For those who use Hifonics amps.

[Oxycodone 10+ year member]

EVERYONE ELSE: He's just saying that with his charging system, the amp was less efficient and put out the same power at 2 ohms as 1. I don't see how this is possible unless the extra current was burnt up, but regardless, good to know as most people probably running this amp (or similar hifonics amp) are probably running a stock charging system, and would benefit from trying to wire their subs at a higher resistance (as in his case, he was able to maintain power with less draw).

TO OP: They're saying if you upgrade your charging system (adding a decent battery, etc) you will see gains in your output, unlike what you currently experienced with your current charging system.

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

You can't have any kind of accurate results period with this test without a clamp meter set to AC Amps AND a RMS voltage meter set to AC Volts on the output of the amp. This is retarded, who came up with the idea that you could measure the output of an amplifier without getting BOTH measurements. Power is a function of V x I = P (watts) You cannot get an accurate measurement or even an accurate guess without knowing both V AND I. I don't care what the GD DCR of your subs are, it changes with frequency (impedance rise) so drastically that you cannot get an accurate measurement without actually measuring BOTH V AND I..... This is just stupid...

 

[Oxycodone 10+ year member]

You can't have any kind of accurate results period with this test without a clamp meter set to AC Amps AND a RMS voltage meter set to AC Volts on the output of the amp. This is retarded, who came up with the idea that you could measure the output of an amplifier without getting BOTH measurements. Power is a function of V x I = P (watts) You cannot get an accurate measurement or even an accurate guess without knowing both V AND I. I don't care what the GD DCR of your subs are, it changes with frequency (impedance rise) so drastically that you cannot get an accurate measurement without actually measuring BOTH V AND I..... This is just stupid...

These measurements were taken with a true RMS meter. At these voltages and not taking into account impedence rise, this is about 1100 watts.

The red part makes it unaccurate?
[/QUOTE]

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

You CAN get fairly accurate results by spending aprox

 

[rollerdj 10+ year member]

I can't belive only two people caught the 4ga wire part. Time to go bigger. That 4ga will only carry so much power, starving your amp basicly. Get some bigger wire along with a clamp meter and do it again.

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

Last time I checked, 4GA wire is supposed to carry like 100 amps at 100 feet without noticable loss in voltage. Is that not the case? I don't pay much attention to that stuff because I don't do installs here, so it's not every day that I calculate voltage losses of copper conductors so please forgive me.

 

[Saint211 10+ year member]

4 AWG will carry up to 140-150 amps over 15-17 feet before a .5 volt drop

 

[rollerdj 10+ year member]

Where did you get the wire from. I got some 4ga once that really wasn't 4ga. More like 8ga with 4ga outer coating. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/verymad.gif.3f39c5c2fd57527b671fad3efdfac756.gif were is your grounding point at? Some places are convinent, but far from the best.

 

[snoopdan 5,000+ posts]

Last time I checked, 4GA wire is supposed to carry like 100 amps at 100 feet without noticable loss in voltage. Is that not the case? I don't pay much attention to that stuff because I don't do installs here, so it's not every day that I calculate voltage losses of copper conductors so please forgive me.

NEC say's that anything over 80 amps is a no-no //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

Its been said before that running an amp at 1 ohm will decrease an amplifiers efficiency. This my friends is your proof. Its a known fact that running higher voltages into greater ohm loads is much more efficient, especially with AC driven motor structures (a speaker is a linear motor). Also the added benefit is the output is much more pronounced and cleaner sounding. Some people would say that the difference in damping factor is not noticeable i for one however believe I have noticed a difference.

This is "true" however if you use an amp designed to run efficiently at 1 ohm (like the Sundown Audio SAZ line and others with the same designs) you will not have efficiency problems.

