Best way to measure power?

[Heeltoeclutch 10+ year member]

What is the best way to measure the power of an amp? I apologize if this has been covered, I searched and came up with nothing. Did some googling and found that you can place the meter leads on the speaker wires while it is playing and do V^2/impedance... but that's not a perfect solution. Is there a best way?

Thanks.

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[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

a clamp amp meter on the pos speaker wire and a volt meter on the power wire.

 

[nateberrier 10+ year member]

Morning Bry Bry

 

[Heeltoeclutch 10+ year member]

clamp amp meter- The only clampy ones I know go around said wire and are for AC current? Is that the right one?

Could you just use the ammeter function on a dmm and use the car's OBD volt read-out?

 

[SpeedEuphoria 10+ year member]

amps produce AC current

 

[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

if you use the ammeter on the dmm it may short the amp, not sure, but to me it seems like it would.

 

[CougarGuy 10+ year member]

why would a metering device be damaging? it simply measures Flow...

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

Your typical DMM can only measure 10A of current before you overload it. For a low power amp (say 200watts at 4ohm or less) it would be okay, but for most bass amps a DMM is not going to cut it.

There is no easy way for a novice to accurately measure amplifier output.. you need true RMS meters, a dummy load, and a way to monitor distortion levels (or at least a scope to check for clipping).

 

[akheathen Premium Member]

Your typical DMM can only measure 10A of current before you overload it. For a low power amp (say 200watts at 4ohm or less) it would be okay, but for most bass amps a DMM is not going to cut it.
There is no easy way for a novice to accurately measure amplifier output.. you need true RMS meters, a dummy load, and a way to monitor distortion levels (or at least a scope to check for clipping).

this..... and the max the dmm could take is about 400watts on a 40hm, and 200 on a a 2ohm.... that is to say, you measure the voltage going to the driver and anything more than AxOhm will pop the 10a fuse in the meter. without above said method, the closest you are going to get is a clamp-on ac current meter and dmm measuring voltage simultaneously

 

[Heeltoeclutch 10+ year member]

Hrm alright... thanks for the replies guys. Everyone seems to be able to say "It's rated for 100W, but it was doing 127.56 W to my comps!" or something like that. My clamp is 2300 miles away //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif