Not Good

[MickyMcD]

I had the same amp before. When I got the red light, it was after three hours of straight bumpin music and overheated. I had to just let the thing cool off and worked after that.

Just generally warm amplifiers or do they dislike being driven like a box cart down a hill for a while? It would make sense if the amplifier is going into protect like it was described.

Just something I have noticed though; why is it so common to have car audio amplifiers go into protect? If one of the RAMSA's at work protects, we all bust out torches and ladders and check absolutely everything to do with that particular amplifier, from the desk to the driver. Is it simply accepted that convection cooled 12v electronics thermally protect occasionally or is it a trend for cheaper/budget amplifiers?

Cheers,

Mick

[sundownz]

Just something I have noticed though; why is it so common to have car audio amplifiers go into protect? If one of the RAMSA's at work protects, we all bust out torches and ladders and check absolutely everything to do with that particular amplifier, from the desk to the driver. Is it simply accepted that convection cooled 12v electronics thermally protect occasionally or is it a trend for cheaper/budget amplifiers?

Mike,

People quite often abuse car amps more than other types of amps with improper settings and poor choices of installation locations - cars also tend to have a high ambient temperature in the summer as well as the potential for direct sunlight exposure. All of that is pretty obvious, just pointing it out

It usually involves a combination of a few things:

1) Amp in direct sunlight in the summer and/or in a really hot trunk

2) Gain setting that is too high and/or bass boost that is too high

3) Running the amp below it's rated impedance

Pretty common for folks in car audio to have the whole list going on at once!

Of course, there are sometimes that it is just an inadequate thermal design - obviously more common on cheaper amps since aluminum is getting so expensive these days!

[MickyMcD]

Mike,

People quite often abuse car amps more than other types of amps with improper settings and poor choices of installation locations - cars also tend to have a high ambient temperature in the summer as well as the potential for direct sunlight exposure. All of that is pretty obvious, just pointing it out

It usually involves a combination of a few things:

1) Amp in direct sunlight in the summer and/or in a really hot trunk

2) Gain setting that is too high and/or bass boost that is too high

3) Running the amp below it's rated impedance

Pretty common for folks in car audio to have the whole list going on at once!

Of course, there are sometimes that it is just an inadequate thermal design - obviously more common on cheaper amps since aluminum is getting so expensive these days!

Of course, I can see these environmental factors having significant impacts. But, an example of what we may do at work; 10 ElectroVoice P3000's in a rack in direct sunlight in Townsville, Australia (usually around 34-38 degrees celcius in the sunlight) with no rack spacing except for 1RU at the top to leave our pizza's. Those amplifiers get mighty hot, yet we have not a single amplifier go into thermal protect. Although they do a mighty good job of keeping our pizza's warm, it's great.

I do agree that some may install their amplifiers in...less than ideal locations, and I do realise that the old convection cooling method is less effective than a fan forced heatsink. Do many manufacturers employ fan cooling?

Lastly, taking a look at your Sundown amplifiers....I'm impressed to say the least.

Cheers,

Mick

[sundownz]

Mick,

Fan cooling is relatively common, although I'd say that the majority of car amps don't use them - I'm not a huge "fan" of fans since they tend to fail a car environment in my experience. Or, at the least, they are audible or get noisy over time if they weren't at first. Not always the case, but I've seen it quite often.

Thanks for the compliment