Nothin' like the smell of a cooked amp
12-03-2011, 06:03 PM
#1
Staging Lane
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Nothin' like the smell of a cooked amp So I'm driving home the other day down the interstate and smell burning plastic. I immediately pull over and after going straight to the engine bay 
I eventually discover the source of the stench- my PPI amp was smoking. Running at proper load and impedance, gains dialed in w/ a multimeter, right gauge wire used (I don't use regular car audio wire, I use commercial grade six strand electrical wire, 8GA for this particular application) grounds are on time. I have no clue as to why this happened other than the amp is really old. It melted the prongs off the fuse but NEVER POPPED THE FUSE. I assume something shorted out inside the amp or something...
anyway I picked up an Alpine MRP-M500 on sale @ electronic express and a line output converter, soldered all my connections on the speakers and used crimp tubes on the wires running from the speaker to the converter. Dialed in gains with a multimeter again, and now that my W3 is running at the ideal RMS output the bass is bananas...so I'll be buying some new interior speakers soon, to beef up the interior sound quality. Any recommendations? I'm usually not a fan of ridiculous amounts of bass (I'm now running @ 500W RMS, before it was 250W), but DAMN does it sound good in a sealed box!
If anyone wants pics of the install of the LOC just ask I took a bunch just in case, I even found a handy little spot to mount it where no one will see it
without further ado here is the pic of my old PPI amp
I eventually discover the source of the stench- my PPI amp was smoking. Running at proper load and impedance, gains dialed in w/ a multimeter, right gauge wire used (I don't use regular car audio wire, I use commercial grade six strand electrical wire, 8GA for this particular application) grounds are on time. I have no clue as to why this happened other than the amp is really old. It melted the prongs off the fuse but NEVER POPPED THE FUSE. I assume something shorted out inside the amp or something...anyway I picked up an Alpine MRP-M500 on sale @ electronic express and a line output converter, soldered all my connections on the speakers and used crimp tubes on the wires running from the speaker to the converter. Dialed in gains with a multimeter again, and now that my W3 is running at the ideal RMS output the bass is bananas...so I'll be buying some new interior speakers soon, to beef up the interior sound quality. Any recommendations? I'm usually not a fan of ridiculous amounts of bass (I'm now running @ 500W RMS, before it was 250W), but DAMN does it sound good in a sealed box!
If anyone wants pics of the install of the LOC just ask I took a bunch just in case, I even found a handy little spot to mount it where no one will see it
without further ado here is the pic of my old PPI amp
12-03-2011, 06:22 PM
#2
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Be careful with those alpines. My MRP M1000 died within 6 months. Unbeknownst to me, those amps do not have cooling fans... When it cooked, it took my just-as-expensive Type-R sub-woofer with it.
12-03-2011, 06:36 PM
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Staging Lane
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most class D amps don't have fans, since the amount of heat they put off is (comparatively) less than say, a Class A amp, since Class D amps are very efficient at what they do. I think for the most part fans only go in them after 1000W RMS or so when the amount of heat they put off can't be offset by the amp's fins.
I had just the opposite experience with my last Alpine amp, it was an MRP-M450 and pushed a 4 ohm 15" Memphis Power Reference sub in my Sunfire, and my Blazer before that, and my Cadillac before that... I had it for over two years and it was still working fine when I sold it with my Sunfire. I'd love to do all Alpine in my car but they don't make double din head units, I don't think... and I'm partial to Kenwood or Pioneer for speakers...
I had just the opposite experience with my last Alpine amp, it was an MRP-M450 and pushed a 4 ohm 15" Memphis Power Reference sub in my Sunfire, and my Blazer before that, and my Cadillac before that...
I had it for over two years and it was still working fine when I sold it with my Sunfire. I'd love to do all Alpine in my car but they don't make double din head units, I don't think... and I'm partial to Kenwood or Pioneer for speakers... 
