How hot should my amp get?

[tomtomh5]

I've just fitted an Alpine flex 4 amp, to some Boss subwoofers.
The 25a fuse blew earlier, and I fitted a 20a as a temporary replacement.
I have bridged the channels, and got both on Low Pass and the gain up full, and it gets extremely hot, I reckon I could cook my dinner on it!
Any suggestions? Its also earthed at the earthing point for the rear lights etc
All properly installed, fused by the battery, didn't use remote lead but tapped into the accessory circruit, switched and fused.
Thanks
Tom

[adeel_gt]

Try reducing the gain

[Mr Happy]

Having the gain up that loud could kill the voice coils on your subs. All it takes is a bit of clipping and it's "whump whump *silence*"

Generally you don't go above 2/3 or 3/4 gain.

[NateWM]

As said, way too much gain.

Instead of having the gain so high, turn it down to 1/2 to 2/3, and then adjust the bass boost and low EQ frequencies. If adjusted correctly, you can have it sounding just as low and bassy, but without the risk of cooking your sub as it won't be constantly drawing so much power from the amp like it would with the gain on full.

[parapaul]

Again - turn the gain down.

Gain is not volume! It's designed to match the input signal voltage to the amp's input range.

[DrDeAtH]

Sounds like you may also have undersized your amp if you are using full gain....

[stoocake]

Agree - turn the gain down. By having it up so high you're introducing a lot of 'noise' into the amps circuitry which will make its way to the sub, reducing sound quality and the efficiency of the system.

You ideally want to zero it, so that the input gain matches the output signal - if you have a VU meter, 0 is the magic number you want the lights to average out on.

Gain down, volume up reduces clipping, which will end up sending a square wave to the sub and melting the voice coil pretty quickly.