will amps lose power over time?
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=39470
Printed Date: April 28, 2024 at 10:33 AM
Topic: will amps lose power over time?
Posted By: supradude
Subject: will amps lose power over time?
Date Posted: September 21, 2004 at 8:48 AM
I have an old Orion 250HCCA high current amp. I had it running all of my mids and highs, which is 8 speakers total. I was running it bridged, which I think would be 1/2 ohm mono, which would mean it should have been putting out around 800 watts RMS. I have 2 Fosgate 15's pushed by a Crossfire 600 watt amp, and it was drowning out all of my other speakers. I bought a cheap American Pro Bass Machine, which says it does 600 watts MAX, (RMS I do not know). I am running it to the same speakers in stereo, and it sounds 4 times louder and better than the Orion did. That seems untrue, but I hear the difference. Shouldn't the Orion be stronger than a cheap amp like the one I bought? Or do they lose some of their power over the years?
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'85 Toy
Replies:
Posted By: nitto7
Date Posted: September 21, 2004 at 11:34 AM
my guess why it didnt sound very good was because you were running it at 1/2 ohm, if your cheap amp was running at 4ohms than the sound should be more full. I think if your powering your components you probably should go below below 4ohms because of the lack of sound quality.
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Restored '79 Firebird
Posted By: /R7
Date Posted: September 21, 2004 at 12:10 PM
you ran your 8 speakers (mids highs) in mono? fronts and rears? you lost quality because they were mono, not because they werent getting the juice.
switch your new amp that you have running in stereo, to mono, im gonna assume the orion will give a better sound to your speakers than your american pro bass machine.
Posted By: aidipf
Date Posted: September 21, 2004 at 2:47 PM
the pro bass could have a wider frequency range allowing it to pick up on mids and highs that the orion may not be able to. not to say that there's anything wrong with orion, but just because something may have a bigger name or be more expensive does not mean it will be better. ------------- MR. INNOVATIONS
Posted By: kfr01
Date Posted: September 21, 2004 at 2:52 PM
I think you need to explain what you had hooked up better. You can't compare 2 different amps 'loudness' by running different speakers. Some speakers will simply be more or less efficient than others.
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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder
Posted By: Ravendarat
Date Posted: September 21, 2004 at 7:00 PM
Now you say 8 speakers total, is that 4 mids and 4 tweets or is it 8 coaxials or what. Because if its 4 mids and 4 tweeters than you arent running half ohm you are running one ohm. Where was the gain set on the orion, where was it set on the new amp? These are all factors. Also running stereo as opposed to mono is definatly going to make the speakers sound way better. And running any speaker amp at 1 ohm or .5 ohm or whatever is not a good Idea as the THD will drastically increase which is very bad. 4 ohm stereo is ideally what you wanna do when running speakers.
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double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer
Posted By: flynntech
Date Posted: September 21, 2004 at 8:08 PM
I'm involved with optical electronics now and I can say that laser tubes and LEDs will lose power output over time. From my brief time in the telecomm world, I would have to say that solid state amplifiers generally don't degrade enough to have any noticable difference in power. It's usually a malfunction in the circuit which can cause distortion, loss of power, no out-put or any other odd fault. Usually it either works or it doesn't. In the case of car audio...I wouldn't even worry about it. Like others have said, your dealing with apples and oranges. Orion makes perfectly good amps, although I don't like thier flimsy terminals much.
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