Question about JL Audio 500/1 amp and wattage output to subs

[ben3350]

Hello,

In my trunk I have 2 JL Audio 12w3's being powered by a JL Audio 500/1 amplifier. I'm new to car audio so this question may sound stupid. I had the equipment professionally installed so I don't know much about the settings on the amp.

My question is, when the amp is powered, does it automatically use all of the 500 watts on the subs? Both 12w3's are rated for 300 watts, and as my amp is 500 watts, that means maximum wattage output would be 250 watts for each sub. When the amp is hooked up with the sub, is this power divided automatically? Or does this maximum wattage need to be tuned on the amp to get that power?

Since I don't know my way around amps, I just wanted to know if I am actually pushing 250 to each sub or if it's possibly less. And if it's less, do I have the ability to increase it to get the most power out of the subs? I guess my question is does the amp do most of the work for me, and I shouldn't worry, or does it have to be specifically tuned to get the max wattage to the subs?

The subs hit very hard, I was just curious about this. And wasn't sure if it makes a difference that the JL Audio amps are rated for continuous RMS and therefore stay at 500 watts from 1.5 to 4 ohms

Thanks

Click to read more...

 

[budahbuddy803 10+ year member]

If the gain on the amp is set properly, the maximum continuous power (rms) will be 500rms sent to the subs, distributed evenly to each speaker. The amp is not putting out 500rms with your volume turned to, say 1/30 on your head unit. Once your head unit is turn to the maximum volume, before the signal is clipped, that is when the amp is at its full potential. There are quite a few threads about properly setting gains on amps so I would read up on some of that before you mess with any amp settings, but if the installer knew what he/she was doing, it should be set properly and they should have told you the maximum volume you can turn the head unit to before getting a clipped signal. With most, not all, head units, you will get a clipped signal before turning the volume all the way up.