clamping amp-whcih frequencys

[ahole-ic]

i have them wired to 1 ohm so obviously i dont want to have full power at 1ohm with rise cuz the sub wont have any dampining if i am correct. i just want to try a range or frequencys that will show me my output and rise.

The range of frequencies is TOTALLY dependent on your box's peak freq. Nobody can give you a magical range of frequencies. You might be tuned to 45hz peaking at 48hz and they tell you 30hz and your sub gets tons of power and bottoms out and maybe blows everything. This is why I'm telling you. You need to know a little bit more about your setup before you start burping the hell out of your system. I can't figure out why you're wanting to clamp and you don't have a clue where your peak might be. You're not at that step yet.

 

[splwj47 10+ year member]

The range of frequencies is TOTALLY dependent on your box's peak freq. Nobody can give you a magical range of frequencies. You might be tuned to 45hz peaking at 48hz and they tell you 30hz and your sub gets tons of power and bottoms out and maybe blows everything. This is why I'm telling you. You need to know a little bit more about your setup before you start burping the hell out of your system. I can't figure out why you're wanting to clamp and you don't have a clue where your peak might be. You're not at that step yet.

well i dont think i have to worry about overpowering the subs they are 600rms a piece and my amp i am currently using for them is only 600 rms. i want to clamp becuase i want to learn, i learn by doing.

 

[ahole-ic]

well i dont think i have to worry about overpowering the subs they are 600rms a piece and my amp i am currently using for them is only 600 rms. i want to clamp becuase i want to learn, i learn by doing.

People that learn by doing end up in lots of trouble. You need to learn by listening so you can avoid other's previous mistakes. That amp can easily blow those subs if the power is clipped.

 

[splwj47 10+ year member]

my gains are set properly so dont know how its going to clip

 

[ahole-ic]

my gains are set properly so dont know how its going to clip

That is an interesting statement. You have acknowledged that you know your amp puts out different amounts of power at different frequencies. You are looking for a frequency with a low impedence to get more power out of the amp yet you say your gain is set correctly and you cannot clip. Those are two opposing ideas. You see your impedence drops below nominal at certain frequencies. This causes the amp to put out several times more power than what it is set for thus causing a very hard clip. In my opinion, you should not be clamping your power. You need to be reading and learning right now before you tear your stuff up. No offense.

 

[splwj47 10+ year member]

im not trying to get more power out of the amp, im trying to see how much power i am getting from the amp. obviously i knowif i play to low of a frequency my impedence will drop below normal and not be a good thing.

 

[splwj47 10+ year member]

i am not looking for a certain frequency. i just wanted to see if this amp actually puts out 600rms at 2 ohms, my subs are wired to 1 ohm. so finding the watts at 2 ohms shouldnt be a bad thing. all i was wondering is what are ideal frequencys to try to find that out, and i wanted to know if it was hard on the woofers.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

You have me wanting to go by Home depot, buy a clamp, use clamp, then return clamp

 

[splwj47 10+ year member]

lol do it up.

 

[bigdwiz 10+ year member]

In order to get an accurate reading for the "clamped" power, you need to use resistors, a true RMS meter and an oscilloscope. As mentioned above, just b/c your subs are rated a 1 ohm, this is a nominal rating and may not be consistent based on the frequency you use. I've tested 35, 50, 100 or 1000Hz and for full range amps, don't see much difference between the output and test frequencies. Obviously for sub amps, you'll want to use 100hz or lower for the test frequency.

The oscilloscope is used to determine when the amp is clipping. You could alternatively use the SMD DD-1 in replacement of an oscilloscope. I use a Velleman HPS50 o'scope, which includes a built-in RMS volt meter (aka "Clamp meter") and audio measurements for 2, 4, 8, and 16 ohms. Other ohm measurements are easy, just take the RMS voltage figure, square it and divide by the ohm load.

I put up a YouTube video a while back explaining the process and showing my tools:

(I've since added another resistor bank giving me 1600w total and the ability to test 4 channels at 4 ohms, 2 channels at 2 ohms and 1 channel at 4 or 1 ohm)

 

[OmegaBunny 10+ year member]

Tones are recorded in 0db. you need your gain set a 0db to not clip on a tone.

Da **** are you talking about?

Are you referring to using a test tone recorded at 0db and use that tone to set the gains?

 

[splwj47 10+ year member]

ya i was going to go from a 60hz tone down to a 40hz tone and wanted to know if that would be safe for the subwoofers. and i wanted to know if it was to risky to go down to like 35hz. so that was my question really if it was safe for the woofers to go from a 60hz tone down to a 40hz or even 35 hz tone. i was probably going to order a smd dd1 this comming week sometime. and i have a digital clamp meter not sure if it is a accurate one tho, so was thinking of picking up a new one.

 

[OmegaBunny 10+ year member]

And I agree, to clamp the amp you would need an o-scope to set the gains without clipping. That way you are getting max unclipped power from the amp. I am going to try to clamp some of my amps as soon as I get a clamp meter so more details would be great. What tone would be good, just to get the output from the amp?

 

[wenn_du_weinst 10+ year member]

I check them all and find an average if I'm trying to figure out how much power my subs are seeing.

If I want to see how much my amp is actually putting out I just use peak hold

 

[OmegaBunny 10+ year member]

What hz tone tho? Use a sweeping tone and just set the meter for peak hold? Recorded at 0db, -3db?