Does anyone remember the Stinger Accuvolt or accumatch, I think it was 15 years ago I first saw them.
The accumatch could "trick" the amp into thinking it was running a 2 ohm load when the load from the speaker was 4 ohm, so essentially double the power to speakers without adding drivers.
The accuvolt kept the voltage at a steady 14.4 volts.

Are these products still around? They still seem like possible relevent products to modern car audio, but I have't seen any mention anywhere.
Are there others like them? Any experience with them?
Worth looking into more?

peace

 

If something like that does exist... lets think about this rationally... the power needs to go somewhere and I'm guessing it will turn into heat and not be added to the transducers movement... you are just adding another load on the amp... if you added another speaker to your current one, they would both be sharing the amps power... it wouldn't cause one not to move and the other to receive all the power... Am I wrapping my head around this?

 

Well really bro, I really don't know. This may have been even earlier when the 1/4 ohm cheater amps were out in full force, might have something to do with that.
I only ask, because after actually looking at the clarion amp we're going to use for the only amplified highs(excluding the HU) , it's only 2x25 at 4 ohms. The comps we have are 4 ohm (shoulda got 2ohm, dang I KNEW it!!) and I'm trying to figure a way to increase the amp output to just THOSE comps. I thought maybe I could get a used one cheapish to do the function I'm after.

Plus of course , I'm sure the ads I saw or whatever I remember them from, were bias to them. But I do remember almost drooling(and finding lint in my pocket) when I read the stats/claims etc.

Someone must have bought one ????

 

why not try putting in some resistors? changes the ohm load the speaker presents and probably won't have any extra draw. but then again, it may not work at all, I've never tried so I wouldn't know

 

Not sure about the accuvolt but the accumatch was a transformer, it had three sets of wires depending on how much you wanted to cut the impedance. I teested them and found they did work but I lost 0.7db using an accumatch compared to just wiring the speakers to a lower load. So there was some gain but not a full gain. The issue was they were only good to a certain wattage which wasn't that high. If you exceeded like the 500wrms limit they had a tendancy to fry the amps they were on. I used them back in the day when I had 2 15" mtx rfls they were only available as dual 2 ohm and ihad 4 mmats d300hcs which needed 0.7 ohms so I used the accumatch to get there

 

Yes, the Accumatch was a transformer. Since the advent of more speaker impedance options, nobody uses them anymore.

Adding resistors doesn't work - they may lower the load to the amp but they just burn up the extra power.

The Accuvolt was actually developed by Jacobs Electronics and Stinger just licensed the technology (they licenced the Accumatch too). It is basically a big regulated power supply. Jacobs probably still makes it. Most amps now have regulated power supplies, or they regulate at lower voltages, so again nobody uses them anymore.

 

what about super tweeters with the resistor to make them 4 or 8 ohms? the impedance changes but the increase in power from the amp is wasted?

 

i tried getting some last yr from david navone and he told me the only place that might have some out there was paul papendas... sooooooooo i contacted him and he has some but wants wayyyyyyyyyy to much for them.. i was running 4000 watts and each one is rated at 500watts so i needed 8 units at 250 bucks each and well so much for that idea.... they are nice in the fact that they keep the load constant so the impedence isent all over the map... thus the amp can work much more efficient while producing the output that it was designed to due to make full power.... great for spl not so much for sq.

 

There were 3 Accumatch models available:

• AM 1200 designed primarily for subwoofers, and was rated for up to 1200 watts from 20Hz - 2kHz
• AM 500 designed primarily for midrange use, and was rated for up to 500 watts from 80 Hz - 3kHz
• AM 100 designed primarily for compression drivers, and was rated for up to 100 watts from 600 Hz - 20kHz

They could be used to either divide or multiply the impedance load seen by the amplifier, depending on how the load was wired to the amplifier and which taps (wires) were used.

Yes they were very pricey, and like Dukk mentioned given today's availability of cheap amplifier power and speaker impedance options, they have become pretty much a thing of the past.

 

Way cool info guys, thanks. That was everything I want to know and more!!
So basically I'm old and have no idea whats cutting edge car audio?
Sounds right. I better start learning to build boxes huh? Seems like thats the difficult thing to master!!

Blu - how much do they cost now, that 500 looks shiney HINTHINT nudgenudge

Would be great to retire the clarion to emergency replacment duty. That would fix things.