Kerrdogg

Bought this amp used from a friend, hooked it up to two JBL eights in a sealed enclosure. An installer buddy said that the 8's wouldn't last because that particular brand ran pretty hot and the enclosure even though it was built to specs would be to small. He was correct and they lasted 10 minutes, fried and took out the amp. Sent the woofers away and they were replaced under warranty, sent the amp in to ARC and it took them two months to fix it and cost $150 for the repair even though it was 3 months old as it was purchased online. Ok so amp is back, I redid my enclosure to hold 1) 12 and upgraded the woofer to a high end Alpine as well, hooked up the amp and it got warm immediately, after 3 minutes of normal level playing it was hot, now it is fan cooled and it just left it's creators house with a clean bill of health so wtf? I set the gains, played it for about 30 seconds to a decent bass song, 12 sounded good and gone, into protection, felt the amp and it feels like it is on fire. The funny thing is while I waited for the 500 to be fixed I hooked up an old Proton CA230 that isn't suppose to see a two ohm load and it sounded almost as good, imagine if It took the time to hook it up properly and tune it? So I guess I get to call the fine folks at ARC Audio tomorrow. I know alot of guys here run their amps, that is how I heard of them any one else see problems, the mini 125 x2 Arc amp parked next door was running cool as a breeze and it doesn't even have a fan.

A word of warning when dealing with ARC. I called the company the first time they said the repair would under warranty, then they called back after they got the amp and said $150.00 because it was originally purchased online. I asked about that and they told me no warranty unless it was purchased from an authorized dealer and that I knew about that because it was on their website. I asked how they knew I was on their site? Never been there. What complete BS, I own a mail order company, rep / sell products from over 50 vendors not including our own house brand parts that we sell millions of dollars worth yearly, if it is sold with a warranty it should be honored, then when I agreed to pay for the repair with a credit card they emailed me a credit card payment form like a business with high volume sales would use (like a personal guarantee), they wanted a photo copy of the credit card and my drivers license to keep on file, no way. I sent them a cashiers check instead and then they repaired the amp (6 week mark). Two weeks later still no sign of the amp so I called and I got transferred three times til they found the guy with my amp on his desk, "It's done, did you want me to ship it out?", I was nice and he shipped it Fed Ex ground, the slowest possible way to ship from FL to CA, 8 days later the amp is on my desk, now it's in my vette burning carpet.

Kale

Sorry you had that experience, but manufacturers rarely warranty grey-market goods. It's not isolated to ARC audio.

WAwatchnut

Since you've used it with two different sets of speakers, I've got to wonder about the installation. What gauge is your ground wire, ansd how long is it? Where is it grounded to? It really isn't normal for amps to get that hot, that quickly... Sounds like something in the instal may be awry.

Kerrdogg

First install was a speaker problem, no doubt about that , the voice coils were welded. My buddy that helped with the install said he has seen pallets of the 8"s being returned for warranty and the place I got them warrantied them on the spot.

The amp is in the back 2 feet from the battery, new Stinger cable, barely fits in the amp, think it's 4 gauge on both runs and both are connected directly to the battery. The other ARC audio amp is back their wired the same and never missed a beat.

Last amp I had that got hot like this was a 1986 Hifonics Gemini, the sub side would heat up and shut down after 30 minutes of abuse, so that was over 25 years ago, never toasted an amp or killed a woofer before and I have had plenty of different systems.

If you manufacture a product and sell it you should be able to track who you sold it to, if certain dealers are buying then reselling under a bogus internet name and devaluing the product you deal with them, you don't take it out on the end user.

What irritated me was the fact I was told one thing, then another, then when I questioned it the person almost, almost yelled at me that I should have known their policy. The problem is it's their policy not mine, the company doesn't want to spend the time and resources to police their own dealers. Then add in a 8 week repair schedule when I was told twice "a couple days" or "we will probably just send you a new one." Eight weeks??? Then when they called for payment the amp was ready to ship, two weeks later it was still ready to ship, took another phone call to get it shipped.

We had a similar situation with Meziere water pumps, a high end electric water pump co, Racer it is, advertise below that and lose your dealership status. One place kept advertising below racer, sometimes as much as 20%, it hurt my sales but really it hurt Meziere as it lowered the value of their product. Several calls to the head honcho and no action taken, we got together with a few other dealers and figured out who the buyer was, the seller could legally advertise a lower price because he was not bound by Meziere's rules. We forced the buyer to come clean, he got banned and the seller (a friend of his a block over) never sold another pump, now the kicker, all those pumps still carried Meziere's 2 year warranty... That's why most companies have reworded their internet sales policies, so you can't back door sell someone and let them ***** the market as the race takes place to lower prices to save sales.

Fasthotrod

Sounds like price fixing to me.

