I had Tweeter (car audio shop) install my system (Kenwood deck, front components, rears, subs and 2 amps) in May of '03. I have been reading up and recently took the stereo out of my car to transfer into my new car. I have no problem wiring the stuff back in, but I am curious as to how I can tell how much power (wattage) my front speakers and subs are actually receiving from the amps. I know that the gain on the amp determines how much power the speakers will receive, but how do you know exactly how many watts the speaker or sub is receiving? A few people have said that when turning up gains on an amp, just listen for distortion and then turn it down a little, but there has to be a way of knowing exactly how many watts my front speakers and subs are receiving from my amps. Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Tim

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CrazyModGSR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I know that the gain on the amp determines how much power the speakers will receive,</TD></TR></TABLE>

IMO there really is no practical applicaiton to why you would need to know exactly how many watts your speakers are getting - the calculation is possible and probably can be estimated fairly easily, calculation would probably require a scope.

That said, I feel you may have missed on what a gain control really is. The gain's responsibility is to match the output voltage from the headunit to the amplifier - that's it....

http://www.bcae1.com/gaincon2.htm

I hope that helps you out some. That is a great site to learn more about audio.

 

A really basic way is to use an RMS meter. Measure the voltage square it then divide by the impedence.

 

thanks for the link. also, where would i measure the voltage at?

 

I am fairly sure that the amount of power is going to be in constant flux unless you are playing test tones at a specific frequency and level. A speakers impedance is also dynamic, not static...so measuring the RMS will only show you what power it is recieving at a certain frequency.