450W SQ Amplifier

[Psyence 10+ year member]

I have not really ventured into the SQ end of Car Audio, but I have a friend that has a Focal Utopia 38 WX Subwoofer, rated at 450W RMS - 15" - and he is looking for a good SQ amp to drive it. The Sub is a SVC 4ohm, so of course the amp needs to put out 450W RMS @ 40hms...

Any suggestions for him???

Click to read more...

 

[da_tank 10+ year member]

audison amps are great and are underated! but pricy but nothing less for those exceptional subs!

 

[tRiGgEr 5,000+ posts]

Well considering there is no such thing as an SQ amp, any quality amp rated @ that power.

 

[vtec187 10+ year member]

I'm sure he means a class a/b amp or a very clean class d like something from zapco.

 

[Tedro]

I have not really ventured into the SQ end of Car Audio, but I have a friend that has a Focal Utopia 38 WX Subwoofer, rated at 450W RMS - 15" - and he is looking for a good SQ amp to drive it. The Sub is a SVC 4ohm, so of course the amp needs to put out 450W RMS @ 40hms...
Any suggestions for him???

PG Xenon X400.1

fake edit: that is all

 

[negativezeroz 5,000+ posts]

JBL GTO601.1 does 424W @ 4ohms...you wont notice a difference between 424 and 450

great amp..Im running one at 3ohms now

 

[Mackenzie 10+ year member]

PG Xenon X400.1

x2

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Class A/B isn't the epitome of SQ, not by a long shot...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[da_tank 10+ year member]

according to trigger nothing is

 

[thch 10+ year member]

heh, gonna reccomend a 450W signel ended triode amp with a series regulated push-pull voltage amplification?

 

[vtec187 10+ year member]

Class A/B isn't the epitome of SQ, not by a long shot...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif
//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

I don't believe anyone asked for the "epitome" of anything. Thanks tho.

 

[OnYrMrk 10+ year member]

audison amps are great and are underated! but pricy but nothing less for those exceptional subs!

You won't ever hear me complaining. The Audison VR and LR series are nice, but figure on spending upwards to 2 grand for a large VR series amp. The LRx1.400 is one sweet amp and is clean as all get out.

 

[OnYrMrk 10+ year member]

Well considering there is no such thing as an SQ amp, any quality amp rated @ that power.

I mean no disrespect but please bear with me. I don't claim to know all but that kind of logic is severely lacking. You must be in SPL contests. Any amp can power a sub or speaker, but only a few amps are considered truly sound quality amps.

McIntosh

Audison

Zapco

Xtant

Milbert

Line Driver

only a few that come to mind. You will never see an SPL competitor with McIntosh amps. Not because they cost more than most amps, I have seen peeps on here salivating over that JBL/Crown 6000w amp that is over 4 grand, but McIntosh can reproduce sound with more smoothness and clarity than JBL would ever dream of.

That is only one instance. It is like saying wire is wire.

To say that any amp is capable of sound quality is probably from a guy who is into SPL. Amps do make a difference in sound quality. I know from nearly 15 years experience in car audio from competing on a pro level to owning my own store. I have sold Pyramid, Boss, The Hot Setup, Orion, Premier, Pioneer, McIntosh, Xtant, and even Zapco. And I guarantee that a Boss amp is no match for a McIntosh amp in any form.

Sorry but logic like that gives me the redass.

I am done.

 

[thch 10+ year member]

heh. the old debate resurfaces...

who will win this time?

* the non-technical but experienced user who is so sure of their ears as to completely write off psychoacoustics as well as any semblance of proper scientific testing procedures and favor a typical elitist "what, you can't hear the differacne?" stance.

* The very technical, but unexperienced user who prefers to look at limited specifications for an indication that all amps sound similar, possibly even the same. They might go so far as to claim that humans cannot be trained to hear such small differences in audio, and thus the diffences in amps are inaudible especially given the massive differences in speakers and the vastly imperfect environment in which the speakers reside.

* The technical middle ground guy who concedes that because amplifiers are not typically tested or rated with realistic loads or under non-ideal conditions, the specifications might be meaningless. They may also state that the technical metrics by which sound should be judged are not well defined.

as for me... i don't really care.

1.) my music sounds signifigantly different without chaning settings on anything. i hear details of a song i've never noticed just by listening to it again. or i focus on a specific but different instrument today then i did yesterday.

2.) I've gotten an amplifier with a low THD to oscillate at around 1000hz by hooking up a transmission line based speaker to it... The amp had a 90+ SNR and low THD. the clearly audible tone that just kinda got generated by an odd note seemed to disagree with the "it doesn't exist because the specs say so" part...

3.) i fall more into this category. i've seen/heard things that the specs said were not happening, yet i think the people promoting certain (expensive) too often assume themselves perfect.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

I mean no disrespect but please bear with me. I don't claim to know all but that kind of logic is severely lacking. You must be in SPL contests. Any amp can power a sub or speaker, but only a few amps are considered truly sound quality amps.
To say that any amp is[n't?] capable of sound quality is probably from a guy who is into SPL.

That's funny, considering the guy who started the $10,000 amp challenge had a world championship and undefeated sound quality competition car //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif And the fact that there are very, very, very, very many sound quality competitors, world champions and top 5 ranker's who will also concede that there's no sonic differences between amps with similar specs (or specs that fall within the inaudible range/differences in the inaudible range).

So, might want to do a little more research into the topic before you try to tear someone apart //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

Anyways....the question here isn't "do amps sound different". We know two amps, even identical amps, can sound different. Drive one amp into hard clipping (and hence high distortion) and not the other. WHAM! The two identical amps sound different. Things like frequency response anamolies, high THD, insufficient damping factor, insufficient slew rate, power differences, etc etc will all cause two amps to sound different. This we know. Now, the question is, if all those known factors are at equal and/or inaudible levels or inaudible differences, will the amps still sound different? Thus far, anyone has yet to conclusive prove that yes, they will sound different. Maybe our measurement aren't the best. Maybe there are some other types of testing that needs to be done that we presently don't understand under our current physics theories. But, IMHO, the best "evidence" we presently have against the idea that amps of equal performance will/can sound different is the amp challenge by RC.......that anyone has yet to beat. CA&E did an amp "head to head" listening test.....but their experiment was so far from scientifically valid that they might aswell have not even wasted their time doing it.

So, after all that BS, what's the moral of the story; Pick an amp based on price, build quality, aesthetics, warranty, features, efficiency and power rather than sonic differences. Any quality amp will suffice.