Who has the best amp????

[pro-rabbit 5,000+ posts]

Why the heck would anyone want to run at those low impedances for a daily driver? That doesn't make any sense as you'll really be straining your electrical system for an increase in output you'll need test equipment to verify. Not worth it.
Lower impedances are not better, I'd argue all day long that they're actually worse as amps are less efficient, more noisy, and less reliable the more you load them down. It's why you see plenty of high voltage amps still performing 100% after 20 years and why you see plenty of posts here asking if they 'done blow'd up' their mono amp after running 1ohm.

Get that ohm stuff out of your head.

I'm REALLY picky when it comes to amps. All amps are dirty, it's really the nature of the beast but they key is really finding a 'good dirty' instead of a 'bad dirty'. Good dirty sounds pleasing to the ear; think tube amps. And the better an amplifier copes with clipping usually correlates with how expensive it is. Likewise, cheap amps will sound like hell when they start to distort. A good amp? You need an o-scope to really tell and you'll find yourself leaving in a little 'dirt' b/c it'll sound better to your ear.

Of the modern amps that don't cost a fortune, Boston Acoustics really makes an under rated product that sounds gorgeous. Their speakers/subs may be a love:hate relationship but few, if any, will say that their amps sound bad. I'm also a fan of Arc's products and those Class G/H mini things they have going on really interest me...but not enough to junk my old Xtant or ADS amps.

The idea of impedance load, amps, thd, and watts has been discussed at great length. I'm assuming you missed that conversation?

 

[globalminds_ent 10+ year member]

tbh even before rise when u wire your subs down to a half ohm it really is sitting at about .7 or .8 Amps this is why rd shows what their ampz will push at .75 because when u wire 2 dual 2s it gonna be sitting at .7 (with some woofers) not all but some put yeah be that as it may 1ohm Is still very uncontrolled. Has anyone ever bought a huge amp just wire it down to 4 ohm? Does it sound as loud as the same wattage at 1?

 

[manyhobbies 10+ year member]

$600 would just about buy you a Lanzar opti7001d it will provide about 7k at .5ohm, around 5k at 1ohm around 4k at 2ohm if I remember correctly. Lanzar optidrive series equipment is top notch and usually cost less than competiters. On the cheap side and I've seen plenty workin strong, Planet Audio bb2400 is a pretty good 3k at 1ohm but our guys will run them as low as .25ohm and they seem very relible.

Your gonna get so many personel suggestions, some from experiance and some just from what people think is best.

Here are some more on the cheap that will work very well for the price.

Power Accoustik ovn1 5500d and this is the only one I will use from them, any Lanzar opti series, AudioPipe 3k and up the 1800's seem to be unreliable, American Bass vfl series, the 500.1 is a beast. This handful of options is based on price and reliability.

Most amplifiers available are made in either china, taiwan, japan or korea.

There are more options but some have been mentioned and there are too many to type in here.

 

[pro-rabbit 5,000+ posts]

tbh even before rise when u wire your subs down to a half ohm it really is sitting at about .7 or .8 Amps this is why rd shows what their ampz will push at .75 because when u wire 2 dual 2s it gonna be sitting at .7 (with some woofers) not all but some put yeah be that as it may 1ohm Is still very uncontrolled. Has anyone ever bought a huge amp just wire it down to 4 ohm? Does it sound as loud as the same wattage at 1?

There is much more to it then that. To much to get into here, but in the end amps will do what they are designed to do.

If you plan to make decent power at any load, the amplifier will require a decent electrical to back it up.

 

[manyhobbies 10+ year member]

tbh even before rise when u wire your subs down to a half ohm it really is sitting at about .7 or .8 Amps this is why rd shows what their ampz will push at .75 because when u wire 2 dual 2s it gonna be sitting at .7 (with some woofers) not all but some put yeah be that as it may 1ohm Is still very uncontrolled. Has anyone ever bought a huge amp just wire it down to 4 ohm? Does it sound as loud as the same wattage at 1?

I have my Lanzar Opti12001d wired at .5 ohm per side. Thats 2 dual 2ohm subs per side, and all our dmm's show .5ohm. Sometimes you will have subs that are not a true 1-2 or 4ohm coil/coils but that can go either way up or down, I beleive it's just a nominal number for reference but they are close usually.Russ

 

[manyhobbies 10+ year member]

There is much more to it then that. To much to get into here, but in the end amps will do what they are designed to do.
If you plan to make decent power at any load, the amplifier will require a decent electrical to back it up.

