Burnt out amp?

Last year I put up some Boss B60 tower speakers along with a nice MTX amp. At the end of last season one of the tower speakers died so I sent them in for warranty. Everything was good.

This year, now I just get a faint fuzzy noise from the speakers and every few seconds a quiet pop. The problem lies within the amp since I connected them directly to the deck and it was all good. The amp was working just fine last season despite the fact one of the speakers went down. Also, I was blowin' fuses last saeason on frequent occassions, but I find it strange that the amp would seemingly "die" over the winter. Anybody have any suggestions? MTX directed me to get the amp benchmarked, but I wouldn't mind if I could save that hassle and get to the bottom of this and hopefully not have to send them in to get fixed, given that I only have a month or so more to ride.

Any help greatly appreciated--
blake

Anyone?

Is the fuzzy noise while you are running the boat? Or while it is off? Where are you wires run? If your RCA's are near your power wire it could be causing that noise. Or your RCA's could be bad on one channel. Are you bridging down your amp? Check and make sure that pos. and neg. are not flipped on the amp or speakers. If they are bridged and crossed that channel will not play. Also if you are bridging the speakers check the Ohms too, that can burn up an amp fast. How long is your ground? That sometimes can cause the noise too. As far as the popping it sounds like a ground or a power surge. If you take a 9V battery and touch them to the speaker it should do the same thing. And as for your fuses.... well what I have found in the past is too small of a fuse or a ground problem. Hope that helps some.

(Message edited by lewrida97 on June 30, 2004)

All that I get is the fuzzy noise, essentially no 'music' is playing. Not sure if that was clear. I'm not totally sure on how it is set up, one of my friends that has a fairly strong background in audio did.

thanks
blake

Blake,

It could be the amp, swap the wires and see if the noise follows the speaker or the amp. Most of the time it's speakers but you shouldn't rule out the amp.

Mike

Good call Mike, definitely do some trouble shooting by swapping speakers, then if the problem stays with the speakers, you know there's the problem. If not, then swap the speaker wire, next try the RCA input cables, systematically isolating the problem. If none of the wire swapping changes anything and it still seems to be the amp, swap input channels from the head unit to rule that out. If still a problem, try short power cables from the battery or even a separate battery separate from the boat. These problems can be time consuming to track down, so be patient.

I connected the speakers directly from the deck that I installed (Pioneer Premier) and everything was fine-- music was produced. But when I run it through the amp, I just get the faint fuzzy noise and a slight pop from the speakers. I can only hear these noises if I put my ear right up to the tower speaker actually.

Is it really possible for an amp to "break". It doesn't really seem like a peice of equipment that would "break" after one year of use, but what do I know.

thanks
blake

oohhh yea they break, buddy of mine just went through three or four amps, couple are reference series too. This is an interesting thread and i would like to know who has blown what kind and what impedence were they running it at the time?? Ive got 3 rockfords, one is running at bridged 4 ohm for the towers, one has two channels bridged 4 ohm to a sub and the other two channels bridged 4 ohm to a sub, the last one is running the 4 boat speakers at 4 ohms each. No problems except when the external fan i mounted siezed up and the amp went into thermal overload. Two of my amps are over two years old and the other is over 1 year old. These times (around 400 hours on the two amps) are hard use compared to car since volume is cranked for so long. Those looking for amps should consider this when shopping because if you buy what you think will barely work may wind up replacing your stuff, maybe not in a month but 6 months or a year ???

I've popped an old Coustic amp immediately when I hooked up to a two subs in parallel to the amp bridged. Amp was rated for 2 ohm min, 4 ohm min bridged.

I've got a friend running an old Punch45 bridged to a DVC sub wired in parallel, thus the amp is seeing basically a 1 ohm load - it's popped a few fuses, but with a bigger fuse it's still going - but boy does it get hot!

Ok, back to the original question...sounds like the amp. Get a new one. I forgot you mentioned hooking up to the head unit w/o problem. If you can live with the noise it might be ok, but you run the risk of killing a speaker.

You probably popped the amp when the speaker blew last year. The amp speaker combo does not sound right if you were blowing that many fuses. Either your circuit was too light (need lower gage wire) or you had ohm mismatch. Either way if the amp is under warranty get it shipped off.

FYI - how was your amp mounted? Vertical is better than horizontal (if there is a lot of space for heat to dissipate.)

To my knowledge the amp was still running the one speaker that did not pop last year. I really am struggling and knowing where to start on this problem. I have a strong feeling that it is either something is not connected correctly, who knows what because it is connected the same as last year, or the amp is popped.

I don't know where to get the amp tested for one thing. I ordered it off of crutchfield, so I can't really go back to a retailer. I don't even know what kind of speakers on in the B-60's now... I noticed they are slightly different since boss sent them back. I'm not familar with the amps to begin with. Any suggestions? Rather lost right now.

thanks
blake

start by disconnecting all the wires you have now. Then run some very short jumper cables to your battery (not real jumper cables, term of art) RCA input to your head unit and short cable to the speakers laying next to the amp. This way you know if all your connections are OK. If it works, change one cable at a time until you find your problem.

With that said, I am pretty sure you cooked the amp. Sorry, but I have done it before, and it sucks.

my MTX 895 wen't T/U after the winter months - sent it in for repair - 3 year warranty. Bought hifonics 4 channel and class d mono block to replace it.
When i get the replacement back i will sell the MTX - the new hifonics amps are a lot bettter than the MTX.

I have several amps fail at the power transistors. It happens when they get hot.