Old School to now

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Intentually abusing equipment and running equipment near its limits even 1% is pushing it. It's easy.. get two amps same out put.. say a good old rf power and a Lanzar set them to 1%thd and I bet you hear a difference at that output level..

I'm sure Richard Clark is shaking in his boots worried that you'll take his money.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

If you go class D, dont cheap out. A good class D will sound just as good as a class A/B. However a budget to lower tier class D will sound really lacking even with hours of tuning.

You wont hear a difference between expensive quality amps but you will definitely hear a difference from a 100-150 dollar amp vs a 400 dollar amp.

That's not a sound problem. That's a running out of steam problem. Just like a cheap A/B

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Welcome back to the hobby!
First and foremost, most of the brands you remember being great are not the same, and mostly are just the old names only riding the coat tails of their reputations from the days when mullets and a Z-28 were cool. Zapco still has high quality amps and Zed (who made the Lanzar and numerous other greats of that generation) still has a great lineup and designs some amps for other companies.

Yes, there are still the flea-market brands that claim power ratings they wouldn't make if hit by lightning, but on the flip side, there's an easy dozen amps that'll make a legit 5000W for around 1200$ new with warranty and can be had for 700-800 used. Brazil is making some amps that make huge power out of unbelievably small footprint and come even cheaper!

The catch being it's all old technology. Class A/B has been around forever. The companies still selling a 100X4 amp are using technology that's 30 years old now.

The other great thing is that we now have woofers that'll legit handle power. The original Rockford Power sub or CV Stroker would only be low to middle of the road by today's standards. For 250$ you can buy a subwoofer that sound decent and will take 1200W sine wave continuously for 8 hours. Every sub worth it's salt these days is designed to play best in ported alignment, we use bigger boxes these days, but then again, say we used to shoehorn a single 15 into 2 cubes back in the day, today a single modern 10 in the same size box would utterly destroy it by any measure!

Processing has also gone the way of the dodo. Pioneer DEH PRS 80 is very affordable and packs a lot of processing power. Their PRS 99 is very expensive, but replaces digital processing and EQ that would have cost you double it's price in the 90s.

Caps were out of style and are not back in style, but ONLY the Maxwell Supercaps, and they're primarily only good for 3 second SPL tone applications. IMO batteries are still the best bang for the buck. High output alternators have also come a long way. "6 phase" "hairpin (square wire)" has probably doubled the output and greatly improved efficiency of the big-boy alternators. Stators are hand-wound and made-to-order so they're not cheap, but there's half a dozen companies who's alternators will perform as advertized.

Lastly if there was any amp you ever really wanted back in those days you may be able to find it on eBay for cheap money. Super collectible stuff like the limited edition Phoenix Gold (Route 66, Frank amp n' stein, etc.) fetch top dollar, but the more common models are peanuts compared to MSRP way back when. The caveat there being that electrolytic capacitors on the boards have a limited life expectancy and a 20+ year old amp is prone to failure.

Anyway, there's a lot of nuthuggery and trolling here but you will find a few solid members who know their stuff.

I always think about using all old school amps just for the sack of having them. But I always go back to reality and realize they won't last much longer. Also it's hard to find ones display worthy and matching sets. Unless it Rockford.

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

I'm sure Richard Clark is shaking in his boots worried that you'll take his money.

I'm sure he's well aware the test is designed to be indistinglishable that's why.. and I'll say if you can get 8 out of ten you can definitely hear a difference. Many people have at that.

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

That's not a sound problem. That's a running out of steam problem. Just like a cheap A/B

The wave form will start to distort and have measurable and distinguishable characteristics.

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

That's not a sound problem. That's a running out of steam problem. Just like a cheap A/B

Let's be realistic people don't have o scopes and most people push there systems near there limits. Literately everyone I've ever meet does.. lol

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

The wave form will start to distort and have measurable and distinguishable characteristics.

It will only distort if you make it distort. That goes for any amplifier. There is a difference between distortion and a clip.

For the last time. I'll play all the THD tracks not in order and let you decide. I'll even give you three chances.

 

[JohnKuthe]

It will only distort if you make it distort. That goes for any amplifier. There is a difference between distortion and a clip.
For the last time. I'll play all the THD tracks not in order and let you decide. I'll even give you three chances.

Clipping IS distortion. There are many other forms of distortion, but clipping is one such form. Compression of dynamic range is also a form of distortion, but compression is commonly done in commercial recordings as most available sound playback equipment cannot faithfully reproduce the extreme dynamic range of a live performance. And I knew all this when I was a teenager, just from reading lots of audio equipment's documentation.

John Kuthe...

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

Roll Tide!

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[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Roll Tide!
//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/woot.gif.aaa6090e619a97b6090d16dd863c5a69.gif

WDE

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Clipping IS distortion. There are many other forms of distortion, but clipping is one such form. Compression of dynamic range is also a form of distortion, but compression is commonly done in commercial recordings as most available sound playback equipment cannot faithfully reproduce the extreme dynamic range of a live performance. And I knew all this when I was a teenager, just from reading lots of audio equipment's documentation.
John Kuthe...

stop regurgitating knowledge we all already know. You are talking to people that live and breathe car audio you noob.

 

[JohnKuthe]

stop regurgitating knowledge we all already know. You are talking to people that live and breathe car audio you noob.

Not EVERYONE who reads this board is as well informed as you claim to be. Like LosIsATool is when he said "There is a difference between distortion and a clip" which is what I replied to.

And we were all noobs at a time. Quit acting so high and mighty, you're NOT!

John Kuthe...

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

WDE

My Yellow Jackets got their ass beat today. Bama vs LSU @ 8pm.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Not EVERYONE who reads this board is as well informed as you claim to be. Like LosIsATool is when he said "There is a difference between distortion and a clip" which is what I replied to.
And we were all noobs at a time. Quit acting so high and mighty, you're NOT!

John Kuthe...

How about this. Clipping is distortion but not all distortion is clipping.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

My Yellow Jackets got their ass beat today. Bama vs LSU @ 8pm.

Here's the riddle.

Auburn jumped A&M in the west.

If bama loses too LSU, we beat LSU. Does auburn jump bama