Absolutely. Russ

 

[globalminds_ent 10+ year member]

I have my Lanzar Opti12001d wired at .5 ohm per side. Thats 2 dual 2ohm subs per side, and all our dmm's show .5ohm. Sometimes you will have subs that are not a true 1-2 or 4ohm coil/coils but that can go either way up or down, I beleive it's just a nominal number for reference but they are close usually.Russ

oh okay thanks for the info! Well when I had two dual 2s wired down to .5 (supposedly ) my meter was showing .8 and jumping down to .7 then resting at .8 but one coil was at 2 ohm

and thanks pro rabbit u being a guy that's been doing this for years I trust your feedback

and oh does that lanzar 2001 really put out 26,000 wrms?

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

The idea of impedance load, amps, thd, and watts has been discussed at great length. I'm assuming you missed that conversation?

I don't give one iota about "paper watts", "paper impedance", a-weighted THD, or any of the other stuff you read on a spec sheet. Never have...

What's important, to me at least, is if the amp 1. Sounds good, 2. is reliable, 3. isn't noisy, and 4. fits in my trunk. I've never gone out and bought subwoofers and then tried to find an amp to work with them. I've always bought an amp, or amps, and designed the system & install around those taking care to not require additional batteries, an HO alternator, or who know what else.

Amps designed to run at those low impedances usually do not sound good and none are reliable. When you ask a switching device to do twice the power you halve it's lifespan. Furthermore, many users choke the power supplies b/c they do not supply enough current to their new monstrosity. What's the point of getting a cheap $200 3kW amp if you need $500 worth of batteries, alternators, and 1/0 to not kill it? To me, that defeats the purpose of a budget system especially since you can get just as loud and sound just as good, if not better, with smaller amps & different drivers.

Honestly, I do not see why your garden variety street system would ever need more than 500w. There's plenty of good sounding speakers out there that are quite efficient...it's the subwoofers that are the problem as they've become quite fat over the years. Remember when kids used to be able to terrorize the neighborhood with a pair of W2's & a Punch60? That doesn't happen now. Remember when $300 for a 12" sub was really expensive? What the heck happened?

You do not need to spend a lot of money to sound good nor do you have to spend a lot of $$$ to get loud. You need to plan everything accordingly and in my experience, building around the amp is the smarter way to go about things.

 

[globalminds_ent 10+ year member]

lanzar optidrive is a good amp for the money if u want a good 2000rms get a lanzar opti 2000d for$250 online car stereo it is the cheapest half ohm amp your going to find

you can also get a power acoustik demon series 6000d for $228 brand new its A fuseless amp but it come with a 250 Anl fuse plus the holder

it will get u a good 2500rms..

boss also makes a good fuseless amp, they make the planet audio BB2400.1 as stated by my friend above u can get one new shipped for $360

but if I was u I would go optidrive all day

 

[swalk386 10+ year member]

Thanks alot everyone im goning back to the drawing boards and starting from scratch....

this time imma do alot more research on wat i buy

once again thanks for all your help

 

[pro-rabbit 5,000+ posts]

I don't give one iota about "paper watts", "paper impedance", a-weighted THD, or any of the other stuff you read on a spec sheet. Never have...
What's important, to me at least, is if the amp 1. Sounds good, 2. is reliable, 3. isn't noisy, and 4. fits in my trunk. I've never gone out and bought subwoofers and then tried to find an amp to work with them. I've always bought an amp, or amps, and designed the system & install around those taking care to not require additional batteries, an HO alternator, or who know what else.

Amps designed to run at those low impedances usually do not sound good and none are reliable. When you ask a switching device to do twice the power you halve it's lifespan. Furthermore, many users choke the power supplies b/c they do not supply enough current to their new monstrosity. What's the point of getting a cheap $200 3kW amp if you need $500 worth of batteries, alternators, and 1/0 to not kill it? To me, that defeats the purpose of a budget system especially since you can get just as loud and sound just as good, if not better, with smaller amps & different drivers.

Honestly, I do not see why your garden variety street system would ever need more than 500w. There's plenty of good sounding speakers out there that are quite efficient...it's the subwoofers that are the problem as they've become quite fat over the years. Remember when kids used to be able to terrorize the neighborhood with a pair of W2's & a Punch60? That doesn't happen now. Remember when $300 for a 12" sub was really expensive? What the heck happened?

