bird killer #2

well my subs go off when i turn the volume up high/..... they are 12in lightning audios...the amp is a jensen 400....and when they go off my amp flashes "protect" how do i keep it from going off all the time????/ thanks

My94RedZ28A4

There is a car audio section

Anyways

Sounds to me like you have one of several possible problems:

1. Your subs are too low of an impedence for the amp (After all, Jensen's aren't made to drive 2-ohm loads)

2. Your amp is getting hot. This is likely from #1, also from keeping it loud too long without letting it "recover." Also, if your amp's heatsink is covered, or if you mounted the amp on the side, it cannot cool as well.

3. It could be an over or under-0voltage alarm, meaning your alternator is supplying too much voltage (I doubt it) or you are draining the batteries (Probably)

4. There could be a ground fault. Check the power side of your wiring. Did you ground it to a screw, was the metal nearby painted? If so, sand the paint off.

Good Luck!

Threxx

I didn't even know jensen made amps... thought they just did "budget" subs and that's it?

Most amps these days have a protection circuit that triggers when either the amp is asked to put out too much power (THD gets too high), it gets too hot, or it is asked to go too low in terms of Ohms of impedence.

If you're running 2 4-ohm subs in parallel then your true impedance is actually 2 ohms. Beyond that, with subwoofers, because the voice coil moves such a large distance when they are subjected to high power, the ohm level of each sub can get as low as 3 ohms a piece. Effectively driving a 1.5 ohm (or less) load to your amp.

Most amps are rated down to at least 2 ohms these days. But the quality ones tend to do just fine down to 1 ohm. Even so, they'll still only claim 2 ohms, specifically for the situation I mentioned, where a sub's natural ohm level actually falls below its rated 4-ohm (or however many ohm) rating under stress.

The solution to any of the above problems would be simply to buy a higher quality amp.

The best bang for the buck out there right now is the JBL 600.1 or 1200.1 (depending on how much power you need). But it's always a good idea to buy amps capable of putting out more power than the speakers are rated at accepting. 10x more speakers get blown or damaged due to underpowering than overpowering.

One other thing to check- do your lights dim heavily when the bass hits? If this is the case then your voltage is dropping. Check your voltmeter. If it gets too low then your amp could be switching off because of a lack of sufficient voltage. In this case your solution would be a capacitor.

Diggs

You're willing to spend $35k+ on a car, yet won't buy halfway decent audio gear?

bird killer #2

well its in my truck , and to be exact i spent $34,000 on the cobra

ibanez6rg

Unplug the RCAs from your amp and turn on your car, if the protect light comes on, it's your amp. If it doesn't, it has to involve the subs.

Diggs

Who cares what it's going in, the fact of the matter is that you're willing to spend $$,$$$ on a car, yet won't spend over $200 on some audio gear. Go spend some real money on some real gear and you won't have anymore problems. That's what you get for buying low quality crap.

bird killer #2

back off......this aint ure system is it?


i didnt ask your opinion on what to buy

LS1 RULZ

What is the impedance of your subs? Do they have single or dual VC's? If they have dual VC's how do you have them connected?Your amp is probably going into protection mode because the impedance from the subs is too low.

justa25thTA

How are your subs wired? You should be able to run them in stereo no problem. Just don't try to run them in parallel and use the amp in mono. I am using a Jensen amp to run a single 10 in my truck with no problems. It ran a single 12 in my wifes car for 3 years with no problem and it sounds fine.

LWillmann

My wife and I ran a Jensen XA-4100 in our first stereo competition and took third place with a score of 142.0db running on two 12" pioneer subs in her 2000 Neon, so Jensen isn't a terrible brand.

Now for your problem, my Jensen amp (which I still have as a backup amp) had a problem where if you don't get the power and ground connections just perfect, it would go into protect.

Also, occasionally while running my system at high volume, suddenly and for no apparent reason, it would go into protect. I would turn the head unit off and back on and usually it would come back. Sometimes this wouldn't work, but usually it would. Also, this didn't happen very often either. I never did find a reason for it to happen.

I would double check to make sure you're not running the amp bridged to 2-ohms, it will not run like that without going into protect. If it's a 4-channel amp, you can run it at 2-ohms on all four channels and be ok, or bridge it to two channels and only run 4-ohms.

Make sure that the amp is securely mounted, and the wiring is connected to it securely as well. Double check your ground wire. And make sure there are no loose strands of any of the wires that can touch one another.

Somethine else to check, make sure that the - on the speaker outputs doesn't come into direct contact with the heatsink on the amp or ground, as this was one way to send my amp into protection.

Good Luck!

shawnberry50

Diggs is right....

throw that Cheap Crap in the garbage and buy some REAL Stuff.

bottom line is the stuff you have sux, its more prone to fail,etc.

Skull Leader

People would have you believe they have like a world class $$$$$ competition setup, but their stupid *** is poor like the rest of us, posting on an internet message board.

Diggs

No, and I'm glad it isn't.

Quote:

i didnt ask your opinion on what to buy

Maybe you should have.

Threxx

...well, actually...