Arc Subwoofer amp

[HW60068n 10+ year member]

Hi,

Anyone on this board have any experience with the Arc 1500XXK amp? Do you think this amp is worth getting? Would there be any other amps out there that can match this amp and be less expensive? Can someone explain to me on a bridged 2ch amp vs. 1ch mono amp? Which one should i look into that is used to power 1 sub? I also considering in buying a 1000w sub to be used on this amp. I am still doing research on both sub and amp.

HW

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[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

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Welcome to the forum.

I have no personal experience with any Arc equipment - but their reputation preceeds them sufficiently for it to be an educated guess that anything they see fit to stamp their name on is going to be of top-notch quality and long-lasting performance.

Having said that -

As far as a 2-channel Vs a monoblock generally (not always but usually) the 2-channel unit is going to be a Class A/B amp whereas the monoblock will be a Class D design.

What this means in laymen's terms is that the Class D unit has the advantage over the Class A/B unit in terms of overall amplifier efficiency but at the cost of a somewhat higher percentage of THD (total harmonic distortion)

The upside to that is that distortion is considerably more difficult to detect by ear in the subbass frequencies so the larger percentage of distortion is generally going to be inaudible to you therefore inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

The Class A/B amp will have the advantage of a lower percentage of THD than a comparable output Class D amp but at the cost of lower efficiency resulting in a higher current demand from your charging system.

So to recap:

Class A/B = slightly cleaner output at the cost of considerably higher current draw

Class D = slightly "dirtier" output at the advantage of better efficiency resulting in lower current draw.

As previosuly stated - in most cases the increased THD will not result in any audible issues which is why most people prefer a Class D amp for their substage as it is much easier on their vehicle's electrical system.

Like all else this rule too has its exceptions but it is valid in enough cases for the generalization to be safely stated.

 

[Loud3 10+ year member]

I used ARC's 2500XXK for quite some time, and loved it. Very clean, very precise, and excellent quality.

 

[HW60068n 10+ year member]

Thank you Prowler for the great explanation.