Car Stereos: car amplifiers, car amplifiers, fool proof

Question
Hey I was wondering how amplifiers blow. I am writing a paper on amplifiers and would not mind adding some stuff from an expert

Answer
Hi Philip,

Almost 100% of amplifier failure happens due to overheating.  Whether it be being installed in places that are too poorly ventilated, or simply being overused.  Most amplifiers don't have any active cooling (only passive heat sinks), and cannot adequately cool themselves -- especially when installed in hot trunks with no ventilation.

Another common occurence (which sometimes causes the amp to overheat) is being turned up too high.

Other issues include hooking up speakers to the amp that provide too little resistance -- most amps have shutoffs that detect this sort of thing and go into 'protect' mode, but that's not fool proof, and some amps don't even have it, so the circuit gets overloaded and eventually fries.

The other two possibilities which are far less common are simple shorts (wires hooked up in the wrong place/touching the wrong parts (although this most commonly results in frying something else in the car)), or simply manufacturer defects.

Justin