rshissler Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 Is there any way you can test how many watts an amp is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 Nope, or none that I have ever heard of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRGrocho Posted October 16, 2005 Report Share Posted October 16, 2005 If there is somebody with more experience please feel free to correct me, however With resistors in series, current should be uniform With that, you could check the voltage (with a voltmeter) coming off the amp when it is wired in series with a resistor, or you could check the current in the circuit (with an ammeter). You need to obtain both voltage and resistance via these methods, you can also use the equation V=IR to figure the unknown value. Don't check the voltage by just hooking the meter up to the + and - terminals of the amp, something will break. Also, I belive voltage must be checked in parallel and current in series. Then wattage (power) can be calculated by the equation P=IV Like I said, I am a little rusty on this stuff, so if somebody has a correction feel free... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GnatGoSplat Posted October 19, 2005 Report Share Posted October 19, 2005 Your method would only test the input power consumption, but amps aren't 100% efficient (Class AB are just what, 50% efficient?) so that won't tell you anything about output power. I believe you'd have to connect a resistor of the appropriate load to the outputs, feed a signal into the amp, and test the AC voltage drop on the resistor. Then you could use Ohm's Law to get the wattage. I believe you'd need a meter capable of getting RMS readings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRGrocho Posted October 19, 2005 Report Share Posted October 19, 2005 I'm sure there is an equation to find out RMS via other measurements... I am confused how measuring voltage and current in the same circuit as the sub would tell me input power. Maybe I wasn't very clear in my explanation? (resistor = subwoofer) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puggsley456 Posted October 19, 2005 Report Share Posted October 19, 2005 Here is a good link to determine how much voltage you are outputting. And then you can use the perviouslly stated formuals to determine how much wattage you are seeing. But remember even these calculations can be scrutinized because the resistance of a given voice coil increases as it heats up.. http://mobile.jlaudio.com/support_pages.php?page_id=143 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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