How over Rated are most Amplifiers

[Plater 10+ year member]

Being in the electronics field for a few years i was just wondering what people think they are buying when they get an amp that is rated at say 600W.

I won't clam to be an expert but 600W is alot of power.

has anyone acually heard a clean true 50W RMS amp. Power levels at this Wattage are very loud.

I don't know but when the stereo in you car claims to have more horse power then the actual motor in the car I would think that something is wrong.

Just a though, any comment or argument please feel free to voice them.

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[jellydime 10+ year member]

There are quite a few amps out there that are very over-rated, but if you purchase any quality amp (RF, MTX, Kicker, etc) it is actually usually UNDER-rated...these come with certificates saying how much power they actually pump out and are guarunteed to push at least what is advertised.

JELLYDIME

 

[Plater 10+ year member]

That is true and i have seen these spec sheets with the amps. The numbers that they produce tend to be accurate but still. Don't quote me but the numbers they use to advertise tend to be high or they measure peak power and add the two channels together to give total power. Another trick that i have heard of being used is the input power or the amount of power drawn by the amp. Which most amps are not very effeicent because if they where they wouldn't heat up.

Also is it really nesssiary to power up subs with kilowatts of power or to run them with a clean 50W RMS signal.

One of the main differences between a good amp and a cheap amp is not the output transistor configuration but the power supply used to power the output transistors.

 

[phat_bump 10+ year member]

I have a crossfire CFA15HC rated at 15x2 RMS at 4 ohms and is stable down to .5 ohms. Crossfire says its capable of 270 watts max and I had it running 2 Memphis Studio 12's (200 RMS 400 peak each) and with a clean input and 50% gain I could bottom them out w/ regular music. Makes me wonder whos ratings were wrong. Think about it for a while..............something just ain't right..............................

 

[TEAM NUTTS 10+ year member]

wanna sel that cross fire amp phat

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

Originally posted by Plater Also is it really nesssiary to power up subs with kilowatts of power or to run them with a clean 50W RMS signal.

 

Have you ever HEARD, let's say a pair of decent 12's with 400 watts rms a piece? If not, then sure, 50 watts will do the job for you, but once you hear some 30 hz bass from a kw pair of subs getting the power they want you'll know why you need the power. If you HAVE heard such a set up, then I guess you're just WAY different than me.

 

[Plater 10+ year member]

I haven't been inside a car with that type of power. I agree that it probally is really cool to experence once. But is it really woth the amount of money. Running an amp and subs that have that kind of power has a place in competition. But in real life how often are you going to need 400W RMS of true power to listen to music. Unless you are deaf because if you aren't you soon will be.

If running a stereo with this kind of power is your thing then all the power to you.

Is it needed? and how often will it be run at the 400W RMS? But if you go out and by a nice amp say 75W RMS bridged run a pair of subs. Get good sound quality who is to say there isn't enough power. Just from my own experience many people not fully aware of what the power ratings tend to think that you need kilowatts of power to hear the bass. They seem to be misinformed about what is really important when buying audio equiment.

Also going from 100W RMS to 200W RMS is not a doulbing in loudness.

It makes we wonder why most old Vacuum tube amps tend to be rated at low power level 25-50W and yet they have the abilty to output very high volume levels.

Has anyone ever sat down and actually listen to a stereo playing at 1W RMS. It maybe louder then you think.

 

[soundman]

Originally posted by jellydime There are quite a few amps out there that are very over-rated, but if you purchase any quality amp (RF, MTX, Kicker, etc) it is actually usually UNDER-rated...these come with certificates saying how much power they actually pump out and are guarunteed to push at least what is advertised.

JELLYDIME

i am sorry that you feel these are good amps. I really am! If you want good amps that will never let you down and are never over rated, JL audio,XTANT,U.SAmps,Crossfire... and amps of that calliber. RF is garbage and so is a lot of MTX, and Kicker amps are not so good either unless you spend a ton of money. RF come on man that is rookie stuff!

 

[EPanther99 10+ year member]

how can you call RF rookie stuff they currently hold the world record, and as far as the other barnds you listed they are all good, but you say you have to spend a ton of money to get the good stuff which is just the same with the brands you listed to get a really good and powerful xtant amp you need to spend almost a $1000 im not arguing that they arent good but i am saying the other brands are also good too

 

[mrray13 10+ year member]

epanther is right, soundman, all the amps you listed cost just as much if not more than the one's you dogged. anyway, it's a matter of opinion,mostly, as to what you want in your ride. all of the equipment you two mentioned is quaility stuff.

on to plater, in a sense your right. with good ,clean power and a really good speaker, you can use less to get more (wrms to spl). i know of a car (vw jetta) that has a single focal utopia 10 in a sealed box with 75wrms from a soundstream amp, eclipse hu and it hit 148 db. the guy who owns this ride owns the stereo shop. the xfactor(there are many) is the how efficient the amp is at making power, the sub is at converting it, the transient(spell?) response of the car, etc,etc,etc. i might even be wrong with some of that. i know one thing, most think it's cooler to have 2 kw of power to the subs compared to 100 watts. i'm going to get killed for that, yet imo, it's one of the biggest reasons for megawatt amps. of course, building subs to handle that, sure makes it tempting to use it all!!

 

[Plater 10+ year member]

Mrray13 i couldn't of said it better my self. I agree completely with what you are saying. Yes it is very temping to run subs with Kilo watts of power. Hell there was a time in my life when i wanted to do that. But now i have kind of moved over to the SQ side of things. And this puts a bigger need for cleaner power not nessarally more power.

The reason for moving to the SQ side was because just hearing the bass line to a song kind of got old.

 

[Unregistered]

You can ask any car audio specialist if the size of the amp matters and they will say yes nad no. The main thing in any system is quality. Then is the box. You can have the best subs and amps in the world but if you box is SH*T then so is your sound. As for the post above with the whole Rockford thing, Yes Rockford has gone extremely DOWN HILL and fast. About six years ago and you could buy a rockford amp that was under rated by at least 300 watt and now you'll be lucky to get one at 150. Crossfire is extermely good. Very good quality and as for the world record holder you might want to look that one up before you go puttin you A$$ on the line. I think you'll find out that it is different from what you think.