NEED HELP! AudioControl Epicenter messing with amp

[8driann]

Please help me. Here’s my situation. So for my equipment, I’ve got a Pioneer KEH P88 as my head unit and a Pioneer DEQ P99 as my dsp. Yes I know they’re old but I like the look and the reverb effects of the dsp. I wont bother going into my mids in highs since all that is running flawlessly. For my lows, I’ve got a Deafbonce Apocalypse 4900.1. I have a 370a Alt with a D3100 and big 3 0 gauge. Also, since I like playing my music with reverb effects, those effects transfer over to the subwoofer output which make the sun play weird so I have the subs directly to my head unit. I am running a Q power 10” for testing before I throw in my sundowns. I also have an audio control epicenter installed. So I tuned my amp with a DD1+ and matched the voltage required for my q power wattage. I ser my Gain knob to 100% and set my epicenter knob to 0%. I played a 40hz at my headunits max volume before Clíp and tuned my amp. So I go to play rap music or any other music that already has bass where I don’t need the epicenter and I max my gain knob and everything works perfectly fine. Then I play a song with minimal bass and I go to turn the epicenter and don’t even get 1/4 of the way with the knob it sends my amp into protect mode and also I notice some serious voltage drop down to 10.4v. Keep in mind I was playing the amp at full tilt before I used the epicenter and it would be at a steady 14.6v. After that happened, I decided to not use the epicenter and have it at 0 and I played my bass full tilt and about 5 minutes later, it goes into protect. So here’s me theory. As far as the epicenter killing my amp, I believe I need to open it up and lower the voltage to 2v. As far as my amp turning off without the epicenter, I think it’s just maybe my old head unit, since it’s from the 1980s. Can anyone suggest what may be wrong with my system? Thanks in advance

[CstrokerV]

Why would you set your amp gain to 100% that’s not how you do it all gains at 0 then go down the line

[audiofanaticz]

I use to have a similar Pioneer headunit a long time ago in my supercharged Thunderbird but it had the larger volume button on the bottom that matched the Deq-7600, at least I think that was the model number (it was prior to the autoeq Pioneer released), Still wish I kind of had both of them because the headunit had a small animated spectrum analyzer as well as the eq which took up the whole screen. So I totally understand with keeping those old gems! Headunits just ain't made like they use to be in terms of screen candy on the displays granted they have more features now even though they are plain to look at!!!

Now when you say your gain knob to 100% do you mean the physical gain on the amp itself, or a remote gain knob that plugs into the amp? You'll have 2 drastically different outcomes depending on which way you went or what you did.

 

I can guarantee that the headunit nor the eq is not the problem and is something with how you tuned your amp.
Chances are high that the Epicenter is also not the problem since the problem seems to happen even when you're not using it but it just takes longer.

 

It really sounds like you are over driving the amp and reaching either thermal protect, too much input voltage on the rca side of things, or a improperly set gain from possibly not following the instructions of the DD-1 and using a -5db through -10db track when setting the amplifier gain.