Is my amp broken ?

[trashbat]

hello. the other day i connected two amps in a parrell circuit in my car (meaning one earth for both). they worked fine for 5 mins but after this the smaller of the two amps started flickering on and off (making the speakers sound like machine guns) and proceeded to smoke a bit.

i have disconnected the working amp and used the wires from that on the smaller amp (as if only wiring up one amp) and the problem perstists. i have opened the amp too but there does not appear to be any burnt/singed parts. could it be that the amp is faulty ? or could be be something to do with the speakers im using ? any ideas will be of great help.

 

[ijd]

when you say one earth for both, do you mean one earth shared, or one earth for each individual,
each amp should have its own seperate earth, if you have used one cable for both i would think you have fried it.

 

[trashbat]

umm... well i may have put the secondry amp's earth to the neg terminal on the primary amp then run another cable from the first amp to the earth point. if i have fried the amp wouldn't it just not work at all rather than flicker on and off ?

 

[ijd]

well in that case you wired them in series.
it has probably blown the circuits, ok it lights up and makes noise, but it sounds like scrap to me, you wired it totally wrong, meaning the small amp was carrying the larger amps load as well

 

[trashbat]

ok mate cheers for the explanation. now to get a new amp and wire it properly. will a distribution block and two seperate earths do ?

 

[ijd]

its best to use a seperate earth for each, and earth somewhere in the centre of the floor pan, but a fair distance apart,

 

[Curry Monster]

Sory ijd your wrong.If you wire 2 or more amps you need to connect them to the same point on the vehicle or you will get a potential difference and hence intereference otherwise.

Wire to the chassis, make sure all the paint is removed for a good earth and try and keep the cable as short as possible.

 

[ijd]

well i always put mine apart and have never suffered a problem.usually with one amp under each seat.