Novice killed the amp?

[jack_attack]

So, I'll try to keep this short, as I need some quick replies. This might not be the exactly correct place to put this, but I'm sure some car audio guys get here!

I recently got a Directed D800 car amp for free. It was sitting in a foreclosed house I cleaned a few weeks back. I took it (per the contract, I promise) and gave it a look over. Powered on correctly with no protect LED's or anything, so I hooked it to a sub I have. Powered it great, so I assumed it worked well. Sold it to someone on Craigs, and now he's saying when he hooked it up to a 15", it started smoking. Come to find out, he bridged it, and everything I find on it says NOT BRIDGEABLE. Did he cook it, or should I give him his money back?

 

[Dr_M0rph3us]

Hi jack,

As far as I remember, the D800 is a 1-channel amp delivering 200W in 4ohm and up to 800W in 1 ohm, and it *is* actually bridgeable - it also has a built-in gain sync for this.
However, you should ask for more details related to the defect circumstances - what 15" speaker did he used (impedance, power) and what is the other amp he used for the bridge.

Cheers.

 

[jack_attack]

Morph, thanks for the reply. Using another amp? As far as I understand it, bridging in this term is connecting two channels into one. It's a monoblock amp, but it has hookups for two subwoofers. I could be totally wrong on this, car audio is *not* my thing, but that's what he said he did. The problem is, I knew it worked. From what I gathered, he used a 15" 600WRMS @ 2ohm sub.

 

[Dr_M0rph3us]

Hi Jack,

As general info, you can both bridge multiple channels from one amplifier as well as bridge multiple amplifiers to gain more power on a single output.

Back to topic, even the fact that he used both hookups shouldn't have damaged the amplifier, cause it's basically the same output, but splitted (as I understood), and even so, if he somehow inverted them, the D800 amp has thermal, DC offset, reverse polarity, over and under voltage, and short circuit protections. It's a hard-to-kill amp.

600W @ 2ohm should have been no issue, cause that amp can deliver 300W in 2ohm output.

I still can't determine where the fault may be - if the amp was already defective, but not tested enough before selling, or he cooked it as you say, despite all the protection systems.

Cheers.

 

[saaiello]

That sort of item you should have sold as is no returns for the fact that Car Electronics especially amps can be damaged so easily by user era. I myself have fried an amp or 2 and i install car audio system professionally it happens sometimes. As far as bridgeing it The D800 cant be bridged only the d1200 or d2400 could be bridged externally.

 

[jack_attack]

Best answer selected by jack_attack.

 

[jack_attack]

Thanks for all the help guys. I ended up meeting him at our local shop, and had them take a look at it. He noted that 3 of the 4 screws that hold the heatsink/cover were missing, which I certainly didn't do. So, we're all good there. Thanks for all the replies guys.