Car Stereos: Audiobahn 2300HCT, ac volts, loose ground

Question
I have an amp that is heating up and melting my ground, all I have hooked to it is a converter 12v 10-25 amps, I have a multimeter but not sure of the best way to test the amp without damaging the meter.

Answer
Hi Nathan,

I'm not sure what you mean when you say the amplifier is heating up and melting your ground.  If the ground terminal at the amplifier is melting, that's usually a sign of a loose ground connection; possibly in the amplifier, or possibly a bad connection between the ground wire and the terminal.  The extra resistance in the bad connection creates the heat that damages the terminal block; it's not generally a matter of too much current flowing through the wire.  Once you have melting and charring on the terminal, though, you probably can't fix it just by securing the connection; the amplifier needs to be sent in for repair at this point.

It's hard to damage a multimeter while testing an amp, regardless of the status of the amplifier.  To test an amp with a meter, just set the meter for AC volts and place the probes on the (+) and (-) speaker terminals.  Connect an audio signal to the amplifier and start the music playing.  You should see an AC voltage reading that increases and decreases with the music volume.

Hope this helps!

Brian