JL HD amplifier question

I added an HD-RLC remote knob to my HD600/4 to control my tower speakers. I noticed when I have the volume turned all the way down, with no sound out of the tower speaker, the amp still gets pretty hot. I'd just like to know if this is normal and if so, does that mean that the amplifier is drawing a lot of juice from the batteries? I thought by turning the tower speaker volume down/off, that I would be conserving the batteries. Maybe I will add a toggle switch so I can turn that amp off completely.

The power supply is still going to idle while the amplifier is active but turned down. This should only draw around 8 amps or less while in idle mode. That's enough to warm the amplifier but not enough to get what I would describe as hot.

A pulse width modulated power supply is still switching but at a very narrow duration per pulse when at idle. While Class D amplifiers use switching output stages the actual power supplies of AB, G/H or D remain very similar.

One amplifier at idle will deplete a single standard battery in less than a day. So the idea of a separate switch sounds good to preserve power.

Also, if you're driving an amplifier hard it won't cool instantly once turned down.

David
Earmark Marine