Audio guru's: Amp help please!

When I bought my boat I didn't have enough money to have my audio equpiptment installed professionally so a friend and I did it ourselves. Anyway I know the basics on how to hook up the system and it worked fine the first year I had the boat but now every once in a while one of my amps kicks off when I turn up the volume over about 50%. My system consists of a head unit, four tower speakers and four interrior speakers hooked up to one 1000W amp and two 10" subs hooked to another 1000W amp. I also have dual batteries. Anyway the amp that runs all my tower and interior speakers kicks off but my subs stay on. This happens maybe 1 out of every 8 times I take my boat out and if it does it once, it will do it all day but if I take the boat out the next day it will play fine all day. I'm not really sure what the problem is or how to fix it so any advice would be greatly appreciated. My knowledge of stereo stuff is pretty much limited to Power, ground, remote etc... when you start talking about ohm's you lose me so dumb it down for me please Thanks!

Sounds like a battery issue to me, do you charge them off the water? Is the tower/interior amp 2 or 4 channels?

I don't charge them off the water because I don't have the capabilities since it's at a mini storage. I'd have to look again but I believe the amp for the tower/interior speakers is a 4 channel and the sub is 2 channel

Its either the battery being to low to facilitate both amps or you are reaching the amps thermal capacity. Being that it is intermittent its more likely the former as Nu Bu said. Another possibilty is that the ground is insufficient but there again that should happen virtually every time. Is the ground wire the same gauge as the power?

Originally Posted by ryanw209

I don't charge them off the water because I don't have the capabilities since it's at a mini storage. I'd have to look again but I believe the amp for the tower/interior speakers is a 4 channel and the sub is 2 channel

Well there you go, it's probably a low voltage issue. Any two batteries won't last long with 2000 watts draining them without being replentished at the end of each day. The alternator doesn't count. Better figure out a way to take care of those batteries or you'll be buying new ones best case scenario. Worst case new batteries, amps, and speakers. There are solar trickle chargers out there, not exactly ideal but if it's all you have available I'd take it.

The impedence load on your amp may be below it's capability. you would need to explain in detail exactly what components you have and how they are wired for us to determine if that is an issue. You need to resolve this possibility before you start thinking about low voltage.

Hmmm... thinking about it I may have a 2000W for the tower/interior speakers and a 1000W for the subs. I'll check it out on monday when I go ride and get you better details.

I think this is the amp for my tower speakers:
http://www.quantumaudio.net/products...rs&series=Beta Series&kind=Beta Amplifiers

And this one for my subs:
http://www.quantumaudio.net/products...rs&series=Beta Series&kind=Beta Amplifiers

If I did get a solar trickle charger how many watts would I need? Thanks everyone for the help!

Ryan,
There can be countless reasons for what you described. The first step in diagnosing your issue is to verify the voltage which should be resting at 12.5 volts or slightly more for fully charged batteries with the engine off. The voltage should be measured at the battery(s) rather than at the helm voltage gauge for accuracy. Get a $9.95 voltmeter. Check the voltage when you start, when you end, when everything is fine and when the amplifier shuts down. A pattern may emerge that will conclusively point to low voltage. The only way to narrow it down is a process of elimination and it will be far more difficult to find other potential causes until you have dealt with the voltage first.

David
Earmark Marine

David- I have a voltage meter and will check it on monday when I go out there. Thank you.

4 Ω @ 14.4 VOLTS: 1 X 1000 Watts.....How do you run in boats and tower speakers with this amp. Someone break the ohm load situation for me.

fyi....state of charge for a 12 volt battery.

12.70 volts 100%
12.50 volts 90%
12.42 volts 80%
12.32 volts 70%
12.20 volts 60%
12.06 volts 50%
11.90 volts 40%
11.75 volts 30%
11.58 volts 20%
11.31 volts 10%
10.50 volts 0%

Originally Posted by murphy_smith

4 Ω @ 14.4 VOLTS: 1 X 1000 Watts.....How do you run in boats and tower speakers with this amp. Someone break the ohm load situation for me.

He says he has a 4 channel amp so I doubt that one in the pic is it. Even if it was the one pictured is a 2 channel and it could be done, just have to know what you're doing. Series/parallel wiring.

Ryan,

Both amps you linked are subwoofer amps. You will want to check each amp you have and get us the model number. I think you are running into a couple issues. If it is a 4 ch amp and you are running it at 2 ohms stereo. Plus voltage drops. Your amp is going into protection. So the issues are compounded by a low impedance load on the amp and drained batteries.

You may think about making the batteries easy to remove and take them home and charge them each time if you are not able to charge them at mini storage. Sounds like a pain but sure would be a lot better than being stuck on the lake with no tunes or tunes cutting in and out

Tim
Wet Sounds

four tower speakers and four interrior speakers hooked up to one 1000W amp

To one channel? You'd have to series both pairs of tower speakers and interiors then parallel them back into the amp to get the two ohm load. If its not wired this way and its all paralleled in than you are running that amp at a .5 OHM load which is below its capacity. I couldn't tell if that was a full range amp but it must be or it would sound horrible.

Bring it over, I'll fix your stereo while you fix my yard! Seriously, I would be happy to trade work and gear for landscaping work. I am in San Ramon. Send me a message if you are interested: mikeskiw@gmail.com I would be happy to hook up your stereo if you can do help me out with some plants on the slope behind my house. The gophers have destroyed 5 very nice rainbow warrior flax that were about 5' tall. I am usually very good at trapping the little varmints but my dogs keep digging up the traps.

^^^^^Caddyshack! You need Bill Murray on the case!!! lol One of my all time favorite movies!

Pool or a pond, the pond would be good for you...

Alright so I went out on monday and the radio played fine. Measured the volts before and after; 12.3 volts before we rode and 12.7 after. I was going to take a look at my amps to get you some more info on them afterward but I got a little distracted after hitting something on the way back from the meadows and totaling my prop and rudder and paddling to stay off the shore because the two F***ING fisherman we passed wouldn't help us at all...

Mike- I would love to have you work on my boat but I'm actually a fireman, not a gardener. I put that as my occupation because sometimes it seems like thats all we do around my station haha. Sorry man.

Hey ryan, when you are running your audio system with the subs and tower speakers are you leaving your boat running or do you have it turned off. I am re doing the audio system in y boat and am going to be running a system similar to yours, I will have 4 6x9s on the tower and for 6.5s in the boat and was trying to figure out the best amp combo, if I should run 1 4 channel amp bridged. Or 2 2 channel amps

Not sure if it is the actual reason but your batteries aren't getting fully charged. Like Dave said your batteries should be at 12.5 to 12.7 volts resting. Your test voltage of 12.7 at the end is probably a false reading because you just shut your boat off and there is a surface charge. You really need to let your batteries sit overnight and retest to find the true state of charge.