I guess I would classify any amp that struggles to provide gobs of current along with any voltage it is able to pass, as the type of amp you're referring to. I've heard those and they can be impressive, no doubt. But there's something about the presentation of an amp that can deliver huge amounts of current, even into 4 or 8 ohms loads, that makes the bass just sound nicer. This must be a control thing. Now I know there are amps that can swing impressive amounts of both voltage and current equally, but most put a priority on one or the other. I would agree, 120v in the vehicle and we would certainly be using higher impedance drivers. Not many home setups getting anywhere near the 2ohm territory. But regardless of the starting voltage, I just prefer the presentation of a current source amplifier over a voltage source. If you read some of the Bob Carver white papers on some of his magnetic (or whatever) amplifiers, he touches on some of that and why this is the case. He also offers voltage source and current source taps on the back of some of his amps for this reason but you will have to partner speakers wisely with those. Planars like Magnepans would like the current source taps but high sensitivity drivers like a Lowther would prefer the voltage source taps. Low sensitivity, low frequency drivers are likely to do better on the current source taps; where higher sensitivity midbass and midrange drivers are likely to do better on the voltage source taps.
I remember the first time I came across this difference, when I had a measly little Soundstream Reference 300 and I kept blowing the fuse when using the 'high voltage' setting. I reluctantly flipped the switch over to 'high current' and scoffed at the idea that I had to settle for lower power but I didn't actually notice a big difference in output. What I did notice is that the bass was actually smoother and deeper. It just sounded better to me. The final load presented to the amp does have a lot to do with this but when the combination is right, a gain in subjective performance can sometimes be appreciated. But again, I would think this is mostly a preference thing.
Another interesting phenomenon is Taylor Fade's "7k roundup" where the high voltage JBL/Crown was significantly louder than the same or more clamped power from some of the high current offerings.
You make an interesting point about sub vs. mids and highs duties or even different types of drivers, but by all accounts hearing distortion in
You could be right about cheap speakers/soundboards. I don't know, and that's why I'm here.
Do active crossovers have adjustable slopes? I never saw them in the '90s, though I think they were playing with them. Heck, they could have been out there, but I never saw 'em. They weren't popular among those I ran with, if they were even round. My active didn't have slope control.
Speakers used to provide plenty of harmonic distortion, and so we kept the amp's distortion levels as low as possible. What's the THD on most speakers now?
How much would I spend on sound quality today as opposed to pure SPL?
Regards,
Josh
Distortion numbers anywhere are very easy to fudge so it's really hard to say. Under specific laboratory conditions you could probably get a low distortion measurement out of a turd.
Far more important is location, aiming, deadening, and processing power.
I have a upper middle of the road Kenwood head unit that's probably 6-8 years old with which I can change the slope of my crossover points, I'd be shocked if any of the all-in-one processors didn't have the same (Audison bit one, Rockford three sixty, JBL MS-8, JL cleansweep, etc. etc.).
If you really want to go balls-to-the-wall SQ pony up the 1200-1400$ on the Pioneer stage 4 dex-p99rs. It is the flagship SQ head unit. It sounds pricey but the EQ, crossover, and time alignment processing power built in replaces about a grand worth of outboard processors and it's a very finely built piece of electronics. DEH-80prs is far cheaper and packs a lot of processing power too and is an unbeatable bang to buck ratio.
From there, power is cheap and a good set of components can be had for
Conventional wisdom is to buy high enough quality that you don't have to worry about poor quality or reliability issues (this will be pretty obvious), and focus on processing, deadening, install/aiming... in that order.
