Phoenix Gold Phorum

Hey guys,

my 2125 is firing up. The lights come on the board, the green light comes on but very little output. The gain and the bass boost knob are unresponsive, they don't make any difference in output. The bridge/stereo switch doesn't make a difference either. I have two 2125's side by side so I have switched out the RCA's and the speaker wires to make sure it wasn't that. Any ideas that might help?

It is putting out heat and it warms up. If I turn the gains on the other amps way down and crank it up I can get output but it's like it's running on 10 percent of it's total power.

Thanks in advance.

Lance

update, it looks like I am in protection mode. I just noticed, when I turn the amp on it shows the red light for a second, then goes to the green light which I believe is protection mode. Problem is I don't know why it's going into that mode. I unplugged the rca's and the speaker wire and just ran power, ground and the remote and it still does it so I am guessing it's internal.

mmmmm.

Lance

Put a 15A fuse in line with it and see if it blows. Don't have speakers or RCAs connected, just power and remote. If it blows something is very wrong with the amp.

Eric,

Put a 10amp inline and flipped it on, it didn't blow. When I turn it on, the red light flashes for a sec, then the green light goes on but it is low output, again, assuming that is protection mode. The last thing I did was change the caps, guess I will have to pull it and check the back of the board. Any other suggestions you can think of?

Thanks again,

Lance

I am almost sure green is good. My MS amps and M amps start with the red then green. I think red is protection and yellow is overheat...

Interesting. So your amp shows red for a second, then goes to green? Because my other 2125 goes straight to green. The other thing that is different is that when I turn the amp off the LED lights shut off immediately whereas with the one I am having problems with the LED lights just shut off like a light switch.

The one that I am having problems with also takes a second longer to turn on. They are both running off the same remote line. So when I hit the power, the good one goes straight to green, turns on and when I shut it off the board LED lights slowly fade off, like it's releasing the power in the caps or bleeding off the power during shutdown.

With the one that is bad, it takes a second longer to come on. The red light flashes first, then the green light goes on, output is negligable, then when I shut it off it, the LED lights immediately turn off. I don't understand how the power is stored on these amps but it would inidicate that the power is never reaching the caps. I don't know if that is the case.

Keep in mind, one good 2125 is a grey model and the one that is hurt is the white model so I am not sure if red to green lighting sequence and the way the LEDs bleed off vs. just turn off is an inherent model difference. It might be.

thanks,

Lance

Are the red LEDs on the board inside the amp lighting up?
Do you have a voltmeter/multimeter?
The best bet would be to ask Valeks1 or EricD on this forum to repair it for you. It may be something in the signal path that is broke since turning the gains up/down have no effect, assuming the LEDs are all lit.

What caps did you replace, the input caps, or the rail caps, or both?

Just the 12 small caps, left the rail caps. Was told they rerely go bad. No leaking, they looked good so I left them.

In that case I don't know what is going on with your amp.

Did it work prior to changing the caps on it?

interesting enough, I don't know. I purchased it BNIB from a collector. I changed the caps on the two 2125's that I had and the used 275. I installed all three of them but had an internal ground problem on the other 2125 and hurt the resistors. I sent it off to Valek and he fixed it and sent it back. In the mean time I didn't run the other two amps. The 275 I had run before, and after changing the caps on that one it runs perfect so I am fairly confident the cap replacement was successful. I just got the repaired 2125 back in my hands and installed. Went to fire it up and this is where I am at.

I have the one 2125, repaired by valek, that is running strong (i replaced the caps in that one before I sent it to him for repair, the cap replacement was not the cause of the internal grounding issue that wiped out the resistors). I then have the used 275 that I have had in other installations. I replaced the caps on that one as well and it all good. The third amp, the 2125 that I am having trouble with, has never been run to my knowledge. Again, purchased it new in box, changed the caps, which were leaking btw, and this is the first time I have had a chance to run it.

One of the other posters said his MS turns the red light on for a second before switching to green so maybe i am not in protection mode. I don't know if the amp will actually run in protection mode or if it just cuts the output by 90 percent, much like what mine is doing. Either way, the thought of spending another $160.00 to send off a second amp that was bnib makes my head hurt. Any other suggestions would be helpful.

I will most likely pull the board and check the caps again and go over everything just to make sure I didn't miss anything. But the 4 led's on the board light up, the buss fuses are in tact, the big fuses are intact and it powers up just fine with a 10 amp fuse in the power line. I have even pulled the ground and swapped it out to a ground source I new was 100 percent good, no change. I don't get this one.

Thanks,

Lance

I don't think you need to pull the caps and check them. The amp will run if they are not all installed well. So long as you don't have any backwards. But, if you had one backwards, you would know, as all the fluid would boil all out of it and make a heck of a mess.

All my MS amps have the red light come on for a second, then go green when they are powered on. The light should then stay green.

Check to make sure the ground and bridging switches work (if the amp has them). Maybe they are corroded internally and not allowing the signal through well. This is just a guess.

Eric,

The amp did finally pop the 10amp fuse. I don't know how long it took, I ran the car for an hour and then check it, it was blown. It didn't right away tho, because I put it in, waited 5 mins and then checked it and it hadn't popped. So at some point over the hour it blew, but again, it was only 10 amps. Thought at idle maybe it should not have blown. I visually checked the caps, they look great and clean. They are also all line up the same so I don't think any are backward. I will check the switches.

THanks again,

Lance

When it blew the fuse, were the RCAs connected, or the speakers?

nope, just the power, ground and remote

Well, you have some power related issue then. I can listen to my MS2250TA at very loud levels without blowing a 15A fuse (on my test bench speakers which are a 6in and 1in tweeter).

An idle MS amp should not blow a small fuse, as its idle current is very low.