Alternative amps...4 channels?

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

What is comparable to price and quality as well as power, to that of the Xenon 100.4? I'm selling my Audiobahn to upgrade, and I was just wondering what is a great substitue for said amp? I am aiming at quality and reliability. I's like a very low distortion level and something roughly 100 true RMS by 4 channels @ 4 ohms.

The 100.4's are getting rare and I can't seem to find any for sale on here.

Any suggestions?

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[fredridge 10+ year member]

I picked up a Massive Audio p800.4, 200x4 They say CEA certified.

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

CEA is a blessing and a curse I believe. Blessing because now you can;t make your own out of your *** rating for your amps, so it is true watts, but a curse for competing big names who like to sell underrated specs; IE Diamond, Phoenix Gold, etc....

I basically just want something that is 100 RMS by 4 @ 4ohms (true RMS too), has a S/N >100, and has a THD of less than .3%

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

I basically just want something that is 100 RMS by 4 @ 4ohms (true RMS too), has a S/N >100, and has a THD of less than .3%

S/N referenced to what output and at what gain setting? THD at what output? Those ratings are pretty useless, too, unless you define them. For example, s/n compare to full power @ min gain isn't really telling you how quiet the amp is because you are going to be looking at a noise floor WAY below the threshold of audibility. Measuring s/n referenced to 1W at max gain is actually atelling measurement. If you can get >70dB on that (below audibility) you have a meaningful spec. Same kind of thing with THD. There are two parts to THD measurements, too. Frequency and power. The freq portion is not usually a big issue, but the power part is very important. THD varies with power. Typically it's higher at lower power than at moderate power and then begins to rise once again as output approaches clipping where it then goes ballistic. The companies that "under-rate" their amps usually spec them so the min THD is around the amp's rated power. You have power available above that but with that increase in power comes and increase in distortion even before clipping.

My point is don't read too much into amp specs. Most any amp will have noise below audibility at rated power and that's what the man. will use to give a high spec. THD with music is inaudible below 1% worst case so I wouldn't be too concerned with that spec either. Buy an amp from a reputable company and you should be happy. You'll be able to trust the power rating and you should be comfortable knowing that noise and THD will not be audible.

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

K, I just wanted the best per buck bang, so I read heavily into specs.

I've decided I'm going to take the dive on a Xenon 200.4 Probably. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Headroom should reduce noise issues with 2.2v pre-outs, right? (using 100 RMS out of each 200 RMS channel)

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

It will allow you to run the gains lower than if you were using all 200w which will make the inaudible noise floor even more so.