I just upgraded my sound system and I was wondering how I can find my wattage that im pushing into my speakers I know there is a device but I dont know what they are called can someone assist me.

 

Oh boy.

 

I think the correct answer would be how many decibels is ur setup outputing. And that is done with a db meter.

 

Naw I dont want a Db meter lol I just want to know how many watts my amp is throwing into my speakers because I dont want to over power them and blow them.

 

uh..

an amp meter?

but I dont get what your goal is.

compare rms output of amp to rms power handing of the speaker

 

honestly doesn't your amp tell you that? I mean most after market car audio companies are always bragging about the 2,500+ watts that they can push...

I can tell you this... if you have just a head unit and that is all you are running, then you are doing at most a true 25 watts per speaker... and that is being generous...

as far as car amps go... honestly very few of them push more than 100-200 real watts...

to top that off your alternator is only 90 amps... unless you upgraded it...

so lets say that you have a 30 amp fuse on the amplifier you are using... and that your voltage coming from the alternator is 13.8v

well chances are that your amplifier really only pulls 20 amps AT THE MOST (and the fuse is a little bigger for spikes)

however most car audio amps are cheaply made and are lucky to have 50% efficiency meaning that even if the amplifier could pull 100% load through the fuse that it would still be wasting at least 50%

so if you are lucky...

amps x volts = watts

20 x 13.8 = 276

then adjust for wasted power...

276 x 0.5 = 138 watts

now factor in the massive distortion rate of most car audio amplifiers and you really get more like 0 watts... well 0 clean watts anyways

at least with this you can get a rough idea...

but the simple answer is... if they do not sound like they are popping, cracking and the speakers are not getting hot then they are fine... high wattage really does not kill a decent speaker it;s the massive distortion that the crap amplifiers used in most car audio setups put out...

what do you have in your jeep now?

 

If you really want to find out find a local audio manufacture (i have Diamond audio and Rockford Fosgate by my house) they have all of the equipment to test. like ericfx1984 stated most are not running that much efficiency. i run at about 85%-90% and only have a 250 2 channel amp that is bridged for my subs and then a then a 400 4 channel amp. I hit 117db's at 10' which is louder than most "1000+" set ups.

Most of the time you wont have to worry about blowing the speakers unless your running a 1500w mono d block with subs or speakers rated to 250w rms.

 

Google your head unit for the spec. sheet. Now days most Head unit are putting out 55 watts to each speaker. (if your using the speaker outputs.) If your using the RCA outputs then about 5 watts. (or pre outs) Used for the sub amp. The better the head unit, the more RCA's (pre outs) My head unit has 5 pairs of RCA's (pre outs) That I ran to a 1400 watt 5 channel amp. Giving me 250 watts to each speaker, and 400 Watts to my sub. Makes for a all around balanced system, Not just a bass thumper.

 

Just bought an alternator today its gonna be an 117amp duralast and my Amp is not CEA compliant so i do not know how much im really pushing i want exact numbers.

Here is what im running

My amp:
http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...TAX1200-4.html



My speakers that I dont want to blow:
http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...ower-T152.html


FYI I never look at peak I am only looking at RMS and my speakers are 60 RMS while my amp claims 100rms x4 channels so there is a good possibility I can blow my speakers that is why i want to check the watts my amp is actually putting out since its not CEA compliant so right know i have my gain and bass boost turned down.

 

big boy... as I stated earlier... it's so much the wattage that messes with your speakers, but rather the distortion... clipping and heat involved

also I think you are misunderstanding the meaning of an RMS wattage rating

a speaker that is rated for 60 watts RMS is capable of handling input of 60 watts continuously... however... music is NOT a continuous thing... it has peaks, valleys and EVERY thing in between... as a result this rating is somewhat misleading... in fact as little as 1 watt of continuous distortion can destroy you speakers... esp if they are in a very hot enviroment...

as for an amplifier... 100 watts RMS does not mean that the amplifier is always pushing out 100 watts... but rather that it is capable of doing so...

the thing is I would rather have too big of an amp and not use it to it's fullest, but still have the head room

nothing sounds worse than an amplifier running out of breath...

I mainly do high end home audio listening homes and home A/V rooms... I did car audio for a while, I stopped after I got tired of people breaking into my car... you see if they break into my house they have to get past 3 great danes and a remi 810...

 

Technically you cant measure watts. but there is a way to figure out a range of what youre pushing. look at your fuse(s) and multiply them by 10. for example: if you have one 40 amp fuse, you are pushing around 400 watts. thats safe to say. another example: if you have 2 50 amp fuses, youre probably pushing about 1000 watts. Hope this helps

 

now that amp uses a pair of 20 amp fuses...

so that means that 2 channels share a 20 amp fuse

it claims 100 watt rms @ 4 ohm load @ 0.02% THD (total harmonic disortion)... tis rating is beyond incredible... chances are it is rated a very low volume, in a very cold room, at a very high frequency

but at 2 ohm load the amp starts to run out of breath... when you cut speaker impedance in half a good amp will double the output power (which only increases the sound level by 3DB)

however this amp is not really stable at 2 ohm... it only runs 125 watt... chances are this is due to heat and a BIG increase in THD, likley bringing it closer to 1%... basically DO NOT run this amp at 2 ohm if you value your speakers

ok now that we know that you can only pull a MAX of 20 amps x 2 = 40 amps input power into the amplifier, we also know that amplifiers are very wasteful with the power they draw... mean that at best you are wasting 50% in the form of heat

so now you have no more than 20 amps available @ your jeeps operating voltage (between 12v and 14.4v, most car audio amplifiers are rated at 13.8v)

20(amps) x 14.4(volts) = 288 (watts)

now that last number needs to be divided by the number of speakers (channels) that the amp is driving

288 / 4 = 72 watts per channel

chances are it is even less than that

the amplifier you listed is considered a class AB AMP... meaning that most of the time the distortion levels are low enough to be considered Class A quality when the music is a lower volume/ power output... however as the power output increases, the heat increases, the power efficiency drops well below 78%... and finally the distortion levels become higher as well the cheaper the amplifier the worse this effect tends to be

in your case we are talking about an amplifier that cost around $125 new...

so if we go buy there ratings... @ 2 ohm the amplifier is pushing 125 x 4 or 500 watts

but even at 100% efficiency we only get... 40(amps) x 14.4 (volts) = 576 (total watts)

so that would mean that the amp is only wasting 76 watts at a full 2 ohm load?


that is almost 87% efficiency... and that is cheating by using 14.4v

if we use 13.8v we get 90.5%?

and at 12v we get 104%

basically I am saying that the numbers they are claiming are not possible and that this amp makes WAY less power than they are claiming

in short you are going to be safe and OK!!!

trust me it is all just basic math

the rating for this amp are impossible...

 

Well i already new it wasnt accurate because its not CEA compliant so how much watts you think its throwin down.

 

Let's just say "about 45 watts per channel". I think it's been pretty clearly covered that it doens't really matter. Speakers get damaged from distortion, which comes from reaching the limits of the amp (causing "clipping") or the limits of the speaker (causing popping/heat/burning voice coils). So what this means is having too little power can blow a speaker as well as having too much power.

Another question you might as then is "what blows a speaker?" and the answer is; uncareful listening. If you feel the volume control needs to go all the way up until is doesn't go any futher, you're not a careful listener and you're going to blow the speakers eventually- doesn't matter if you have too much power of not enough, same result.

Problem with the world is that most car audio listeners don't know how to listen to the music.

 

AMEN