Infinity sub problems, any ideas?

It may be you are simply pushing the sub hard and it's amp is getting hot.
really shouldn't be a problem, or at least until it blows

I had a PS-12 that did the same thing. I had it repaired twice for a burning smell. The first time the amp actually did fail and Infinity replaced it. The second time they replaced a diode and a couple of resistors. I took the unit apart and the amp is in a closed plastic box. No ventilation or attachment to a heat sink that has any air flow whatsoever. I ebayed it after it was fixed the last time. I think that we are pushing them too hard. Or at least harder than they expected. I think it is only a question of time before yours goes again. I actually drilled some large holes in the plastic box to open up the area the amp is in. This helped, but I never had any confidence it was a permanent cure.

Look at the bright side, you can go out and buy a new sub! And you can do
WAY better than the PS-10.

I have a really great looking ps-12 sitting at my parents house. I bought it like 5 years ago when i was still living at home (i was about 19) and it worked great for a few months, i had it hooked up to my computer in my room. Then i hooked it up to the home theater system my dad just got and was playing it and was very disappointed that it didnt get very loud (the room was huge and the small peice of crap sub that came with the theater system sounded louder, i'm sure it was a placement thing). After moving it around a bit i found a place where it sounded a bit louder but it gave out after about 30 minutes. I heared a pop and i smelled the same thing you are referring to. I contacted infinity and although it had a 3 year warranty they said i'd have to take it to where i bought it to have it repaired. I bought it online (ubid) and so there was nowhere to take it. The closest place was several hundred miles away. I did once take it with me on a trip and tried to get ahold of a company that was supposed to fix them but they wouldnt help me for $hit (said they didnt repair speakers for infinity anymore)

Its still sitting there. I've replaced the fuses hoping that might be the only problem, but it wasnt. I'd be semi interested in getting a new amplifier for it but i doubt thats possible or price effective. I think i'll move on, i wasnt too happy with it anyways. It sure did look nice though.

I know this thread is a little old, but I thought I would add my solution here in case anyone else is having similar problems.

I have owned my PS-12 for about a year and a half. Not long ago, I noticed that after warming up for about 30 mins, the sub would start making a clicking sound. The sound was from the power relay switching back and forth from on to stand-by. I knew at that point that something was wrong with the amp. As it was out of warranty, I decided to take it apart. I made note of the completely sealed enclosure for the plate amp. The cooling for the amp is pretty much through conduction only, which is pretty much useless. When I opened up the amp enclosure, I smelled the distinctive smell of a popped electrolytic capacitor. I found a 6.8 uF, 100V non-polarized, capacitor popped on the circuit board. As far a I could see, this was the only burned out component, although there was some heat discoloration on the board itself. I ordered a replacement capacitor and replaced the damaged one on the board. As a precaution, I also drilled several small holes in the bottom and top of the amp enclosure to try to get a little convection circulation around the heatsink on the amp. The sub is now working great, and, I somehow eliminated what I thought was a ground loop hum. I'm guessing the capacitor may have been defective to begin with and I corrected the problem with the new capacitor.

If you have any experience soldering components on a board, this is a quick and cheap fix. The capacitor, which Radio Shack doesn't carry , was ordered online for $0.58 + $3.50 shipping. If you don't know what you're looking for, any electronics repair shop should be able to fix it for fairly cheap.

Good luck to anyone of the many Infinity owners that have suffered the same problem.

Hello everyone, sorry for bumping such an old thread but I just discovered a few weeks ago I am having the same issue with an Infinity PS-12 clicking on and off after it heats up (Status light goes from greed to red and back with an associated "click").

I took the amp apart and did not see any visibly burned components, however I did get a fairly strong burnt electronics smell. The sub will work for the period before it heats up so I wanted to know if there is a downside to drilling air holes into the plastic amp casing to attempt to prevent it from overheating. Since the amp was so tightly sealed I assumed it was for a reason but I could be wrong.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Your sub is not working for a specific reason. Something is failing. You said that you smelled a hot smell. Thats a really good indicator that there is something wrong. I would not recommend drilling any holes in the sub to try and fix this issue. You are not fixing anything by doing that. You need to figure out what the real problem is. Possibly an electronics repair shop could help you figure out what the issue is. If that proves to be to expensive. Then you may just want to get another sub.

Both JBL and Infinity have had trouble with their subwoofer amplifiers for at least ten years (with the JBL L8400P being a notable exception). If the unit is very close to failing or has actually failed, then you will likely, at a minimum, need to replace the two main power capacitors. Electrolytic capacitors deteriorate with time (much more rapidly with heat). If you take your unit into a repair shop, it could cost $200+ to repair and the repair may not be 'guaranteed' for more than 30-90 days.

One solution is to purchase a replacement amp from reputable retailers such as Parts Express or OAudio. You would likely need to do some cutting, etc. because the replacement amp is unlikely to fit exactly.

An easier alternative is to purchase a new subwoofer based on information you can get in this forum.