Amp rca inputs

[crownvictoria31]

I have a question. When an amp is all hooked up and powered up, is it suppse to spark if you take a wire and touch the outside portion of the rca input and the other end of the wire to the amps casing?

[Broke_Audio_Addict]

This being a question tells me you did it and it sparked, which has me wanting to ask why the hell you'd do something like that anyways?

[crownvictoria31]

It was not me. My friend was installing his sound system and did this thinking this would help other then removing his radio and grounding the rcas behind the pioneer unit.

Now im questionning because ive never seen this happen. Is it suppose to spark like this?

[whazoo84]

I have a question. When an amp is all hooked up and powered up, is it suppse to spark if you take a wire and touch the outside portion of the rca input and the other end of the wire to the amps casing?

Short answer is yes and no. This can happen, but if I saw this happen I'd probably have the amp or head unit (or processor if you have one) checked out. The amount of energy required to generate a spark isn't too big, but it's definitely enough to do some damage. What you probably saw was the RCA outputs of the head unit finding their way to an earth ground, which they are NEVER supposed to be hooked to. If it happened for a quick second you might be good, but I wouldn't chance it. Have the thing checked out. Or if you wanna be brave (and I take no responsibility for this) go ahead and plug it into the amp and see what happens. It could work fine, but as I said before, do anything at your own risk.

The other really rare scenario is a grounding issue inside the amplifier. You see, amplifiers have MOSFETs and transistors inside them, most of which have metal backings that are live hooked directly to the + rail from the power supply of the amplifier. If one of these happens to find it's way to ground (if it's a cheap amp and they put too much thermal paste on it, that stuff can be conductive depending on the type and this can cause the transistors to ground through a slight resistance). There's other ways for that to happen, but if it does happen you need to unplug the amp right away as it's a serious fire hazard.

Just be careful, also can you tell us what head unit + amplifier you're using? How did you hook them up? Some info on what your build is could really help us help you.

[crownvictoria31]

Well he has a pioneer headunit. Cant remember the model. As per the amo, its a 2 channel hifonics amp for his mids.

I understand what your saying and with what you said, im going to say that his amp is defected. Im saying this because with out rcas being hooked up, he touched the rca input on the amp and the amp casing as well and it still sparked.

[ShadeTreeMechanic]

Sounds like the amp ground isn't very good and it is seeking a ground through the RCA shield. The RCA shield is grounded inside the head unit.

[MADVIBES]

if its a pioneer the pico fuses are for sure now blown, engine whine here we come. an earlier post said the negative on an rca is never supposed to be shorted to the earth but thats not exactly true, it all depends on the arcitechure of the design. his amp may have sparked because he has a bad ground where the amp is and its finding a better through the head unit.

[ShadeTreeMechanic]

I have heard of bad amp grounds burning up the rcas.