Hi guys, I'm currently building my sound system and was wondering if the alternator will be able to handle it.

I'm putting in 2 Jensen that suck up 60 amp each. I read somewhere it delviers 85 amps. If I add up both amplifier I would be taking 120 amp. Will I melt the alternator, or is it just a stupid question because that's not the way to calculate the capacity of the alternator?

 

60 amps each??? damn. are you sure? that don't sound right. how many watts are each amp?

 

Jensen what? and yeah 60amps to an amp would drive some MAJOR bass , let alone 120 if thats what is actually being used.

 

I'm running a PAIR of JBL BP1200.1's (1200 watt amps, both of mine benched well over 1500 watts) in my car with the stock alt, and no dimming. Thats not even counting the highs amps and all the other goodies, so I'm pretty sure it can handle 2 of any model Jensen amp as long as you prepare the car properly.

 

well i doubt you have no dimming...you have to have some serious caps of you have no dimming. also....i'm running about 250 amps through my car with my stereo. the amplifiers get all of its power pretty much from the battery. so the stock battery can only handle like 100 continuous amps for a few minutes before it explodes.

all you have to do is get a better battery. look into an optima deep cycle...or any other deep cycle battery. you don't really need to rebuild your alternator.

 

I am running 1000watts to 2 audiobahn 10's and my lights dim, no cap, stock battery. Can you figure it out????

 

thats roughly about 75 amps. you should get at least a 1 farad cap but i would go with the new digital 5 farad+ caps. just to have that extra stored energy and room for ungrade.

 

yeah, that would do yah, but may be a little overkill.... I'd prefer 2 digital 1 fd caps

 

eh, a 1 farad cap and an optima battery should be more than plenty for 1000+ watts.

a friend of mine is pushing 1000watts total rms on a 1 farad cap, 350wattsx2, and 50wattsx2, through an optima battery. he even has underdrive pulleys, and still no dimming whatsoever.

 

I'm getting there, It is fine for now and i keep my bass as far down *** possible and it still hits hard enough, it only dims half way up and more, altough it couldn't hurt to have the extra cushon.

 

well thre is no such thing as overkill really. the main reason to make sure you have enough back up power is to make sure you don't clip your amplifier. when your bass hits real hard you can get a big voltage drop and if it goes to low (8-9 volts) your amp will distort and can damage your amplifier.

 

I'm pretty sure it is 60 amp each, cause they both got 2 fuses of 30 amp. Right now, only one is hooked up and my light dims like crazy (only at idle though which imo is normal). BTW, they are 500 watts each and they're both hooked to a 525 watts sub.

 

Ok, some info to help everyone out.

Ohms Law
Watts = Amps x Volts so Amps = Watts/Volts

Car amplifiers are very inefficient, especially if they have a C or D rating. A and B amplifiers are the best. It also depends how you connect your speakers and the individual speaker resistance plays a major part also.

If you have a one channel 100 Watt amp connected to a 4Ohm Sub you will usually get 40-70 Watts out of the speaker. Usually. The lower end (40) is usually what you will see because companies claim "100 Watts" which is usually peak power @ 14.4 Volts (car running). This "peak" rating happens in like a 100th of a second.

When competing years ago I had a class A Phoenix Gold 20W amplifier. In 1995 it cost me around $480. After some tricky wiring, x-overs...... I had around 1200W blasting out of it. The amp was the best in the world especially running it at about .5 Ohms which is nearly a full short. A one Farad cap worked well for me. No flickering or power loss from the battery.

Best advise when installing any aftermarket amplifier is to go to a local install shop to do the math. Figure all of your speakers and amplifiers, wiring - parallel - bridged..... This will eliminate problems and give you a better understanding of what you are getting into.

 

Well you are wrong about the classes. A and B class amplifiers are the worst amplifiers for effeciency. All they do is make heat. they are around 20%-40% efficient. Class D amplifiers however ( D for digital) can be up to 90% efficient or more. My earthquake amplifier is abour 88-92% efficient. Never gets hot.

And actually...pretty much the best company for amplifiers out there would be Harrison Labs. http://www.hlabs.com/ they are the ones always coming out with the most powerful and efficient amplifiers. Phoenix Gold ...compared to Harrison Labs anyway.

 

Revised.....

Zlancer is actually %100 correct on this one. I guess I got my numbers, er, letters screwed up.

Zlancer 1 - yannotmi 0