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Amp Overheating

acarmody

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Hi all. I have a Cadence ZRS-1502 150WRMS x 2 at 4 Ohm, 300WRMS x 2 at 2Ohm, driving two sets of splits, both sets rated at 125WRMS at 4 ohm. I have both sets wired up in parrell (basically 2 speaker cables to to each output) to create 2 ohms at the amp. Each set of splits can take 150WRMS. Now I have the gain set at 4volts which I think is right as the H/U has 5V preouts but only ever gets turned up to 30 volume with maximum being 35.

Problem is that when I crank them up for more then a few minutes the amp gets bloody hot. Hot enough that you can only touch it for a few seconds.

I have checked the ground and it is fine, all the speaker cables are 16AWG cable except from the rear splits to behind the seat belts which uses the factory wires (because its a royal pain to rewire this). I just can't work out why it is getting this hot. Also the amp is mounted on its side, but I wouldn't think this would be such a big problem.

Anyone else have any suggestions that might help?
 

StoneX

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It's getting hot because you're running it near it's limits. At 2 ohm it draws twice as much power as at the normal 4 ohm, therefore twice as much heat. If it's not cutting out, don't worry about it.

If you want it cooler, put fans on it or use 2 amps.
 

acarmody

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I wouldn't of thought that it would get that hot even at the limit. Its eriously hot enough to burn you after a few seconds. Though it hasn't cut out yet, I've been terribly worried I'm going to destroy something.
 

MIIK3Y

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id suggest connect a pair up 2 ur headunit, turn it up n if it distorts or cuts out still then its ur amp, but if it only does it when ur running the 2 sets of splits ur tryin to ova power it
i tried running a pair of splits n a pair of 4 ways off a 2 ch amp b4 n it wudn work so well but after i took the 4 ways it worked fine,
Personally i think u need a 4 channel amp
give it a shot,

my 2 cents..
 
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cannlia

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i used to have the same problem when i had a 1000w pioneer mono running a 600wrms 12in soundstream reference. i went down to j car and bought a small 12 volt fan, connected it up via the remote wire and ground and solved my problem. is ur cadence fan cooled? i now have a 1000wrms soundstream mono and no probs, came at a price tho! really the best thing you could do is get a second amp cas it sounds like it is running way too hard. maybe look at setting ur hpf a little higher so it runs the amp a little softer?
 

StoneX

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I wouldn't of thought that it would get that hot even at the limit. Its eriously hot enough to burn you after a few seconds. Though it hasn't cut out yet, I've been terribly worried I'm going to destroy something.
I test(and repair) amplifiers daily... We run them at full power with music for hours and they'll be too hot to touch after a few minutes. If the heatsink is hot, it means it's doing what it was designed to do, get rid of the heat. If you want to get rid of the heat quicker, put fans near it blowing along the heatsink fins (if it has them).
 

acarmody

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So basically your saying that my amp isn't overheating, its just doing its job properly.

If this is what it is meant to do then I'm not real worried about it. Well, maybe a little woried about the vinyl its mounted on.

I guess you could say it has fins, they aren't real big but.....
Check out the pic.
 

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StoneX

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If it was overheating, it would shut down. You're just making it work hard so it's getting hot.

You could secure a couple of small fans to the side of that blowing into the fins if you wanted.
 

acarmody

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At least something of mine is working hard :p.

I might just leave it for now then, because I have another amp that I could use to run the second set of splits. I was going to use it to power a set of Kickers SS-MB8s but it looks like I will be buying a computer first.

Only reason I don't have the other amp running yet is that it IS overheating, cut out while I was driving. The amp is a 4-channel, and bridged it puts out 300WRMS x2 at 4Ohm, but it was set so it only put out 150WRMS but it still got hot enough to go into protect mode.

So once I get that amp back I can have full front and back fading options again.
 
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