Amp Overheating

Read your link's huge warning sign in the upper right corner....

http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/mrp-f300/Specs

No, the amp is NOT STABLE at 2ohms bridged.... it's stable at 2ohms into 4ch

• Per channel into 4 Ohms: (@ 14.4V Ƈ%THD+N, 20Hz - 20kHz) 50W x 4
• Per channel into 2 Ohms: (@ 14.4V Ƈ%THD+N, 20Hz - 20kHz) 75W x 4
• Bridged 4 Ohms: (@ 14.4V Ƈ%THD+N, 20Hz - 20kHz) 150W x 2

And adding 1/0awg wire will not help if this is your problem....

 

before you change your wire and mess with redoing all that i would get that bridged situation worked out first. i dont know a whole lot about the bridging of amps and all i understand basic concept but i know if its not hooked up right it will cause problems

 

Wih those amps 4 gauge is more than enough, I have sold those things for years the mono sub amp doesn't even require more than 8 gauge to work reliably forever. Don't run an alpine at 2 ohms they don't like it no matter what they claim. How did you wire your speakers to it do you have 2 ohm speakers or are you bridging the 4 channels to 2 then running a 2 ohm load on that? Need more info.

 

You don't need 2 gauge power wire for hat set up. Is fine they are v power amps there is no chance the big one is ever going to come close to putting out 500 rms me alone 1000 and the 4 channel is hardly using any power. He reason it is shutting down as I discovered after reading your thread further is because you are running it at 2 ohms bridged which means the amp is seeing a 1 ohm load alpine amps don't even perform well running at the lowest impedance that they claim to work with let alone bellow it like this. Don't bridge the amp use the 4 channels to run the 4 speakers independently and it WILL work just fine seriously if you run 2 awg power wire to those amps the ONLY thing you will notice is a lighter wallet there will be absolutely no improvement in performance or sound quality!

 

This is your problem. I have the F300 running bridged (@ 4 ohms) also mounted under my seat. After 45 minutes of playing at moderately high volume it is still cool to the touch.

 

Ok. Sorry I did not answer back before. Internet was down, seems company was doing repairs.

Ok well, here is the thing. I do not know shit about audio. I just went by what research I did and what techs suggested. So although in the end this is my fault, I am kind of angry I got wrong guidance from supposed experts that I knew locally.

Anyhow, this is my wiring setup. I did this, because I wanted to get 75RMS into each speaker, instead of 50RMS. In the end, I do not know if I will actually notice a difference between the two...

Here is my wiring setup for the speakers:



The 2ohm connection I keep referring to, is because local tech said that once they were bridged, that the connection would go down to 2ohms and I would get the 75RMS I wanted.

Here is the sub connection, although I do not think my sub amp has actually gotten hot, not sure as it has not given me any problems. Also, since I only have one sub connected atm, that might be why no problems have come up.

Here is the sub connection:



Since they are Dual Voice Coils, tech suggested this connection for 2ohm load and 500RMS per sub. The amp is a mono amp.

Please ignore the awesome elite paint skillz...

Would I just have to change the speakers connections into utilizing the 4 channels separately? Or should I somehow change the subs as well?

Thanks for all the great input so far! Yall rock!

 

Yeah... I bought the amp thinking it was suitable for such a load, as it was advertised as such. Hell, i'm looking at the box atm, and I keep thinking that it does say it is compatible for such a load. Perhaps it is just ignorance on my part, as I do not fully understand what makes something a different ohm load. I am guessing if I want the 75RMS I would have to go into another amp.

 

Ok ok. Did some more research.

Ok the way I see it I have the speakers wired parallel, which is what is creating a 1ohm load that will kill my amp. Hopefully I am right so far. Thanks to you all for pointing that out.

According to this link and this link, I can keep them bridged and wire them in series, thus creating a 8ohm load that should give me between 75 to 100RMS to each speaker.

I'm I wrong here? Seems I would only lose my balance, and not my fade. I do not really care about losing any to be honest, as I always keep them playing the same.

 

I hate to say it, but yes, you are....

