so i just installed my new sundown 100.4 amp and i have a terrible distortion problem even at a barely audible level. ive double checked all the wiring for proper polarity and checked that i have a good ground connection too. ive also tried speakers which i know are good as well as inputs that i know are good. the only inconsistency ive found is the the remote from my deck puts out 11.3v and the book that came with my amp is asking for 13.8v would this cause the distortion or is there something wrong with the amplifier.

thanks for the input

so i just installed my new sundown 100.4 amp and i have a terrible distortion problem even at a barely audible level. ive double checked all the wiring for proper polarity and checked that i have a good ground connection too. ive also tried speakers which i know are good as well as inputs that i know are good. the only inconsistency ive found is the the remote from my deck puts out 11.3v and the book that came with my amp is asking for 13.8v would this cause the distortion or is there something wrong with the amplifier.

thanks for the input

Check your headunit ground wire, where is it grounded to (using the wiring harness usually is not good). Where do you have amp grounded? What kind of distortion are you talking about, can you describe it and any more information that will be helpful? Were you using an amp before this?

Change out the amp for a different one to see if it still has the distortion problem. If the other has it, check your RCA's.

the headunit is grounded thru the harness which ive never had any trouble with and ive had it for 3 years now. the amp is grounded to the floor by the seat belt bolt under the back seat. the sound is like a garbled sloppy distorted sound other than that i couldnt describe it, however the music is still audible. before i had a mono sub amp and it worked perfectly but this is all new wiring for this amp. i would like to try another amp however i dont have one at my disposal so i cant really do that. i did try multiple input sources and all of them had the same problem.(2 decks and an ipod with an rca attachment)

To me it either sounds like a grounding issue somewhere or a bad amp then, hopefully the former.

Check your RCAs from your deck. do you have another Headunit that you can switch out and try? does the distortion happen on all sources?(CD, AUX, TUNER, IPOD. etc.)

Check your RCAs from your deck. do you have another Headunit that you can switch out and try? does the distortion happen on all sources?(CD, AUX, TUNER, IPOD. etc.)

He already said he tried 2 other decks and MP3, check out the post before mine.

Check your RCAs from your deck. do you have another Headunit that you can switch out and try? does the distortion happen on all sources?(CD, AUX, TUNER, IPOD. etc.)

ive tried different head units, sources, and speakers all having the same problem. ive basically isolated the problem to the amplifier so im waiting to hear from sundown now to see if its something fixable (ground, or low voltage on the remote line) or if it needs to be RMA'd.

Sounds like a question for Jake at Sundown!

is there a way i could increase the voltage on the remote line from 11.3 to the recommended 13.8 to see if that helps. im not really sure how i would go about that if its a simple hardware store item or what not. im hoping thats the issue and not the amp itself

Shouldn't make a difference 11.3 volts to 13.8. It's a 12 volt trigger relay to turn the amp on. You could use a jumper from your 12 volt power and touch the remote turn on and see what it does.

Check your RCAs from your deck. do you have another Headunit that you can switch out and try? does the distortion happen on all sources?(CD, AUX, TUNER, IPOD. etc.)

He already said he tried 2 other decks and MP3, check out the post before mine.

My bad. Guess i wasn't paying attention

solved

Matthew,

I know exactly what it is -- I will need to replace four resistors in

the amp. A few amps were made with the wrong value resistors in the

input section power supply regulation circuit. I just recently found out

about this when I got a couple others back.

It passes on our test bench as it runs 15v but at a bit lower voltage in

a car it makes that sound.

What is your address ? I'll send you a tag to send it in.

- Jacob