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<blockquote data-quote="llebcire" data-source="post: 8529791" data-attributes="member: 671377"><p>I’m glad I found this forum!</p><p></p><p>Although I’m a newbie to the forum, I’m not new to car audio, at least not old school car audio, as I used to work as an installer in the early 90’s. As I got the bug a week ago to research upgrading my factory system, I’m a little confused by what I’m seeing as it relates to amplifier power.</p><p></p><p>First, a little history. When I was installing, I worked at a shop that sold Phoenix Gold, Lanzar, Alpine, Kicker, Denon, Oz Audio, Sony and Blade (although we sold very little Blade). We would sell a ton of MS275 &amp; MS2125s, Opti100s and 200s, Kicker Competition and Solobarics (original round) along with Oz Audio driven by Alpine, Denon or Sony head units. For our larger systems, we would install upgraded (175 amp+) alternators along with banks of Optima batteries and stiffening caps. 1,000+ watts of power was a big deal, expensive, and needed substantial upgrades to the charging systems to handle it.</p><p></p><p>Fast forward to today and I’m seeing crazy power ratings for minimal costs. Is this due to most manufacturers going to all digital amps? In my day amplifiers were all class AB and while the Blade (Class D) was ahead of its time it sounded terrible. While I assume the same marketing games are played, selling an amp’s power based on a 1KHz sine wave at 14.4 volts and between 1 and 10 % distortion, if most of the current amplifiers ratings are realistic this is incredible.</p><p></p><p>If everyone’s going digital, then I assume the audio quality is better? The best sounding system I had in one of my cars was a Denon head, Precision Power parametric equalizer, Phoenix Gold crossover, Lanzar amps (sounded better than Precision Power, Phoenix Gold, Rockford Fosgate, Soundstream in my opinion), Oz Audio components and an Oz 12 – maybe I should just find those old components? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif In 2006 I did an upgrade to my Nissan’s Bose system adding a pair of Punch Series 1 12’s along with a P3001 amp and was impressed – Rockford subs were never “musical” in the past and were always used to create SPL.</p><p></p><p>My goal is to add to my factory Honda system in my Accord Coupe, initially with a single 12” and a mono block amp. Of course, once I start I’ll end up replacing all the OEM speakers with a 4 channel amp while leaving the factory head for cosmetics.</p><p></p><p>As I’m looking around I see that Class A/B amps are still available and used for mids/highs (or full range) which Class D amps are used for subs? As a company like Zapco is doing this it must be how the industry has gone? Additionally, the price of these amps is substantially less than I expected!</p><p></p><p>-Eric</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="llebcire, post: 8529791, member: 671377"] I’m glad I found this forum! Although I’m a newbie to the forum, I’m not new to car audio, at least not old school car audio, as I used to work as an installer in the early 90’s. As I got the bug a week ago to research upgrading my factory system, I’m a little confused by what I’m seeing as it relates to amplifier power. First, a little history. When I was installing, I worked at a shop that sold Phoenix Gold, Lanzar, Alpine, Kicker, Denon, Oz Audio, Sony and Blade (although we sold very little Blade). We would sell a ton of MS275 & MS2125s, Opti100s and 200s, Kicker Competition and Solobarics (original round) along with Oz Audio driven by Alpine, Denon or Sony head units. For our larger systems, we would install upgraded (175 amp+) alternators along with banks of Optima batteries and stiffening caps. 1,000+ watts of power was a big deal, expensive, and needed substantial upgrades to the charging systems to handle it. Fast forward to today and I’m seeing crazy power ratings for minimal costs. Is this due to most manufacturers going to all digital amps? In my day amplifiers were all class AB and while the Blade (Class D) was ahead of its time it sounded terrible. While I assume the same marketing games are played, selling an amp’s power based on a 1KHz sine wave at 14.4 volts and between 1 and 10 % distortion, if most of the current amplifiers ratings are realistic this is incredible. If everyone’s going digital, then I assume the audio quality is better? The best sounding system I had in one of my cars was a Denon head, Precision Power parametric equalizer, Phoenix Gold crossover, Lanzar amps (sounded better than Precision Power, Phoenix Gold, Rockford Fosgate, Soundstream in my opinion), Oz Audio components and an Oz 12 – maybe I should just find those old components? [IMG]//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif[/IMG] In 2006 I did an upgrade to my Nissan’s Bose system adding a pair of Punch Series 1 12’s along with a P3001 amp and was impressed – Rockford subs were never “musical” in the past and were always used to create SPL. My goal is to add to my factory Honda system in my Accord Coupe, initially with a single 12” and a mono block amp. Of course, once I start I’ll end up replacing all the OEM speakers with a 4 channel amp while leaving the factory head for cosmetics. As I’m looking around I see that Class A/B amps are still available and used for mids/highs (or full range) which Class D amps are used for subs? As a company like Zapco is doing this it must be how the industry has gone? Additionally, the price of these amps is substantially less than I expected! -Eric [/QUOTE]
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