my amp died?

[sofaking_bob]

I've got an xplod xm-ds1600p5 and it kinda just abruptly died. I know that It's installed properly as I've triple checked every single wire leading to it and they've all got right near 12 volts. Remote wire is fine and I've changed it twice, but anyway... What's going on is that when the car is turned on the amp comes on, but just for about a half-second, then it goes off. My self-proclaimed audio genius brother in-law says that he had one do the same thing and that it was drawing dc power and fried the internals... I'm not sure how plausable that it as I'm not an electrician, but before I go off and have this thing repaired or replaced, does anyone have a clue as to what might be wrong and/or how to fix it? I really enjoy this amp as it produces clean bass and has a remote bass controller directly from the amp.

[crazykamper]

its a sony, lol. what u excpect.

[2ndGenGuy]

I hope it's drawing DC power, because thats what your whole car runs on. If there's some AC power anywhere beyond the alternator, I think you're in trouble.


Anyways, it sounds blown to me, but it could just be your speaker. Does it do the same thing with the speaker unhooked? If you speaker is toast, then it will basically short out the speaker leads on your amp and it will go into protect mode.


If it does the same with the speaker unhooked, then yeah it is most likely blown.
Fuses are all ok?

[conozo]

First just make sure your ground is good and secure.

Second if you have already tried it without the speaker hooked up and it still turns off try this.

With the radio and the amp turn on wire dissonnected take a small wire and touch the 12V connection to the amp turn on lead connector. (The amp turn on connector is also 12) but if you hold it on there and it continues to stay on then the problem is with your remote turn on lead to your radio/cd player and your amp is fine.

Also if your amp works with that test then just hook your remote turn on lead from the 12v source that goes to your cd player that turns on when you turn your key and connect that to your remote turn on jack on the amp.

Hope you understand that.

[ghettogeddy]

well i fu need a new amp i have one for $120

[sofaking_bob]

The fuses are all fine. That was troubleshot number one. I've tested everything with the RCA jacks completely removed, with the subs disconnected and connected. I've changed out the remote wire twice. Like I said, it comes on, with it's lovely green led. Then almost as fast, it turns to a red power protection led, then goes off. I have not tried it on another headunit, but that could be performed easy enough.

As for it having problems because of it being a sony... grow up. And I respectfully decline the $120 amp. I'm looking for something putting out about 500 watts RMS and with remote bass controls. Thanks though, I guess it's off to repair.

[ghettogeddy]

mione puts about 800 rms and its a mono ill take 100

[sofaking_bob]

mione puts about 800 rms and its a mono ill take 100

i appreciate it, but i can get mine fixed for less

[ghettogeddy]

but its still a sony its not worth the money trust in me and thats not me just trying to sell an amp i used to work at fry's electronics and the sony amps alwas and i mean alwas came back do to power faliure unless of couse if u have a p5 series the 5 sided greay amp then its worth it but if its a red sony them just scrap it and buy a new one

[sofaking_bob]

but its still a sony its not worth the money trust in me and thats not me just trying to sell an amp i used to work at fry's electronics and the sony amps alwas and i mean alwas came back do to power faliure unless of couse if u have a p5 series the 5 sided greay amp then its worth it but if its a red sony them just scrap it and buy a new one

it is a p5. xm-ds1600p5. i've got red 4 channel i bought off ebay for like 40 bucks to push my front a rear speakers and i've got another red 2/1 channel i run some 8's off of. you're right, they're pretty much disposable. not bad for cheap, but they're by no means comp worthy, but that's not what i'm looking for. i pieced my system together for pretty cheap until time to buy the head unit and subs. 2 p5 12" subs, almost went ahead and bought the aluminum ones, but i decided to spend the money on the p5 specialty series amp. figured it would last a while...

but my dad is looking for an amp also and 100 bucks is cheap. does your amp have a remote bass controller?

[ghettogeddy]

i dont have it but u can get one for like 40 with a volt meter built in a belive i also have a 4 ch both audiobahn intake series

[sofaking_bob]

i dont have it but u can get one for like 40 with a volt meter built in a belive i also have a 4 ch both audiobahn intake series

gotta have the bass controller. cops are all about some noise ordinances around here... and a $475 ticket is not cool.

[ghettogeddy]

i just use the bass control on my stereo oh and the volume nob works just as fast oh ya te att/ mute button works too

[HostileJava]

gotta have the bass controller. cops are all about some noise ordinances around here... and a $475 ticket is not cool.

Most midrange and up headunits have a bass control built in that is much stealthier then a remote control mounted somewhere on the dash. I guess some people just like that knob though. I know I won't buy a headunit unless it has a real volume knob and not buttons.

[Listen2myBASS]

its a sony, lol. what u excpect. :Owned: hahahaha, so true, sony should stick to tv's and HOME audio, stay away from the cars!

