Signal to noise ratio?

[terminal206 10+ year member]

Hey everyone,

The amps I have have signal to noise ratios of:

81 dBA for my components and multi elements (class A/B)

72 dBA for my subs (class D)

Are these ratings good? I know that the higher the rating the better the amp's signal, but I was wondering what is the highest ratio you guys have seen? Also, was just wondering if I was in pretty good shape or not as far as these amps?

Click to read more...

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Inaudible. Both of them.

Rating wise I've seen in excess of 110dB on the Orion GS series amps from the early 90's. I own several Orion HCCAs (mid 90's vintage) that advertise 103. I can't remember one ever benching above 91ish in the CSR reviews but those results as with all of them depend on the test parameters. The current issue of CA&E tested the Arc Audio Foose edition amp @ >113. But that was with gain at min and referenced to full power. The CSR tests were with gain at max and referenced to 1W. IMO the CSR tests are much more telling.

 

[terminal206 10+ year member]

Thanks for the help man, I really appreciate it!

 

[terminal206 10+ year member]

I do hear a little bit of noise when there is no music being played, but I think that is coming from my RCAs. I had to make due with a set of $8.00 RCAs when I installed the amps, but I have 2 sets of Streetwires Zero Noise 6 RCAs on the way as of Friday, so I will have to see what that does...

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Usually line hum is a symptom of gains set too high or sometimes noise on the HU preouts. The cure for the first it to obviously turn down the gain. The cure for the second is to replace the HU.

Decks with extremely weak preouts will sometimes have the first problem solvable by using a line driver. This is the intended purpose for such a device.

 

[terminal206 10+ year member]

Okay, thanks for the help. I am actually looking at the sound processor made for my HU right now... right now I have 2v preouts, and this will upgrade it to 4v preouts.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

What HU and processor?

 

[bikinpunk 10+ year member]

^ I'm guessing an Alpine h/u and processor. ?

 

[terminal206 10+ year member]

Yeah, right now I have a IVA-D300, but I will be upgrading to a D310 as soon as it makes it back from being repaired. The processor is the Alpine processor made for these units so the setting will be onboard. Model number is PXA-H701.

 

[terminal206 10+ year member]

Hey bikinpunk, just noticed that you already have this processor... are you happy with it? Does it work well, or not too great? What do you like most about? Anything else you can tell me would be greatly appreciated too!

I see you're looking to sell your D300, would you be willing to sell the processor seperately, or is that going to the buyer of the D300?

 

[bikinpunk 10+ year member]

^^

Processor stays with me. I was wanting to upgrade to the d310 since it matches my interior better.

I really like it. It made a huge difference in my sound. I like being able to change settings quickly due to my large collection of mp3s. Not all songs have the same quality and I have to make adjustments. It's great though. I bought the unit with intent on keeping it FOREEEEEEEVVVEEEEEEEEEEEER! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif