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hey i have a questions about amps, why do when the amps get hot they shut off or cut the bass out, when you have an amp you should be able to push it to the max, right thats why there is rms and max power, if you have your amp doing just the rms mode i know it will last longer, i dont know anything about car audio equipment so any help would be appreciated, by the way i have 2 power accoustics area 51 amps, i dont think that they are that great but i just like the look of them, also someone told me to get fans so they can cool it, is that really good to do, i should just get a different and more powerful amp, what do you guys suggest anyway,

 
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IBTM

hey, check out the ICE forum and you will find some answers to your questions. i can tell that you have not that much knowledge, but it's a great place to learn.

higher heat means more power burned in the amplifier (rather than your speakers). it is also bad for speakers to crank the amp to the max. and there is no RMS mode.

 
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An amp can generally push the rated power all day long.

But amps are usually only a certain % efficient. Anything not going to power output is going towards generating heat. Its a natural byproduct of amplifacation. This is why amps have fans and heatsinks. So if our amp is 75% efficient then only 75% of its power is going towards and 25% of the power is going to generate heat. Nothing you can do about it.

Also fans cool amps really well ..... but they make physical noise and can introduce electrical noise into the circuits. So its a trade off. I would take a amp w/o a fan just for the fact I don't wanna listen to it kick on at low volumes on hot days.

So on a nice 80 degree day you can easily go on a road trip and listen to the tunes all day long.

But if its a 100 degree day ...... where your car was more like 140 degrees before you got in it. Now you go on that same trip. The amp has a much harder time keeping cool ...

So the higher the temp of the amp gets .... the more chance of causing physical damage to the internal components or even the solder holding the components in could get so hot it melts ..... and then lets the components fall out of the circuit board. So to prevent this the amp just shuts itself off at a set temperature.

You really have two options ..... it shuts off cause its too hot .... or it keeps working and destroys itself.

Realistically ..... the better the amp ... the less chance of heat being an issue. I have never actually had a problem w/ any quality amp. Quality amps use high temp rated capacitors etc. right to start with. Many times you do get what you pay for w/ more expensive amps ...... even if it isn't obvious from the spec sheet of the amplifier.

 
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RMS and Peak arent 2 different modes....RMS is root mean square. It's averaged output. The Peak power is the biggest surge the amp can handle. When making a speaker move the amps puts out various power levels. Alot of that power (where the peaks happen) is when thewoofer must change directions, bascally electromagnetic brakes.

Imagine a Car that keeps going from 0-60-0 and so on. Going from 0-60 uses the most power. From 60-0 the engine isn't doing much. back from 0-60 you get a big surge of power.. the RMS is the averaged power used between the 0-60-0.

It's not a perfect anology, but it should give ya there general idea.

Also amps do get hot, the hotter it is outside, the less the amp cools. so heat builds up more. Depending on if the amp has an internal fan a good heatsink, both.or a poor heat sink it'll make all the difference.

Cheers
Mohawk