Customers are very important, and sometimes pay the bills - so those who work for customers must be treat them fairly, friendly, and professionally. I have this one customer (actually, this probably goes for a lot of 'our' customers) that regligiously thinks turning the gain up 100% is right thing to do. I printed out some documents on how to set the gain, and told him as nice as I could that gain controls need strict attention, but the installer insists that his client base requires the gains to be at "maximum volume". He states that even if he sets the gain down, most of his customers will just go and turn the gain back up after the install anyways.
Unfortunately this customer has been a great business partner and I dont want to lose him, but I dont want to keep fixing something which keeps breaking either. The last amp blew again after I fixed it because he ran it at 1 ohm where it is only 2 ohm stable, and the gain was of course at the maximum setting. Also, the amp likely also suffered from being under volted as the car he installed it in is still getting a classic engine rebuild. I even measured the battery at 11.2v when I picked the amp up.
Comment:
I dont really want to tamper much with the design of an ampolifier, but...
QUESTION:
For this customer, would it be appripriate if I could somehow re-circuit a gain control so that it will be only like 1/2 the control width as stock?? Also, I really wish amplifier manufactorers would get rid of remote gain controls... Who needs them anyway when headunits can supply up to 5v?
-AHH!! Just venting... Any ideas? Does digikey have a sub replacment for installers?
Unfortunately this customer has been a great business partner and I dont want to lose him, but I dont want to keep fixing something which keeps breaking either. The last amp blew again after I fixed it because he ran it at 1 ohm where it is only 2 ohm stable, and the gain was of course at the maximum setting. Also, the amp likely also suffered from being under volted as the car he installed it in is still getting a classic engine rebuild. I even measured the battery at 11.2v when I picked the amp up.
Comment:
I dont really want to tamper much with the design of an ampolifier, but...
QUESTION:
For this customer, would it be appripriate if I could somehow re-circuit a gain control so that it will be only like 1/2 the control width as stock?? Also, I really wish amplifier manufactorers would get rid of remote gain controls... Who needs them anyway when headunits can supply up to 5v?
-AHH!! Just venting... Any ideas? Does digikey have a sub replacment for installers?
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Customers .. you can't live with them and you can't live without them ...or something like that !
Like the one who, after removing the "tamper-proof" cover, moved the power supply switch from 220v to 110v to "see what would happen"!
Do I think it is ethical to tamper with the volume control from original?
Alas, No.
Andy
.
Like the one who, after removing the "tamper-proof" cover, moved the power supply switch from 220v to 110v to "see what would happen"!
Do I think it is ethical to tamper with the volume control from original?
Alas, No.
Andy
.
He's not a good customer and you don't need him if he's costing you money. In the future, either tell him that you can't repair it or charge him at least double what you would normally charge. That will cover the second, warranty, repair when he blows it.
You should also explain to him that you can only return it to original condition. If he blew it when it had factory installed parts, it's going to blow again when he connects it to the same unsafe load.
One solution may be to tell him, before you do any work, that the you will show him that the amp works in your shop when he picks it up (play it until he's satisfied that there is no problem) and there there will be no further warranty.
Generally, when someone picks up an amp, I ask them who will be reinstalling it. If it's someone I know to be trustworthy, I generally don't show them it works. If they say they don't know or that a 'buddy' will be hooking it up for them, I connect the amp, show them that all individual channels work, tell them to notice that the amp isn't drawing excessive current and to notice that no smoke is coming from the amp. Then, if the amp begins smoking immediately after it's installed, they know that the installer is to blame. I tell them to notice that there is no smoke coming from the amp because too many times, I've done this and the amp was installed before leaving the shop and they brought it back 10 minutes later and smoke was still coming out of the amp.
You should also explain to him that you can only return it to original condition. If he blew it when it had factory installed parts, it's going to blow again when he connects it to the same unsafe load.
One solution may be to tell him, before you do any work, that the you will show him that the amp works in your shop when he picks it up (play it until he's satisfied that there is no problem) and there there will be no further warranty.
Generally, when someone picks up an amp, I ask them who will be reinstalling it. If it's someone I know to be trustworthy, I generally don't show them it works. If they say they don't know or that a 'buddy' will be hooking it up for them, I connect the amp, show them that all individual channels work, tell them to notice that the amp isn't drawing excessive current and to notice that no smoke is coming from the amp. Then, if the amp begins smoking immediately after it's installed, they know that the installer is to blame. I tell them to notice that there is no smoke coming from the amp because too many times, I've done this and the amp was installed before leaving the shop and they brought it back 10 minutes later and smoke was still coming out of the amp.
