Current Draw?

[Crownvicon28s 10+ year member]

My sub amp has four fourty amp fuses. Does this mean that the maximum current draw for this amp is 160 amps or does it draw more than that? Is there any way to tell about how many watts this amp is giving me? If so can someone let me know cause if im not getting the power I want prolly will replace amp. I have a 200amp alt. redtop up front and stinger spv35 in the trunk and big 3 done.

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[billjones42 10+ year member]

it would help if you told us what kind of amp it is.

 

[boomzilla 10+ year member]

I'm sure it's the max current draw. Any more current (I.E. from a short, etc) the fuses will blow protecting the amp. They don't protect everything however in different cases like low voltage, the amp will fry anyway fuses or not. There is a formula but I don't know it, hopefully Helotaxi or Immacomputer will chime in with it. What kind of amp is it? We can tell you if it does rated power or not by the model.

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

My sub amp has four fourty amp fuses. Does this mean that the maximum current draw for this amp is 160 amps or does it draw more than that? Is there any way to tell about how many watts this amp is giving me? If so can someone let me know cause if im not getting the power I want prolly will replace amp. I have a 200amp alt. redtop up front and stinger spv35 in the trunk and big 3 done.

you can get a rough estimate about current req. and power from fuse size, but w/o knowing specifically how the designer applied the fuses they won't tell you anything very accurate. Formulas are only as good as the KNOWN values, but w/o knowing efficiency of the amp and specifically what voltage it will be operating at any calculations are still going to be rough estimates.

Generally speaking - yes, the amp should never draw more (or at least MUCH more) than 160A - definitely not for an extended period of time.

You can figure roughly 10w/A so you could expect around 1600w optimally, but as low as 1500rms to as high as 2000.

There's really no way to get much more accurate w/o some in-service measurements w/equipment not a lot of us have.

 

[Crownvicon28s 10+ year member]

Sorry, forgot to put what kind of amp it is. Its a Concept CC D1200A.

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

ampguts says 4x30? Which seems about right for an under-rated 1200w class D.

 

[Crownvicon28s 10+ year member]

Wish I could post pics but I looked at the one in ampguts and wondered why mine was different, but im 100% positive mine has 4 40 amp fuses on it. Dont know if someone changed the fuses or what but thats the way it was when I got it. So if someone switched the fuses is this a problem cause the amp plays fine? So this amp probably is only puting out rated power? Also wondered why the newer model, the 1210, has 4 40 amp fuses?

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

who knows - maybe they made a change at some point during production. It wouldn't surprise me for an amp that quality to be significantly under-rated.

If it's not supposed to have 40's in it it wouldn't cause a problem unless the amp developed a problem internally - since the fuses are meant as a form of protection 40's might allow more damage inside before opening vs 30's.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The fuses usually aren't meant to protect anything inside the amp. They're just meant to keep it all from going up in flames in the event that any protection circuits don't do their job.

Fuses usually have no value in indicating the current draw of an amp. The only thing that they tell you is a max for the sustained draw. It takes a good deal more than the rated current of the fuse to get the fuse to fast-blow. This allows the amp to draw more than the fuse rating for short bursts. Average draw is really much more important to know and it will be much less than the fuse rating but is totally application dependent.

 

[Crownvicon28s 10+ year member]

I was wanting to know what exactly this amp puts out so i would know whether or not I can upgrade amps. Thinking about aq2200d, hifonics 2008d, or concept 2400d.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

I was wanting to know what exactly this amp puts out so i would know whether or not I can upgrade amps.

Then you need to either have the amplifier bench-tested or find someone who has tested the amp using a reliable method.

There's no formula you can use to know exactly what your amplifier will output (unless you were to analyze the schematics in detail' date=' etc). This is [i']why[/i] people bench test an amplifier. It's the only way to know for sure, and even then you need to be sure the method is a useful method (taking distortion into account, for example).

As helotaxi mentioned, fuses are useless at attempting to determine power output in all but extreme cases. Knowing that Concept is an average quality brand, I wouldn't expect the amplifier to be excessively under (or over) rated. It'll probably put out right around rated power, or close enough as not to matter. A couple hundred watts in either direction won't make a lick of audible difference.

 

[Crownvicon28s 10+ year member]

So would any of the forementioned amps make an audible difference?

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Given they are twice the power.....yes, assuming your subs can handle the extra power & your electrical system can handle the additional load.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

You'd also have to assume that the subs can actually USE the additional power for the difference to be audible. Once you've run enough power to a sub that power compression has set in (the amount of power to get to this point depends on the sub and the enclosure) adding more does very little more than increase the level of power compression and shorten the life of the sub.