Hi everyone. I have a 2019 Accord Hybrid Touring. I'm a bit of a basshead so I had to upgrade the stereo system. I wanted to share my experience with all and hopefully receive some feedback from others who have added amplifiers to their hybrids as well.
In summary, I have ran a 1500 watt amp for over a year and I've measured over a 100 amp draw with no detrimental effects so far. Has anyone here ran anything over that on their 10th gen hybrid?
The amp wiring is 4 gauge OFC with a line out converter from the factory sub signal. All subs have been dual 2 ohm wired in parallel to 1 ohm and been housed in a custom-built 1.8 ft^3 ported enclosure tuned to 32 hz. I first installed a Wolfram W1500 (1600 watts RMS) on a Sundown SA12 over a year ago. I swapped the sub to a sundown U12 and then the amp to a Sundown SFB1000d (1450 watts RMS). I'm currently in the process of swapping the sub and box first (leaning towards a SSA ICON 15 in a ~3.25 ft^3 enclosure tuned to ~29 hz) and possibly the amp next.
I've not been able to find hard specs on the 12V converter (if anyone has them, please share them) but I've read in a forum that it's max rating is 75 amps. With my own testing, I've pulled over 100 amps to the amp alone (my amp clamp maxes at 100 amps and I've maxed it out) and obviously this doesn't factor in the other 12V components that are drawing power as well.
During the 100+ amp testing, the voltage at the battery remained 14.6V so I'm confident that the converter can output 100+ amps for at least short periods of time. I take caution to not place any extra demands on the electrical system when I'm really pushing it (heated seats, etc.). Of course, the long-term impact to the reliability of the car is still to be determined but I've not had any issues so far and I've accepted the risk that the converter will possibly fail prematurely.
This 100+ amp draw was on test tones cranked to the absolute max and way above clipping. When playing music at normal gain levels, my max amp draw isn't this high (~50-60 amps maybe, I haven't tested this much). So I feel fairly confident that I could operate a larger amp at normal gain levels and still not exceed the 100 amps that I've already pulled. The system is already quite loud though, so I'm not sure that this is something that I'd ever desire to do. And while I don't mind pushing the limit a little, I don't want to do something stupid and push it too far. I do have a 2.5k amp on order for another car though that I might try on the Honda. So I'd like to receive feedback if anyone here has pushed beyond these levels yet in their hybrid and I'm free to answer any questions that anyone else might have.