If you hooked up your 4ch amp normally, using all 4 channels, each channel would be seeing about 50w rms. Lets say you take that same amp, and completely ignore the 3rd & 4th channels, and wired your components up in parallel, creating a 2 ohm load on each channel (but not bridged, remember), you would have a TOTAL of 75w rms on each channel, not on each speaker.... each speaker would be getting about 37.5w rms.

Lets say you take and bridge your 4ch down to 2 mono channels, but wired them in series (rather than parallel), you would have an 8ohm bridged output, which would likely be giving you about 75w rms TOTAL for each channel, again giving you about 37.5w rms per speaker.

your best bet.... a 4 channel amp, with 4 speakers.... is to just simply wire it up normally, with each speaker getting the full power of a single channel.

I totally get that you bought a budget amp and you're just trying to get the most out of it.... but with your setup you're just going to hurt the amp. The good news is that you bought a really decent amp from a reputable company (IMO) that gives you real world number - evident of the CEA-2006 power rating. There's STILL brands out there that don't have CEA ratings or compliance that just manipulate their numbers however they can so that they can say they've got a 1000 watt amp. I just dealt with one of these here not too long ago: 1,000w ..... to be continued when I get home...

EDIT: Not gonna finish... doesn't matter, long story short, some manufacturer's inflate their numbers

 

What a pain. I am atm hating the tech I talked to atm... Had I known this amp could not do what I wanted I would have bought another more expensive one. Now that I bought this one however, I am not likely going to just discard it. What a pain indeed.

OK, so I will proceed to separate all the wiring and run them separately in each channel. Think I will actually notice a difference? I only turn it up real loud when with friends and they want party music. Would be sad if I couldn't do that anymore. Lol.

Also, think my subs will work well wired like they are? Would hate for this problem to come back when I re install the second sub. Subs are indeed for 2ohm load and I am trying to get 500W to each sub, basing it on the 2ohm load. Though now I am questioning whether the wiring I did is actually using the right load.

Thank you very much for all your help guys. Gabe, John, 2000, ya'll just saved my amp. Thanks!

 

Refresh my memory on which subs you have again? Be specific, model numbers and all

 

This exact one:

Link

I have two of these. Bought them for 2ohm load, as I wanted to use sub in it's 1000W form with the 2ohm load. basically trying to split 500W to each sub.

The wiring atm is like this:



Hopefully that paint tragedy is of some help. Lol.

 

So you have dual 2 ohm subs? Correct..
I hope you don't have the coils run in parallel?
I see you have each sub run in parallel..

To see if you have your subs wired correctly to the correct ohm you want your amp to see.. Go to this site: http://www.kicker.com/dvc_wiring

Goodluck
J

 

Yes.... it's ok

if you've got one of those jumpers that came with the sub connected to the middle two posts (black to red or vice versa), the both of the remaining positives and both of the remaining negatives wired respectively to the amp, you're good

 

According to that page, looking at my sub and looking at my poor drawing, I would say this is the one I am using:

The one stating using 2ohm voice coils, which says 4 + 4 = 2

 

Yep. Middle + and - are hooked up with the jumper that came with the sub. Outer + and - are hooked up to amp.

Sweet. At least one thing is getting the right load and "1000W" I wanted. Funny thing is that a test that came with the amp puts the amp at over 1k max. It was like 1.1k or something.

Ill post up the outcome of this whole ordeal after I fix the connections.

Thanks again for all your help guys!

 

Ok I just did the wire/channel changes. Did a quick test, and I think the sound is a bit weaker. Haven't tested whether it got hot yet. I will test when I go out tonight. Hopefully everything works well and I can still turn it up.

 

i think you are getting way to caught up on rms power rather than clean loud sound. the amp would only peak at whatever its rated not run that constantly.

 

00gauge wire ran fine through my truck along with the rest of my wires, wires costed $500 because I did it right for what I was doing. You do not skimp on power wire, never unless you want to write off your truck due to fire. Seen it. Do it the right way first time around, it's all written in your owners manual of what amp your buying. Everything I posted here is written in my owners manual, I am not going off what I might think is right.

 

Hmmm, no one chimmed in to say they hay something more powerful than mine.