Ok I got a problem and I need some help if possible.
A month ago I bought a MRV-T320 to along with my newly aquired Alpine Type S bandpass box(which I know most of you dislike bandpass boxes and alpine itself). The sub is 4 ohms.
Ok well my problem is it worked fine for a while but here in the last couple of days the amp keeps cutting off after playing one complete song for some reason. It'll try to cut on for a split second and then cut off. Well i noticed today when i turned the volume down on my headunit the amp would would cut back on shortly afterwards and play but once i turned the HU back up it will cut off again.
Anyone have any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.
I must add that I had a previous amp installed by an installation place here in town but all i did was take the old amp out and put this new one on.
I have the exact same problem, and the place i bought it from is stumped, i have the same amp and subs...I am returning the amp this week because i have tried everything to get it to work, cutting out the second voice coil on the sub, running them in stereo, and i still get it cutting out....amp isn't powerful enough i don't think.
I have a question, how many watts total are you pushing? With this setup? The problem may have to do with your charging system. Please let me know the size of your alternator, and how many watts your pushing RMS.
It's 220 watts RMS total bridged, not a lot. You never know, some cars have alternators that don't have hardly any headroom. How are your gains set? You could possibly have them too high, causing a voltage rail sag. I've also seen overheating problems with those amps, you may be overheating the amp and putting it into protection, but the way it sounds is it won't turn on for long to begin with. You may want to check the subwoofer on another amplifier, the voice coil may have melted or been damaged, and that will cause a short, causing the amp to go into protection.
I dont know the size of my alternator. All I know is that I have a 2000 Honda passport but I think I may have found the problem. How do I find out what size alternator I have???
Well the people who did my installation originally installed a Phoenix Gold xs2200 for my subs and also installed a Eclipse 3620 for my highs. Anyways I didnt realize this but the idiots who installed my amps ran a power cord from the battery to my Phoenix Gold and then ran another power cord from the Phoenix Gold to power up the Eclipse without installing a distributor cap or block or anything.
But what gets me is I never had the problem with my Phoenix Gold cutting out on me and also had the gains turned up pretty high. Also the Alpine never cut out at first until here within the last week or so. Matter of fact I had the gains maxed out on the Alpine at first for about 2 weeks and than cut them down to 3/4 of about 2 weeks ago.
No its not disconnected. Its a straight wire from the Newly Alpine Amp (previous phoenix gold) to the Eclipse.
I talked to the guy a few minutes ago and he said that a distribution block is not needed as long as you are not running no more than 80 amps and if you were running less than 18" of wire. He said he used 8 guage wires.
He's wrong. Look at this power chart: 8 guage is not going to supply anywhere from 65-85 amps in runs longer than 13 ft, which your car definately is using at least 13 since it's a Passport. You need 4 ga. wire and a distribution block, then 8 ga. to each amp, and ground the amps individually.
BryanB
Unregistered guest
Posted on
How can i check to see if the coils are melted...I've tested voltage at my amp while playing, it's pretty steady around 14 volts...never goes under 13.6. My car is a plymouth acclaim, alternator is good, AC circuit is out of the car so it's got the amps to push. They wouldn't take my amp back unless the place i bought it from tests it next saturday. Right now gain is at .5 volts, LP is on 30 Hz Bass EQ is almost off....this is lets me run the system for about 15 minutes before the amp goes into protection. Anything else i can try?
I'd try the wiring first, wrong guage wiring will make an amp overheat. As far as the voice coil, do an impedance check on it, being a 4 ohm sub, the impedance should between 3-4 ohms. It probably isn't the VC, since the amp will play through a song and I'm guessing your sub sounds the same since you haven't said anything about it.
Bryan, you said in a earlier post that you have the same subs. Now do you have the type s 1041 bandpass box? If you do than if I am not mistaking you have a single voicecoil according to the guy at Alpine.
Anyways my problem with my amp has quit cutting out. I did what Jon said and turned the gain down to halfway. I had it up to high and i turned the bass gain up and have had no problems. Although I must say I have my amp hooked up to an external crossover not that I think it would matter.