If a company makes a product and sells it to their authorized dealers because they have concerns about proper installation and warranty issues because of it, that's one thing. It's entirely different if a company is just fixing the price on a part, no matter WHO sells it.

What in the heck is going on in this country?

Kerrdogg

In a sense you are correct, I wouldn't call it price fixing I would call it insuring correct customer service. It's an area that has been danced around in the racing market place for years, some company's enforce it, some don't. People go to Walmart because they want to pay less, they know the customer service isn't there most don't care hey are buying a block of diapers, now would you buy a Rolex at Walmat? They might be able to bill one out to you but will they give you the service of an authorized dealer? Me, I'll pay the $500 more for the service on the Rolex. Getting off base here but setting minimum advertised prices might stop the local speed shop from folding to a kid working out of his mom's basement with no customer support making 8% on an ebay sale. Had I known about ARC's policys before hand I might have reconsidered my purchase, guess we will see how they handle the deal now that I am a paying customer direct to them.

WAwatchnut

The main problem for car audio is that the majority of "defective" amps (and speakers and head units probably) turn out to have been killed by the installation. When it's an authorized dealer, there is some control via the dealer advising the customer. Some high end amps even specify dealer installation required for full warranty effectivity. I used to see tons of dead amps caused by intallation issues when I had my shops. Many of the amp companies used to track the returns by dealer... It was easy to tell which dealers were selling things properly (with instruction to customers, and dealer installations) vs. which dealers were just punching cash registers.

Sounds like things should be okay in your system. Just because the other amp is okay it didn't rule out ground issues. The real current draw for an amp running mids and tweets is much lower than for the sub amp, so that may not heat up as much. But a 2ft ground with 4ga should be okay.

Good luck with Getting the amp up and running properly. Sorry I don't have any other suggestions.

Kerrdogg

Spoke with James (nice) and Brad (Super nice) at ARC Audio today, they agreed to swap the amp for a new one, just want to have the old one back to find out what went wrong, understandable. Now if we can just get them to track their outgoing merchandise so they can warranty what should be warrantied. If they follow through in a timely manner I will be a happy customer.

Fasthotrod

I call it price fixing. You call it "insuring correct customer service" but the United States Government calls it illegal and a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Just because companies can get away with it, doesn't make it right. I'm sure that businesses have lawyers on retainer to deal with this sort of thing... and it's not just the racing industry, either.

I suppose that depends on a few things. If I go in buying something expensive that I know will need to be serviced later, then I'm probably going to look at the purchase in a long-term sense. I'm more willing to buy a car from a dealer that backs the product, doesn't play games with me, and treats me right. I have no problem spending more money for that.

But if I'm buying a consumer good that is basically a throw away item, like a TV or stereo system, then I look at the brand name and the quality of their products and see how their warranty holds up. It shouldn't matter if I buy it at Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy or the local home electronics store at that point, unless I'm also looking for an in-store warranty return policy, installation, advice on what to buy, etc...

No doubt... but that same speed shop builds it's reputation by being just that: A place where you can find part locally at a decent price. Assuming that they have a garage, they may also install those parts as well, further enhancing their business reputation.

For instance, my friend installed a supercharger on his C6 and needed to get it tuned. He took it down to Patrick at Quality Motorsports in Texas. While the car was there, they found some problems with the MAF, the fuel rail, and a plug wire. Patrick was about to pull a MAF off his personal Z06 to get my friend's car running right, but one of the guys in the shop had a new Lingenfelter MAF and offered it up for my friends car. One of the guys drove across town in a snowstorm to get a new fuel rail from the guys at LG Motorsports, and they grabbed a new plug wire from the parts bin.

Patrick and his team went above and beyond that day, and got the car dyno tuned for 614 RWHP. When it was all said and done, the cost was surprisingly low... they could have charged an arm and a leg for the parts because my friend was in a pinch, but they aren't like that... they are decent guys that know how to run a business that takes care of the customer. Solid Gold.

Hopefully they take care of everything... I'd be surprised if they didn't, given their good reputation in the "audio scene." Best of luck to you.

Fasthotrod

Sweet! Glad to hear that it's getting resolved!

Kerrdogg

Fast, I think we agree on more than we disagree, I am not for the MAP pricing, just have to abide by it, our products that we make and distribute have a suggested Jobber and WD cost only, list is a figment of the imagination in racing parts.

