How Hot is it Supposed to Be??

[Austnpowe1]

Well If u guys can Remember i was having trouble with my Amp??...I got around to grounding it better and i only have 1 wire for the ground its 1ft long and its a 10gauge...But now whenever i have the Amp on for about 10 min it starts getting pretty hot...How hot is the amp supposed to get???thanks

[venomceli]

What kind of amp is it and howmany watts is it pushing?, some amps automatically cut off if it overheats.

[Austnpowe1]

it is a Pioneer GM-X962 it says its 760Watt and I have 2 infiniti 12's and 1 infiniti 10 and all 3 of them are bridged

[SQ GT-S]

What impedance are you running into that amp?

[Austnpowe1]

Impedance???U mean the knob on the side??? what do i have that set to????

[Pribilof]

what are the impedence ratings of your subs (ie, 2 ohm, 4 ohm, dual 2 ohm, etc) and how are they bridged?

[Austnpowe1]

Theyre both 4 OHMs and i bridged them by putting together all three positives and connecting them to the positive bridged on the amp and the same with the negative

[DevlynSyde]

It might not be stable below 2 ohms... that would be a 1.33 ohm load assuming you mean that all 3 are 4ohm SVC.

[DevlynSyde]

Did half a second of searching:

Continuous Power (14.4V): 125Wx2 (4 ohm), 190Wx2 (2 ohm), 380Wx1 (4 ohm)

It isn't stable below 2ohms... which would explain why it is overheating...

[J3adSeed]

oh my god. take it to an installer you really don't know what you're doing. you took 3 subs at 4 ohms and wired them in parallel. now you have 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 = 3/4 invert that and you get 4/3. you're running that amp at just over ONE OHM. the amp will say what its stable at chances are its bridged stable at 4 ohms. and 2 ohms in stereo. which means you are going to heat that amp up a LOT (even if it is 2 ohm mono stable). don't be surprised when it blows up for good. and i'm sure they have to sound like crap with that low of impedence anyway. not only that, but you NEVER wire two different subs to the same amp. because even if they're both 4 ohms, they usually have different actually resistances and you'll get an uneven load. its just not good. some may disagree with me on this but i'd never do it. most subs say 4 ohms but many vary in actually resistance and you should not hook up different resitances to the same amp. by the way i was looking at the watt rating on pioneer's website and they don't rate it at 1 channel at 2 ohms, so i wouldn't consider it 2 ohm mono stable. what i'd do is just run each 12 off a channel of the amp. or if they're dual voice coil subs you can wire them to a single 4 ohm load. the ten has to go or get another amp. besides what rms power are they rated at? you have 125x2 rms @4ohm and 380x1 rms @4ohm, probably running 3 subs off that and you're going to underpower them anyway.

[SQ GT-S]

J3adSeed, well said. That Pioneer amp is NOT stable down that low. I'm surprised it hasn't fried itself yet. You can't just go around and start hooking crap up and expect it to work. Either read the directions and do tons of research, or take it to someone that actually knows what they are doing. Sorry to put it like that, but that's how it is.

Curt

[Austnpowe1]

Yea I think it might be the 10 cuz before I had the 2 12's and it was fine...And the Rms on them is 250 on the 10 and i think 350 on the 12's......thanks

[J3adSeed]

well running those 2 12's in parallel gives you a 2 ohm load. still twice what the max is. THIS IS NOT GOOD. run the two 12's one on each channel. unless they're dual voice coil, then you can bridge to 4 ohm load. by the way doing this, you're only giving them HALF the power they require, but i don't see what choice you have. you can run it like you are with 2 ohms, but don't be surprised when you prematurely kill your amp. if you have more wire add another 10 gauge wire to your ground so you have two, this is the same affect as having a thicker wire. a lot of times heating can be caused by bad grounds. in your case it will run hot no matter what but this may help a little. maybe.

in short, i wouldn't run that amp on a lower ohm load than its designed for, or you may lose that amp.

[Austnpowe1]

Ill try all of those ideas too because i took off the 10 and it still runs pretty hot..Not as hot as it was running before but still hotter than i think it should be

[J3adSeed]

thats cuz you went from 1.3 ohm to 2 ohm. and you have a much more balanced setup. some amps get pretty hot though. my amps get hot hot to the touch. i wouldn't be worried by just that, but its just that you're running more than they are rated at so thats more of what i'd be worried about.

[Austnpowe1]

Well I have each speaker hooked up to each channel now and like you said its hot to the touch but it dosent burn like before...Before if i left my hand on for more than 5 or 6 seconds it would really burn..but now its not as badd.

[J3adSeed]

good to hear. the speakers are single voice coil right? as in there's just 1 set of + and - to hook up the wires to... or do you have 2 pairs per speaker?

[Austnpowe1]

Just one pair