The HiFonics amps are built for 1 ohm, but it is my belief that the size of their power supply transformers (smaller than other amps like Sundown SAZ's) may be the limiting factor in the ability of the power supply in the amp to keep up the voltage at 1 ohms loads, which results in clipping. This is why I advise people to buy the next size up HiFonics amp (brutus line in particular) for their application. I.E. if they need 1500watts, they need to buy the BXi2000 model, though I believe the specs of the BXi2000 series says it's a 2000 watt amp. While it will do 2000 watts @ 1 ohm, I saw major clipping on any tests I ran, so if you expect only 1500 watts out of it, unclipped, you will be right on. The clipping I think is what is making your amp draw so much current at 1 ohm. The output mosfets are "staying on" too long and putting DC into your subs coils. Basically just wasting energy. If the power supply were "stouter" in the amp it wouldn't clip as soon.

 

[Swindez95 10+ year member]

Yes I am using 4 gauge wire but at the current moment anything larger than 4 gauge is practically useless considering my charging system cannot and will not deliver anymore current. While my car is running I hit a brick wall at about 1200 watts rms before my charging system drops well below 12v.

In fact to give you fellas an idea of how bad it is...while stopped at a red light, drive thru, or just plain stopped with my headlights on for more than a minute or so my alternator starts to get so warm that the internal voltage regulator automatically lowers the charging voltage to keep from overheating the alternator. You gotta love a Camaro for the crappy charging system.

With that said, with all accessories turned off with engine just running using an amp probe its not uncommon for my vehicle to draw 30 amps just running the engine and electronics without headlights or stereo system turned on.

 

[Swindez95 10+ year member]

Also I must mention that I never run this amp to its maximum capability. In this test I merely measured speaker terminal voltage while running at 1 ohm and 2 ohms going till I hit my barrier of volume output where my charging system drops to less than 13 volts.

 

[Johnny Law.Lulz 5,000+ posts]

I find it hard to believe that someone doesnt make an HO alternator for a camaro. Where mechman and the other alt builders here.

BTW: just a fun fact, listen to db-r. if you want proof of his creadibility go to db-r.com and i think youll be more than satisfied that his knowledge in amps might be up to par.

 

[Swindez95 10+ year member]

You CAN get fairly accurate results by spending aprox
Yes ive got an old style amp probe but it only measures ac current and not dc.

You can't have any kind of accurate results period with this test without a clamp meter set to AC Amps AND a RMS voltage meter set to AC Volts on the output of the amp. This is retarded, who came up with the idea that you could measure the output of an amplifier without getting BOTH measurements. Power is a function of V x I = P (watts) You cannot get an accurate measurement or even an accurate guess without knowing both V AND I. I don't care what the GD DCR of your subs are, it changes with frequency (impedance rise) so drastically that you cannot get an accurate measurement without actually measuring BOTH V AND I..... This is just stupid...

Yes I know this and this was not meant to be an accurate measurement...only a pencil and paper test using rms voltage output, real life output is probably nowhere near this due to impedance rise as I have already said but hey it sounded good anyway //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

NEC say's that anything over 80 amps is a no-no

And to further show little I push this amp ive only blown a 60-amp agu fuse 1 time at 1 ohm showing just how little I push this amp.

 

[Swindez95 10+ year member]

I find it hard to believe that someone doesnt make an HO alternator for a camaro. Where mechman and the other alt builders here.
BTW: just a fun fact, listen to db-r. if you want proof of his creadibility go to db-r.com and i think youll be more than satisfied that his knowledge in amps might be up to par.

Well its not my camaro thats causing me problems. Its my engine, I can buy an HO alternator for a 3.8 v6 and an LT1 car all day long but my 3.4 uses a mounting method GM used for only f-bodies with the 3.4 RWD engine from 93-95 and that was it...this style alternator wasnt used in anything ever again....ive checked the books page by page when I worked at Advance. The part no listed was for only those years and those cars.

Now that is not to say I could possibly use the stator and rotor out of another high output alternator in mine but I do not want to go through the trouble of taking mine apart and using donor parts out of an expensive HO alty.

Yea ive been in car audio for many years also I just havent frequented the boards in a very long time. I used to use the s/n 80_Cutlass_mn but I dont have that email address before and attempts to get into contact with the admin to retrieve my password have failed.

Ive been a member since late 03 I believe but my hobby took a backseat to life in the past 5 years along with many other hobbies I used to have.