Chris_F

I have a an alpine mrd-m500 amp installed in the boot of my euro which powers a 12" ecplise 7124 alluminium sub ... today whilst driving home from a guitar lesson (had been listening to the system relatively cranked vol. 60 / 80 a few hours in the day) the sub just cut out. I opened the boot to check the amp and the little lcd screen was displaing E-V if i remember correctly... i then turned the car off then on and it went back to displaying the voltage it was recieving... i thought the problem was fixed but whenever a bit of bass came into the track that was playing i could see the sub wasnt moving at all but i could here a faint crackling sound coming from the sub where the bass was supposed to be.

I hope the amp hasnt blown for some strange reason... i mean my gains are turned down and i didnt have the volume anywhere near maxed out... i'm hoping that it is just an overheating issue and that the amp is refusing to work at certain temps... it was a bloody hot day today... I can't seem to find my users manual and have no idea what E-V means... does anyone on the board know if my sound system is stuffed? or do i just need to let it cool down ?

elduderino

According to the online manual at Alpine1.com, there is no E-V... there's "hot", "E-1" both for heat, there's "E-2" for voltage and "E-3" for current.

I would disconnect the woofer and see if the amp begins staying on... I think your woof's toast and the amp is shutting down when it sees a shorted voice coil on the woofer...

elduderino

Oh - didn't mean to say that what you were saying was not true... just that the error code wasn't in the manual.
Sorry about the poor phrasing on my part.

Chris_F

thanks for that eluderino, and no need to apologise... i checked the message again it is actually E-3... have a link for the online manual that'd be great

I think theres a chance that, that may be the case... i'd be pretty bumbed if it was ay, only had it for less than 2 months and have never gone past 60 on the volume control and the gains were even turned down on the amp

I actually rang the install place that sold me all the components and they seem to think that its a blown fuse and that this is a common problem... its just very weird how the sub comes on crackly then straight away shuts off... I thought eclipse made quality subs... doesnt make sense that mine could blow with such a little load. It's pretty irritating but ahwell ill go seem em tomorrow about it. Thanks again

Bass Mechanic

chris, look on the back of the aluminum cone where the speaker terminals are. some of the earlier aluminum subs had an issue where the cone was actually making contact with the speaker terminal connections causing it to short out the amp.

Chris_F

thanks.... this would make sense... i'll tell the fellas bout it at the install place tomorrow... it is a later model alluminium tho (its the current 7100 series on their website atleast).. but it seams as tho thatd explain the excessive current issue of the amp? Would do it myself... but i have a sealed box thats kinda bolted down and dont feel like touching wha ti didnt do.. bass mechanic, by the soudns of it do u think there is a chance my sub or amp is permanently damaged?

ResidualFreedom

It sounds like your amp is going into "safe" mode when it finds a problem, like mentioned above... a short in the sub's voice-coil or the aluminum cone it touching the leads and shorting the wires. If it's the latter problem try attaching a little piece of felt to the cone where it "might" be touching..

Worst case scenario I would think your amp is fine, however your sub *could* be damaged.

Bass Mechanic

easy way to tell is to disconnect the sub from the amp and power it up. if you still get the error code its tost. probly blew the output stage or the power supply.
also what ohms are you running per channel? i dont know what the alpine amp is rated for but in my experience of probly 30+ years in car audio i have never seen a decent amp blow running 4 ohms. amps always fry when they are rated for 4 and people run them at 2 for example. that causes so much excessive heat and current in the outputs somthing will eventually give up.

Chris_F

Thanks for your help guys... it wasnt the amp that was blown... but my sub

I took it back to the guys at the install place and i got new one under warranty... but i had to reajust all the gain settings they had on the amp... my headunit has 8v pre-outs and when they "tuned" the amp they were telling it it was only recieving like 2V signal and they had the bass boost set to like 9db and a few other things like that that wouldnt have been good for the sub... in the end i tuned it myself so that now even when i turn to full volume it is still way way way within its limits (just while the sub loosens up anyway). I also have the model up from my previous sw7124 the sw8125 i think it is ( a discontinued model for Au $45 extra)... its sounding a lot better and i can tell its been pushed a lot less with my new settings on the amp... how could they get it so wrong i assumed on the initial tuning they would have it set so it couldnt blow (its not like i'mm a car audio specialit.. i thought by never taking it far beyond half volume that i'd be fine... obvisiouly not)... bass mechanic its a dual 4 ohm sub if i remember correctly and the alpine amp is a monoblock 500/1

elduderino

I couldn't get a link from the Alpine web site but go to www.alpine1.com, click on Tech Center, click on Consumer in the lower left corner, and you can get manuals and tech sheets in there.