Prime series amplifier squeals or causes engine whine

When I install my Prime series amplifier and turn the system on, I hear a squeal from the amplifier, it causes excessive engine whine through the speakers, and/or the "Protect" LED illuminates. How can I troubleshoot this? Our RTTI installers have been able to reproduce this issue and have determined that a shorted speaker lead causes the amplifier's output devices to squeal or cause excessive engine whine. If the negative (-) speaker lead is shorted, you may exhibit the squeal or engine whine. If the positive (+) speaker lead is shorted, the PROTECT LED will illuminate. The noise may only be noticeable when the gain control is increased and may dissipate when the gain control is lowered. This is due to the increased sensitivity and signal amplitude raised above the amplifier’s noise floor.

Disconnect all speaker cables from the amplifier. You will be able to verify the squeal is no longer audible; but to verify elimination of engine whine, connect a small test speaker with very short speaker leads to each output from the amplifier. If the noise is eliminated in each channel, you most likely have a short in the speaker line between the outputs of the amplifier and the speaker itself. If so, carefully check each speaker connection for the following possibilities:

• Wire strands shorting across amplifier terminals
• Screws driven through speaker cables
• Speaker terminals touching metal inside door panel
• Blown speaker (electrical failure will cause the voice coil may be melted, possibly causing an electrical short)

When you have identified the cause of the speaker short, carefully connect one channel at a time and verify that the noise does not appear again. This issue is isolated to the PRIME series amplifiers due to a different amplifier topology used. Punch and Power amplifiers do not exhibit this issue.