Outlaw 5000 Amp going into protection mode

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

So from my other thread, I received the 5 subwoofer cables in the mail today. Excitedly, after dinner, I went to go hook up my new amp.

The first thing I noticed after hooking it all up, was that my front L speaker and my rear R surround speakers were much more quiet than their counterparts. So I went into the RX-A2040 settings and boosted the volume on them. Then I thought I might as well just run YPAO on the whole setup again to get it dialed in.

I plugged in the microphone and hit start. As soon as it got to the front L speaker, it shut down and an error message appeared on the screen saying that there was no front L speaker. I turned around to look at the amp, and the power button was red. So I shut everything off, then powered back up and tried it again. Same thing.

I then unplugged the microphone and put on a movie to test the speakers, but had to keep the volume relatively low as my son had gone to bed (his bedroom is in the basement ose to the HT room). Everything seemed to be working fine.

Any ideas or suggestions as to why it might be going into protection mode? The only thing I could find in the online manual was this:

I don't think it's a voltage problem, or thermal overload considering the amp was on for a total of maybe 5 minutes. So that leaves a shorted speaker wire? How would I be able to check/tell if that is the case?

Thanks for any help/suggestions.

Cheers,

}Fear_Inoculum {

 

[lovinthehd]

I'd narrow my testing down, starting with a single channel at a time, you may just have bought a defective unit....

 

[TLS Guy]

So from my other thread, I received the 5 subwoofer cables in the mail today. Excitedly, after dinner, I went to go hook up my new amp.

The first thing I noticed after hooking it all up, was that my front L speaker and my rear R surround speakers were much more quiet than their counterparts. So I went into the RX-A2040 settings and boosted the volume on them. Then I thought I might as well just run YPAO on the whole setup again to get it dialed in.

I plugged in the microphone and hit start. As soon as it got to the front L speaker, it shut down and an error message appeared on the screen saying that there was no front L speaker. I turned around to look at the amp, and the power button was red. So I shut everything off, then powered back up and tried it again. Same thing.

I then unplugged the microphone and put on a movie to test the speakers, but had to keep the volume relatively low as my son had gone to bed (his bedroom is in the basement ose to the HT room). Everything seemed to be working fine.

Any ideas or suggestions as to why it might be going into protection mode? The only thing I could find in the online manual was this:

View attachment 50784

I don't think it's a voltage problem, or thermal overload considering the amp was on for a total of maybe 5 minutes. So that leaves a shorted speaker wire? How would I be able to check/tell if that is the case?

Thanks for any help/suggestions.

Cheers,

}Fear_Inoculum {

The first thing to do is to check the speaker wire terminations. It only takes one stray whisker to send an amp into shut down. So to make sure re-terminate any even slightly suspicious terminations at the speaker or amp end.

The only way the actual wire would cause a problem is if the insulation is damaged. So check for that. In addition a multimeter is your friend.

Check the DC resistances of each speaker with the multimeter from the amp end.

The commonest cause of shuts downs, is sloppy and negligent installation of the speaker wires.

The next most common cause, is output transistor failure.

So if you exclude a wire installation problem then that Outlaw amp needs repair/replacement.

 

[panteragstk]

The commonest cause of shuts downs, is sloppy and negligent installation of the speaker wires.

I've made this mistake only one time. My amp was not happy and neither was I. I thought I'd killed it. Thankfully it was fine.

I'm hoping it's something simple like a stray wire being a pain, but make sure you're slow and thorough in your testing.

Keep us updated.

 

[Pogre]

The first thing to do is to check the speaker wire terminations. It only takes one stray whisker to send an amp into shut down.

This is always the first thing I suggest when I see issues like this. When it happened to me it was because one of our dogs got behind the couch and chewed one of my speaker cables. Like TLS said, even a single stray whisker at the binding posts can cause it too.

 

[Eppie]

Digital multimeter is recommended. Doesn't have to be an expensive auto-range unit. A simple $30 manual range unit from Canadian Tire, Home Depot or The Source will do fine.

When one speaker is low, I will also swap connections at the amp. If the low channel moves, it's the amp. If it does not move, it is the cable or speaker. With separates you may need to swap inputs on the amp as well to eliminate the amp or pre-out as the issue. If you can't send white noise, a mono recording like the Beatles re-issue can make things easier.

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

I did rewire everything, including a new box on the wall for all the speakers wires to connect to. Fingers crossed that that is the issue.

Thanks for the help guys, and I'll let you know what I find out. Probably won't get a chance to do it until the weekend now, as the wife was a bit miffed at me last night for spending so much time in the HT room since Sunday put in new shelving, rewiring etc.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I did rewire everything, including a new box on the wall for all the speakers wires to connect to. Fingers crossed that that is the issue.

