Car audio power

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I downloaded the amplifier owners manual just for laughs. They say 250 and 320W respectively, but no where in the manual do they say anything about RMS.

1700W is probably what it takes to charge the filter capacitors. (for 0.1 seconds).
 
An amplifier is supposed to be rated at a certain supply voltage, a certain load impedance and a certain frequency and operated continuously (not just for a brief burst). Its amount of distortion is supposed to be listed at the power it is producing.

Many amplifier manufacturers rate the peak to peak output power (4 times the real power) when the amplifier drives a dead short (maybe 10 times the real power) for only a moment (before it blows up) with severe overload distortion.
 
the amps dont turn off with the ignition. but thats why i installed a switch i thought. the amps have a power wire that your supposed to wire to a 12v device plug or an on/off switch which is what i did.
 
Being its listed as stock size replacement I would not see any problem with using it if you can confirm that its also compatible with the four cylinder engines mounting brackets. The price seems reasonable enough as well.
However you may still need to run a second power wire from its output over to the battery's main distribution point just for safety reasons. For the added output, assuming your old one was a 70 amp unit, you may need to add something around 6 gauge to make up the difference in amps output.
 
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audioguru said:
Car audio system manufacturers lie about output power. When the output is 150 Watts at low distortion then they say 1700 Whats for a moment at a very high distortion just before the system blows up.


.
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Audio Guru - the term "Whats" has been used a couple of times in this thread , I,ve never heard of it before. Is it just a sarcastic term for pretend watts ?
 
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Ross Craney said:
Audio Guru - the term "Whats" has been used a couple of times in this thread , I,ve never heard of it before. Is it just a sarcastic term for pretend watts ?
Click to expand...
Yes.
I use the term Whats to describe phoney advertised Watts.
 
so i'm still working on getting a new alternator, but until then i figured i should play it safe and disconect the sound sytem from the battery to prevent this one from dying...... but for some reason it still seems to be loosing power even though they arent the system is completly off... i wasnt having power issues before the sound system and now even without it i am..... what should i do next thats cheapest lol.
 
Is something in the electrical system draining the battery or is the battery old and is draining itself?
 
the battery is about 2 weeks old and as far as i can tell nothing is draining. everything is off and the amps are disconnected
 
can an improper ground set up cause the battery to drain? because i have this thing called a "proffesional ground" and it has like 8 ground wires the ground the battery to the chasis and engine block and what not. my friend who installed his sound system told me that that might be causing this weird noise i was hearing so i removed like 5 of them. could that be whats causing the drain.
 
Shouldn't be causing a drain at all. Either you have a faulty connection someplace or a faulty device in the car.
 
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well i disconnected the amps and i am still losing power. the only other thing i altered was the ground and an in-line fuse that was blown that i have no idea what it leads to. i'll check tomorrow to see if im still experiencing power lose and report back.
 
there should be no draw. and im losing all power. this battery hasn't fully died yet but it was close and its only 2 weeks old. my last battery died 7 times before i couldn't even jump enough power into it to start it.
 
It sounds like you've developed a serious electrical fault. You need a clamp style current meter and to determine where the current draw is coming from, it can be an arduous task to figure out where it's coming from. Basically you check the + wire going to every device and wire in the car to find out which one's the one drawing current. It could be something as simple as a nick in insulation that's contacting the car bodies frame, but you have to figure out what wire is carrying the current.
 
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Actually just use a basic multimeter in the DC amps mode and check across every fuse slot.
The one drawing power above a few milliamps is the one!

A fuse puller and about 10 minutes should narrow it down.
After that its just a matter of finding what runs off that particular circuit that doesn't want to shut off.
 
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Your just using a your multimeter in current mode to test across the two points that the fuse plugs into.

If it shows more than a few milliamps of current flowing while everything is turned off thats the circuit drawing power that shouldnt be.
 
tcmtech said:
Your just using a your multimeter in current mode to test across the two points that the fuse plugs into.

If it shows more than a few milliamps of current flowing while everything is turned off thats the circuit drawing power that shouldnt be.
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Hi TCM,
I understand what you mean, but think you had best advise him to remove the fuse for this test.
 
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