[johnson636]

I’m prepared to just buy a new amp. We will see.

Will you be selling the defective amp?

 

[BassThatHz]

This amp has a history. I did clip the piss out of the amps unknowingly a few times.
The amp is powering my rear hst-18’s and nearfield ds4’s.
I’m prepared to just buy a new amp. We will see.
Also, it’s a 120V amp, on a 30A dedicated circuit.

Jumping them even without a load, could have destroyed\damaged the amp further. But it powered on so I guess your 50/50 ticket was a winner by pure luck.

If you have space for a double pole breaker it should be easy to convert that to 30A 240V and then the next clone could be a 240V model. That will help reduce voltage sag-related issues and clipping (a bit).

Sounds like you need the power from a pair of 14k's, they are a bit harder to clip (but still not impossible).
Even clipping 14k's has been done many times by AVS members, even just driving a single 24 bridged briefly.
It's nothing unheard of. It's possible to clip or smoke just about anything...

If it was DOA from China, then it probably had a defect from the get-go, one that may or may not still exist in one of the elements somewhere inside the beast. It happens, especially when we are talking black market equipment from China.

They are priced such that you could buy 8 clones for the price of 1 Gruppen, and have 6 of them be dead, and STILL have saved money AND received more power. The meat and potatoes as it were.

 

[Vince_B]

Finally I decided to go see how they were during during the barrel roll scene. They were clipping

Someone on the dedicated forum ran fiber optic from the amp leds to somewhere subtle by the screen I think. Spent a few mins trying to find it and didn’t but it’s a great idea. Basically made a plate of mdf or such and aligned the fiber with the amp face and ran it to the front. I’m gonna order some fiber and play when I get a chance.

 

[Jk7.2]

Please understand (anyone reading my posts) that I knew the risk of jumping the fuses and turning the power on. If it wasn’t just fuses causing the problem, I was fully prepared to toss the amp. I shielded my eyes and flipped the switch. I wasn’t willing to waste my time trying to diagnose a problem I know nothing about. So don’t try this at home. Just because I got away with it.

 

[Vince_B]

Are there any banana plugs that will snap into those fuse holders? Wait no you’re supposed to use a .22 round.

 

[dwander]

I really never messed around with any of the switches on the back of the FP20K since I installed it. I think i switched the one switch from hard to soft, but left everything else as is. Everything seems to work fine, but i can never get anything to register on the meters on the front. I see people talk about getting close to clipping, and i can blast bass heavy music and can't even get one bar. Not a complaint, but just want to make sure I shouldn't be playing with the switches for some reason.

Also, the room is small-ish and the amp is pushing 2 out of 4 subs in the room that are half the distance to my seating than the other two subs. So I'm thinking that just maybe I'm barely scratching the surface with this setup and the amp just doesn't need to work that hard to meet my needs.

 

[Pradeep2]

I just jumped the fuses to be sure it would turn on. Hopefully with no load at all there wouldn’t be a disaster. This amp has a history. It’s the one that got a new output board when it was doa. I did that replacement and it’s worked well ever since. But this probably is my fault. I’ve been pushing things because my room is a new remodel just to test out what’s changed. I did clip the piss out of the amps unknowingly a few times. Finally I decided to go see how they were during during the barrel roll scene. They were clipping.
The amp is powering my rear hst-18’s and nearfield ds4’s.
I’m prepared to just buy a new amp. We will see.
Also, it’s a 120V amp, on a 30A dedicated circuit.

I believe GSG is currently doing a group buy on them, check their Facebook for the details.

 

[Pradeep2]

 

[Jk7.2]

Just wondering. Why are there 2 fuses stacked and soldered together here? Also, I found that not all the fuses were blown. But of course, I have no idea now where the good fuse came from.

 

[johnson636]

I think it's because 120v needs 60 amp fusing. 240v only requires 30 amp fusing.

 

[Jk7.2]

I think it's because 120v needs 60 amp fusing. 240v only requires 30 amp fusing.

Got cha.

 

[BassThatHz]

I really never messed around with any of the switches on the back of the FP20K since I installed it. I think i switched the one switch from hard to soft, but left everything else as is. Everything seems to work fine, but i can never get anything to register on the meters on the front. I see people talk about getting close to clipping, and i can blast bass heavy music and can't even get one bar. Not a complaint, but just want to make sure I shouldn't be playing with the switches for some reason.

Also, the room is small-ish and the amp is pushing 2 out of 4 subs in the room that are half the distance to my seating than the other two subs. So I'm thinking that just maybe I'm barely scratching the surface with this setup and the amp just doesn't need to work that hard to meet my needs.

If it is loud enough for you, then it isn't a problem.
If you want louder, then you'll have to either increase the voltage input sensitivity dips on the back, and/or send the amp more signal.
In any case this isn't a problem of the amp, it's just that you aren't driving the amp hard atm.

 

[BassThatHz]

I think it's because 120v needs 60 amp fusing. 240v only requires 30 amp fusing.

Yes and they probably just couldn't find a 60a fuse in that form-factor.

 

[Jk7.2]

Anyway, my amp is fixed. New fuses worked.

 

[johnson636]

 

[Vince_B]

Good news! Thinking it just drew too much juice and popped the fuse? I was remembering the one that got fried in testing but not sure it was all channels driven, amp can probably draw too much through the one channel before it would blow the fuses. Good reminder to try to load all the channels and I guess look at the voltage limiter for the subs that can’t handle as much power.

 

[Jk7.2]

Good news! Thinking it just drew too much juice and popped the fuse? I was remembering the one that got fried in testing but not sure it was all channels driven, amp can probably draw too much through the one channel before it would blow the fuses. Good reminder to try to load all the channels and I guess look at the voltage limiter for the subs that can’t handle as much power.

Yeah. In a crazy twist, the fuses did their job. Lol. This amp has always had all channels driven.

 

[Pradeep2]

Wonder if they could fit/use a resettable circuit breaker type switch like the speakerpowers have, for an upcharge.

 

[BassThatHz]

The power supplies are supposedly good for 8kW RMS, which is 67A rms. Should blow the 60A fuses and/or pop a 60A breaker "in theory".

Unlike the 22k and 24k, the 20k is basically two 14k's in one box, minus a couple caps and transistors.
The 22k and 24k aren't the classic 14k design topology at all, they are mystery-meat of sorts...
A pair of 14k's will do somewhere around 28-32kW, and I'd much rather have that or a 20k then some new mystery product that failed during NotNyt's tests. But that's just me...

 

[BassThatHz]

Wonder if they could fit/use a resettable circuit breaker type switch like the speakerpowers have, for an upcharge.

The Crown iTech's have that also.
Not sure if the Gruppen PLM's or PowerSoft K/X's do or not.