Listening to top-quality beats is one of the general pastimes we have. Traveling, for instance, is way better when you have your favorite tunes playing in the background. An efficient car amplifier helps a lot as it provides you with improved audio feedback, allowing your music notes to sound more solid and distinct. It offers you the power to superbly feel your music, drowning you in that upbeat mood that helps keep you awake, especially during long drives.
While an amplifier can superbly add extra impact to your audio, it can also be prone to damage. Many amplifiers are heavy-duty devices that are meant for lengthy, everyday use. Many of them are even resistant to various environmental factors, including humidity, water, high temperature, and the like. Some, however, tend to be weaker in terms of resilience and flexibility. But how do you know when your amplifier is damaged?
It is, of course, necessary to know when your existing amplifier is shot. You need to pinpoint such a debilitating issue before it worsens and affects your entire audio system, which will, then, prevent you from having such glorious audio feedback. To know the signs of a lousy car amplifier, read on.
Signs of a Blown-Out Car Amplifier
Your efficient car amplifier can get damaged over time. This is due to several reasons: age, actual frequency and nature of usage, and device quality. You can specifically tell that your car amplifier is damaged by finding the following signs on your gadget:
Car Radio Stops Working
Your car radio may suddenly stop working. Its power may be inconsistent, causing it to go on and off while attempting to use it. You may notice a sudden halt in your music while trying to cross a bent or a sudden in the highway. It may also stop working altogether after some time. A blown-up or damaged fuse may also be the reason for your non-working car radio.
Reasons and Causes Behind It
Your radio’s wirings may have some of its parts corroded somewhere, leading to intermittent disruptions to your otherwise continuous playback. Since your radio’s wirings are mostly found underneath your dashboard, one of them may be damaged already, and the need to check each of these wirings is a must.
As with other electrical devices, your car radio—and car audio system—has an integrated mechanism that prevents damage from sudden power upsurges. Your car radio has its specific power capacity that must be maintained to forfeit possible damage. If, for example, an unintended upsurge occurs, your car radio may get damaged because it cannot handle a power level that crosses its indicated capacity.
New Head Unit Has No Power
A newly installed head unit should be able to work as soon as you switch it on. However, it may not work when it does not receive its indicated power capacity. Most head units are meant to receive 12V.
Reasons and Causes Behind It
There are several reasons behind such a misfortunate occurrence. Because most head units are developed and indicated to receive 12V, your head unit must be provided with that level of power. It should not be far less nor much more significant than that. The possibility of power oversupply burns your head unit and may even cause a fire inside your car.
A noticeable burning smell is indicative of a burned head unit. Your car amp may have also gone into its protective mode. When this happens, there are two possibilities to consider: One, your amp may have been receiving too much power from your system’s alternator. Two, your alternator is providing inconsistent or unstable voltage to your car amp. Remember that your amplifier has a specific power voltage indication that requires strict adherence to prevent it from going into the protective mode or being damaged completely.
A voltmeter can help you check the power being received by your amp. Check that it is receiving 12V. If this is the case, the problem may rely on your head unit. If this is the case, you will also need to check your head unit for its wires, battery, and fuses.
Absence of Bass from Provided Car Speakers
While it may be possible that your car amp isn’t receiving its indicated power level capacity or that your wirings and fuses are damaged, a non-working amplifier may also be because your car speakers aren’t producing sufficient bass response. We have to remember that an amplifier’s job is to create an effective and noticeable bass response—it must be able to amplify your audio source’s sounds. If your amplifier is working perfectly, your car speakers must be able to produce sufficient bass response, as well.
Reasons and Causes Behind It
The incapability of your speakers may cause such an absence of a bass response from your car speakers to produce synchronized pushing or pulling of air. This can be due to an aftermarket installation or replacement of your car’s stock speakers. While such upgrades are recommended, there is a need to make sure that your new speakers are working compatibly, with both of them pulling or pushing air at the same time. When these speakers are out of polarity, you won’t be able to hear any bass response from your speakers, even when you have a powerful amplifier to back them up.
