Why is low voltage bad for amps?

[SnowDrifter]

Aside from making less power... What happens when voltage is say into the 10s and 11s?

[SoCaLBaMF]

heat... more of it. Sometimes smoke, depending on how low it goes.

Edited August 15, 2012 by SoCaLBaMF

[SnowDrifter]

Ok, interesting!

Why does it produce more heat? What parts get hot and why?

[LZTYBRN]

To keep power output the same, the amp has to compensate by pulling more amps, which, like he ^^^ said, creates heat.

At least that's my understanding of it.

[HypnotizedMind 91666]

ninja noob moment.. ima just slide in here and basically say that its trying to give you the same output with less juice i would guess.. stressing it out..?

[SnowDrifter]

To keep power output the same, the amp has to compensate by pulling more amps, which, like he ^^^ said, creates heat.

At least that's my understanding of it.

But then why does it do that?

[hdorre]

To keep power output the same, the amp has to compensate by pulling more amps, which, like he ^^^ said, creates heat.

At least that's my understanding of it.

But then why does it do that?

Why what? Why does the amp try to keep output the same, pull more current or get hot?

[SnowDrifter]

Why does it pull more current? Like what physically goes on inside the amp to make that happen?

[Lbox88]

I'll try to explain, but if someone else finds some problems with this please correct me, it's been a couple of years since I studied this.

MOSFETS and Transistors have a set rail voltage they need to operate within. In our case, that voltage ranges roughly from 12-18V. So basically, when in that range, the signal is amplified and sent out to the load(subs). When you lower the rail voltage below the specified operating voltage, the components still try to amplify your signal at that same voltage. Since it cannot achieve that gain due to rail voltage, this causes more current draw, which in turn causes the components to grow hot, and :poof: you just met the magic dragon.

[Emmet]

For the heat part it creates heat because higher voltage means less resistance, example high voltage power lines like 400kv are like that because power companies lose less power to heat loss, its more efficient, when voltage drops resistance increases and cause lots of heat.

An amp is just a circuit, its stupid, it will do what its designed for, so say its designed to output a certain power, if the voltage drops it will try and pull more amps to create that power until it burns out. With it pulling more amps than its designed for and the heat increasing from resistance, amps die.