goes into protection isnt good and the protection function is there for a reason...to protect the amp.
Edit; milkandjuiceonlycomein2litres - you say you had a 50A fuse on 10awg cable...thats should have been 30A, if your power cable had a short in it after the fuse it wouldnt got really hot and possibly caught on fire before that fuse blew. Take a look at the fuse on the amp, i would imagine it wouldnt have been 50A, maybe 30-40A. Thats a good way to determine what fuse you should be using at the battery, by adding up the fuse/s on your amp/s.
Yes thats right. there are two 25A fuses in the american boss amp.
Banned
nothing would have caught fire by having a 50amp fuse on 30 amp cable.
10 ga cable will happily handle 2 or 3 times that much current for the short period required to blow a fuse.
I've pulled 110amps through 10ga cable before for a good 20 seconds or so, which would easily blow a 50 amp fuse.
the fuse is there to protect the cable, not the amplifiers.
you should fuse to what the cable is rated at, but you should choose what cable to use based on the amplifiers fuse ratings.
if you have amplifiers, that have 50amps worth of fusing on them, you'd want to use atleast 8ga cable, which is good for 55amps or so, and you'd want to use a 50 - 60 amp fuse.
Custom Car Stereo Systems
so 8awg cable is good for 55A or so, that leaves 10awg to be good for....?
Banned
30 amps of continuous current, but that doesn't mean the wire is going to catch fire in the event of a short circuit if you use a 50amp fuse on it.
like I said, I've pulled 110amps through 10ga cable before.
Did anyone actually look at my pictures and see anything odd?
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