i have a kenwood ddx6019 headunit, going to a kenwood KAC-8403 amp. thats powering the inifinty kappa 6.5 components in all 4 doors.

i had a power acoustic amp and it sounded good for a while, but it was older and started to go on the way out. this new kenwood amp is rated 90watts at 2 ohms, the 6.5 components are 2 ohm speakers and handle 95 watts.

the amp keeps cutting out when i put it to around 3/4 volume- it doesnt cut out complete, just gets really quiet.

when installing components- since your running a 2 ohm speaker and a tweater- does that bump the ohm load to 4 ohms? if so then i would only be running 60 watts from the amp.

any help is apreciated

im thinking of upgrading to a 140 watt alpine 4 channel

also i put 3" kappa speakers in the back pillars, can i piggy back them to the rear channel? would i need a larger amp for that? i have PS2 and a 17" screen back there and would like to use those 2 rear speakers, i disconnected them thinking maybe that was part of my problem

thanks!

 

First off even though the Kappa speakers say they are a 2 ohm load they actually are not. Infinity released a bulliten stating that, once the speaker is warmed up, it is actually closer to 4 ohms (something like 3.8 ohms) therefore it is safe to run them of an in dash deck that is 4 ohm stable and it wont over heat. Unfortunately for you it means you are only putting 60 watts to them, not because the tweeter raises the impedance (it and the woofer wire into the crossover then to the amp at the same ohm load and as one speaker), but because the impedance (resistance) of the speaker changes when it heats up. This however should not affect it getting quiet at high volume because if that where because it was only getting 60 watts then it would be quiet all the time. It has been my experience that this happens when the remote turn on wire from your deck is not getting a full 12 volts. Test this with a volt meter, the one i tested showed 12 volts starting out but as soon as i got it up to the volume when it shut off it instantly went down to 9.5 to 10 volts. This could be because it is tapped into a bad wire if it is on a factory radio. Also if you are running multiple amps (dont know if you have subs) running off the same amp turn on wire from the deck you need to run the wires with a relay off the 12 volt switched wire because the deck is not able to supply multiple amps (3 or more) with enough voltage through one wire to give each a full 12 volts. Hope this helps, let me know if theres is anything else.

 

the amp is acualy getting REALLY hot when it does this and the volumn goes up and down

do you think im pushing the amp to its limit maybe?

the wire is getting 12v all the time, its coming from the amp turn on part of the wire harness in the dash. im only running one amp for the time being.

im thinkin about going to an alipine F450 to see if maybe this amp just sucks

 

I would check your ground - redo it and make sure its solid. There is no way a couple component sets are over working your amp. Where is the amp mounted? make sure you are getting air to it so it can cool.

The only other thing I can think of is check your wiring. make sure it's all running stereo. depending on how the amp connections are check to see if all the speaker wires going into the amp are good. I've seen it where stray fringes from one speaker wire are touching another input. This is what I am thinking the problem is.

 

amp is mounted under the rear seat, not close to the seat or anything, its mounted to the floor. i removied the dressing cover to uncover the fan so it could suck some air easier to it. for the ground i ground down the floor pan and used a fender washer and self tapping screw to secure it. should i drill out the eyelet and use a seat bolt as the ground? and the wire kit is a dual amp kit for 800watts from rockford fosgate- im just not using the power distribuition, im running the power wire straight into my amp., it was cheaper than buying a 800 watt wire kit since it was on sale.

 

that ground should be fine, you might also look for a grounding issue in your speaker wire running to the amp. are any of your speakers kinda crackly? if so you probably ran a screw or something through that set of speaker wire and this would make the amp run really hot. if all this stuff is fine then you have no other choice but to swap the amp out. sometimes when an amp gets hot and it is several years old it is a sign that it is on the way out. only problem is you dont really know untile you swap it out and see if the new amp does any better.

 

this amp is brand new- i was running a power acoustic amp and it started doing this so i was like eh ill bite the bullet and get a new amp. acualy the right front speaker sounds like crap sometimes- itll be normal then all of a sudden itll make noises, especialy with the volumn on 1- just so you barely hear music- itll intermitantly make a loud pop or crackle, maybe ill run a new speaker wire to that set

think i should remove the right front channel from the amp and see how it works?

 

its worth a try. usually the speaker will make the cracklin noise all the time if the speaker wire is grounded somewhere but stranger things have happened. the fact that its happened to two different amps tells me its somwhere in the wireing. Ok, process of elimination: 1) the amp turns on therefore it is not the main power wire, ground wire or remote turn on wire. 2) speakers do play untile a certain volume therefore it is not the rca's or the speakers wouldnt play sound at all. 3)right front is crackly sometimes and amp gets hot and gets quiet when turned up 3/4 therefore it must be the speaker wire b/c this is the only wire left running to the amp and i am betting it is the set that is running to the crackly speaker.