Is there a way to get a true measure in watts for an amp? I have an ADS 640 6 channel running 40 to front BA seperates and 120 to each jl 10w0 in the trunk. I originally had 1 10w0 and it wasn't enough so I had a box built for 2 10w0 and it sounds better at high volume but doesn't seem like that much more bass at low volume.

 

Well, you could do a CRUDE measurement by finding the DC resistance of your subs (unhook from the amp and check them with a multimeter)
now hook them back up and measure the voltage from the amp..
use a basic circuits equation, and you'll get a rough estimate..
P= V*V/R
you know voltage (V) and resistance (R), thus if your amp was putting out 10V and your speaker load was 4 ohms, you'd have 25W of power.

This could (and probably will) be off by as much as 50% though, because speakers impedance (a complex resistance) varies based on the frequency, and you'll get different output levels simply because of that..

 

That amp puts out 41 watts per channel (actual output).

[Edited by Micah95GLE on 10-31-2000 at 05:24 PM]

 

You could take it to a shop and pay them to bench test it, though this leads me to the question of what kind of setup <i>they're</i> using? I'd imagine you have to measure both the voltage and resistance in real time and calculate power from there...

 

I have seen a car audio mag with a test at 37 watts. I have the 840 it was decent driving a/d/s 6As biwired and two JL 10-4s bridged. If you can by-wire the BAs try bridging out the drivers, and running the tweets at 40. I did that with the other two channels running rear fill. It is f#$%KING FANTASTIc.

Subs are BA pro 12.5s 2 Ohm series with a bridged Alpine MRV 1000. Yeah bayyybeee!