Help picking a Subwoofer Amp

[VegaS10]

I'm not going to even try quoting all that.

Car audio has always been behind compared to pro audio. I no longer really keep track of the pro side any more.

When the class D stuff first came out back in the late 90's with MMATT's, it was a hit for the SPL world. They had HORRIBLE problems with filtering and it was very common to be able to watch the sub tremble while the amp was "idle".

U.S. Amps was HUGE in the scene (I'm referencing (GD early morning spelling) late 90's still) and was one of the top brands. Their signal was crystal clear, monsterous power output, and no issues of fluttering while at idle.

During the 99,00 and 2001 dB Drag seasons, it was almost a class D vs. class AB battle. The class D guys could do similar scores with smaller amps, less batteries and still be competitive. BUT, they were popping amps left and right. If I had a dime for every MTX 1000D I saw smoking I'd be a richer man.

Eventually, people realized that "Hey, I don't need clean sound to be loud, just power".....which slowly killed the class AB design in db Drag.

Now, the whole PWM thing has come along and advanced, and there are some companies that have tried using class D in full range, and there was even a breif time for a class T by US Amps, which failed due to price and low demand.

But in the beginning, the class D took off because of price and size.

The MMATT's D300 was litteraly 1/3rd the size of a US Amps 2000X. The MMATT's did the same power and was roughly 35% more efficient. That may not be much, but when you are running a dozen of these amps, it really ads up.

Not saying you are wrong Chad, I'm just adding some historical background...lol

[Chad]

I'm not going to even try quoting all that.

Car audio has always been behind compared to pro audio. I no longer really keep track of the pro side any more.

When the class D stuff first came out back in the late 90's with MMATT's, it was a hit for the SPL world. They had HORRIBLE problems with filtering and it was very common to be able to watch the sub tremble while the amp was "idle".

U.S. Amps was HUGE in the scene (I'm referencing (GD early morning spelling) late 90's still) and was one of the top brands. Their signal was crystal clear, monsterous power output, and no issues of fluttering while at idle.

During the 99,00 and 2001 dB Drag seasons, it was almost a class D vs. class AB battle. The class D guys could do similar scores with smaller amps, less batteries and still be competitive. BUT, they were popping amps left and right. If I had a dime for every MTX 1000D I saw smoking I'd be a richer man.

Eventually, people realized that "Hey, I don't need clean sound to be loud, just power".....which slowly killed the class AB design in db Drag.

Now, the whole PWM thing has come along and advanced, and there are some companies that have tried using class D in full range, and there was even a breif time for a class T by US Amps, which failed due to price and low demand.

But in the beginning, the class D took off because of price and size.

The MMATT's D300 was litteraly 1/3rd the size of a US Amps 2000X. The MMATT's did the same power and was roughly 35% more efficient. That may not be much, but when you are running a dozen of these amps, it really ads up.

Not saying you are wrong Chad, I'm just adding some historical background...lol

Oh i totally see where you are coming from, here's my history leson, the Peavey DPC amplifier.

It was 1 rack-space, fully PWM, packed a bunch of power, and weighed very little. It was ahead of it's time, and that was it's down-fall

When i worked in Service our Service center took on ALL of the amplifier reapirs for a nationwide DJ service, they had a shit-ton of rigs... all powered with..... you guessed it Have mercy

I have seen every damn failure they can make, I got so intamate with those damn thngs that the company techs would call me with questions. And yes, as you have seen in the early car designs, weird speaker failures, obscene noises, cones fluttering, oh yeah! The output filter sections just could not hold it together, they had to be hand tuned and when the tuning slipped it could casue stress ou the outputs along with weird noises and oscillation, NOW tack that un-tuned filter to a passive crossover (yet another filter wtih a RLC figure) and all hell breaks loose. Oh yeah, i know where you are coming from

[rtc975]

fantastic info guys...