old school amps or new amps is there a big differance?

[Dirtrider4eva 10+ year member]

I'm obviously not an electrical engineer, but while overall audio frequency amplifiers haven't changed much in decades, class D full range has made huge advances in the past decade. Alpine and JL Audio both have some of the finest class D amplifiers that are vastly different than the old top dog SQ amps from back in the day. What you gain in efficiency is massive over class A/B and they do what an amplifier should do, which is increase the amplitude of the incoming signal without altering the frequency response.
If you're all about the "signature sound" of your favorite old school amps then run them until they die.

this is somewhat true. i saw somewhat because all though fullrange class-d circuitry has been advancing, the sound quality still is not comparable to even most mid-grade amplifiers. there was a JL van chocked full of these class-d fullrange amps, and the article was stating it sounded great. however, they had the gains set down to a minimum, giving huge head room, and being unrealistic. if they were to turn them up say 1/4 even.. the quality would diminish, and no one is going to buy 4 JL class d full range amps when they can buy 1 A/B 4 channel and do the same work, sounding better.

now im not saying Old school sq amps are going to be the best forever, time doesnt work like that. but i will argue the parts and design put in back them versus today was better. back then many amps were made here, in the US, versus today most are Overseas, and all have very very similar buildhouses.

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

this is somewhat true. i saw somewhat because all though fullrange class-d circuitry has been advancing, the sound quality still is not comparable to even most mid-grade amplifiers. there was a JL van chocked full of these class-d fullrange amps, and the article was stating it sounded great. however, they had the gains set down to a minimum, giving huge head room, and being unrealistic. if they were to turn them up say 1/4 even.. the quality would diminish, and no one is going to buy 4 JL class d full range amps when they can buy 1 A/B 4 channel and do the same work, sounding better. .

Come on, you know you can't make that kind of claim without proof. There are critical reviews available online for full range class D amps that praise them, plus an abundance of people who use them and can afford to replace them if they weren't "good enough". You don't even need to spend $800-$1,000 to get great sound quality from class D. Besides that, the position of the gain knob is not an indication of how much the amplifier is working. It says nothing of the input voltage.

 

[Dirtrider4eva 10+ year member]

Come on, you know you can't make that kind of claim without proof. There are critical reviews available online for full range class D amps that praise them, plus an abundance of people who use them and can afford to replace them if they weren't "good enough". You don't even need to spend $800-$1,000 to get great sound quality from class D. Besides that, the position of the gain knob is not an indication of how much the amplifier is working. It says nothing of the input voltage.

i know a person cant "go by the gain knob" but if i can find the article i will try to. HD750/1 - Car Audio - Amplifiers - HD - JL Audio they aint cheap though. this is just the first one i found. for my opinion though, i would simply go with the a/b for thats what i trust. thd levels of .0015% are hard to beat.

 

[akheathen Premium Member]

well, see, you are trying to compare apples and oranges, to bananas and pomegranate. not really fair to say. so, coming from a guy who has been repairing audio since the 90's, many old schoo amps are great, and some are not, and they do have thier typical problems respective to the specific product line/time, or specific brands/types of components, i.e. caps. use them or not, store them in a humidity.temp controlled envronmetn, or leave them in a trunk, shed, crawlspace, etc, caps do fail. the failure is mostly related to time, although environment can have an effect to push them over the edge. one of the more typical non-abused failures i have dealt with are blown caps in a freeze. usually, the vehicle needed to be jump-started in the morning, and then the amp was found with exploded caps. only time i have ever been able to isolate the damage to just caps, is when i was trying to figure out where all the paper came from on my center console. (old school ss amp with caps displayed) now, this type of failure is not solely isolated to old amps. i have seen it in newer amps, just not as often. again, leaving out abuse related failure, one of the problems more seen in newer amps is from the more complex/logic circuitry. imho, newer jl is one of the worst offenders. i try to stay away from them as much as possible, and i'll just leave it at that. one of the biggest factors about old school amps, is the American build quality and style. paying about $1 per watt (at a time when gas was still near $1/gal) was worth it for a reason. even if many amps were not built in america, many were, and set the bar for foreign products. those days are gone. well, i'll stop here, and really get back to just addressing the op situation. in short, i would say run the 1000a1. that is known as an awesome rf namemaker amp. they always have some real good amps rotating in the line every couple of years that carry the name and mask all their other crap products and that was one of the better ones. actually, just about all the "a" amps of that period are a good bet, and there is a heap of repair parts floating around for them. don't be butt-hurt if it ever does fail, but just know that whatever they would sell you that is honestly comparable would still cost much more than initially buying, and also later fixing the 1000a1. on top of that, you could use either for 3-4 years, and still get more out of the rockford if you sell. good luck

-Heath H-

 

[Shinju 10+ year member]

New amps > Old amps

Old school stuff is great to look at and its a fun trip down memory lane and it makes your wallet bigger when you sell them off. Trust me I have had more old school amplifiers then anyone in this thread I had my blinders on too.

The new stuff may not look as cool or have that old school WOW Limited Edition factor but truth be told that the interenals of the new "high end" stuff is better built.. I mean lets be honest here technologies only get better and parts get smaller. With old school gear you are going to be running into a load of problems most of wich are dealing with trying to find replacement parts.

I was anti class D for front stage forever untill I tried it and to be honest I am not looking back. Class D amplifiers are smaller in design, lower heat and much more head room vs energy draw.

 

[veloglider 10+ year member]

thanks guy you all reiterrated what i thought, old school rocks and the shops just like to try and push their products. Can't wait to hear the new XXX6.5's up front and re5fr's in rear hooked up to the 800a4 and the RE SE hooked up to the 1000a1, should bump. Just gotta get dem dam amps in da mail. was hoping to do install next saturday before my big move from NY to FL that monday.

 

[imp4pdabest 10+ year member]

thanks guy you all reiterrated what i thought, old school rocks and the shops just like to try and push their products. Can't wait to hear the new XXX6.5's up front and re5fr's in rear hooked up to the 800a4 and the RE SE hooked up to the 1000a1, should bump. Just gotta get dem dam amps in da mail. was hoping to do install next saturday before my big move from NY to FL that monday.

I got the tracking number from the OG Rockford guy yesterday as soon as he shipped out the amps. Mines is expected to arrive July 5th. I hope yours gets their sooner so you can start on that install. Have fun running 2 power & 2 ground wires. Hahaaaa.

 

[whitedragon551 5,000+ posts]

man, I agree with the leaky caps and variables involved to sit here and say a 20 yr old amp is far better or worse than this yrs model..But as far as the 14.4v ratings, My problem is finding a good amp that is NOT rated at 14.4volts today.Show me some that are rated at 12.5 - 13.8..

My AudioSystem Twister is.

 

[Micksh 10+ year member]

These beauties still work like new after 16 years or so...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif

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[quackhead 10+ year member]

My AudioSystem Twister is.

well, now my question would be this: do the fans in that thing sound like a twister??...lol...I bet they are very nice amps, bud.

 

[whitedragon551 5,000+ posts]

well, now my question would be this: do the fans in that thing sound like a twister??...lol...I bet they are very nice amps, bud.

I cant even verify if they work. They have never come on.

 

[quackhead 10+ year member]

I cant even verify if they work. They have never come on.

lol...even better