When you are on the look out for car audio amplifiers, first you got to know how it functions and what is it used for. The purpose of a car audio amplifier is to convert a low level signal from the source unit to a high level signal for driving the loudspeakers. Amplifiers can range in power from 20 watts to over a thousand watts per channel. And their prices too differ from one amplifier to another depending on their features, quality and power. The most popular type of amplifier is the one with 2 to 4 channels model.
If needed, you can even add extra built-in features to car audio amplifiers whenever required. Some of these extra built-in features may include, crossovers, speaker level units, equalizers, and signal processing. While purchasing an amplifier for your car stereo system, there is one thing you need to take into consideration when it comes to dealing with amplifier power ratings. You should see that all power ratings are not created equal. The true measurement for an amplifier power is the RMS rating or the continuous power ratings.

Quality of the car audio amplifier is very important to take into account when buying the amplifier. But the question is how do you know if it is a high quality amplifier? The good indicator of a quality amplifier will be determined by the weight and the size of the amplifier. The heavier the amplifier the better the quality it will produce. But size is not all that matters

Another indication that you can consider is the quality of the car audio amplifier by the size of the fuse used. There are different classes of amplifier, and a quick and easy way to check the true power output is to take the fuse value of the amplifier or the sum of the multiple fuses and multiply it by 6, if it is an A or B class amps, or 10 for class D amps where the efficiency is higher. Though this will not give you an accurate result, but it will be able to indicate if your car audio amplifier is close to the specifications.

If you have a tight budget or lack of space, the most economical thing to do is to opt for a multi-channel amplifier with the required built-in processor and features that you need. This will save you a lot of money and space, which will in turn allow you to add any extra feature to your car audio amplifier. Though there will be difference in quality compared to the outboard processors but this will not be noticeable. Sometime adding too many components can lessen the chance of noise entering into the system.

To sum out in brief, the key features you need to look into before purchasing a car audio amplifier includes, bridgeable, channels, connectors, class, crossovers, distortion, filters, power output, efficiency, speaker level input, stability, separate gain controls, tube amplifier, tri-mode out put, power supply, pre-amp inputs and outputs. But make sure that you always opt for genuine brands through genuine dealers.