I’ve been asked to test some five-channel car audio amplifiers for a client. I did this with my QA401 and QA402. I’ve since sold the 401 and plan on ordering a 403 next week when sales re-open.
Is there a way of running two QA40x sessions simultaneously so I can monitor the main and subwoofer channels?
Hi @Dave_MacKinnon, I think the right way to do this is to have a single QA40x running, and then use a 6 to one switch of some kind that lets you look at each load separately. The aim with a 5.1 amp is to stress all the channels at the same time. But, you can run the same test 6 times and test a single channel each time. Or, you can run the test 3 times and treat each channel as part of a stereo pair.
If you could do the tests manually, you could have a switch that lets you pick the pairs you want to measure. Something like this rotary switch HERE would let you make a measurement, turn the switch, make another measurement, turn the switch, etc. But for every measurement, you have a lot in place for every channel. The switch is just picking which load you measure across.
A more automated approach is shown in the link below.
Thanks for the Reply Matt! Always appreciated.
I think the selector switch might work for the short term. I can monitor the sub channel on the Right and switch through checking the main channels on the left.
That QA440 would be gold for someone setting up automated testing on a multi-channel amp.
Also, will look into those ARCOL loads. Very Interesting!