kickers subs and there reputation

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

playing around and tweaking a current design vs rebuilding the architecture from the ground up is totally different. Brazilians are the way to the affordable and high power output future whoot whoot!

Agreed. Brazil is a good example of actual new designs, totally different/new circuits. I've had good luck with the couple Stetsoms I've run but they still have a reputation to be time bombs. I suspect they'll only get better now that there's more brands there competing for the market share.

That was my point is that except for the mainstream and premium brands (and Brazil) 90% of what people think is great is just slight variations/tweaks on the same thing Korea/China has been churning out for 20 years.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

DD amps are pretty much the same as everything else. Splitting the board in half and mounting power supply and output section on top of eachother isn't a new design, it's just a different layout of the same old class D circuit that ALL of those companies use.

*edit*

Not knocking either. I'd run either and be happy, but they're just calling up the Korean sweatshop saying (give me a 5K board with _____ slight modifications)

These do not compare to the companies like JL, Alpine, MMatts, Zapco, etc. that do their own R&D and have actual new designs.

Take a look at the new line up and see if they match anything else. Much smaller, more power, full crossovers, high levels, channel summing.

Nothing else like them. And the new SS4b with 250x4 in the case others are only getting 125x4

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Take a look at the new line up and see if they match anything else. Much smaller, more power, full crossovers, high levels, channel summing.Nothing else like them. And the new SS4b with 250x4 in the case others are only getting 125x4

I don't know how "new" these really are either. A lot of small footprint class D full range has been coming out of the far east lately. Adding a more versatile pre-amp section and more output devices for more power is pretty much what's been happening with the Korean/Chinese mono blocks.

In short, I'm sure they're nice but I do not think DD has engineers on payroll who create these and test prototypes. They're calling Korea and saying "we want that small class D but double the power and a few more crossover options".

Arc and Alpine had super small footprint class D full range 10 years ago. I'd suggest that what's coming out of the far east now is very probably based on the R&D that those trailblazers took the risk and paid some big bucks to create. Of course I'm not lumping in Kicker with this since they haven't really hit a home run in a long time, but companies with their own engineers doing their own designs are the ones pushing the industry forward and you've got to figure for every great breakthrough we get there's a lot of vanilla created and a lot of things that **** up a lot of resources and for whatever reason never make it to market.