Class D vs Class A/B

[Radiospank 10+ year member]

Taking the Richard Clark challenge with these.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

I could explain why but that would be a waste of time on here, I’m just here to stir the pot and get the autozone audio crew mad. However, if you’re still itching for more Class D arguments just search it on other forums, namely home audio forums since they have much stronger Opinions backed with some sound logic, unlike here. We have the “take the 10k challenge” rofl comedy hour all day.

Are you projecting your own walmart brand and autozone car audio gear ownership onto others bro? You okay? Its all good if you own those pyles in a bandpass and a cheap class a/b amp thinking you hot ****.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

You'd also be wise not to mix home audio or headphone audio vs car audio. Those are childs play easy acoustics, simple plug and play easy electrical and speakers are already in ideal enclosures and perfect axis. Meanwhile a car environment a much harsher acoustical environment for audio. Takes much more knowledge, installation skill and tuning capability/knowledge than the brain dead plug and play crowd with brain dead acoustics and the only thing that helps them is to throw money at their setup to solve their problems which out much actual tuning and acoustical knowledge needed.

 

[John Doe]

Oooooooo

Taking the Richard Clark challenge with these.

Your turn bruh

 

[mr roo]

you will not hear the difference between class d or ab. The only way I think you might pick up difference is if you are comparing a 100 dollar flea market class d to a much nicer class a/b. In that case I dont really think it has to do with the class D, much more about a cheap high distortion amp being compared to a nicer one. I switched over to class D a few years back and wouldnt run a class a/b at this point. size, power consumption, I couldnt go back at this point. I just literally held and audio control amp in my hand and the damn thing fit in the palm of my hand. The installer who is an old school guy that has been around for years and has run everything possible said he switched and wont go back. He recently placed AC amps in his truck and said not a differnce in sound quality

 

[Radiospank 10+ year member]

Are you projecting your own walmart brand and autozone car audio gear ownership onto others bro? You okay? Its all good if you own those pyles in a bandpass and a cheap class a/b amp thinking you hot ****.

yea bro that’s all me

 

[Radiospank 10+ year member]

you will not hear the difference between class d or ab. The only way I think you might pick up difference is if you are comparing a 100 dollar flea market class d to a much nicer class a/b. In that case I dont really think it has to do with the class D, much more about a cheap high distortion amp being compared to a nicer one. I switched over to class D a few years back and wouldnt run a class a/b at this point. size, power consumption, I couldnt go back at this point. I just literally held and audio control amp in my hand and the damn thing fit in the palm of my hand. The installer who is an old school guy that has been around for years and has run everything possible said he switched and wont go back. He recently placed AC amps in his truck and said not a differnce in sound quality

agreed cheaper class D amps will have higher distortion and

you will not hear the difference between class d or ab. The only way I think you might pick up difference is if you are comparing a 100 dollar flea market class d to a much nicer class a/b. In that case I dont really think it has to do with the class D, much more about a cheap high distortion amp being compared to a nicer one. I switched over to class D a few years back and wouldnt run a class a/b at this point. size, power consumption, I couldnt go back at this point. I just literally held and audio control amp in my hand and the damn thing fit in the palm of my hand. The installer who is an old school guy that has been around for years and has run everything possible said he switched and wont go back. He recently placed AC amps in his truck and said not a differnce in sound quality

right you get what you pay for, Class D can be good, I have one right now for my home and it sounds great. I also didn’t get the cheapest one because Class D still requires a fair amount of engineering to get it to sound good with no distortion or poor frequency response. There is a lot of info out there but I definitely encourage everyone to research it and make an informed decision. Class AB are still good options if budget permits, however I don’t recommend buying a cheap class D either tho

 

[Radiospank 10+ year member]

You'd also be wise not to mix home audio or headphone audio vs car audio. Those are childs play easy acoustics, simple plug and play easy electrical and speakers are already in ideal enclosures and perfect axis. Meanwhile a car environment a much harsher acoustical environment for audio. Takes much more knowledge, installation skill and tuning capability/knowledge than the brain dead plug and play crowd with brain dead acoustics and the only thing that helps them is to throw money at their setup to solve their problems which out much actual tuning and acoustical knowledge needed.

Child’s play and I’m Chucky bish!
Speakers in ideal enclosures in an anechoic environment! Still could benefit from some eq, ya know make it “sound warm like class AB” lol. Perfect axis? Really bro come on, did you think before you wrote that? Speakers aren’t always aligned on axis with the listener and some speakers do have poor off axis response and so that’s a bogus statement.
I will say Car Audio does take a lot of work and knowledge especially for the avg Joe to get a grip on, but that is why they have Autozone and Bestbuy Audio specialists. Drop them my name, they know who I am.

 

[Clifff150 10+ year member]

I did a test in my current build between the JL RD400/4 and Image Dynamics Q450.4. Both are the same power and had the same crossovers and slopes. I didn’t hear a difference but ended up using the JL because it fit completely under the seat and the ID got so hot I could fry an egg on it. Class D has come such a long way and the size and power factor makes it unbeatable in my opinion (in my budget of equipment).

 

[Radiospank 10+ year member]

Well JL seems to explain why their class D is a good choice. You can see why a cheaper made amp might not be as good as the JL if it uses an inferior class D implementation.

NexD™ Switching Technology
Summary:
NexD™ amplifier technologies produce exceptional audio quality, unsurpassed total efficiency and high power from very compact amplifier designs.

