hey guys im pretty sure i know the problem, but before i go and do this i need to know for sure...but when i turn up the volume, and its a song with alot of bass (i have the jensen 680 watt 4channel amp) it shuts off, but when i turn it back down, it kicks in again and i get bass from my sub, my guess is the power, and ground wires are too small ( they are 8 guage wires) and that it cant draw enough power from them to hit hard enough but if it could be something else please let me know
thanks

 

yeah and that i was going to fix it by getting a better wiring kit for the amp

 

I doubt its your power and ground wires. Have you checked all connections? While upgrading your wire deffinatly will not hurt anything. Check your spot you are grounded at and make sure you have a nice clean connection.

 

what ohm load is the amp seeing. if it is below the rated ohm load, sometimes it will run fine until there is a surge of power and it goes into protection mode

 

That happens with my one amp.

The one it happened to was my old bazooka 300w (at 1ohm) amp. I ran 2 subs at 4ohm's off of it. I figured it might have been a safety feature with the amp? it wants to generate more power then what it can so it shuts itself off so it doesn't burn itself up? That's probably not right but it was a theory.

The setup above is moving into my dads camaro and I'm using the 1200w lanzar amp in mine.

 

it most certainly could be the size of your wire. ive only had experience with this with jensen amps (weird, huh?) but every time upgrading your wiring seems to fix it.

 

Its the OHM's.. Jensen amps dont have a very high OHM rating.. Usually the Jensen amps run at 2. I had a 500watt jensen amp powering my 2 Pioneer IMPP 12's.. And it ran fine, because the speakers ran at 2. If you are running 4 ohm speakers then the amp will shut off. Get a new amp.. the only thing i can tell ya

 

well honestly so far, i got this cheapo sub off of my friend for free and when i took it out of its box it says its only rated at 250 watts eeeeek!!!!! it puts out alot of bass, but its distorted and ****ty the kid bought it from a wallmart so i can more or less assume PART of it has to do with such a low peaked sub but yeah ill check my ground i have 8 guage wires for the ground, and main power wires are those too small?

 

steve go to curcit city and buy one of there amp installation kits for a 500watt amp thats the one i got and i paid alittle over 40bucks. becuz ur wires are too small and u also have no fuse so that wil also help too.

 

My Jensen amp does it too. I imagine it's going into protection mode because I'm trying to work it too hard.

I have 2 JL 12W0's 8ohm subs bridged.

I got a better ground wire and it didn't help, but I haven't tried the power wire.

 

like i said, ive seen countless jensen amps doing this, and every time its because the wiring is too small.

 

In the audio world technical name for that is clipping. Usually due to loss of power intermittently. When you play your system for long periods of time the amp may get hot and do this, also if you play it too long and your battery begins to go dead, mids and tweeters wired to the stereo may sound fine but the sub will cut in and out. And yet another variable as with all things, you could just be overloading the amp. Try larger wire and make sure connections can carry the juice, also you may want to try a capacitor from like Rockford or whomever else makes em. But as long as your wiring is good and your connections are even gooder you SHOULD be fine.

 

well with his system he wont need a CAP. becuz its nothing too serious. ive noticed on my system that at night and im playin my system the light dimm a little and flicker when a hard bass note it hit. and i know i need atleast a .5 faret cap. but im not too worried becuz i dont play it too its maxx or loud enuff for any effcts at night. i think the longest time at night was 20 mins coming home from work but other then that i play it during the day but not that loud.

and with my system i have a pionerr head unit, a Jensen 200watt channel amp for the rear 6x9s which are pionerr, then i have a 400watt 4 channel amp powering my jensen bandpass sub box with 2 10's in it and then i still have just some crappy speakers in the dash i gotta swap. and the head unit turns up to only 30 and at 10 with the right music it hits hard as hell and the power is only turned up on half power for the subs and rear speakers becuz i also wanna hear my music too.

 

yah about your amp im not trying to knock jenson but its pretty ****y it prob you amp get a kenwood or fosgate and check loose wires all around

 

Actually that's not clipping....

Clipping is actually distortion, not your amp cutting off due to loss of power. It occurs when your amp is driven to play louder than its power supply can handle (beyond audio bandwidth). It's called "clipping" because the audio output waves are being cut off; their rounded peaks are sliced off resulting in short waves with flat tops.

Normal


Minor clipping


Major (dangerous) clipping


Not trying to be a pain just thought I'd point that out!

 

well thanks for makin me look like a dumbass lol, I always understood that clipping was "bottoming" out of the amp, therefore the sound cuts in and out. Well at least thats all cleared up, with all them fancy diagrams and sort. I felt pretty good with myself til you hadda go and ruin it lol.

 

Start from ground 1.....

Ok, what subs do you have? Are they SVC (single voice coil), if so, what ohm are they? How do you have the amp wired?

Sure to small of power wire will do it, if the amp has a protection on it. Some less expensive amps don't have this feature.
But first let's see how you have it wired....that could be the easy fix, and the right fix.

 

lol, hey man I wasn't trying to make ya look bad. I'm no expert but I knew about clipping so I just figured I'd post it. All the stuff you said about bigger wires and such is true too.

 

I had this probem tiring to bridge my amp to both of my subs it would cut out and the overcurent light would come on. my teacher at school made me look up ohms law.... and there is to much resistance n the wire and not enugh power will go threw it.. so i thought it was that i needed bigger wire andmy teach told me that Crip on conectors suck A$$ made me take them all off and sodder the conecters on... guess what.. the lights dont evon dim any more its hits really freeking hard and it dont cut out ;-) just my little peace of mind...

my amp and 12's both sony explode the amp i awseom i love it 760watt/2 the speaked sck a$$ i hate them 800Watt max a piece

 

check the amp or amps out really good. I had the same prob. And i went through alot of pain and time to try and find out what it was causing it.....come to find out that it was my remote turn on connection on the amps PC board.....the soilder connection was bad and cracked......and when a serious bass note hit......the connection would vibrate and cut out. Man i say what a pain that was to find. Hope this helps though.

 

Torchray, I have the exact problem with my JBL amp right now... would this be a fixable problem though that anyone can do? or would it have to be send back to the manufacturer to fix? or would i have to junk the thing?

 

can't you just resoilder the connection?