![]() Where 89dB is good, anything at 100dB is damn fine and above that is where it can get posh and expensive! Alternatively, sometimes a rating for S/N/R is avoided in favor of a distortion rating. Less important for bass, it’s rated in decibels. Signal to Noise ratio is how ‘hi’ your ‘fi’ goes. The current draw may be too high for your car without upgrading your alternator or adding a deep cycle battery. Your ‘margin’ is the alternator’s ampere output above what your car needs to run its own accessories. Next, you need to know if you have the margin on your alternator to run the amplifier. If it looks like too many watts for the money, it will be junk. There is a nasty cluster of fake products that look like real car amplifiers but are made to scam you. The ‘peak’ ratings on amplifiers vary absurdly. ![]() Music is dynamic – it gets louder and quieter – thus true output of an amp can be hard to measure. ![]() Overall, the fairest way to rate amplifier power is RMS. The important stuff to consider is this: check out the power, the current draw, the sound quality, and then finally the available features prioritized in that order. But which one? Best Car Amplifier Guide How to find a good amp Sony have an output stage with a tiny 4×100 watts Class D in one of their head units, but to add real power to your sounds, you’ll need a dedicated amplifier. The maximum for a car radio is normally 4x50W, which equates to just 23 watts of RMS power or ‘Root Mean Square’. Before getting to that stage, most of us will seek ever yet more powerful head units with higher wattage ratings.
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