I have a 05 roadster. 3 diamond audio amps, 6 1/2 with crossovers, 6 1/2s in the back area, and a 10 inch sub behind my seat, kenwood excelon double din with nav, dvd, and ipod hook up. I finished my sound system a while ago and everything is great but today was over 80 degrees out and my bass amp overheated. The 3 amps and a double cap are located in the trunk. The bass was turning on and off on a long drive. I have all the amps set to mid level so as not to blow everything out, although the headunit is usually turned to the highest setting. When I stopped and checked the amps they were all warm, but the one for the bass was almost too hot to touch. I need to figure out a way to either circulate more air in the air or somehow get cool air to flow back there. Does anyone have any advice or experienced the same problem? I am at a loss of what to do here any and all help is very much appreciated.

 

a few fans in a push pull configuration will do the trick

b

 

How many watts is your sub amp and what gauge wire are you running to it?

 

You like your music loud ehhh?

First try adding a powerful fan on each amp's heatsink to circulate air.
Find paul350z post on the clever way he vented amps in a rack.

After trying that if the trunk's temp gets too hot, you should make a cabin vent hole with a powerful fan to blow AC air into the trunk.

 

Even in the sealed "luggage" cubby behind the passenger's seat you can get by with a multi-hundred watt amplifier without overheating.

If you mount inside the stock subwoofer location you benefit in that the cubic volume is greater and you've got a bit of metal on the bottom, back, and sides that will soak up the heat pretty well. I put a tiny fan that just puffs a bit of air between my two amplifiers and out the subwoofer's grill.

Here's the tiny fan which sits in the back of the cubby. It's small enough that it can run off the amplifier turn-on circuit.



And the front of the rack with the fan hidden in the back.

 

The amps already have fans on the heatsinks, you think I should change them out with some powerful computer fans or something? They are all D7 600 watt 2 channel amps. I dont remember the exact gauge I went with but it is definately large enough. I always go bigger than I have to with my audio equipment. I will post pics when I get achance. I really like the idea of getting the ac into the trunk somehow, any ideas how to? Thank you so much for the replies and advice!

 

If you had a couple of grand you could submerge them in Florinert and flow that through a radiator...

Past that, the AC in to the Trunk would be difficult at best and probably messy to install, especially in a roadster.

If fans arent doing the trick, I would find some nice Class-T Amps, they are VERY hard to overheat and sell you diamonds.

As a last resort you can purchase several large Peltier's, one for each amp

( http://www.crazypc.com/items/5910.html )

Like the one above. You can then Purchase a consumer grade water-block for each one and run tubing through all of your amps, through a pump/reseviour and out to under the car through a radiator. You will then have Peltier driven Liquid cooled amps. I would expect this to cost in the Neighborhood of $350 to Implement.. But it should work..Well,,

Pump-Radiator-Hose kit:

http://www.crazypc.com/items/PV1-9380.html

Water Blocks:

http://www.crazypc.com/items/93911.html

 

just get some fans to move the air around a bit more. You should be okay.

 

+1. I run two 4inch PC fans in the cubby hole. No heating problems. Even in 100 degree Houston weather.

 

I would question how you have them setup. How many ohms is the sub amp running at? You mentioned that the gains are not turned past the middle, and you're running the HU volume at max... That doesn't sound right. At max volume you introduce more noise into the signal. Anyone else agree, disagree?

 

I'd second that... Your adding the max THD the hu can pump out into the amp to be boosted + the amps 'average' THD. If you listen to stuff that loud, you should probably adjust the gain up a little, and lower the hu vol. If it's still not loud enough for you, upgrade or get hearing aids

Are you running 2 ohm or less or something else that might complicate things? Amps aren't mounted upside down or anything are they?

 

No.. Never use your gain as a volume ****, Set the volume to 90% and play your most dynamic (Loud) music and adjust the gains to the maximum level before distortion.

 

http://mobile.jlaudio.com/support_pages.php?page_id=143


Set your gains according to this webpage by JL it is very good. If you dont have a DMM you are kinda in the dark

 

90% is not 100%, and the last ten percent is where the greatest amount of distortion will occur... I don't disagree that you shouldn't use the gain as volume control, it's there for balance. That said, the equipment with the lowest THD would make the est candiatate to run at full volume/power. I'm not sure what the kenwood does, but I believe that some of the diamond audio only produce a THD rating of .004 or lower. I presume that is better than the Kenwood.

 

The JL site that AShmo posted is right on the money, the only issue is deciding proper voltagefor your amps. Good find!

 

Roll down the windows and drive faster. LOL Listen to everyone above that suggested fans.

 

I messed with the eq amps and vol levels alot. The amps are very powerful and they start to distort a little after the point they are currently set at. The thing is when I run a cd I usually have it set to 29 or 31 on the headunit, it goes up to 35, but when I am running the ipod i usually put it up to 35. Again thank you for all your advice!

 

It sounds like you are over-exerting your amps.

I have done a lot with car audio--the proper procedure for setting the gains on the amps is as follows:

1.) Queue up a track that has hard hitting bass--pause it
2.) Turn the master gain to 75%--if your deck goes to 35, you need to turn it to 26.
3.) Turn the gain on your amp all the way down.
4.) Press play on the HU
5.) Slowly turn the gain up on the amp until you hear distortion, then ever-so-slightly, turn the gain down (right below the distortion point).
6.) Repeat for each amplifier.

That's it! It's very easy and will ensure that your gains are perfectly matched for all amps. You NEVER have to touch the gains again.

Never move your master gain above 75%. After 75%, you start to send distorted signals to the amp.

When hooking up your ipod to the HU, turn the volume up on the iPod!