Bench testing an amp - safe to do?

[bergermaister]

Yesterday a new amp arrived from the big brown truck. The outer shipping box was fine but after getting it open, the box the amp itself came in had a decent sized hole crunched through it and was slightly crushed on one end. Seems apparent it went into the shipping box in this condition.

I documented it step by step with pictures in case I need to return it. After getting the amp out of all the packaging and styrofoam, cosmetically it appears to be fine. I was a little surprised though - new amp, not a refurb or used.

Since my boat is a bit gutted out right now I can't do a test very easily to verify it's working. I'm wondering about bench testing it in my garage. I could connect 12v power and remote-on via my little jump-pack jump starter thing and wire up a few speakers. Then use my ipod as a source into the RCAs.

I'm wondering how "safe" this is to do? Any risk of shorting something out, frying circuits, etc??

[ian ashton]

I would probably connect direct to a battery (like the battery from your boat), rather than a jump pack.

[newty]

Should be no problem at all, but I would use a known good battery like Ian says instead of the jumper box.

[jmvotto]

Jumper pack will work fine. I did that when I got an amp from another member, just to make sure it was not damaged in transit. I hooked my hlcds to it with the iPod RCA input. Worked like a charm. No need to do it for a long period of time.