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Measure amp watts?

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Old 10-31-2000, 11:56 AM
  #1  
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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.
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Old 10-31-2000, 02:31 PM
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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..
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Old 10-31-2000, 02:42 PM
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That amp puts out 41 watts per channel (actual output).

[Edited by Micah95GLE on 10-31-2000 at 05:24 PM]
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Old 10-31-2000, 02:48 PM
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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...
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Old 10-31-2000, 04:06 PM
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a/d/s ?

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!
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