Stereo Keeps Overheating
 

Hey, I've been trying to get my stereo going 100% for an upcoming sound-comp in kamloops and its a long way to go with a stereo that isnt working right. I need to problem solve this before adding another Sub amp and 2 more subs. Now I have been switching amps to try and problem solve but it has not helped me any. I was originally running 3 amps. Pioneer 800w mono digital for the subs (2 10's in dual slot ported box) A JBL BP series amplifier for the front with Alpine type-s Components and a old-school Alpine 4channel for the rear with Premier Components. I am running crossovers on all speakers, high pass is activated on my deck, and high pass is also activated on the mid-range amps. The JBL for the fronts would overheat within a 10minute period, the rear amplifier never overheated. I switched things around and ran a JL 4/300 which is/was a great amplifier in its day, it has never let me down. I eliminated the JBL and Alpine amplifiers and stuck with the JL but once again it kept going into protect mode after about 5 minutes. Soooo..... I turned the fronts down and it took longer to heat-up. I am running a optima red top, good strong grounds and dual 4gu wire into a distribution block in the rear. Wiring is not the problem, just everything gets HOT. Could me speakers be toast? They still sound great.

Idea's??
Ah, its a jvc avx11 hu. Another problem I've been having is I've blown numerous sets of tweeters. This year I've blown my... premier tweets, alpine type-s tweets, Hertz and Marantz tweets but the speakers themselves have held up pretty well. I have since turned down the high range but is there anything else I can do to prevent blowing them??

are you running enough fans to keep the amps cool?

fans? They are in the open area of my trunk. I discovered running my premiers the amp works great and I can pound the speakers, but when I run iether my alpines or the hertz, the amp goes into protect mode. I dont understand why.

I am wondering how you are blowing tweeters. In my 18 years of installing I have never blown a single tweet (well, at least in my own car). It sounds like you may have some strange underlying issues linked to tuning and/or impedance deficiencies. I think metering your speakers with a multi-meter is a good start so you can see if they are putting an uneccesary load on your amp.

My basic way of tuning is on the jvc avx11 I have the bass/mids on the EQ set below midway and the treble set a notch or two from the top. I set the amplifier gain on the deck to -5 and max the volume to 50 starting the amps at the lowest level starting with the front speakers I turn up the gain until i reach clipping/distortion etc etc than back off about 1/6th to 1/4 of a turn. I set this way so I can max the deck out without having troubles blowing speakers. I use this concept for rears and subs. You mentioned metering the speakers... as in seeing how much amperage (volts?) I am pushing from the amp? I tested the amps when they where shutting off yesterday, when I turned the gain up the amp would shut down at 7.8v (on the speaker outputs) but battery voltage remained around 13.8

No I meant measuring their impedance. Extreme low impedance may be too much for your amp to handle heat-wise.

I don't recommend tuning your amps to your deck at max volume. Some decks (such as Alpine for instance) distort at the pre-amp level when they are turned up past 75% of thier volume. I would tune the amps to the deck at 40 or under for the JVC. Its a general rule of thumb in SQ tuning.