Ironically Massive, i have experience with both so i'll give you my full experience with both the Opti 500x2 and Taramp's.
I actually still have the Opti 500x2. It was driving 4 PWX8s 4ohms, so each channel on the Opti was 2ohm nominal.
Since we, as users, do not "number chase" watts on mids/highs amps, when the amplifier was setup, it was set via Dmm with NO load to 38vAC which should be correct.
I ran it like this for about 2-3 months. After a while, i noticed the PWX8s never got warm.. EVER..
So, i decided to amp the output some.
While playing a heavy dynamic song, something heavy rock, i was measuring realtime AC output on the amp.
I was only getting ~23vAC out during music max average.
So, while it was playing same song, i cranked the gain up more til it hit around 37vAC while playing.
The output was VERY loud now.
To compensate, i set the active x-over to bandpass the 8s from 350hz - 3.2khz
Now, while i did leave it like this for the rest of the install and the 8s never had a problem thermally, the amplifier DID!
No matter if i were playing rap or Pink Floyd, with the gain in the position it was to achieve that active rail voltage, it took only 13-15 minutes before it would go into thermal protect.
It would do this throughout the summer and it was not recessed at all. Plenty of open room around it.
It was a let down from there.
You can talk to anybody though who has used the DSP line from Taramp's. Clearly put, like what popwarhomie says, use the amplifier on mids and set the Anti-clipping limiter on it. You can go crazy on the volume however you want without thermal worry, //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif That and guaranteed clarity of sound.
Yes, the amplifiers cost more because of onboard DSP but the features outweigh the cost.
