Distortion When Amp Is Turned Up

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Ok, I've never had this problem before. I searched but I could never find a clear answer...

Car - 92 BMW 318is

I have two 12 inch Kicker Solo Baric L5's. Amp is a Cerwin Vega 4 channel 800 watt amp (4x200)

When I start turning up the amp, it reaches a point where there's distortion in the subs. The subs just start firing on their own. I read some articles saying that I needed to turn down the amp to keep it from 'clipping.'

So I turned it down to where there is no distortion but after 30 seconds or so of playing, the amp cuts out like it's getting too hot. It's not that hot when I touch it so IDK what's going on. When it cuts out it makes like a high pitch noise until I cut the power to the amp.

I am only using channels 1 and 2. I have them bridged as well.

Also, the RCA's and the amp signal wire cross paths behind the deck. As everyone knows, the power wires (12v and signal) should not be ran along side the RCA's. They cross paths because this BMW has it's battery in the trunk (that's factory placement, not my doing) on the right side and there is a big ass power wire running from the + terminal on the battery to the starter along the right side.

When facing the deck, the RCA outputs are on the right side and the signal wire from the harness is on the left side, so I had to run the RCA's along the left side of the car so they don't interfere with the power lines. The signal wire goes along the right side so it doesn't run with RCA's. This inturn, makes them cross paths behind the deck. Could this be part of the problem i'm having?

I did try running the RCA's with the power wires in hopes no distortion would occur but I was wrong lol. It was bad lol.

So what do you guys think is going on?
 
i think you have the subs wired wrong. are they in series or parallel. sounds like they are draining the amp
 
you have a bad ground, pull off the ground and sand the metal on the car a little.
The battery is in the trunk so the ground runs straight to the negative battery terminal, I don't think I can find a better ground than that lol. Also, the amp isn't that far from the battery so the ground wire isn't too long...

i think you have the subs wired wrong. are they in series or parallel. sounds like they are draining the amp
Neonmike asked me the same thing and I really don't know. The guy I got them from is in jail for not paying child support lol. When the subs hit, they hit HARD. Just the way I like it, so I think the subs are wired the way I prefer them. I thought they were draining the amp too so I was possibly going to get a better amp. Something along the lines of the JL Audio 500/1 or 1000/1.
 
i dont think you would get this problem from having wires close together behind your dash or whatever.

you know what it sounds like to me.... is that you may have too high of an ohm load on the amp. they are dual voice coil speakers so you may be able to fix the problem.... how many ohms are the speakers and how do you have the wired? series or parallel? the subs may not hit quite as hard with a higher ohm to the amp. that means you need a better amp or at least a more powerful amp. ideally a good sub amp should be 1 ohm stable

to give you an example, the L5s you have are dual voice coil and they come in 2 ohm or 4 ohm. if you wire some 2 ohm subs in parallel you get a 1 ohm load....

which only a good amp can handle. you put that on a run of the mill amp and crank up the gain, and you are going to have problems with the amp cutting out
 
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The battery is in the trunk so the ground runs straight to the negative battery terminal, I don't think I can find a better ground than that lol. Also, the amp isn't that far from the battery so the ground wire isn't too long...

Neonmike asked me the same thing and I really don't know. The guy I got them from is in jail for not paying child support lol. When the subs hit, they hit HARD. Just the way I like it, so I think the subs are wired the way I prefer them. I thought they were draining the amp too so I was possibly going to get a better amp. Something along the lines of the JL Audio 500/1 or 1000/1.
Exactly, the only plausible cause here besides other faulty wiring would be wiring to the subs.

You probably have the ohm load down at 1 ohm, which is most likely not stable on that amp. The system in my Volvo was doing this for the longest time when I had 4 12's in there, took me forever to figure out that I had the ohm load down to about .33 ohms, when my amp was only .5 ohm stable.
 
i dont think you would get this problem from having wires close together behind your dash or whatever.

you know what it sounds like to me.... is that you may have too high of an ohm load on the amp. they are dual voice coil speakers so you may be able to fix the problem.... how many ohms are the speakers and how do you have the wired? series or parallel? the subs may not hit quite as hard with a higher ohm to the amp. that means you need a better amp or at least a more powerful amp. ideally a good sub amp should be 1 ohm stable

to give you an example, the L5s you have are dual voice coil and they come in 2 ohm or 4 ohm. if you wire some 2 ohm subs in parallel you get a 1 ohm load....

which only a good amp can handle. you put that on a run of the mill amp and crank up the gain, and you are going to have problems with the amp cutting out

Exactly, the only plausible cause here besides other faulty wiring would be wiring to the subs.

You probably have the ohm load down at 1 ohm, which is most likely not stable on that amp. The system in my Volvo was doing this for the longest time when I had 4 12's in there, took me forever to figure out that I had the ohm load down to about .33 ohms, when my amp was only .5 ohm stable.
I see... I had a two channel 1200 watt amp in my shed and when I hooked this amp up the subs don't distort as much but they still do it. Looks like I gotta look into another amp and possibly a digital cap. Any amp you guys would suggest?
 
I would look into JBL or JL audio. I trust both of those brands and know they make 1 ohm stable amps.
 
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