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Does the amp fuse determine how powerful?

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 11:03 am
by GaryPham
Hi guys, sorry if the answer to this question is obvious, but I was wondering if the size of the fuses on an amplifier has any bearing on what kind of true power it puts out. For example, lets say amp A and amp B are both rated at 1000 RMS. Amp has has (3) 30 amp fuses while amp B has (3) 40 amp fuses. Does amp B more likely put out more true watts as opposed to amp A due to the fact that it has a higher fuse rating despite them both being rated same power?

Thanks

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 11:23 am
by cargodz
Really it depends more on the effeciency of the amp itself as to the fuses and how much power it produces.
Example:
Amp A has (3) 30 amp fuses, and has 80% effeciency
but
Amp B has (3) 40 amp fuses, and has 87% effeciency
Also depends on the quality of the build, THD, and if you're comparing the same style amp... a Class A/B amp vs. Class D
All aspects have an impact of the amount of real world power the amp is capable of.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 11:30 am
by GaryPham
well the thing is that I've been looking at the TMA T10001 amplifier. I noticed that TMA has now updated their amplifier to the TMA T1000.1 (notice the decimal). From what I see on the specs of both amps, they're rated at the same power and same specifications except for a slightly new look and amp fuse ratings. The 2005 version has (3) 40 amp fuses, while the 2007 version has 3 (35) amp fuses. I'm just wondering if the older one perhaps produced more power, or if this change in fuse ratings means nothing. They're both class D amplifiers and rated at 500 @ 4 ohm, 750 @ 2 ohm, and 1000@ 1 ohm

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 11:53 am
by cargodz
With it coming from the same company, it's probably just a revamp of the older model with slightly smaller fuses... somebody at JL probably just realized that they didn't need to have 40amps in it and could cut it down to 35amp fuses... might even be more of a safety feature from their stand point.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 12:00 pm
by solacedagony
Really, fuses have nothing to do with how much power the amplifier can put out. Fuses are simply for saftey, as cargodz said. We tend to estimate an amplifier's max output by the fuse value. However, more power is going to flow through a fuse than it's rating before it blows, so I'm not sure how accurate an estimate by fuse value is going to truly be.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 12:10 pm
by jonnyb
they probably do the same amount of power, just the newer one is more efficient.