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power amp shutting down/off

V

valleybass94

Jul 30, 2012
17
0
#1
i have recently purchased a bmax pre-amp and have a crown xls1500 running an enclosure wtih a 15" 600watt 4ohm carvin speaker. it worked fantastic for a few gigs but a month later it seems like i have to raise the volume a bit more. my gain on the bmax was at 5 and my volume knob between 2 and 3, but now i have it at 3 and my crown begins peaking and shortly after it cuts off? i need advice :/ i plan to get the ampeg hlf410 but will that be a solution or am i just doing something wrong? and i must add that i do have to compete with my guitar player that insists on raising his volume every other song and thats where my problems begin, please help.. thanks guys


*dumbandconfused*
 
#6
As far as needing more sound pressure to keep up with your guitar player. You need more speaker area to keep up with him.

So yes the 410 will have more output than a single 15"

or you could simply add another 15" speaker to the other channel.

Crown claims that amp to be 2ohm stable so you could run another 4 ohm 15 on just one channel.

the problem is it keeps cutting out, does this mean your amp is shutting off/ going into protection mode.

Either there is a problem with the amp or its overheating with just a 4ohm load. Its a 2ohm stable amp, so it must be getting really hot. Most likely your rack or however you have the amp mounted is not letting enough air flow to stay cool. And is making it overheat and shut down.

The second channel has a no load condition, but that should not be a problem. Unless for some reason the amp does not like no load conditions.

Or there is a voltage drop on your AC power and the amp is pulling more current to put out the rated power. Which again is causing it to overheat.

Or cutting out you mean the speaker is clicking or farting out, that is no surprise a single carvin/eminence 4ohm 15" aint gonna handle that much power before giving out
 
#8
yea bogeybass, i should have worded that better, it is going into protection mode. as soon as i begin to turn up my volume, of course thats when the clipping begins then i begin to smell the "heat" coming from my amp and shortly after, off and seconds later, back on.
and b-string 2, let me check out that site.
 
#9
You need more speakers to achieve volume AND

be sure there is "breathing room" in your rack.

Adding a fan would help. I used to do a lot of outdoor gigs in the summer with an AB 1100 power amp running 4 monitors (2 ohms) on one side and 2-18 subs (4 ohms), on the other side. That thing ran very hot and the side with the subs would often shut down. We added a 4 1/2 inch fan to the rack and used an 18" window fan for outdoor gigs. That kept it out of thermal shutdown. You could actually touch the case without getting burned. That amp is still going strong after 20 years, though it is used for a rehearsal PA only.
 

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