I had a phoenix gold amp in my first truck. It caught fire twice, second time got the bottom of my seat and ruined it. I would never buy a cheaper amp again. Most audio people will tell ya to cheap on the subs over the amp.

Do you think you might have been running them with lower than needed airspace?

Also, that staticy sound will be less noticeable if you turn the volume down on your phone/ipod and up on the radio. Before I got my new deck I used one and it helped. Also, having sub hookups help SO much. The subs sound 1000% better (thats 10 times better than 100%)

 

dirty dog hit the nail on the head, my bets are on the amp is set up improperly or it's just garbage and has a clipped DC signal output that is mutilating the subs