I was out messing with tuning with speakers and I noticed that both ride side channels on the amp are putting out way more voltage than the left side. And since the gain knobs control a left and right channel each Im getting a very unequal output an it sounds horrible. The only time the voltage matches up is when i turn the gain all the way down and if I do that it makes the sub over power the speakers unless I turn the gain down on the sub. But at that point im peaking at like 32 out of 35 on my radio volume.
So Im not sure what to start checking or if Im going to just get a different amp. My SS405 is from the mid 90's and it may have been messed up from when I got it. So maybe its time to move on. But a lot of people on SMD have a fetish for the old SoundStream amps.
I know a lot of people who have big boners for old amps. "old school power" "reliable old amps" "better than this new crap" blah blah blah. I have owned maybe 3 amps that were more than 8-10 years older than current model year, each one had issues arise. The damn things age just like anything else, might be a lot of old good condition ones out there, but lots of beat piles of @!#$.
On the other hand....you have other fingers.
In my family we teach that boys have a God-stick and girls have a Shame Cave. -John Stewart
I got it out of a shed so I was kinda surprised when it worked anyways. So maybe Ill look into a new amp.
JLAudioCavalier wrote:I know a lot of people who have big boners for old amps. "old school power" "reliable old amps" "better than this new crap" blah blah blah. I have owned maybe 3 amps that were more than 8-10 years older than current model year, each one had issues arise. The damn things age just like anything else, might be a lot of old good condition ones out there, but lots of beat piles of @!#$.
These are people who like their audio coloured.
Weirdos.
I think Im going to pick up an SAX-50.4 since theyre on close out through Jacob at Sundown.
Maybe someone will buy my SS405 over there.
SundownFire, You sure you didn't have a polarity crossover on one of your lines? BTW, I know what you mean by old school amps....I think they called some of them "toasters" if I am not mistaken cause they would get hot sometimes.
I could imagine this amp would get hot since the 5th sub channel is 5. ohm stable. Hahaha.
Im not sure what a polarity crossover is?
TheSundownFire (JBO Chat) wrote:Im not sure what a polarity crossover is?
when the + and the - on the same wire are touching = Polarity crossover (sry if I sound a bit like a nerd with the techy lingo....it's just me)
ha no I dont. I checked all the obvious stuff.
you threw me a bit when you said if you turn the gains down your peaking at 32 out of 35 on your headunit, peaking at around 32 is problaby a pretty good point to reach maximum power. if the gains were up higher you'd be peaking at a lower number on your headunit, say 25 out of 35. are you getting distortion when your running your headunit at 32? if not i wouldn't consider keeping the gains down as an issue. you want the gains at the lowest possible setting while still reaching full power. lower is better. i mean your stil having volume issues and this may be an indicater tht your amp is on its way out. but hey, you pulled it out of a shed. be happy it works at all lol.
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Ha I know. I hear the Alpine heads start clipping at 27. Ive never verified it with a scope or anything. I just like to have a little head room on my volume knob for songs that are recorded quietly.
Alpines start clipping output at 27 on the speaker amp. If you use the RCA outputs they will go all the way up clean.
Neat. Thats what I was thinking originally but i kept reading that 27 was the limit.