As far as customer service goes we are open from 10 am to 6 pm M-F, being a 5 man deal locals know we are here much later (usually 7:30 pm) or during the weekends (usually 4 hours per day), they also know that I live 1 mile from the shop (Thanks Google). I have had racers knock on my front door at 2 am on Friday AM because they need one of the niche items we sell to go racing and they are on the way out of state to go compete.

markcz

The A in MAP stands for Advertised. Any company with 'licensed dealers' can require MAP if they want to, but forcing them to SELL it at a certain price is pretty much illegal. Even retailers as big as Best Buy have certain products that you can't see the real price of until you put it in your shopping cart, all because of MAP, not MSP

Many companies realize that the repeat business and good rep they'll get from treating a customer right will far outweigh the one time profit they'll get from taking advantage of someone in a bind, if you find one treat them as well as they treat you.

Kerrdogg

Arc received my amp and tested it, said they found no problem but sent me a new one with a full one year warranty attached. Long version, I called to check on the progress and when they told me they didn't find a problem spoke to their lead tech, he said he bench tested it to 4 ohms and it worked fine. I was using the amp in a 2 ohm situation which it is fully rated for, he tested the amp again and bing bing bing, she was hot. He thanked me for calling in, two days later my new amp arrived, hope to install it tomorrow and put this experience in the past.

00Hawk#140

Please post up with your finding on the new amp install. I have another brand type d amp and it now is running hot. My amp is mounted in the back of my C6 z close to the battery too, and maybe the same power wire as you. My ground is Fosgate. I wonder if connecting to the battery is the issue ? My AB amp ran hot too. I was going to post here to see if someone could give me a reason for it running so warm...it doesnt go into protection, but is hot to the touch...it could be just the long road trip...radio running for hrs on end, but not really sure. I have my positive and negitive cables right to the battery and wonder if I should run the neg. to the frame.

So if your amp runs hot again..or you have any ideas for me please post up.

thx

DC321

I am curious to see the outcome, as I had to send two ARC amps in for service for similar heat issues.

I had JL Audio HD and a vendor talked me out of them into ARC due to their Class H(?) status, saying JL Audio is all marketing like Bose. I wanted the best so I bit.

Installed by the best audio place in South Florida. They are listed in several industry magazines as the top 100 installer in the nation, and he did my last C6 perfectly with JL Audio amps.

Also met the ARC guys at SEMA at their booth outside, and it was like pulling teeth to get someone to even talk to me.

Now ARC amps still run very hot.

0Double D Mods

I would have told you to keep the JL HD amps myself. We have sent a few ARC amps back for warranty work but never sent an HD JL amp back
I just sent in a KS125.4 again this week

I switched to the JL HD(1200/1 and 600/4) in my car from the ARC and they sound great to me and have more power

Dont feel bad about ARC at SEMA
I had a meeting set with them and my rep at CES and they forgot I had scheduled the appointment. I got stuck dealing with Chris from ARC and to say the least he was not to friendly.

If you need something at ARC ask for Theo, Brad or James. These guys are awesome to work with.

I replaced the JL10W3 subs in my car with ARC 10's and I do like them better.
I am going to try and replace those with the new RE Audio SE Pro Series


Also

Check this amp out and tell me its not an ARC amp with a different cover on it
http://www.wetsounds.com/pages/produ...ICRO_spec.html

Kerrdogg

I agree, spoke to all three during this ordeal, all were nice and seemed liked they cared abut what was happening. Robin gave me attitude at first when they wouldn't warranty the amp because I purchased it online, after I got pissy back and told her I had never been to their website and seen their policy's she calmed down and explained it to me professionally. The whole problem I have is that they sent me an amp that wasn't tested to how I was going to run it, I mean it's a mono sub amp rated at a 2 ohm load, check it at a 2 ohm load. Seems like the place runs on the same California mentality that I have found in the auto biz for the last 30 years, laid back, we'll get to it. I am type A, we close at six, if I am sitting here at 7pm and the phone rings I answer it, I stopped by to switch cars one night and the phone was ringing at 11pm, I answered it and the guy asked, "What are your hours?", I replied M-F 10am to 6pm, He was silent then placed an order .

I have the car torn apart for a cam install, will get the amp back in there as soon as possible.

I have seen ARC amps under a different name on ebay as well, different from the one you found, a little weird.

00Hawk#140

I was told by a audio guy a few days ago I need to change the ground to a different spot, beside the battery...maybe he is right, since both sets of amps i've run seemed to run warm or very warm, and both used the battery as the ground... The battery to body ground doesn't look to heavy to me, and since I've run 900 watts to it maybe the frame will/would be better. Anyone know a good body/frame ground on the back of a c6 vette ? I found one on the frame I think will work on driver side by the muffler. There is something else grounded there too, and it's the frame.... will try that spot to see if it helps.

pentavolvo

battery - post is the best possiable ground you will get

00Hawk#140

Maybe it's because I use the small nut on the battery connector, rather than directly on the battery post. Do you know what I mean ? The nut that tightens down to tighten the OEM wire to the battery ? maybe thats my issue ?

thx