# Soundstream Ref 2.370 shuts down



## movingzachb (Dec 13, 2013)

A little help if anyone can..

My 2.370 Ref is shutting down all the time. I can listen to it for about 10-15 min then it shuts down. I have checked and re-checked my wiring I have it in the trunk. It resets by powering it off and on again but then shuts down again. I have it mounted on a L shaped wood frame (screwed into the wood -screws not touching the metal chassis).

I am at a loss. I just bought this amp and it is replacing an old Eclipse 3422 that lasted 10 years! I never had such problems with that as I do this.
The HU is an Eclipse 8051 (ampless HU).The manual says to check the speaker load - that it is not dropping below the Ohms or something. I have no idea how to do that. It is powering two MB Quart RCE 216 Coax. I am about to toss this thing away. Not to happy with sound stream so far.


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

Is it getting proper air


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## movingzachb (Dec 13, 2013)

TrickyRicky said:


> Is it getting proper air


Could you define proper air? It is the only thing in the trunk it is perched on the floor on the right side nothing on top of it. It has the entire trunk for air. It is VERY hot here but that's never been a problem with my other amp.


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## movingzachb (Dec 13, 2013)

One thing I thought might be an issue is that one of the RCA jacks (the left speaker output) it is loose. You can twist it around all the way for some reason and the the other one is fixed, will not twist (the amp came like that). Both work just fine although it makes me think amp could be defective.


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## cajunner (Apr 13, 2007)

might be hard to diagnose this one from the little bit of information given.

sounds like the amp going into protection for whatever reason, and it's consistent which means either you have a wiring problem or a defective part in the chain, either at the head unit to RCA to amp, or Amp to wiring to speaker.


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## ATOMICTECH62 (Jan 24, 2009)

Check the voltage at the power terminals on the amp while its playing and see if it drops below about 11 volts.


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## movingzachb (Dec 13, 2013)

Just a status report here.

I just spent the entire 4th of July weekend rewiring the entire setup. I am using brand new speaker wire (18 gauge to replace the factory wiring - a bit over kill I guess). The shut down issue keeps happening. 

It mounts in the trunk face up, it has plenty of air space. I actually changed the drivers its powering to two Boston Acoustic SR65 coax - (75w RMS - 2002 Max). I rewired the entire setup, checked polarity on the speakers. I don't have a meter to check the power right now but I read on a manual that this amp will go into protect mode at 95°c that is over 200°F and it is very hot here although I have had it shut down on early morning drive to work when it is not above 80°c. CD keeps playing but sound drops.

Could I be using the wrong gauge power/ground cable for the amp? Is there a simple way to check the power rating to see if it drops below 11 volts? I am not sure what gauge it is now but I think it is 8. I had an old eclipse amp that lasted well over 10 years and it never shut down once unless a wire was crossed. 

I'll have to find a way to check its power I suppose, but if that isn't the case then I'm probably going to dump this thing and find something else, just want to make sure its not bad.


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## movingzachb (Dec 13, 2013)

Checked voltage - my battery is putting out 14.2 volts under load. I have half the mind to bet this thing is overheating. Should a brand new sound stream amp overheat? I mean it is in the trunk of a 99 Miata - granted. But there is nothing at all in the trunk. I felt the chassis of the amp after the music stopped on the way home from work and the damn thing was too hot to touch. I could burn my hand if i left my hand on it for more than 2 seconds. The amp is placed flat on the floor of the trunk. Soundstream logo up. Even has about an inch of air space under it where it is placed. Sheesh maybe it should be called Sizzlestream instead. It looks like I may need to find a new amp. I had a 10 year old amp in the same place and it never overheated at all. What is the proper way to check the Ohm with a multi meter?


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## HardCoreDore (Apr 30, 2014)

Did you ever get any resolution to this issue? Almost every time I've gotten close to trying the new reference amps, I read a post like this. I almost bought the 5 channel model when they first came out 5 years ago. I'm a huge fan of the original Ref amps. I couldn't find any reviews so I decided to wait.

I've thought about it several times over the past few years and I kept coming across stuff like this.Now they are discontinued and cheap so I've been considering again. 

Obviously, if someone has an issue they are more likely to blast the company in question, bit the bad reviews and Epsilon's decision to d/c them tell me it's not a fluke. 

I have read a few good reviews too mind you, but if they are so good, there should be fanboys galore.


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## movingzachb (Dec 13, 2013)

I've since moved it and perched it up against the back with the heat sink facing out into the trunk space. I also attached two small fans to the side vents of the amp. So far it has not shut down. You can see where my ground wire is going on the left side there. I moved it as well.








Yeah I have had a tentative plan to find a good eclipse amp and buy it on ebay or something. I just tried to turn my frustration into some motivation to figure out how to make this one work. I will be adding two more speakers to it so I'll need a 4 channel amp at some point anyway. For now it is getting me by and the sound is very good, still trying to understand the hawkins frequency dial and how I should have it set - I have it running two MB Quart RCE 216 that I got used off ebay. I installed them with ABS plastic custom cut rings and a single square of dynamat over each hole in the doors. They are kind of temporary speakers now but I figured I'd play around with it and try to learn to tune a set of MB Quarts. Then find some QSD's hopefully someday.


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## HardCoreDore (Apr 30, 2014)

movingzachb said:


> I've since moved it and perched it up against the back with the heat sink facing out into the trunk space. I also attached two small fans to the side vents of the amp. So far it has not shut down. You can see where my ground wire is going on the left side there. I moved it as well.
> View attachment 55163
> 
> 
> Yeah I have had a tentative plan to find a good eclipse amp and buy it on ebay or something. I just tried to turn my frustration into some motivation to figure out how to make this one work. I will be adding two more speakers to it so I'll need a 4 channel amp at some point anyway. For now it is getting me by and the sound is very good, still trying to understand the hawkins frequency dial and how I should have it set - I have it running two MB Quart RCE 216 that I got used off ebay. I installed them with ABS plastic custom cut rings and a single square of dynamat over each hole in the doors. They are kind of temporary speakers now but I figured I'd play around with it and try to learn to tune a set of MB Quarts. Then find some QSD's hopefully someday.


If I recall from using old Soundstream amplifiers, the Hawkins bass control is basically a fancy bass boost. In essence it combines both a subsonic filter and bass boost in one knob. 

Let's say for instance that your system is lacking around 45hz. The Hawkins allows you to boost said frequency up to 10db, and everything below 45hz is automatically filtered out. I'm not sure if the slope of the subsonic filter is adjustable or not, but if it isn't i'd say it's pretty steep. Maybe as high as 24db per octave. So in conjunction with your low pass crossover set at hypothetically 80hz, the amplifier will only concentrate on 45hz to 80hz and therefore be more efficient. 

All that being said, if you have an option to just set a low (25hz or so) subsonic frequency, and then use a high pass filter set at 80hz or below, you'll probably be ok without it. 

Just my 2 cents.


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