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ok my friend has a kicker 1500, and another has a lunar 1500 (made in louisiana, really good), but the guy says its really only 500 TRUE watts, but it is just as loud as the kicker, if not better, can anyone explain this to me?

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u knows... your not really giving too good of a question.... at this point anyone who reads this is kinda taking a guess at what your asking...

but he maybe saying tha amp is 500 watts at 4 ohms...

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ok my friend has a kicker 1500, and another has a lunar 1500 (made in louisiana, really good), but the guy says its really only 500 TRUE watts, but it is just as loud as the kicker, if not better, can anyone explain this to me?

Amps can't be "louder" than another amp, let's get that out of the way first...well, unless one has very loud fans :D

Perhaps what he means is that he believes Kicker is inflating their ratings by using higher distortion levels, higher test voltage, etc. However, Kicker's stuff is pretty solid and conforming to what their specifications say they should be at :) A brand like Hifonics, on the other hand...

Those Lunar amps do look interesting, I think I've heard of them before.

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ok well this might help a little more, they are running "true" 500 watts at 1 ohm on a re sx 15, and we hooked the kicker up to the same speaker and they pushed the speaker just the same, i also believe that the lunars are supposed to be more on a sq side, if that help with anything, sorry if its not clear or is a stupid question, just trieng to learn a couple things

(and those lunar amps are really freakin small!)

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Too many variables here...did you actually meter the SPL or just heard it and it "sounded" the same? Did you have the amplifiers set with a clamp meter to verify actual output?

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so its about effiancey thing.

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there are no "sq" amps. they should all sound the same.

I don't know why the maker of the lunar amps would rate his stuff at 1500 then tell you it only puts out 500. To me, "true" means RMS. So 500 RMS watts.

power is power. if you put 500 watts on a sub from amp A, it will be the same loudness as 500 watts from amp B.

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there are no "sq" amps. they should all sound the same.

Eh...

Eh...

Didn't want to go there :)

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well no we didnt use actual equipment we just heard by ear, and i dont know why he would say that either, but just because im curious im gunna have to test it and see if there is any real difference, i really want to see if there is any difference in his 500 true watt amp and a regular 1500 watt rms amp like he says

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and i am also with jim on the sq because i believe there can be differences in sq in amps, especially tubes, which are the s*** in my opinion

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there are no "sq" amps. they should all sound the same.

Eh...

Eh...

Didn't want to go there :)

hush tube boy!

LAWL

rich coco mids and light foamy highs

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there are no "sq" amps. they should all sound the same.

Eh...

Eh...

Didn't want to go there :)

well......I figured we were just talking solid state here. apples to apples.

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and i am also with jim on the sq because i believe there can be differences in sq in amps, especially tubes, which are the s*** in my opinion

I pretty much grew up in a mom and pop electronics shop, I can remember the day we finally threw out our tube tester. The tech's all thought tubes were s*** and now tubes are the s***. Funny how life works.

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i can sometimes hear a difference in some amps. Crossovers/slopes do alot along with distortion and voltage ratings BUT 90% of amps sound exactly the same. So to answer ur question theres a million variables within the 12v industry. Until you have more accurate testing devices its free game.

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I'm not completely sure I understand what the guy you spoke with is talking about. Can you get him to expand on it a bit?

No, not all amps sound the same. Mind you, all amps that measure the same (whether that is by default or as a result of modification) will amplify the signal in the same way, and thus will often sound the same. The "sound" argument is greatly confused by our rather imperfect ears or, more specifically, our rather imperfect brains. :)

Note also that there is no such thing as "RMS" watts. RMS current, yes....RMS voltage, sure. But what we're really talking about is average power....average watts.

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I am confused also, is the Lunar model name "1500", or is that the ratted wattage? Because if it is the model number, then I can see the 1x500 naming scheme.

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yes the model name is 1500 but what i dont get is how he says that it pushes 1500 watts like other amps, but 500 "true" watts, thats what i wanted to know about, if there was a such thing, and maybe someone could explain why it would push the speaker just as much as a 1500 watt amp, also i see what you mean by the name, but he now has a 1 channel 2250 amp coming out so that wouldnt work, not being mean about it, just saying

Edited by BristaBrock

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It's marketing-speak, plain and simple...

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I'm surprised nobody caught this but he said they hooked this amp up at 1ohm and it sounded the same as a kicker 1500... Kicker 1500 is only stable to 2ohm so he had to have it wired at 4ohm which is rated for practically the same power so he actually conned himself if that's true, lol.

And besides, you do not know what the impedance curve is in this design he is testing.

You can go out and get a 10,000w amp and in some cases, it may only put out 2,000w if the resistance is high enough.

The only way to see true power is with meters, not by ear.

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aw, your right, well i will have to have to find a 1500 that is stable at 1 ohm and bring it to school to test it

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Using your ears isn't really testing, they are horribly inaccurate. You will have a real hard time discerning 3dB which requires 2x the power...

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