russianpsyco

I just got an Alpine MRA-D550 amp in my car and for some reason every one in a while when Im listening to any cd the music cuts out for a second and then starts back up. My headunit is fine cause Ive been using it with the amp before this one. This happens more often the louder the volume is. I checked all the wires and there is nothing shorting out. Anybody have any idea why it could be doing this?

Driver

Are all of the speakers cutting out?
Or just your subs/amped speakers?
If it's all of them then that's a very strange issue.
My guess would be,
1. the head unit is failing or has some sort of volume limiter-(Kind of like a rev limiter)
2.If it's just the subs- then maybe your input to the amp is hitting some sort of limiter (like a rev limiter)
Just my guess.
Hope you figure it out man. It's just plain unfair to deny a man his music.

russianpsyco

All of my speakers are running through the amp, its a 5 channel theater amp. From this amp I have an RCA going to my sub amp. I checked the power, ground and all 5 speaker wires, everything seems fine.

I was thinking, could it be because of the way I ran my power?
The way I did it is:
4 guage wire with 80 amp fuse from battery to a distro block,
from the block: a 60 amp fuse and 8 guage wire to the theater amp and a 50 amp fuse and 8 guage wire to my sub amp. I dont lose power to any of the amps but just a thought.

My headunit is fairly new, its the IVA-D310. I know they've been out for a while but I never had a problem with it before.

Thanks alot for your help, I really appreciate it.

Driver

The way you hae your power run sounds solid to me, almost overkill, but better safe than sorry is never a bad way to approach things. I'm still kind of leaning towards a protection mode kicking in. I've had amps both home and car that would automaticaly shut themselves off if they either overheated or "thought" they were sending too loud of a signal. In some cases the same would happen if the amp "thought" it was recieving too loud a signal. I would try to duplicate the problem and keep a close eye on the amps and see if some sort of indicator light appears trying to tell you there's a problem. Some amps with protection modes have a seperate indicator light and I've seen others that the power/operation light will change from green to red. I had one a few years ago that i bought used and it would do what your describing, just cut out for a few seconds then start playing again. It was hitting the protection mode. I never did figure out what to do about it. I tried lowering the output level going to the amp and then turning the amp gain up to compensate, as well as vice-versa. I got fed up with it and just bought a new amp. I think it was broken when I bought it. Again, just my best guess. But I do hope you figure it out. Check your manual/info booklet and see if it mentions anything like a protection mode I described. Perhaps it may have some suggestions. Good luck.

russianpsyco

Thanks alot Driver, you've been a big help. I checked for the lights you are talking about but even when the music cuts out the light stays solid blue. I purposely shorted out one of the wires and it turned red and wouldn't start playing until I shut off the ignition and turned it on again.

Ill read the manual and contact Alpine, hopefully they can tell me something.

Thanks again

sqsi

Where do you have the gain set on the amp? I am guessing its cranked up which is not the correct way to have it set

Driver

I hope you get it working right man.
This reminds me of every problem I've ever had personally with car audio.
In my first car, I'd take the face off when I parked it. I'd get off work walk up to my car and a cd would be playing with no face on the head unit?!
But that was acceptable because before I just had a boombox sitting on the dash.

Driver

I just thought of another question to ask you. How are you sending signal from your head unit?
Are you using RCA outs (from the head unit) straight to your theater amp < to > your sub amp?
OR are you using the amplified speaker outputs (IE: regular speaker wire outs)


EDIT: try turning your bass down on the head unit and let the sub do the low end work. It may be that you're clipping into protection mode because of the low end. Low frequencies can carry alot of power and it may be possible that that your first amp (running your smaller speakers) may be clipping out. Which would in turn clip out the following (sub) amp.
Personally, I would try and run as many of the smaller (IE: front door, rear deck speakers) off of the head unit itself and just amplify the sub. I know you may posssibly have some really good front and rear speakers, but they don't need SUPER power. even if you've got some MB quarts or Fosgates you really only need to give them about 50-75 watts a piece. Let the sub do the thump.
And to add to SQ's idea it is never a good idea to run your amp wide open-(all the way up.)
Try a couple things and see what works, and keep us posted on what you figure out. I'll respond whenever I check my email. Good luck with it, and don't cross your speakers poles (put positive bridged with negative) to force a cutoff again, you can only do that a few times, if not once, before you damage the speakers

russianpsyco

From the head unit I have an optical cable, TosLink, running to my theater amp. From the amp is an RCA running to my sub amp. The theater amp only puts out 60 watts RMS so im not abusing my speakers. I think I do need to turn my gain down, it is all the way up. Ill keep you guys posted

Driver

Thats nice to have an optical out from the head. The only reason I asked was to see if you were using speaker lines out to the amp. Since they carry power and you have to run them into the low level input sometimes the juice from the head can over-power the amp inputs. But since this is not the case no need to worry about that, optical out is definitely the way to go.
Try turning the amp down a bit, like you said and let me know if that does the trick. If it doesn't I may be out of ideas. Good luck.