I used to have a burning type smell come from my speakers while back ago but I no longer have it. I dont know if any of this has helped but I would definitely check the wiring.
Does your amp get REAL hot when it goes into protection mode? Try disconnecting the speakers after it goes into protection mode and see if it turns back on, the amp that is.
I had a similar prob in my system, after a few days, the amp stated cutting due to protection issue. I learned that average Alpine amps such as yours and mine (Flex 356) are very very sensitive to bad connections (due to impedance variations), and I mean "less than perfect", but once you have all connections perfect, they sound pretty good. If this helps, try to pull out the wires from the terminals by hand (both power and speaker ones). If for example you have a plug in the shelf, dismount it and check it as I said. A bad connection like this (less than perfect) will make the impedance roll up or down as the connection switches from perfect to less than that. Maybe your Phoenix wasn't sensitive to these issues and you therefore never noticed it. Worth a try. Enjoy
Perhaps your right about the connections but I have tried pulling them out by hand before while attached to the terminal and all connections were snugg. Like I said I just turned the gain halfway to normal and it works just fine now. Doesnt get too hot anymore like it did when the gain was pretty high. I dont know but whatever it is it doesnt do anymore.
But I will say this, if my radio is on pause or the subs are faded out I still get a thumping noise from the subs from time to time like when im either slowing down or speeding up. Its been doing this for a while now. I dont understand that. So any suggestions on this would HELP.
Man, you mean a sub moving without audio signal? That's surely a bad ground!
BryanB
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I have the 4 ohm per coil subs there are 4 terminals on the back of each sub, impedance checks out, I ran a new ground wire today...neither the one to my fender well or the one to my neg on battery make a difference.
All connections on the amp are a perfect as i can get them, I have 8 gauge wire running the power and the ground and 14 gauge going to the speakers.
Still have the same problem, plays great for 15-20 min then goes into protection for 1-2 min, then plays again for 5 min or so.
My ground is pretty sturdy from what I can tell. I even took them out from the amp terminal and then tightened it up. I checked it where they grounded on the vehicle and it was tight as well. I thought the same thing it was a bad ground but I found no problems with the ground wire.
Well, I would solder all wires to their terminals and see what happens, just to be sure! After that, if it stays the same, I would lower the inputs and start from zero then slowly increase inputs (gains). It should play safely with gains half way, but start from the lowest. Also, I'm not faniliar with that Alpine, but does it have a sub output? If it doesn't, even with the bandpass box, that's the prob (if all things talked ealier fail to solve)! Why? Because the deeper the bass and its current draws (big currents on subs), the lower the impedance, maybe just as simple as that
BryanB
Unregistered guest
Posted on
All my terminals are soldered inside the sub box, all the connections on the amp are clean and no frey wires, I'm taking it in to where i bought it all saturday, they are going to look at it for free, Blade, I'll let you know what they tell me.
Good deal Bryan. I do have a question for you though, when the amp cuts out (goes into protection mode) have you tried turning down the volume on your headunit? On mine when it was cutting out, whenever I turned the volume down the amp would cut back on.
It does come on fairly quick when i cut the volume down...takes about 20-30 seconds...You mean solder the wiring onto the amp?? i don't think the guys where i bought it from would like that if i tried to return it if they can't figure it out.
No, I mean all power wiring and speaker wiring should be soldered to their terminals, unless you're a professional installer and know how to correctly crimp the terminals WITH THE CORRECT TOOLS, and I mean the terminals you connect to the amp (unless you're using bare wire). Don't try to solder the terminals to their housings on the amp.
BryanB
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I took electronics for a year...i know how to wire stuff! Solution to my problem, dunno if yours is the same Blade; what is your head unit...my user's eq were giving way too much bass, causing the amp to cut out...i feel like such a moron for not seeing that earlier, but it wasn't me that set it...anyway i turned down my first 2 bands to almost half, then cranked the gain on the amp, and it doesn't cut out anymore!
My problem was solved by just turning down the gain and slightly turning up the bass gain. I also messed around with my external crossover and boy does it make a difference. Anyways glad you got it solved.