Detailed Information:
Beginning with the original 'Slash' subwoofer amplifiers, JL Audio has been at the forefront of Class D amplifier design. Our NexD™ switching technology stems from our Class D expertise to deliver outstanding fidelity and efficiency, leading to compact amplifiers that deliver high power and exceptional value.

Let's get a little nerdy... A traditional PWM switching amp design uses a fixed switching frequency and varies the pulse width based solely on the audio input signal to the pulse modulator. This basic approach assumes some ideal conditions, like a rock-steady power supply, that do not necessarily occur in a real, in-car installation. Power supply sag with signal causes distortion at all power levels with these designs, even well below clipping. The cure for this is feedback (a corrective signal sent back to the input side), but this becomes impractical as the audio frequency increases, making it a good solution for band-limited (subwoofer) amps, but not for full-range amplifiers.

Taking the above into account when designing the NexD™ subwoofer amplifiers, we have taken the simple fixed PWM approach and enhanced it with a very high switching frequency: 240 kHz, which is about 4x higher than most Class D subwoofer amplifiers. This pushes the amplifier's bandwidth to at least 500 Hz with minimal distortion and improves efficiency, while keeping typically bulky circuity more compact. Your subwoofers will reward you with tight, rock-solid bass performance.

For the full-range NexD™ amplifiers and channels we applied a variable, ultra-high speed version of the NexD™ technology (switching at well over 400 kHz). In these designs, a self-oscillating modulator with "feed-forward" sends information about the instantaneous power supply voltage to the modulator, combining this with the input signal to cancel out any distortion due to supply voltage fluctuation. This reduces distortion prior to applying feedback, simplifying the overall feedback loop design.

The bottom line is simply great audio: clean, powerful and reliable.
[\QUOTE]

I did a test in my current build between the JL RD400/4 and Image Dynamics Q450.4. Both are the same power and had the same crossovers and slopes. I didn’t hear a difference but ended up using the JL because it fit completely under the seat and the ID got so hot I could fry an egg on it. Class D has come such a long way and the size and power factor makes it unbeatable in my opinion (in my budget of equipment).

 

[shredder2]

The keeps getting deeper and deeper in this thread. Obviously a $100 d class 4ch will probably be inferior to a $400 one.
Esoteric audio for the WIN!
I wouldn't afford some of it if I could.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Thing with class D, you have so much headroom that you never even get close to distortion levels So that claim about class D having more distortion

Child’s play and I’m Chucky bish!
Speakers in ideal enclosures in an anechoic environment! Still could benefit from some eq, ya know make it “sound warm like class AB” lol. Perfect axis? Really bro come on, did you think before you wrote that? Speakers aren’t always aligned on axis with the listener and some speakers do have poor off axis response and so that’s a bogus statement.
I will say Car Audio does take a lot of work and knowledge especially for the avg Joe to get a grip on, but that is why they have Autozone and Bestbuy Audio specialists. Drop them my name, they know who I am.

with home audio its as simple as moving the speaker on axis. In car audio, you are stuck with either stock locations or creating new tweeter pods or fiberglassing A pillars so yes its extremely brain dead with no skills needed. The only thing that requires any skill is if your room acoustics have a bass traps, other than that, next to no skills. You dont need extensive EQ work because the response is pretty close to what the manufacturers ideal curve is vs a speaker in an IB environment plagued with unwanted resonances of thin sheet metal of varying thicknesses and a plastic door panel without a proper seal which needs a lot of work and the results is still a crapshoot depending on the door shape. Stock factory locations have the mid and tweeter far way with different directions so you are stuck with off axis performance unless you fiberglass some 3.5 inch mids with tweets in the A pillar. So yes its easy to achieve perfect axis performance in a home scenario without much work or skill.

Of course autozone and Best buy know who you are, you are their number 1 customer after all.

 

[shredder2]

Of course autozone and Best buy know who you are, you are their number 1 customer after all.

No No No...I'm the shortbus expert on speedial around there...

1% distortion sounds about right for MY car,

And the $99.95 deck/door speaker special, Walmart Gbw-120 and whatever 4ch (Under $200) I choose shold perform up to my Walmart/Autozone expectations especially once imaged and deadened.

Child’s play and I’m Chucky bish!
Speakers in ideal enclosures in an anechoic environment! Still could benefit from some eq, ya know make it “sound warm like class AB” lol. Perfect axis? Really bro come on, did you think before you wrote that? Speakers aren’t always aligned on axis with the listener and some speakers do have poor off axis response and so that’s a bogus statement.
I will say Car Audio does take a lot of work and knowledge especially for the avg Joe to get a grip on, but that is why they have Autozone and Bestbuy Audio specialists. Drop them my name, they know who I am.

God bless $1000 A/B amps and the advancement of tech. I no longer have to payPAY for something that's listenable. The correct setup even with cheapo gear is more than adequate nowadays... Unless you're listening for the butterfly wings crossing the stage in the (LA) Walt disney concert hall or something unattainable in a live recording. Sq people amaze me constantly with their expenditures and justification for spending that much.

I have ZERO audio in my ride atm... maybe I'll go Sq and load it with Walmart/Autozone gear...

IME install counts and is the great leveler... and that takes exp and knowledge... hey!.. I got a FB degree!

 

[John Doe]

Seeing knowledgeable people go at it is always amusing knowledge + entertainment = Win

 

[Radiospank 10+ year member]

Eh this was educational I’d like to think I helped in bringing out the experts on caraudio.com to shine their knowledge. So what did we learn class?
If you you’re not buying from autozone you’re overpaying and you’re foolish!
Why buy nice things when you can buy cheaper equivalents?
Common sense isn’t so common.