Amp overheating problem

Sorry but it sounds like the subwoofer voice coil has shorted, you will need to replace the sub.

Hello martinpresto,

The most likely causes are overheating and operating the amp into too low of an impedance. Or the amp itself could be failing. If the protect comes on immediately after the amp has cooled overnight, it's probably not overheating. Too low of an impedance can be caused by a shorted voice coil.

You can check the load with a multimeter. Disconnect the speaker wires and measure their resistance with a multimeter. Since the published impedance is nominal and varies with frequency, you'll be reading the DC resistance. Some manufacturers include the figure in their "R subscript e" specification. Usually, it's a little lower than the impedance. So a 4 ohm load may read 3.2 ohms. If the DC resistance checks OK, it's probably the amp itself.

Hope this helps.

Hello m_george191,

Usually an amp will go into protection when there is a problem with the wiring, impedance load, or when overheated. Immediately when hooked up, it probably isn't overheating.

Most likely, there's a short or ground on a speaker wire, an input, or a faulty ground to the amp itself. Frayed or broken insulation, stray wires shorting across the terminal blocks, and shorted voice coils can all cause the protection circuit to activate.

First check your power and ground wires. Then disconnect the speakers and inputs and see if the amp powers up normally. If the amp still goes into protection with all wires other than 12V +, Ground, and Remote disconnected, the amp itself is defective. If it powers up normally with all other wires disconnected, reconnect the inputs one at a time to determine if one of them causing the problem. Likewise, reconnect the speaker wires one at a time.

Hope this helps.

Hello matt225281.

Since the Tantrum only lists specifications into a 4ohm load, you need to make sure that the final impedance of your DVC sub is 4ohms or greater. So a sub with either 2ohm or 4ohm voice coils needs to have the coils wired in series with a jumper between the positive of one coil to the negative of the other and the remaining positive and negative to the amp speaker terminals. Paralleling the voice coils will result in a 1ohm or 2ohm load to the amp and it will overheat, go into protection or possibly fail completely.

If your sub has 2ohm voice coils, the load will be 4ohms which allows the amp to produce maximum power. The final impedance with 4ohm voice coils will be 8ohms. The power will be reduced, but the amp will operate without overheating.

Either set of the speaker terminals on the amp can be used. They are connected internally so it doesn't matter which one you use.

Hope this helps.

You likely have a speaker with a swollen voice coil. Voice coil becomes hot due to under powered amp being clipped. Voice coils swells and rubbs. shoteing amp output causing amp to go into protect. replace speaker before amp is damaged. The more capacity an amp has wattage rating. the easier it is on speakers. Most speakers are damaged by underpowered amps being clipped rrather that too high of amp reting.

Have you checked to see if your subs voice coils have shorted. That could cause the amp to heat up, on rare occasions the protection lights don't work. Rare, but possible.

Overheating in amplifiers is often caused by a speaker load of too low impedance. If your L7 is a dual 4-ohm voice coil, and if you're using the amplifier in bridged mode, that may be causing your problem. Dual 4-ohm subs, with the voice coils wired in parallel, present a 2-ohm load to the amp. Your amp is capable of running a 2 ohm load in 2-channel mode, but not bridged mode. The best fix with your equipment would be to re-wire the sub's voice coils in series, resulting in an 8-ohm load. The amplifier's power output will drop sharply, but you won't have problems with overheating in that configuration. There's a good chance that you'll still be able to get all the volume you want, even with an 8-ohm setup; otherwise you'll probably want to switch to a mono amp designed for a 2-ohm load.

if you push a sub too hard for too long the varnish on the coil windings will melt, causing parts of the coil wires to short toghther. This will change the impedance of of sub (or speaker). Since the speaker is hooked up to the amp and the amp requiring a steady impedance (usually 4ohm or 2 ohm). if the coils go bad , the impedance will change, the amp hopefully will go into a protect mode, if not the amp will damage itself. Warranty does not cover overpowering a sub of amp (if the can tell it was.) hope this helps.

No but eventually you will melt the varnish coating the wires on the voice coil and will cause the voice coil to fall to short and could possible blow the Amplifier. and definately ruin the speaker.

Try to turn down the volume??? LOL No really most likly the voice coil is overheating on the speaker, or the unit is over heating. Try to add a fan on top of the unit as I found this on high powered units, that they are being push hard and getting hot. Is the amp really hot when it does this? If it is then its a normal thing as not enough venilation. if its not hot then theres a problem in the amp and should be bench checked by a pro with load resistors and a tone generatoe as well as a scope to check if theres a clipping problem in the output stage.