planet audio bb175.4 any good?

[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

this thing seems too good to be true. cheap, made in usa, 175x4 @ 4 ohms, class d...

who's used it? is it noisy like i hear the alpine pdxs are? i need something with big power and high efficiency, and if there are no major problems with it, this may be it.

i'm also looking at an eclipse xa4000, how would it, or a similar icepower amp compare to the planet audio?

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[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

this gave me quite a chuckle...

A class D amplifier uses a fully digital power supply and it is about twice as efficient as a regular conventional class A/B amplifier. There are two main advantages of a class D amplifier. The first one is that it will not drain your battery because it is more efficient. The second main advantage is that it will be a lot louder, and it will sound a lot better than a conventional class A./B. because there are less moving parts internally in the amp. That and result is an extremely powerful and efficient amplifier with very very low distortion.

always good to cut down on moving parts in the amp!

 

[here to buy 10+ year member]

i stay away from full range class D amps

for example, the alpine pdx class D's make me furious.

they just sound abnormal running full range

 

[Johnny Law.Lulz 5,000+ posts]

I wouldnt use it.

 

[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

i stay away from full range class D ampsfor exaple, the alpine pdx class D's make me furious

they just sound abnormal running full range

well right now i have more a/b power (old school zeds) than i really need and want to switch up to a big class d or g/h 4 channel for efficiency reasons, free up more current for my memphis.

 

[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

I wouldnt use it.

why not?

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

I thought Class D was only for monoblocks?

 

[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

I thought Class D was only for monoblocks?

you thought wrong. see alpine pdx, old lanzar optidrives, new kenwood excelons, pioneer has some, eclipse xas, the planet audio, a few others.

 

[SicAudio 5,000+ posts]

class d for midrange bleh...................

 

[gtbike900 10+ year member]

on a zapco 9.0 class x with tri path i accident ran it full range on my audiopulse revos a wow did it talk it completely drown out my highs and sounded amazing

 

[Bass911 10+ year member]

You guys don't like the SQ of the PDX because I was thinking about getting one in the future?

 

[corrie32 10+ year member]

y'all need to go to Zed audio website and yes his amps are also full range class d too just read this http://www.soundsolutionsaudio.com/forum/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=2558

 

[DS-21 10+ year member]

I have a BB175.4. It's a fine sounding amp, though some have reported artifacts up top that I've never heard from mine. What people don't seem to realize is that amps are commodity parts. Unless they're really incompetently designed, or broken, they all sound the same. I've done comparisons between "mid-fi" (Adcom) and "High End" (Classe) and "Class D" (Panasonic XR-55 receiver using the TI PurePath chips) at different times, and never heard a difference. Ditto with several car amps, including an Adcom vs. a PPI A404.2, a PPI A404.2 vs. a Jello 300/4, and even a PPI A404.2 vs. a Sony Xplod 2-channel, with the PPI bridged. (Ditto with a Samsung DVD player vs. a $3500 Meridian CD player. Audio electronics are commodity parts generally; speakers, placement, and signal processing matter, and electronics just don't.)

Is it noisy? I drive a small roadster with a mild cat-back upgrade, and only use my car audio system while driving so amp noise is not a care of mine unless it's a high-pitched whine.

That said, there are some reasons why the BB175.4 is so cheap. Some of the parts used are just crappy. For example, the terminal threads on one of my BB175.4's speaker terminals just gave out under only moderate compression (I only torque stuff down enough to hold the wire, in this case a 12AWG stranded) because the metal they use is weak. That is why I replaced it.

It also didn't sound any more powerful than the Jello 300/4 that it replaced, and that replaced it. I don't know if that's because the Jello is underrated (I doubt it, because JL is full of competent people who know how to rate product) or the Planet Audio amp is overrated. Keep in mind that my system runs all 8Ω drivers, so both of them loaf and run pretty cool in my system.

 

[FJF 10+ year member]

I've done comparisons between "mid-fi" (Adcom) and "High End" (Classe) and "Class D" (Panasonic XR-55 receiver using the TI PurePath chips) at different times, and never heard a difference.

Does that mean that no difference exists or that you just didn't hear it? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[DS-21 10+ year member]

It means no difference existed. I wouldn't mention a comparison if it wasn't level matched and blind.

Under similar circumstances, I have heard a difference with a speaker moved 5cm. So I'm not too worried about my hearing. Audio marketers often are, though, because my ears are actually connected to a functioning brain.