just a ponder here...

[lovindabass]

I've been looking at some of the cheaper amps and i'm wondering if i'm missing something. I was looking at some amps like the CR4000.1 or like the performance tecknique amps, I cant seem to find any fuses....anywhere. In some of them i've seen the inside as well but I see no fuses either... so how do i gauge what kind of power they can in real world do if they have no fuses.... is it possible to get some serious power if they have no fusing and the only thing they go off is the main Pos+ wire fuse? just pondering lol

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[tinmanchris217 10+ year member]

You can look for a "recommended fuse rating". They usually expect you to use external fuses (a few inches before the amp), to protect it.

For the Soundstream cr4000.1 you mentioned, they list that on SonicElectronix. It's 80 amp on a 4 ga wire.

Using fuses to determine the power of an amp is not too effective. Most manufacturers round off to the next reasonable size. It will give you a decent estimate of what the amp can do... but should not be used as an "end-of-discussion" decider.

For example,

My Audiopipe's recommended fuse rating is 100 amp and 4 ga, but to get rated power out of it (1600@1ohm), you really need a 150 amp fuse. I can attest that it draws more than 100 amps DC, when at full power. Not sure why they did this...

I used to think fuse ratings were enough, but especially with external fuses, it's not so easy to tell. Internal fuses are usually shorted, during a bench test anyways. Moral of the story, you can do it, but take any results with a grain of salt.

Edit: You should know this already if you have a DD Z1. But besides fusing and rms ratings... there's not a good way to tell.

 

[lovindabass]

lol yeah. I figured as much. the cr4000.1 i used to have i clamped at just under 1800 rms at 1 ohm its a potent little amp. but I just couldn't figure why they would do that. not fuse the amp that is. then again cheaper company so.... but the 5000 a friend had will run a little over 2100 rms so.... for like 250 shipped and 2000 rms is not bad at all. not to mention they dont look bad lol