Mounting amps upside down.

[Justin Zazzi]

If you mount the amplifier upside down, but the woofers are rightside up, would you have a reverse phase?

[geolemon]

EDIT: (thought it would generate a preview)

Answer: you will have this phase:
https://youtu.be/ebuSVeTogSs

[Jscoyne2]

If you mount the amplifier upside down, but the woofers are rightside up, would you have a reverse phase?

Depends on how far away your amps are from the speakers. Or more importantly. If your wires are the same length.

[BenevolentDictator]

Yeah that looks nice. I appreciate you sharing.

I had a Soundstream Ref amp, which are notorious for running warm, mounted upside down for years and never had issues. As mentioned before as long as you leave enough room for cooling you should be fine.

Attachment 14582Attachment 14583

[BenevolentDictator]

Yeah Al, I was thinking about that too....only because I do like to get down from time to time....I presume I'd mount the Zapco to sort of hide it from people just walking by and it would be running 4 ohm but I'll run the sub amp in another location because that would be 1 ohm. I'll figure it out.

It also depends on how hard you're planning on running it. If you're going to run full blast with a 1 ohm load, it might go into protect sooner than if mounted another way. But for the average user, you should be fine.

[Holmz]

If you mount the amplifier upside down, but the woofers are rightside up, would you have a reverse phase?

Thta is how they do it down under.
(similar mechanism to the water going backwards when you flush the toilet.)

[geolemon]

Here's an ugly view of that old winterbeater Pathfinder that I had that I mounted an amp rack (and passive Xover network) in the roof of:


That amp was being pushed hard too, powering 2 subs, 4 midbass, 6 widebands, and eventually 2 tweeters as well, plus it's pushing everything through lots of passive Xover components.
This amp was running at 2 ohms for the subs and 2 ohms for the midbass - I don't recall what impedance the widebands were but there were three so I suspect about 2.6 ohms there as well - and it never broke a sweat.

The amp internals are still using the heatsink to draw off heat - and all you are doing is making it a tiny bit less efficient, by mounting it up where "heat rises" to. It's really not much less efficient than mounting it flat on the floor. The most efficient way is to mount it on a wall, because the rising heat will actually create a slight airflow - but again slight is the word.

It's a much bigger deal if you enclose it in a small space, or bury it with your gym bag, or mount it to your sub box and then shove that back into your rear seatback, etc.

No manufacturer ever asks "Where was the amp mounted?" in a warranty return.

[BenevolentDictator]

That looks badass man. Wow.....well that's good to know. I'm thinking of the Zapco going on the rear deck and figuring out how to allow for heat to escape from the trunk possibly through my factory 8 inch sub opening without causing issue by doing that. Or....OR! putting a fan there lol. That would be cool.

Seriously though, thanks for the input on this guys. I want my install to be as stealth as possible so I can surprise people when I pop the trunk and you don't really see anything except the cones of the woofers.

Here's an ugly view of that old winterbeater Pathfinder that I had that I mounted an amp rack (and passive Xover network) in the roof of:


That amp was being pushed hard too, powering 2 subs, 4 midbass, 6 widebands, and eventually 2 tweeters as well, plus it's pushing everything through lots of passive Xover components.
This amp was running at 2 ohms for the subs and 2 ohms for the midbass - I don't recall what impedance the widebands were but there were three so I suspect about 2.6 ohms there as well - and it never broke a sweat.

The amp internals are still using the heatsink to draw off heat - and all you are doing is making it a tiny bit less efficient, by mounting it up where "heat rises" to. It's really not much less efficient than mounting it flat on the floor. The most efficient way is to mount it on a wall, because the rising heat will actually create a slight airflow - but again slight is the word.

It's a much bigger deal if you enclose it in a small space, or bury it with your gym bag, or mount it to your sub box and then shove that back into your rear seatback, etc.

No manufacturer ever asks "Where was the amp mounted?" in a warranty return.

[crystalworks]

I've never had an issue with upside down. Even did an enclosed rack in my old 3 series BMW back in the day. Though I did have fans on that because it was enclosed. It gets real hot in trunks in south Texas.



I miss these amps. Old Performance Teknique amps bought new on Ebay when they first came out. ICBM Digital and ICBM 774. They were stolen out of this car unfortunately because I forgot to lock the car due to malfunctioning remote door locks. At least they couldn't get the Ascendant Havoc 12. Was bolted to the firewall.

[BenevolentDictator]

That looks pretty nasty. I like it. You had an E30? Trunk looks familiar.

I've never had an issue with upside down. Even did an enclosed rack in my old 3 series BMW back in the day. Though I did have fans on that because it was enclosed. It gets real hot in trunks in south Texas.



I miss these amps. Old Performance Teknique amps bought new on Ebay when they first came out. ICBM Digital and ICBM 774. They were stolen out of this car unfortunately because I forgot to lock the car due to malfunctioning remote door locks. At least they couldn't get the Ascendant Havoc 12. Was bolted to the firewall.