Thread: Amp Gets really hot and smell a burning smell?

Op have you checked voltage???

The only reason I've ever smelled a burning smell from someone's subwoofers or amplifier is due to clipping, or overpowering by a LOT.

Don't adjust your gains with a DMM, the voltage you're going to see if different when under load and when not, in other words, it's very innacurate. This is a bit of copy and paste on my part, but I explained it... decent in another post and I figured it'd be useful for you to look at.

When you set your gains, you aren't setting your overall volume, your adjusting the amplifier's sensitivity to the headunit's RCA voltage. Higher voltage preamp's usually correlate to not turning the gain knob up as far. My Massive Audio N3 get's a 4 volt signal from my deck, and I only need to turn the gain up about 1/3 to reach maximum RMS wattage.

Find the max level on your headunit, and back it off a few steps (30 out of 35 for an example) and use that as your max volume. Play a bass test tone or something similar at that volume (0 dB sine wave) and turn the gain up until you hear distortion or the subwoofers don't play any louder. Setting gain by ear is still my go to way, DMM's are very unreliable and oscilloscopes cost a lot of money.

how could setting them by ear be better then using math and a dmm?

welp... im pretty sure one of them is blown now. dont know what went wrong??

I always run my positive and negative straight to the front battery and upgrade the big 3. That way I know I always have a strong ground.

Tuning by ear is a big no no unless you are perfectly acoustic which no one is. I've gotten it close, but never got it perfect. Your best bet is to find someone near you with a SMD DD-1 distortion detector and go from there.

Your amp getting hot could be a number of things. Have you actually checked your impedance at the amp with a dmm? How is your amp sitting? I like the spacers idea, but those alone won't help much. There are tons of variables as to why your amp is getting hot. Some amps just run hot(I've seen people almost able to cook eggs on some amps during daily play in the fall where it's mildly cool outside).

what kind of head unit do you have and what is the pre-out voltage? you may think your gains arent up too high but the still could be....did u ever feel the cone of the sub to see if it was hot or warm as well. if it was then you were probably clipping the hell out of them

what do you mean by a clipping amp?? and to me it seems that whenever i have the bass booster on my head unit turned all the way up (+6) is when the amp got hot and when i kept it on 0 it was really cool. never completely verified this but i noticed it a couple times

oh on a side note moving the power wire from the power box to the battery i think stopped the headlight flashing but again i havent completely verified this either. it definitely reduced it. only driven at night once since i did that and it was raining. my park lights and interior dim whenever i put my windows up and down though.. :/

Keep the bass boost on the deck and amp both at 0. Never use those. You will destroy subs with them on cuz you are sending a dirty signal to them.

alright i will do that from now on then... i don't really need it, but a little extra rattle is nice sometimes.. lol

Well I have a second optima yellow top in mine since 06 and I made a 4 ga ground just under the seat , put a ring terminal on it , soldered it at the ring , and ran 2 screws through the ring , never had to tighten up , never any issues , piece of sandpaper is ur best friend take it down to bare metal!!!!

And run a 4 ga wire from the alt. To battery , makes miracles happen with the light flicker !!!!

Originally Posted by eddie97gt

Well I have a second optima yellow top in mine since 06 and I made a 4 ga ground just under the seat , put a ring terminal on it , soldered it at the ring , and ran 2 screws through the ring , never had to tighten up , never any issues , piece of sandpaper is ur best friend take it down to bare metal!!!!

i did that and it still got hot

Originally Posted by eddie97gt

And run a 4 ga wire from the alt. To battery , makes miracles happen with the light flicker !!!!

and changing the amp power wire from the fuse box to the battery stopped the flicker