Class AB or Class D

[Exist_ential 10+ year member]

does it really matter which i use?

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[Falcons 5,000+ posts]

does it really matter which i use?

yes it does but i cant remember the difference.

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

that depends on if you care how hot it gets and if you can power it if your talking about subs?

 

[Exist_ential 10+ year member]

yes powering subs, probably 2 8s. do ABs get really hot? also what do u mean by if i can power it.

 

[RangerDangerV2 5,000+ posts]

ab's are generally less efficient than a class D... and from my understanding class ab is more for lower power sq applications.. class D is just all out power, usually >80% efficiency.

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

yes powering subs, probably 2 8s. do ABs get really hot? also what do u mean by if i can power it.

ok example my old setup as of last week one T4002 @ 4ohms per channel on highs, T600.2 on subs bridged @2ohms, this sounded great but the T600.2 being a class ab amp hit it's thermal shut off in 30 minutes and it would burn you! it needed a 150amp fuse and was rated at 786 watts x1 @ 4ohms. now I have since sold the 400.2 and moved the T600.2 over to my highs as it gets warm but not hot because of running at a higher ohm load and I have replaced my sub amp with a memphis mojo 16-mc2000D, now this amp will make 2000+ rms watts @ 2ohms and only requires a 200amp fuse only 50 more amps! see the difference in what the amps need in order to produce power and the mojo being class D will play for hours and only get luke warm and to be making double the power the actual power consumption from the car is much less so find you a small class D or bd type amp if your interested in sq.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Its the difference in topology. A/B will notdo anything to the signal, just amplify it and spit it out. D will break up the signal, amplify it, put it back together and spit it out. D is more effecient and since sub freq are harder to hear the compression they are used more in sub applications.

D is now doing better in the full range department but I still feel like something is just not right on the high freq side. JL HDs and ZED are leading it right now but of all the HDs I hear I still dont like them.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

ok example my old setup as of last week one T4002 @ 4ohms per channel on highs, T600.2 on subs bridged @2ohms, this sounded great but the T600.2 being a class ab amp hit it's thermal shut off in 30 minutes and it would burn you! it needed a 150amp fuse and was rated at 786 watts x1 @ 4ohms. now I have since sold the 400.2 and moved the T600.2 over to my highs as it gets warm but not hot because of running at a higher ohm load and I have replaced my sub amp with a memphis mojo 16-mc2000D, now this amp will make 2000+ rms watts @ 2ohms and only requires a 200amp fuse only 50 more amps! see the difference in what the amps need in order to produce power and the mojo being class D will play for hours and only get luke warm and to be making double the power the actual power consumption from the car is much less so find you a small class D or bd type amp if your interested in sq.

My A/B amps dont get warm at all. I call user error on your part

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

I actually prefer the sound of A/B...but D does the job fairly well for subs....

 

[Exist_ential 10+ year member]

no going for SQ. i just want to run 2 subs (dont even care what size at this point or even 1 15 i guess) with a fair amount of power without spending a lot of money. im getting to the point that i am just gonna buy a BOSS amp and a couple of cheap audiobahn subs and build a box for them and just see how long i can use it all.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

no going for SQ. i just want to run 2 subs (dont even care what size at this point or even 1 15 i guess) with a fair amount of power without spending a lot of money. im getting to the point that i am just gonna buy a BOSS amp and a couple of cheap audiobahn subs and build a box for them and just see how long i can use it all.

Then there is no question.. Go class D

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

I actually prefer the sound of A/B...but D does the job fairly well for subs....

I feel you.. Before I got my / amps i demoed lots of HD set ups. Even the installer hated the sound. Scott ran HDs in his world champ G35 and everybody wants to hug them now. Scott also ran 750s to 150 watt speakers. Im sure the headroom had something to do with it. And his install is far from normal

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

My A/B amps dont get warm at all. I call user error on your part

well were minutes from each other if you want feel free to take a look at my setup and school me on some things if you see anything that don't look right to you.

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

I feel you.. Before I got my / amps i demoed lots of HD set ups. Even the installer hated the sound. Scott ran HDs in his world champ G35 and everybody wants to hug them now. Scott also ran 750s to 150 watt speakers. Im sure the headroom had something to do with it. And his install is far from normal

Yea, I recently demo'd alotta D-class amps too and I could hear the difference even without the dealer telling me. The HD's were some of the better sounding D-class amps though, that's for sure and I can see how someone could make that work for them, especially in his case, like u said with all of the headroom and all. ... pm'd u by the way

and OP, in your case , definitely Class D

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

As stated before class D's are higher distortion which is fine for a sub because you can't really hear any distortion (unless it's either clipping or you have a very trained ear). It all depends on application though. Class D is awesome because they are efficient. You can run nearly 1000w of class D power (unclamped) in any car and not run into too many issues. Try running 1000w of A/B power on the other hand and your voltage will hate you. Comes down to how much power you are running...if you want a low power SQ setup, I would suggest A/B power. If you aren't an SQ nut or want to run more than say 500w I would go with class D just because it will be a lot less strain on your electrical.