Why pay more for a JL audio amp?

[valter 10+ year member]

when i was over at Zed audio he was showing me some full range Class-D, i'm curious as to what he may have said about this

His comments were related to HIP4080 based amps, and I 100% agree with them. In pursuit of a cheap driver stage companies are cutting too many edges which results in poor performance and reliability.

 

[tyler_ofspain 10+ year member]

Even tho you are definitely paying for the JL name you really do get what you pay for... higher quality and nicer parts

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

His comments were related to HIP4080 based amps, and I 100% agree with them. In pursuit of a cheap driver stage companies are cutting too many edges which results in poor performance and reliability.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1358203#post1358203

If you are referring to the above (found through a simple Yahoo! search) then I fail to see the relationship between my post regarding his comments on Damping Factor and the above linked comments to which he is speaking almost entirely about reliability or how his above comments even relate to the thread in general //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[valter 10+ year member]

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1358203#post1358203
If you are referring to the above (found through a simple Yahoo! search) then I fail to see the relationship between my post regarding his comments on Damping Factor and the above linked comments to which he is speaking almost entirely about reliability or how his above comments even relate to the thread in general //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

LOL, I am totally agree that it is absolutely impossible to "hear" difference in DF. But, somehow I find myself supporting only one statement in grampi posts, you replied to, and that is about amps and garbage //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif To contribute to the SUBJ, my 0.02c is that JL amps uses really high quality parts and features possibly most complex (is it good?) design on a market.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Ah, now I see what you were getting at //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

That's a subject hard to quantify, so I avoided it intentionally //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[Telegon80 10+ year member]

Ok this is what I don't understand...
A kicker 1000.1 puts out over 1000W RMS of real watts, usually birthed at around 1050 or so. Price: $200-$280.

A JL 1000.1 may put out slightly more. People pay $450 for these USED.

Can someone please explain why anyone would pay more for the same real wattage, beside the fancy schmancy brand name? Is it just that people who buy JL products are dolts, or what?

What is the difference between 2 amps that put out the same real wattage, both considered quality brands? Why would anyone in their right mind pay more for the same thing with a different emblem slapped on it?

yeah Kicker's amp is 1000 watts at 15 volts AKA when you're on the highway doing 85mph.

the / amps are all rated at 12 volts flat. So basically one amp is underrated and the other is overrated. also resale value helps keep the price up there.

 

[mavster 10+ year member]

Zed Audio is NOT DEAD!!!

they lost their domain name...

http://www.zedaudiocorp.com

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

Power is power, correct? If so, why does this forum even exist? I can get a good clean 100x2 amp at the flea market for 50 bucks. It might say 1000 watts on the heatsink but as long as I realize it's only giving me 100x2 and I use it accordingly who cares?

I know you were being sarcastic, but... other than differences in features and benefits OTHER THAN SOUND QUALITY, this is correct. Boss amps are good enough for anything up to the IASCA World championship. (I'm not necessarily recommending Boss, It's just an example to illustrate a point).

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

midbass speakers start to distort at 3% of volume is what you're saying? sheesh //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/verymad.gif.3f39c5c2fd57527b671fad3efdfac756.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/furious.gif.fc81ca146dbff91fede3ed290dbc4f4c.gif

- Let me clairify... one of the best midrange drivers I ever heard had a published distortion figure of 3% - much higher than the figures you see for amps.

are you recommending i keep my EQ flat? i was thinking of putting the midbass frequencies higher to accentuate it with my comps

- What I mean is, if you wanted to do a listening test with two amps, you would not want one hooked up to an eq or using an on-board eq, while the other had no eq... you would hear the difference an eq would make on one of them, it would not be a fair and viable test.

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

If you are listening to a double kick drum being pounded repeatedly your amp should be able to keep the woofers moving accurately to reproduce the notes as they were recorded not as a jumbled horrid one note mess.

- If someone had that problem, the first thing I would look at would be lowering the gains and/or getting a more powerful amplifier, or something else in the system... you are spinning your wheels worrying about damping factor in solid-state amps.

On another note... you want to talk about amplifier topologies? I have news for you... more than 95% of the car amps on the market today have a FIXED (there is no switch to turn it off) phase inverter in one channel only (one channel has extra parts and is different from the other! - would you use a right channel speaker which was different from the left?) to make them bridgeable/tri-mode capable. This was popularized by Rockford Fosgate. In essence, almost all car amps today are clones of Rockford Fosgate. Now talk to me about amps having different sound quality.

 

[sdmtnbiker420 10+ year member]

didnt read the whole thread,

is the kicker 1000.1 for $280 any good?

 

[dragnix 5,000+ posts]

better than the 1000/1

 

[its_bacon12 10+ year member]

nm

 

[sdmtnbiker420 10+ year member]

yeah, maybe in terms of price, but im talking about function,

can the 1000.1 kicker perform just as hard as the 1000/1 at idle?

 

[dragnix 5,000+ posts]

yeah, maybe in terms of price, but im talking about function,
can the 1000.1 kicker perform just as hard as the 1000/1 at idle?

at idle? As in will the JL pull more current? I'm sure it will. If ur going for function then i guess u can compare the JL 1000/1 to the SX1250.1 from Kicker.