when do amps give full power

Hi guyz,

Question: When does a amp give full power?  For instance...if you had a 500 watt amp on a 500 watt sub, bridged & wired all correctly. When will that sub see 500 watts.  I have always thought as soon as the amp comes on the power out is what the amp is rated at.   Is the gain setting the "regulator" of how much power goes out?  Then what about the volume on the source unit?

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And also consider how the amps are measured as well. Some companies measure their outputs at different voltages. One company measures their amps output at 48 volts which no consumer car that we are aware of runs on. To get a better rough idea of how much your amp puts out peak is to take the fuse rating and multiply it by the vehicle's voltage at idle. For example, say you have a 1400 watt amp that has a 30 amp fuse in it. 30amps x 14.4 volts = 432 watts from the amp. So that 1400 watt amp is really 432 watts.

If you are looking for an amp that truly hits 500 watts cleanly, look for amps that are CEA compliant. That means they have been tested at the specific settings for the test. It's currently optional for manufacturers to do it, but if you get a hold of one, they will consistantly put out the rated power with no problems.

Wow thanks guys!

Just in case a few of  you wondering...I have a "rockford fosgate mono block 600" rated @ 600watts rms x1 @ 2ohm.  Pushing two rockford fosgate- punch p2 10"s @4 ohm 200watts rms each.   My main concern is am  I putting  too much power to my subs ??

Good answer, haemphyst, and to the point of the question. 

An easy way to see how the power output curve steepens when you get toward the high end of the scale is to use a DMM and measure output voltage at increasingly higher levels of output.  You will find it notably surprising that your normal listening levels are far, far below rated output.  It is only at the very end of the volume excursion of the dial that the measured voltage increases dramatically, and that area is often louder than what is comfortable for in-car listening.

When you have the volume at a level where normal conversation can occur, you are probably around 1 or 2 watts.  If it's more than that, it's not by much.

this seems way too easy and probably is not the way to measure amplifier output(takes special equiptment right?) but with your system on can you just measure the voltage output of your amp and get a ballpark figure of what wattage it is putting out,? Doesn't seem like this owuld work as I assume it would be dependant on what driver.impedance it is hooked to but...