Dr Zeus, A famous redneck once said "You can't fix STUPID".
< spoken with a very heavy accent and drawl..lol..
All customers pay the bill's, but some clients need management to keep as clients. Think outside the box, or in this case outside of the car amp..lol...
PS If you tamper with the internals to control gain they will just return the amp saying it does not play as loud as it use to, and they will still be asking for a warranty on your time and efforts. Read the PM I sent you, both Perry and I have similar ideas
< spoken with a very heavy accent and drawl..lol..All customers pay the bill's, but some clients need management to keep as clients. Think outside the box, or in this case outside of the car amp..lol...
PS If you tamper with the internals to control gain they will just return the amp saying it does not play as loud as it use to, and they will still be asking for a warranty on your time and efforts. Read the PM I sent you, both Perry and I have similar ideas
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Awww... nice lil amp... maybe a better enclosure design? Just my 
Being "loud" has a lot to do with the enclosure the subs are in...
Is their power supply/reserve up to snuff to power an amplifier that size? I'm quite familiar with large amps... I own an Atomic 7K for my daily setup and actively compete in the Canadian DbDrag circuit.
2500 watts is usually enough for most people, lol. Maybe your customer needs one of these...
Being "loud" has a lot to do with the enclosure the subs are in... Is their power supply/reserve up to snuff to power an amplifier that size? I'm quite familiar with large amps... I own an Atomic 7K for my daily setup and actively compete in the Canadian DbDrag circuit.
2500 watts is usually enough for most people, lol. Maybe your customer needs one of these...
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gee thanks, lol... maybe they do need something a little larger. I can see how fixing the same amp over and over can get frustrating, lol.
As for my box its great on music and extremely efficient. I use it for bass race 149.9 class (playin music for 30 sec). It does 151.7 @ 44hz, and 146db @ 31hz in the back of our family minivan (daily driver). I can assure you it is VERY musical... I'm not one of them burp guys with boxes tuned into the 50hz and up stuff, lol. I love my music.
As already mentioned... if you really wanna cut back the gain... could you not just use a different potentiometer (gain pot) with a "safer" top range? I've never personally tried, but if they are use to their distorted version of "loud" the only real way to fix it is a better designed enclosure (more efficient), more cone area or power...
Good luck.
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If the amp had a better protection circuit you wouldn't be dealing with the issue. I would do what Perry mentioned, the guy needs an amp that is designed to run 1 ohm continuously. That kicker can run 1 ohm intermittently but if you keep clipping it and heat cycling it something will fail. Maybe he should try and find the 1500 model, I think that's the bad boy. I've had customers like that and usually they listen, but some will do the same thing over and over. I think its the partial hearing loss that leads them to believe its "not as loud as it used to be" sometimes. Its just our ears turn their internal gain down, lol.
I would say I can't fix amps for free if they are abused, if you want to pay sure I'll keep fixing them if I can. The amp just can't do what they are trying to do, which is clip the snot out of it and possibly at low voltage maybe high temps too.
I would investigate adjusting the protection though, maybe you can move the thermals closer to the transistors, or adjust shutdown supply voltage. Not my area of expertise, and I've been told the load sensing is difficult on 2 ohm and lower amps as it is. If you could get it to shut down at least you could say what is your supply voltage thats too low, its too hot, etc.; if they say it didn't before say that is why it blew up the circuit was defective. Even if you limit the gains they can put a 10v linedriver on it. What if you call kicker and ask them?
I would investigate adjusting the protection though, maybe you can move the thermals closer to the transistors, or adjust shutdown supply voltage. Not my area of expertise, and I've been told the load sensing is difficult on 2 ohm and lower amps as it is. If you could get it to shut down at least you could say what is your supply voltage thats too low, its too hot, etc.; if they say it didn't before say that is why it blew up the circuit was defective. Even if you limit the gains they can put a 10v linedriver on it. What if you call kicker and ask them?
An easy but tricky solution would be to modify the gain pots, if it is like the kicker they are 20k or 50k double pots. When the gain is at max the resistance across them would go to 0. I do not know if they are linear or not but it would not be a hard modification to place a minimum resistance of say 5k in series with each of the pot wipers. It would be like only being able to turn it up to 9 instead of 10. A different potentiometer would only alter the range of control unless it had the built in minimum resistance. I have not personally tried it on a pre-amp, only on other types of adjustable amplifier circuits.
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