I've got a refurbished RF 301S pushing a 10" Kicker CompVR. Everythings been running smooth as far as bass is concerned up until the past week.

Every once in awhile, the sub would just stop playing (no weird noises, etc...). I thought it was my new Pioneer cd player I just installed, so I hooked up the sub's RCA's to the Rear speaker preamp outputs instead and still no sound!

I've now got the amp laying out looking at the circuit board, and nothing looks unusual (indications of a fried amp). My question is, why would my sub suddenly stop for ~5 minutes, then ultimately stop playing for good after a week of this?

 

First thing I would do is hook the amp back up, run a test tone through your cd player, and have a DMM across the outputs on the amp. Have the DMM on the 200 volt AC setting. See what kind of voltage your getting, if any. Just to make sure its the amp and not the sub.

Make sure the test tone is one in the subs freq. playing range (50 hz, 30 hz, 70 hz, doesnt matter as long as its under what your crossover is set at)

Is the amp's power light on when it goes dead?

 

well i just tested it and there are 0 volts coming out of the amp to the sub. the 8 gauge power in tests around 14 volts.

so i assume this means my amp is shot, huh?

 

did a protection light come on? Was the amp Hot? how are your gains set? is the ground good?

 

the amp got so hot at times that after a 10 mile ride with the volume only moderately loud, it was too hot to touch for more that 3-5 seconds. it's a fosgate amp, and according to the guy at the local audio shop the amp runs hot and it's an OK sign when the amp's heatsink is very hot.

the gains were set fine and the ground was fine, too. no protection light on the amp so couldn't tell ya.

the amp didnt just stop working all of a sudden. it would phase out at random periods of time then kick on after a minute or so then be fine for the remained of the trip. until one time when it didnt kick back on....

like said ~14 volts incoming,

EDIT : 6.4 volts coming out...i switched to AC as directed by Bartak...

 

You've got problems. First of all, find a new shop. Anyone who says it's OK for an amp to run "very hot" is stupid. There is nothing special about the output devices in that amp because it says RF on it. In audio, heat is very BAD! PERIOD. That amp is safe to use into 4 ohms bridged. Was the amp being used properly, as far as the ohm load from the sub? If you were running that amp bridged into 2 ohms, there's the trouble, plus the amp was refurbed for some reason to begin with.

 

yeah i tend to agree on your points on finding a new shop...was running a 2ohm DVC sub, so it was a safe impendence for the amp.


only thing i'm curious about as to what a legit voltage is for an amp's output?

 

These amps do run very hot. I have one on my comps (soon to be replaced) and after 10 minutes it does get pretty hot to the touch, after a long trip you could probably cook a steak on it, but its never failed me, always ran perfect, and is actually a pretty nice little amp.

Kars, with the vehicle running, you should be getting around the range of 34.6 volts from my math (thats what voltage you should be getting if your gains are set right, or a little less if you dont have the gains as high as you can go without clipping---if you try it again and get a number higher than that, your gains were/are to high and that could have caused clipping, and damaged the amp). But, according to where your gains are, this will vary some.
But, only 6.4 volts, thats not anywhere near what it should be, even if the gains where all the way down.

Just because its refurbed doesnt mean it has a higher change of failing again. When they refurb them they go thru the whole thing and make sure everything work properly.

Time to rip off the back cover and see if you can see any burn spots, or smell something burnt. Then take it to a GOOD repair shop, show it to them, and say "fix this, or else...................."

If you want to go with another amp like this check out Desert Heat Audio (I think thats what it is). Its an Ebay store, RF's ebay store to be exact. You can get 301s's for like 50 bucks.

 

went round and round with RF tech support, and we eliminated a fried amp. so, for no apparent reason, i reached my hand under and pushed the Kicker woofer cone in (downfiring box), and it started playing. however, this would only go for ~30 seconds till i had to manually depress the cone again.

to make a long story short, Kicker will replace it for $97.00 bucks. I only payed ~$50.

where can i get a 10" JL 2 ohm DVC for cheap at?