Thanks for the help guys, and I'll let you know what I find out. Probably won't get a chance to do it until the weekend now, as the wife was a bit miffed at me last night for spending so much time in the HT room since Sunday put in new shelving, rewiring etc.

Need a new wife who doesn't get miffed.

 

[panteragstk]

I did rewire everything, including a new box on the wall for all the speakers wires to connect to. Fingers crossed that that is the issue.

Thanks for the help guys, and I'll let you know what I find out. Probably won't get a chance to do it until the weekend now, as the wife was a bit miffed at me last night for spending so much time in the HT room since Sunday put in new shelving, rewiring etc.

Projects take as long as they take. At least that's what I tell my wife.

In reality, it's still true. I also tell her "this is why I wait so long to start some of these things. I know how long it will take, then add extra."

She's happy when stuff get's done, but isn't so much in the process. She wants to paint our house and get new flooring. That'll be a real test of her resolve.

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

She just texted me and said that the hospital called her for OT tomorrow (she's a nurse) 16 shift. Looks like I may have a few hours to mess around with it tomorrow night.

 

[Pogre]

Did you ever get this resolved?

 

[highfigh]

I did rewire everything, including a new box on the wall for all the speakers wires to connect to. Fingers crossed that that is the issue.

Thanks for the help guys, and I'll let you know what I find out. Probably won't get a chance to do it until the weekend now, as the wife was a bit miffed at me last night for spending so much time in the HT room since Sunday put in new shelving, rewiring etc.

I used wall plates for terminations years ago, but gave up that habit when I worked for a custom integrator- too many extra connections, too many points of failure.

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

Did you ever get this resolved?

Not yet, I've worked the last 10 days 10+ hours a day. 1 more day to go, then I have the weekend off. I'll figure it out this weekend.

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

Doing some investigating today. So far it seems like it's the Front Left and Rear Right channels. Now I need to figure out if it's the amp itself, or something I did while hooking it all up.

 

[lovinthehd]

Doing some investigating today. So far it seems like it's the Front Left and Rear Right channels. Now I need to figure out if it's the amp itself, or something I did while hooking it all up.

I'd check output levels for those channels, perhaps simply too high but don't know how you set them at the moment (haven't looked back to see if it's explained).

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

I'd check output levels for those channels, perhaps simply too high but don't know how you set them at the moment (haven't looked back to see if it's explained).

I tried running YPAO, and that's when it shut down/when into protection mode. I had boosted the levels as the sound from those 2 channels seemed low, but I've since reset them to the level that YPAO had them at. Just going to switch the Front Left wires to another channel right now and see what happens.

 

[lovinthehd]

I tried running YPAO, and that's when it shut down/when into protection mode. I had boosted the levels as the sound from those 2 channels seemed low, but I've since reset them to the level that YPAO had them at. Just going to switch the Front Left wires to another channel right now and see what happens.

I'd run a system reset myself

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

I turned on a movie (Avengers: Age of Ultron) and had the volume set relatively low. It played fine for about ~20 minutes. Turned the whole system off, started it back up again and turned the volume up. Less than a minute later it went into protection mode again.

 

[TLS Guy]

I turned on a movie (Avengers: Age of Ultron) and had the volume set relatively low. It played fine for about ~20 minutes. Turned the whole system off, started it back up again and turned the volume up. Less than a minute later it went into protection mode again.

Have you bought a multimeter yet? That is a crucial step. Once you have a multimeter, disconnect each speaker in turn at the Outlaw power amp. Now measure the DC resistance between the +ve and -ve leads. Please make a careful note of the reading from each cable and report back here.

This is the only way we can tell you if you have a bad amp, or bad wiring.

Mice get into walls and will eat the insulation of speaker cables not in conduit and cause short circuits. I learned that lesson early in life as a teenager. That is just one of many reasons not to run any HT or audio cable in wall without it being in conduit. That is an absolute rule that should NEVER be transgressed.

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

Pretty sure I found the culprit.

I changed the Front Left wiring to another channel that had previously been working fine, and it still went into protection mode. I took the wall plate apart to see if there was anything that looked wrong on the inside. Pulled the wires for the FL channel off, and retightened the wires.

Then I noticed that there are coaxial cable ends inside the wall, very close to where the wires for the FL are hooked up. So I left the wall plate hanging away from the wall. We then watched the movie '1917', but I only ran the 3 front channels off of the amp. It didn't go into protection mode, so that's a great sign. I'm thinking there was contact inside the wall box between the FL wires and the coax cable.

I hooked the 2 rear channels back up to the RX-A2040 before we watched the movie, I'll try hooking them back up to the amp again today and see what happens. Fingers crossed.