Car audio setup puzzling me...

ChevyTruckGuy · Post by **ChevyTruckGuy** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 1:32 am

Hey...on a whim, i decided i wanted to try a different car audio setup..My old setup was good for me, but i just wanted to try something different and encountered a problem that just outright baffled me...

I took my 2 Pioneer TS-W33C 12" SVC subs, 4ohm stable 450w RMS and installed them into a custom underseat box i made that has just the right amount of airspace for these subs...Then i installed some 5 1/4 MTX Thunder Series component speakers in the doors( I thought these sounded better to my ears then the Pioneer Premiers, or Infiniti Reference's components I heard...but thats just me...plus they werew alot cheaper..), and some Pioneer Premier 4 x 6 's in the dash..I moved my DHD 4 x 6's to the rear but didnt like the sound coming from behind me so i just unclipped them and left them there for looks right now..Then took my Blaupunkt PCA 250 amp and used that for the highs and mids, using 12 gauge speaker wire, 8 gauge power str8 from the battery with a 4 gauge ground within 6 in of this amp...Then i took out my amp that i built out of spare parts that had 2 channels , put out 400 w RMS at 4 ohms and installed a mono block Pioneer Premier GM-7150m amp rated at 800 watts peak single channel 2-8 Ohm load impedence with 250 w rms at 4 ohms and 360 w rms at 2 ohms, with 2 gauge wire str8 from the battery with a 2 gauge ground within 6 in of this amp...

Now the problem that has me just scratching my head...This Pioneer amp gets hot!!! not smokin but hot..a little too hot for my taste.. Ive wired my subs in parallel back to the single channel of this pioneer amp...This has got me throwing fits in my garage, figuring this out..Ive made sure all grounds are good, I believe this 2 gauge power wire is sufficient and checked all the speaker connections...where did i go wrong...?? I said forget it and took that amp out and put back in the amp i built and its all working fine...but i dont want to give up on this Pioneer amp...Any thoughts??

I havent opened it up yet or installed any external cooling fans...plus ive got a Kenwood KDC-V7017 head unit coming my way that has 2 preouts(the one i have now has only 1 so i had to split the RCA signal using y adapters) and some Alpine mids, and want to use the Pioneer amp to finish off this conversion...

Mike

BTW...i took the Fosgate amp i bought earlier in the month and put it in storage for another project if your wondering..

Scarrell · Post by **Scarrell** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:37 am

some amps just get hot... especially with cheap circuitry..(i guess thats how i should put it).. Pioneer really isnt known for much else aside from their Premier line of Hu's.. and i really honestly think thats all they really put their cash into too... another thing that can cause this is having the volume up at a high volumes for a long period of time, not enough air, too low of a ohm load(which you said you dont have going on), and having the gains up too high...

Post by **GlassWolf** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 1:39 pm

sounds like the amp may be class AB.
they just get hot. no way around it.

my orions are rated for 250wRMS x 2, and they run at about 160degF uner normal conditions.
They'll leave serious burns if you touch them when they're warmed up.
They never shut down though. That's just the way they are. All old school solid state internals, and class AB amplifiers.
That's one reason the ones I have use cooling fans internally.