[ghettogeddy]

:Owned: hahahaha, so true, sony should stick to tv's and HOME audio, stay away from the cars!
and still thought they should just stick to tv's cause there home audio sucks as well

[sofaking_bob]

Most midrange and up headunits have a bass control built in that is much stealthier then a remote control mounted somewhere on the dash. I guess some people just like that knob though. I know I won't buy a headunit unless it has a real volume knob and not buttons.
there's quite a difference between a headunit controlling the bass of the entire system and being able to manually turn the bass up and down on only the subs without having to tune the amp itself. thus the priority of having the remote bass controller from the amp. the headunit in my case pretty much plays the track and controls the volume.. all treble and bass are controlled with amps


:Owned: hahahaha, so true, sony should stick to tv's and HOME audio, stay away from the cars!
you know.. that would so obviously help me.... if it had anything to do with help.
i do appreciate you letting me know now to ignore you in the future.

[HostileJava]

Actually if it's a nicer headunit you can control just the bass to the subs. My pioneer has an electronic crossover built into it and has 3 outputs, front, rear, and subs. So if I set the crossover point to 80 or 60hz for the sub I can use the equalizer built into the hu to just control those freqency's and lower or use the preset equalizer profiles for super fast switching. It really all depends on your preference. I don't like mounting a bunch of extra things on the dash, I prefer using the stock setup or somthing hidden if I have to mount a switch. I guess I'm a bit of a control freak also and I love the micro management of everything that the hu offers, plus I live for tuning things to the nth degree and a bass boost knob just won't cut it for that.

[ghettogeddy]

really the bass knov id used for cheaper decks that cant control bass thats all there ment to be so i fu have the control on the deck then u wiont need the knob

oh and as i said befor to get a crappy amp fixed even if only cost u 50 bucks or so is a bad idea spend the extra 50 and get a better amp i dont know if have reviewed the sony amps but they get bad marks across the board all the time stick with older fosgate, alpine, audiobahn, niche, alot of those off brand amps no one has heard of are normally a good amp

[sofaking_bob]

Actually if it's a nicer headunit you can control just the bass to the subs. My pioneer has an electronic crossover built into it and has 3 outputs, front, rear, and subs. So if I set the crossover point to 80 or 60hz for the sub I can use the equalizer built into the hu to just control those freqency's and lower or use the preset equalizer profiles for super fast switching. It really all depends on your preference. I don't like mounting a bunch of extra things on the dash, I prefer using the stock setup or somthing hidden if I have to mount a switch. I guess I'm a bit of a control freak also and I love the micro management of everything that the hu offers, plus I live for tuning things to the nth degree and a bass boost knob just won't cut it for that.

my head unit has rear, front, two subwoofer outputs and an aux/in. it's also got sub controls on it, yes. i use those in conjunction with the remote bass controller so that i've got a set level that the head is putting out, but i've also got a margin of control with the remote. like i said, the cops around here suck balls with their "noise violation" tickets, so i've got the be able to turn it down within a moments notice and not look suspicious about it. which is why the remote knob is mounted just directly beside the seat, hidden. and the remote is kinda like micro managing the amp and what it has to offer. i bought that amp because it had that. it's not really like a bass boost or a "loud" setting on the head. it's controlling the levels that the amp puts out without having to physically re-tweak the amp, so it only effects the subs coming from that particular amp. but it's all in preference.

also, like i've said before, it's not just some shitty wal-mart amp. i bought it from a friend who was planning on using it to push 2 15"s but totaled his car before he could even get it out of the box, and when i purchased it, it was the top of the line, albeit sony's line(for the haters)... you still can't find one for under $200. so if i can get it refurbished for $50, i can still sell it for like $200..

anyway, i was just wondering if anyone knew more about diagnostics for an amp. since starting this thread i've installed it into another vehicle with a different head unit and it did the same thing in there. so i know that it's the amp, but i still don't know what component of the amp is having the problem. that's what i was hoping to find out. thanks again for the help.

[ghettogeddy]

well your priblume is in the protection cercits(sp) they tend to fry really easy

[HostileJava]

Well it's one of two things, either the protection circuit is working fine and doing it's job by shutting the amp off or the circuit itself is not working properly. At work we don't really work on car audio so I'm not that familiar with the different amps, but in most home audio the protection circuit rarely goes unless it get's hit by some major surge and if that's the case it usually blows right through the whole amp and does other damage.

[FyreDaug]

Dunno if this helps or not, but my girlfriend had a MA Audio amp, it was a cheapo yes but it was doing the same thing, would come on green then go red. So we ripped it apart and found out that a voltage regulator burned up, everything else checked out okay, so after installing a new 15$ part myself it worked fine again, then 2 weeks later the same thing happened, green then red. Pulled it all apart but this time there was nothing burned up inside, so now this amp sits as a paper weight in my spare room and it got replaced by a RF amp.

[Cheeseburger]

sorry to hear about ur amp... R.I.P ampy!

[AccordEpicenter]

dont waste your time, shitcan that amp. Those get smoked all the time.

[MessyHonda]

lol^....yeah always get a good brand....i have a old 7 year old kicker....i hooked it up to my friends 2 12inch Alpine type r....and i became a believer.....thoes things hit hard....my amp is only 720RMS but they hit so hard the back window look like it was going to break. find a buddy that works at a best buy or audio store and tell them to hook u up. i got a 150 buck deck for 120 from my buddy