A little puzzled about an amp I traded for

[psycho]

I got a great deal on a trade for a new Davemade 200 HD 2 x 2879.
With a Fatboy 1 pill for a driver (1 x 2290 swinging 50 watts average) the Davemade is only swinging 150 watts average from a 100 watts key......peak is 300 watts. Bird 43P is the meter and a 250 watt element was used for power plus a 50 watt slug was used for the reflect.
That sucks considering these amps are rated at and normally do well over 400 watts peak with a one pill driver.
Input is great and reflect is less than 2 watts so it matches in perfect.
I used a 2 x 2290 Worldwide amp to drive the Davemade and now from a 100 watt key the amp is swinging between 200-225 average watts depending on what words are put into the mic. The amp swings to between 400-450 watts peak. Voltage is 14.2 volts with no drop. The audio is excellent and no distortion!
Sort of strange but since it sounds truly excellent, I assume it'll be just fine.
Any thoughts? The amp works fantastic driven with the 2 pill WW.

 

[Crusher]

So you have a 2pill davemade and it performs well with the WW 1 pill driver. But when using the FB 1 pill, it falls flat? Sounds like the 1 pill FB is way out of whack or needs retuned/ recapped.

 

[psycho]

So you have a 2pill davemade and it performs well with the WW 1 pill driver. But when using the FB 1 pill, it falls flat? Sounds like the 1 pill FB is way out of whack or needs retuned/ recapped.

The 2 pill Davemade amp works properly with a Worldwide 2 pill driver but falls short with a 1 pill. There is nothing wrong with the 1 pill because it drives my 4 pill quite nice.
As long as it works good and sounds great I am not going to sweat it.
I figure keying 100 swinging to 225 average isn't that dangerously hard on the pills.

 

[unit_399]

Maybe because the DM is a high drive model it requires more input power than the FB can deliver. Is your 4-pill an HD model too??

- 399

 

[Crusher]

Well a regular 1x 2, I can DK 100 and swing 175 average. This is with a cobra 148 radio. Using a cobra 29. Barely does 150 with same DK.

 

[222DBFL]

About the same here, I can get 300-400 pep out of my magnaforce 350hd with 60-80 watts of input from a magnum 257hp, 1-2 watt dead key. Carrier is at 75-100 watts. Maybe a bit more on the carrier. But I now am using the optima mk3 with it and on SSB the optima does right at 60 watts. I see about 250-275 pep on SSB. The magnum really pushed that amp, but in the end I liked the optima better as it has a bit better filter/NB. These readings weren't taken from a bird meter, but rather a rat shack meter that is not off by much. It's not a dosy meter that is loose that is for sure. Not that I am an amp expert, Crusher on the other hand is a guru compared to me lol. I just use them, I send out to be repaired.

 

[psycho]

Some builders rate their amps output at 15 volts but don't put that tidbit in their output specifications info.