What qualities make a good amp?

[Cpyder 10+ year member]

Excuse me for being ignorant. I'd like to say I'm very learned on car audio, except one area. Amps. What is it that makes one amp $1000 and one that's rated similarly $150? I mean, I've never sat in someone's car and said, ooo listen to how good that amp sounds? I mean, if I'm running an Alpine 9887 and Polk SR6500s, will the difference between a decent amp and a high end amp be night and day?

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[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

go somewhere in the middle and you should be good //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Macklessdaddy 10+ year member]

Joshualittle,come give him that arc lecture.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Build quality ideally should be a factor, although I've seen my share of "high-end" amps fail as well.

 

[CrossFired 10+ year member]

Low distortion! I've found over the years that amps with lots high current output transistors sound very clean with good control over the drivers/speakers.

IMO, I good amp maybe rated a 100 wpc and use 4 or more 20 amp outputs per channel, only ever using a fraction of the transistors rated output.

A cheap amp may use the same # of transistors but with a 5 amp rated output, or just two transistors.

All three amps will product 100wpc, but the better one will run cooler with less distortion.

 

[Rich B 5,000+ posts]

The biggest difference between cheap amps and expensive amps is the design of the power supply built in.

Cheap amps use a minimal amount of low quality parts, expensive amps use more sophisticated designs with more parts of higher quality.

The better the power supply the more current the amps can put out without clipping or blowing up.

 

[DBDRAGGUY 10+ year member]

For me a good amp is Reliable, effecient, has a small footprint, and does rated power.

 

[C3 Customs 10+ year member]

For me a good amp is Reliable, efficient, has a small footprint, and does rated power.

x2

ie stetsom

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

I hesistate to make any sort of generalizations about number of parts, or designs, or distortion or efficiency numbers. There are many ways to skin a cat...I know of some amazing amps that have under a dozen parts in the signal chain, and some that are a good bit more complicated //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Cpyder 10+ year member]

Thanks guys. One more question. Can anyone suggest an amp to push 2 Polk SR6500s and 2 Infinity Kappa 6x9s 693.9i? In a decent price range please.

 

[groundpound4200 5,000+ posts]

Sundown SAX-100.4

 

[99grandprixGT 5,000+ posts]

if it says xplod on it.

there warning you of what will happen to it.

 

[stl_style 10+ year member]

PDX 400.1 Run 2 Best Buy ASAP! (Clearance)

 

[99grandprixGT 5,000+ posts]

PDX 400.1 Run 2 Best Buy ASAP! (Clearance)

do u no how much?

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

mtx + old school = fckin good amp

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

if yeen had know'd