You do not need to spend a lot of money to sound good nor do you have to spend a lot of $$$ to get loud. You need to plan everything accordingly and in my experience, building around the amp is the smarter way to go about things.

There is so much meh in this post. I'm sorry, but when I have more time on monday if I remember I will come back and address this a bit.

However, bottom line is the industry went the direction of power. So the trend of everyone wanting far to much is what is going on. Since that is what people want, why would we try and change their mind? If some one wants to run 10krms why does that make them wrong? A 500rms system won't be that loud at any point in its life. You can make large rms systems sound great if you choose to.

I do agree that with the current trend of power the emphasis of the install has declined greatly. It is no longer about putting in work to get the correct enclosure and such, and more about well it is not loud enough...lets add more power to get there. Which is fine to me. It is keeping this hobby alive and going, so no reason to subject everyone that wants just that to negativity of what once was.

Also, many of us do not remember how bad electrical system suffered before. Even with 1k rms which was very common in the 90's, our electrical options were limited and that created tons of issues. Which is how actually managed to get where we are today. People realized we can have custom batteries, alts, and wire. Then came in more power. Then subs followed suite to handle the power.

 

[IonRL205 10+ year member]

I don't give one iota about "paper watts", "paper impedance", a-weighted THD, or any of the other stuff you read on a spec sheet. Never have...
What's important, to me at least, is if the amp 1. Sounds good, 2. is reliable, 3. isn't noisy, and 4. fits in my trunk. I've never gone out and bought subwoofers and then tried to find an amp to work with them. I've always bought an amp, or amps, and designed the system & install around those taking care to not require additional batteries, an HO alternator, or who know what else.

Well then you have must not ran anything over 1000 watts. Some people actually want to get loud for their car, and have multiple thousands of watts. Whether you got a budget 3000 watt amp or a high quality 3000 watt amp, you would still have to upgrade your electrical.

Amps designed to run at those low impedances usually do not sound good and none are reliable. When you ask a switching device to do twice the power you halve it's lifespan. Furthermore, many users choke the power supplies b/c they do not supply enough current to their new monstrosity. What's the point of getting a cheap $200 3kW amp if you need $500 worth of batteries, alternators, and 1/0 to not kill it? To me, that defeats the purpose of a budget system especially since you can get just as loud and sound just as good, if not better, with smaller amps & different drivers.

Are you trying to troll are just retarded? Every amp I've ever ran at 1 ohm sounded just fine to me, and sounded no different than if I ran it at 4 ohms, only a difference in loudness.

Like I said before, it doesn't matter whether you get a cheap 3000 watt amp or a high quality 3000 watt amp, you still have to upgrade your electrical. Once you're getting into the higher power, it's not really a budget system anymore.

Going by your logic, using the same box, a pair of 10s on 3000 watts won't be as loud as another pair of 10s on 1000 watts. No...just no.

Honestly, I do not see why your garden variety street system would ever need more than 500w. There's plenty of good sounding speakers out there that are quite efficient...it's the subwoofers that are the problem as they've become quite fat over the years. Remember when kids used to be able to terrorize the neighborhood with a pair of W2's & a Punch60? That doesn't happen now. Remember when $300 for a 12" sub was really expensive? What the heck happened?

500 watts really isn't much power nowadays for most people, even me having 1500 watts to my single 15 I wanted more.

You do not need to spend a lot of money to sound good nor do you have to spend a lot of $$$ to get loud. You need to plan everything accordingly and in my experience, building around the amp is the smarter way to go about things.

Well honestly if you know what you're wanting out of your system, you could start with either, but in the end, its all going to lead the same way. Your subs, amp, good enclosure, and good electrical to support it all.

 

[dancindan85 10+ year member]

all joking aside, I have learned over the years. You get what you pay for.

 

[smgreen20 10+ year member]

That doesn't make any sense as you'll really be straining your electrical system for an increase in output you'll need test equipment to verify. Not worth it.

While I will agree, for a daily driver system, an imped. that low isn't the greatest and/or needed, but it's untrue to the strain on your electrical system. As far as your electrical system is concerned, a volt is a volt/ampere is an ampere. The strain is more on the amp itself at that ohm load. The electrical system doesn't see the ohm load, just the current.

Really guys, Boss, Legecy....

The good stuff is Sparkomatic, Optimus.

All kidding aside, we're being a bunch of smarta$$es. Though I did find the comment funny about the 4000 watt boss amp that doesn't strain the electrical system.

 

[destined2race 10+ year member]

Who has the best amp?? I do.