Hey guys, was hoping for your expertise.

I've got a Clarion APA450 amp powering a 12" Pioneer sub - TS-300R (600 Watts Max. Power Handling, 150 Watts Nominal Rating) and 2 pioneer 6x9s (260 Watts Max, 60 nominal).

It seems that if i have the car running, and the system turned up, the amp is likely to go into protection mode.. But if the car isn't running, than it's a lot less likely to go into protection mode. What could this mean? That the battery isnt managing with the car and the audio at the same time? (if that's possible)..

Also, i just checked the battery, and it seems the fluid was running a bit low.. Could this have effected it?

Any advice is appreciated :)

Thanks,
Camo

When the car is running you have to turn the system up a lot more to overcome road noise, this could be the problem, you dont realise how much more volume is required to overcome road/engine noise so you push it too hard

Otherwise when the engine is on your voltage jumps up to around 14 v, with the engine off its around 12v. It is unlikely that that is causing any problems though as your amp works better with more voltage.

It could be creating more power at the same headunit volume though, but I dont think it is a big issue.

Your amp is only 4x50 rms i imagine. The problem here is you are asking too much out of your little amp.

Turn the gains down on the amp possibly, or highpass your 6x9's at around 100 hz, to take the pressure off your amp a bit. If you can, upgrade to 4x100, or upgrade to a small monoblock for the sub then run ur speakers through the 4 channel.

thanks mate i'll look into it