When an amp clips...

[Ndnkobra]

Hey guys, i just had a question on my mind about amp clipping. Recently i had an amp thats only supposed to put out 1200W @ 1 ohm, which is about 35V. When i checked the amp gains, it was 54V. Thats a serious toe nail clipping, but my question was, does the amp really output however many watts its giving out at that output voltage, its probably near 3000 watts. That sounds really absurd to me, so thats why i asked the question. Was my amp really drawing that much power, or was it capped off at a certain point when it started to clip? That also rises another thing because i dont think my 4ga power wire could've even handled that much current. But thanks for any help!

[HHR Ed]

Did you measure current?

You dont really know what its doing unless you measure voltage and current.

[Ndnkobra]

I didnt measure the current, i just assumed that when i read the ACV of the speaker outputs, not a wise thing to do but the amp can draw a max of 120A, and none of the fuses are blown so that should mean it wasnt even drawing over 2k. I'm still wondering though what that 54V i read on the DMM means though, i was certainly clipping the shit out of the amp, but i'm not sure how i didnt damage any equipment. My guess is just luck?

[Boon]

In a nutshell... yes, it is outputting close to 3000w of energy. But because the wave becomes square, a large amount of that energy doesn't move the cone - it just heats up the coils, nothing else.

[skittlesRgood]

im pretty sure the voltage changes when its under load. those voltage numbers are ment to be used when the subs arnt hooked up. i dont remember for sure but i believe i get a different voltage after i hook up the subs.