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What is the most stereo power you guys have ever had on your stock alternator and battery (in RMS watts)? I am still fairly leery about putting my system in and am trying to alleviate as many of my concerns as possible before I start getting hardcore on the work.

Those of you who were running a lot of power (~1000wrms or more), did you ever have any problems and if so what were they?

 
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I think a few people have hit 1000+ rms watts and had no problem. I could be wrong. The alternator isn't the strongest in our cars.

 
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no definitely not, I think my old car had a 65 amp and never had real problems other than dimming, but my battery was also a lot bigger in that car

 
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2 or 3 of us have broken 2k rms

i spent 6 months at about1600, and in about 2 weeks, ill be running 1980 watts rms of rated power from underrated amps

 
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^^ and is all this on stock alternator and battery?

hey do you have MSN so we can talk better?

 
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I was running somewhere around 1500 watts but on an optima yellow top and stock alternator.

 
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How did you make a battery that size fit in the tiny stock battery location?

 
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you take out the battery box.

or get group 51 battery if you like the box a lot

i've run 1kw before and dimming was the only problem. upgraded some grounds though.

 
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long term above ~1500-2000 rms are slower starts, and only then if you are playing loud music from car on to car off. playing at low volumes or turning it off a few blocks before you reach your destination helps the system stay charged, and aids starting the car later.

replacing the battery a year or two after putting in the system should fix slower starts for the next couple years, and will remain healthily starting the car years and years if not as fast as when you first put it in.

I wouldnt worry about upgrading the electricals untill months after putting in the system to begin with, so youve got the best idea of what you need to taylor E-system upgrades to your listening styles.

 
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Yeah but to me the electricals are a necessity, I am a stickler for detail. If I had the money and could do it the way I wanted, I would get an HO alt and a big Exide battery or 2.

DoubleDeuce2k2: removing the battery box will only help me with the height am I right? It is the space around the battery that I am more concerned with.

 
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Can you guys give me names of any specific batteries that will fit where the stock one is?

 
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Take out the old battery tray, and then i just got some of these metal clips that are threaded at one end. Got a washer made of rubber and a wingnut to hold the battery down.

That battery wasn't even supposed to fit, I got it a long time ago. They have a yellow top now that is supposed to fit perfect in our cars.

 
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I have a stock intake, that car has an aftermarket intake, it's the clearance AROUND the battery that I am worried about, not the height clearance.

 
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I'm liking that engine bay CelCUS, very very nice

 
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Sorry But it has nothing to do with how many watts your putting out,but how many Amperes your Amplifiers are drawing.

I.E. My "Class A" 380w Sony amp draws 40 amps of current at max power and my Blaupunkt "Class T" digital amp draws 26 amps at more than 380 watts.So just a heads up.Just look at the spec sheets that come with your amps and see what the current draw at full load is and add up your amps and H.U and see what you get.

 
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well, that's a given.

My amp is fused at 100 amps, and it's safe to say that practically any amp fused at 100 amps puts out 1000wrms peak, which is obvious from the formula A*V=W. Taking into account that an amplifier does not operate at 100% efficiency, that formula would give you *about* 1000 watts at 1000 amps.

 
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nope that'd be about 1000 watts at 100 amps and 10 volts, but 100 amps seems a bit high, and 10 volts a bit low, is that 100 amp the kinda fuse u put in there yourself or is that what the amp's manual says that is draws?

 
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class a/b , not class A

if it were a class a it would draw a good 80 amps at 380 watts

and full load will never ever ever ever ever ever happen unless you put your headunit on max, your mp gains on mx, and play sine waves through every source you have. if that happened, youd have smoky speakers in your car.

music is dynamic. it is all just little peaks. on top of that, i doubt youre using all your amps at full potential. most amps for mids nd highs are 2 ohm stable, and 98% of mids and highs are 4 ohm drivers. you just cut the draw in half from that amp. on top of that, mid and highs, youre doing like 30-50% duty on the amp, because its not onstant tones, you just cut the mp draw in half. and with bass, if you listen to relly bass heavy music, like some ghetto bass **** or some electronica, id say a MAX of 75% duty

lets take my amps for example:
arc 2100 - 40 amp draw
kicker kx 600 - 80 amp draw
betteraudio 1600M1 - somewhere in the 100 range

arc, im running at 4 ohms, but its stable to 2 ohms, so that brings us down to 20 amps, but its being used for mid and high, so like 40%, which drops us down to 8ish amps average constant draw

kicker - 80 amp draw, im only using 2 channels of the 4, 40 amps, only using it it 4 ohms instead of 2, 20 amps, only using it for midbss, 50-55%, 12 amps max

betteraudio, lets say 100 amps worst case scenario, but the gain is way down for overhead, so lets say 80 amps, running at 1 ohm, so still 80 amps, at 75% duty, 60 amps average draw at max volume.

so we have all these amps with high *** current ratings, but with my volume at max (and believe me, my volume at mx is something serious) we have a MAX of 80 amps average draw playing some very very very dynamic music.

 
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100 amp is recommended fuse

What I mean is your amp will be putting out about 1000 watts at 100 amps @ 12.0 volts @ roughly 85% efficiency. 1200 watts calculated power, but in no situation will all of that power make it to the sub.

 
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I would have to TOTALY agree with this statement. Watts has very little to do with amp draw. Not to mention even if you had an amp that peaks at 100amp draw, that would be a peak not continouous draw. On my system PEAK draw is around 170 amps give or take . But the peak watts is closer to 2500+ watts as i recall. And ive never had and charging system issues at all other then dimming head lights on peak draws.

 
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^^

But again, are you on a stock alternator and battery?

 
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i think what can be learned form this thread is that if you are running 1500 continuous watts or less, you will not likely run into any problems, assuming you don't blast it all the time, and let your car recharge for a bit before you shut it off.

otherwise, you're just making formulas fit what you have observed happen in your car.

 
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Yes im running stock alt and batt, as in OEM never been changed. But i rarely run it full volume for long period of times

 
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Nah neither would I, all I am really trying to figure out is if I will be fine on stock equipment to listen to it loud enough to give my back a nice massage during the 1/2 hour ride to work without having problems. Not too loud you know, but loud enough for me to be happy with it.

 
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Well If you combine my amps and HU I get 80 amps draw at max current (10amps H.U.,40amps High Amp,30Amps Sub Amp).Now I have the gains on my high amp set to 0 because they send 120 watts to each of my front stock speakers,and my gain set to 2/3 on my sub amp.Now if I listen to my stereo at 2/3 volume on my HU then its fine and a decent level. but if I crank my HU to 80-90% volume to get nice and loud and a ton of sub bass them i get major dimming of the headlights and somethimes my battery gets fairly drained.Now I had to add a cap and that helped alot but its still there when i crank it. So if I'm only pushing 80amps at absolute max draw then like someone said above I will never hit MAX output,but it seems like I am. So at least i'm having trouble pulling 80amps off stock alt and battery at night.

 
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tfna - watts has everything to do with amp draw, P=IV where P is power in watts, I is amperage in Amperes, and V is voltage in volts.... when the volts can only go up to about 12 the only way to increase the power is to increase the amp draw

 
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Voltage on a *standard* car audio system will usually go up to about 13.8. Maybe 14.4 but 13.8 for sure.

 
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Yeah my multi meter reads 14.4 at my amps and capacitor.Unless I have the volume cranked then it goes down towards 12.

 
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in any event that's as high as it goes so for higher wattage systems the way to get more power is through more amperes

 
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Did anyone bother to read what ludlam said?!?!?!?! He makes some very good points...