AmplifierProblems...again...

[351wcrayz]

Heres the problem, me friend gave me a Kicker amp, a monoblock 2channel. He gave it to me because he didn't need,want it, etc....I plugged it up w/ a cd player an a 12v inverter in the house, the bulb goes green, after 30seconds-1minute it turns red and starts blinking RAPIDLY, then it has a funky burning smell, I think theres a short, something touching, etc....Don't really know, if Tim is reading this HELP!!!!!!!!!lol thank:ugha:s..

[gadget73]

I've learned that when people give me decent stuff for free, its usually because its no good. Are you sure the speakers are hooked up properly? Does the power supply produce enough power? Probably need at least 5 amps to make it produce sound, and that'll be at fairly low levels.

[85crownHPP]

there is no such thing as a mono 2channel. mono amps by definition are one channel. how many outputs does the amp have, and how many / what kind of speakers are hooked up to it?

Im thinking either you are overloading it or its crap.

[gadget73]

could be 2 seperate amps in one case, though I don't see what the point of that would be. I know some high end audio stuff is built that way, separate power supplies and all, just in one chassis.

[grandpaslincoln]

If you smell something burning, you are probably too late. Even if it does end up working, the life of the amp will probably be shortened quite a bit. Unless the amp is causing the converter to burn up.

[saiyaneye]

Sounds like your amp is screwed... Go ahead and take it apart, maybe something as simple as a couple capacitors need to be replaced. If you have any soldering skills that will be pretty easy. Another good upgrade to do to amps, is to upgrade the heat sink compound to something better such as Artic Silver 5 or 7. It will help them cool easier.

If you are looking for a new amp I will be more than happy to help you find one online. Just tell me a budget of course.

[saiyaneye]

351wcrayz --
Check your PM...
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Anyway from what I understand you need a two channel amp? Are you trying to power a subwoofer or regular speakers? If you are trying to power a subwoofer most likely a monoblock amp would be your best bet. One of the main reasons being, you have more room for expandability with a mono block. Most decent mono block amps can drop down to 1 ohm, some even less down to .25...
If you are looking for an amp to power your door, dash, or rear speakers. They do make 4 and even 6 channel amps that can do this. I haven't ever looked at many 6 channel amps so I don't know of any good ones off the top of my head.

Some good budget amps ---
Refurbished amps are always a good way to go too, most refurbished amps are FACTORY refurbished, which means that they have been sent back to the original manufacturer for repair and they are selling them with slight cosmetic blemishes (sometimes not even that).


When looking to buy a new amp look at a few things
THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) -
Basically the best way I can describe this...The lower the number the better.

Peak vs RMS power ratings. -
Never go by the peak power ratings on the amp. Those are just a tactic most companies use to sell their amps to people are unknowing. The RMS power ratings are what you need to go by. RMS is how much the amp actually puts out. Although some companies even like to lie about RMS ratings! Usually the cheaper companies, Boss, Legacy, Lanzar (except Opti series, very good amps).

Amplifier classes -
There are a few different classes of amplifiers you can find when looking for an amplifier.
Class A -- Less efficient than class D, usually better sound quality.
Class AB -- I don't know too much about these...
Class D -- Usually most power efficient for the amount of power you have, a Class A amplifier for example that is 400 watts can have the same power drawl as a Class D that is 1000 watts (just example not real numbers)
There are many other classes, but most likely you won't find any at a reasonable price.


One thing to look at on an amp too, say you were buying a 3000 watt amp from WalMart, and the amplifier has one 40 amp fuse. Most likely it does about a 1/10 of that power, and that's being generous. lol

I know I forgot to mention a lot of things, but I got to get to work. I will be back on tonight describing more basic things about amplifiers.

Hopefully someone else will chime in and add some info. :)

[gadget73]

The class of the amp has to do with sound purity vs efficiency. A being the most pure, and decending from there it goes AB, B, C, D. If anyone really feels like getting into the techie details, here you go

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_amplifier