Annoying Noises in the Car Audio System
You upgrade parts of your car audio system to improve its overall sound quality. Hence, you purchase aftermarket devices to amplify your system’s capacity further to provide top-notch feedback. However, there are instances when you get to receive irritating noise or distortion in your music feedback.
Reasons and Causes Behind It
- Poor-Quality Head Unit Ground
You might have a head unit ground that isn’t as efficient as the rest of your equipment. Such a condition may result in an alternator whining that gets to be noticeable when playing music.
- Poor-Quality Speaker Amplifier
You may also hear an alternator whine when you do not have an efficient speaker amplifier. Such an alternator noise gets to be more noticeable when ramping up your sound levels.
- Sudden electrical processes
Your car, of course, does several routine electrical processes that may cause a short accessory pop in your car’s audio system. Such processes may include turn brakes and signals, windshield wipers, and headlights. You may hear accessory pops are caused by such high current mechanisms that you cannot easily eradicate as these are routine processes involved in your day-to-day traveling movements.
- Old age
Your car audio system is prone to old age, just like all other gadgets you have. Such a condition causes intermittent sound crackles even when you have a perfect radio reception or audio quality.
- Poor Radio Signal
Such crackling sounds may also be due to poor radio signals. This is especially possible when you go to out-of-the-way locations that do not have dedicated radio signal towers nearby.
- Poor Audio Input Quality
Crackling noises may also be due to poor audio input quality. To make sure that you have noiseless and vibrant audio feedback all the time, you should make sure that you also have top-quality audio files to begin with.
Sudden Audio Cut-Off
There may also be instances when you get to experience a sudden cut-off in your car audio system’s sounds. You can be enjoying a nonstop audio playing experience when your audio suddenly stops.
Reasons and Causes Behind It
A sudden audio cut doesn’t necessarily mean damage. However, it may be caused by an overheating amplifier or even a loose wire. Your amplifier, primarily when used for loud music playing at extended periods, is prone to extensive overheating. When this happens, your amp goes into protective mode, preventing your device from getting completely damaged. This, then, causes your device to stop playing. To solve such a recurrent condition, you need to provide adequate airflow to your amplifier. This solves abrupt overheating, allowing you to use your car audio system for more extended playback periods without frequent audio cuts.
Car Stereo System Gets Too Hot
When your car stereo system gets too hot, your music feedback becomes severely affected. It may also cause eventual damage to your whole car audio system.
Reasons and Causes Behind It
Your car stereo may become too hot when you have faulty wiring. Speaker wires may not be correctly installed, or wires that are meant to be running separately may have been accidentally joined. Checking for such malfunctions is a must because a car stereo that gets too hot to handle may cause unwanted instances of overall system damage or even a breakout of fire. To do so, go over all the different wire connections your system has. Check that they are all appropriately positioned and that no part is corroded. Otherwise, if all these wirings are found to be correctly installed and no wiring mix-up is observed, bringing your audio system to a licensed technician should be your next move.
Poor or Incorrect Ground Connection
Your car stereo must have proper ground connection. This allows your car stereo systems to manage high sound levels without clipping capably.
Reasons and Causes Behind It
If your system doesn’t have appropriate grounding, your system won’t manage higher sound levels. You have to remember that higher sound levels require higher amp power levels. If your system doesn’t have appropriate grounding, it won’t provide you with such heightened sound levels smoothly. It will result in crappy audio quality. Your system’s amp ground should be in the vehicle’s chassis. The ground should also be parallel to your car’s audio systems size. You shouldn’t use the negative battery pole as the audio system’s ground, as doing so invites all the different ripples from your equipment into your audio system.
Conclusion
Mentioned above are the different signs of a bad car amplifier—or, rather, an inappropriate mix-up of wirings and equipment. While you need to ensure that you have perfect audio feedback, it is also crucial to check your entire audio system for its parts’ working conditions. Overheating is a dangerous occurrence that not only affects your car audio system’s performance. It can also cause unwanted fires. To prevent such a misfortune from happening, make sure that you only use appropriate and top-quality car amplifiers, speakers, and so forth when upgrading your car’s stock audio system.