My amp is cut off, with the protection light lit. About every ten or fifteen seconds it'll switch from protection to power, just for an instant, and the subs will hit. Then it goes back to protection.

Any ideas? Fried amp?

 

Sounds like your subs are fried - check the ohms on the subs, and lightly push in them - see if they ride freely, or if they have a lot of resistance, or squeak. If either of the last two are true your subs are fried.......

If your subs show less than 4 ohms (assuming you don't have dual voice coils or anything) they are probably blown.....and last, but not least - take a sub out and smell it - if it smells burnt.....it is.....

Robbie

 

I took all of the speaker leads off the amp and tried it, and it acted the same way. I guess I'll try to return the amp at the store.

 

Don't pull the load (subs) off an amp and then push it. The amp is looking for a certain amount of resistance at the output (usually around 2, 4, or 8 ohms). This will overdrive the amp and cause the protection circuit to kick in. If your sub(s) are blown they will smell burnt and you won't see less than 4 ohms, you will see an open (many meg-ohms) because speaker don't blow short (the voice coil acts as a short and you should see less than 8 ohms on a good speaker) they go open when they blow.