How To? Test Amp Power Rating

[wy3134]

bought a goth series power acoustik amp today, its the ov-2 1600 watt amp and just curious if there is a way i can test to find out its actual power. lmk if theres any diagnostic tools i can buy or if shops can test. thanks

[jamcllw]

http://www.conceptconcept.com/download/measurwatts.pdf

That's one way to do it. The way I do the quick math in my head is take the running voltage of your car. Mines 13.8. Take that and multiply it by the fuse rating on your amp and then multiply that number by 85% for a class D amp. For example if your amp has a 90 amp fuse rating multiply that by 13.8. Which equals 1242 multiplied by 85% equals 1055. Thats the max power that your amp is ever going to see. I used 85% because that is about the best class D effeciency. You'd probably get a closer to actual answer using 70-75%.

[King Asoka]

one exception to the rule are the JL slash series amps.


they will give you relativly the same amount of power from 11.5 to 14.4 volts. and from 1.5ohms to 4 ohms.


sorry, a little off topic....

[jamcllw]

Originally posted by King Asoka@Jul 24 2005, 06:51 PM
one exception to the rule are the JL slash series amps.


they will give you relativly the same amount of power from 11.5 to 14.4 volts. and from 1.5ohms to 4 ohms.


sorry, a little off topic....
Quoted post


Forgot about that. Regulated amps put out what they state as long as you stay within the specs.

[mikegett]

The formula is correct but the page is a bit missleading. In order to know what your amp can do you have to rule out the HU and amplifier state of clipping. If you turn the HU to full power, you will only be reading the clipping of the outputs. The signal could even be lower than your max power since a clipped signal can very erratic depending on the amount of distortion. Once you have set the HU and amplifier gains correctly, you can raise the power the volume to just under clipping. This is pretty close to the maximum wattage the amp will produce. Once again, ignore any clipping. As for the amps rms, there is no real formula. This will all depend on the particular amp.

[King Asoka]

Here is a quote from the JL 500/1 instructoins. Its one method to do what Mike is suggesting.

"4) Set the source unit volume to 3/4 of full
volume. If the amplifier is being driven by a source
unit’s dedicated subwoofer output, also adjust the
source unit’s subwoofer level control to 3/4 of
maximum output.This will allow for reasonable gain
overlap with moderate clipping at full volume."

From: http://www.jlaudio.com/amps/pdfs/500_1_MAN.pdf

Page 14...

Its step by step instuctions. But the AC Voltages may not be correct. I suggest looking in your own manual for the correct ones, or contact the manufacturer.

I dont know if this helps but I thought id put it up anyway.