Why pay more for a JL audio amp?

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

lol this thread is funny...by the way i have some extra special speaker wire and rca's.

 

[W8 a minute 10+ year member]

lol this thread is funny...by the way i have some extra special speaker wire and rca's.

Are those RCA's spl or sq?

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

both! they increase the sound stage sound more natural and increase DBz lol

 

[12Voltz 10+ year member]

Car audio mag tested all top name brand amps, Genesis, Zapco and Tru rated top 3.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Car audio mag tested all top name brand amps, Genesis, Zapco and Tru rated top 3.

Car audio mag doesn't know jack about ****. Best based on what? They were the most expensive that they tested? They liked the way that they "sounded?" And they tested ALL of them? Brax, Helix, DLS sinfoni? I seriously doubt that they tested nearly all the high end amps. The test report would consume the entire issue. That would mean no room for the Audiobahn and X-plod vehicle of the month.

Hey grampi, during your "test" did you know which amp you were listening to? That knowledge alone makes the test invalid.

 

[grampi 10+ year member]

Car audio mag doesn't know jack about ****. Best based on what? They were the most expensive that they tested? They liked the way that they "sounded?" And they tested ALL of them? Brax, Helix, DLS sinfoni? I seriously doubt that they tested nearly all the high end amps. The test report would consume the entire issue. That would mean no room for the Audiobahn and X-plod vehicle of the month.
Hey grampi, during your "test" did you know which amp you were listening to? That knowledge alone makes the test invalid.

Yes. One of the amps was my old Phoenix Gold MS-275, and I think the crappy one was a Profile or something like that. The PG sounded much better.

 

[12Voltz 10+ year member]

Man you guys are pretty critical about this sh*t. Lets just say all those amps are high quality, I will leave it at that. And for sure JL is not the best amp out there for the money. BTW those amps are not expensive compared to JL. Obviously Car Audio mag could not test every amp available. I will find the article and post a link. They are much more critical, than you give them credit for.

 

[12Voltz 10+ year member]

My fault, they compared only 4 amps, so obviously Tru Zapco and Genesis were top 3. IMO they are all better than JL. Here is the link.

http://www.caraudiomag.com/technical/0509cae_car_audio_testing/index.html

I think if you read the entire article, you will find that Car Audio Mag performs their testing in a very non-biased and controlled environment. Mobile Dynamics provided the facilities.

 

[grampi 10+ year member]

How do you know any of those amps would've performed better than a JL amp? They didn't even test a JL amp.

 

[W8 a minute 10+ year member]

Just about all these comparisons are moot once your car gets up to 35mph. Sure, you can tell a difference between amplifiers in a silent listening room. But not in a car moving at 35mph or more. In fact, you will also need "reference material" to audition the amplifiers with. Something recorded perfectly that you are intimately familiar with. You will hear audiophiles brag about certain discs and there is a reason for that: If you just play the latest hit CD all these amplifiers will still sound the same.

Now combine all these things; the moving car, proper equalization, and listening material and I doubt 99% of the people in the world could tell the difference and I bet 99% of the remaining 1% are just lying to seem cool their peers.

 

[DaveT 10+ year member]

Just about all these comparisons are moot once your car gets up to 35mph. Sure, you can tell a difference between amplifiers in a silent listening room. But not in a car moving at 35mph or more. In fact, you will also need "reference material" to audition the amplifiers with. Something recorded perfectly that you are intimately familiar with. You will hear audiophiles brag about certain discs and there is a reason for that: If you just play the latest hit CD all these amplifiers will still sound the same.
Now combine all these things; the moving car, proper equalization, and listening material and I doubt 99% of the people in the world could tell the difference and I bet 99% of the remaining 1% are just lying to seem cool their peers.

DING DING DINGGG!!!!!!

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

If the amps measure the same (within audible limits which are pretty broad), they will sound the same. Richard Clark still has $10k if you can prove otherwise in a valid test. If you can hear a difference then there will certainly be a measurable different in power, THD (both amount and harmonic content) or frequency response. DF differences are audible when one is in the very low single digits and the other is above about 10. Beyond that DF doesn't make a difference. S/N is the same way. Below the threshold of audibility at the reference power level is all that matters.

I've been reading Car Audio and Electronics for close to 17 years now. In every amp test I've ever seen them do, in fact, the deciding factor has been power output. Plain and simple. They would test for power output, freq response, THD and S/N. They would listen to the amps looking for obvious flaws (I distinct remember one where the basic tests didn't pick up crossover distortion (If you don't know what that is in reference to and A/B amp, don't bother arguing in this thread) but the listening tests found it and it was confirmed with an O-scope (picture was provided in the article). The measurements were always well into the realm of audibly indistinguishable among all amps in the tests (barring flaws like crossover distortion that fall into the category of a broken amp) and the deciding factor was the only thing that mattered that wasn't the same and that was power.

Sure you usually get better materials (tolerance wise) and sometimes better construction with a "high end" amp. Customer service and warranty coverage is usually better as well. But you quickly get to the point that any way you look at it, you are paying for the name and nothing else. You are spending money to stroke your own ego and are not getting any real sonic benefit for the money. If the amp gives you the power that you want at a price that you can afford, then it's good enough. JL amps are relatively expensive compared to some others, but once you start talking Tru, Zapco, Genesis and the like, JL is on the low end of the price spectrum, dollar to watt. All the high end companies feel the same way about discounters that JL does. JL gets hated on because it is mainstream and expensive. The others get their knob polished because they are esoteric and expensive. In the end, the others don't even bring anything special to the table except the exclusivity and a high price tag (except the Zapcos with the DSP built in). They don't make a staggering amount of power for the money. They are simply conservatively rated so the company can make sure that every amp they sell will make power easily with really low THD (which is nothing more than advertising). So what if the amp makes 2x what it's rated at if it still costs 2x as much as an amp that makes the same real power but is actually rated correctly. How does that make the amp any better. The company really lied just as much about the ratings as a company that overrates their amps.

You want to know why JL amps cost more than the other mainstream amps? They are unique. They are built on custom boards using proprietary and patented circuit designs. They are housed in proprietary heatsinks. They are unique amps that JL did all the R&D on themselves and paid for themselves. They are a business and have to cover their costs. Plain and simple.

 

[dragnix 5,000+ posts]

JL still ****ed up on their 1000/1 with that gay ass power supply

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

If the amps measure the same (within audible limits which are pretty broad), they will sound the same. Richard Clark still has $10k if you can prove otherwise in a valid test. If you can hear a difference then there will certainly be a measurable different in power, THD (both amount and harmonic content) or frequency response. DF differences are audible when one is in the very low single digits and the other is above about 10. Beyond that DF doesn't make a difference. S/N is the same way. Below the threshold of audibility at the reference power level is all that matters.

I totally agree.

What gets me in threads like these is that people take that to assume that "all amps sound the same"...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif That's not what RC's test says at all.

Just about all these comparisons are moot once your car gets up to 35mph. Sure, you can tell a difference between amplifiers in a silent listening room. But not in a car moving at 35mph or more. In fact, you will also need "reference material" to audition the amplifiers with. Something recorded perfectly that you are intimately familiar with. You will hear audiophiles brag about certain discs and there is a reason for that: If you just play the latest hit CD all these amplifiers will still sound the same.

Very good point. A moving vehicle is not an "audiophile" environment by any stretch of the imagination. Parked, in a quiet garage, OK.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

JL still ****ed up on their 1000/1 with that gay ass power supply

What do you mean by that?