Digital Amps

Batch

Batch

Ex. Club Member
Right it's a bout time someone went over this with me cuz i'm well confused now.

There are so many amps out there that 'claim' to be digital such as the Alpine mrp range etc. I'm confused as to whether they really are Digital.

My main reason for getting one is that they generally draw less power than analogue amps (of equivalent rating), so i need one that is going to live up to this expectation. My current amp draws rake loads from the battery and really isn't that good at feeding my subs. (supposedly a 1000w amp, uses two 40amp fuses and produces 4 250w outputs, but more than likely would never reach even near that RMS)

For example, is the Alpine MRP301 really a digital amp with a view to the above comment.

If not can someone explain this all to me cuz i don't want to fork out for something only to be dissapointed.

Thanks in advance guys.
 
I think they mean digital as they use transistors to amplify the signals, when a true analogue amp uses tubes to do it. eg this one uses tubes and costs nearly 2K
 
No thats not right.

To put it simply Analogue simply refers to a signel that can vary in amplitude. A digital one is either on or off. Saying only a valve amp is true analogue is false, infact valve technology is extreamly old and is no match in my opinion for moden well designed transistorised technology, some people say they like the sound of them, but anything that alters the sound from the source to me is a bad thing!

True Class D amps i.e. digital are getting farily common now. As always you will get what you pay for, some are quite nice. But they all work on the same principle and that is basically by PWM controlling the amp stages then feeding this through a lowpass filter to turn the on off to digital signels into an analogue signel you can feed to your subs.

I did some tests on a Kenwood class D amp, cant find the images though, you could see the digital steps and ringing in its low pass filter on the output of the amp. Something you would never see on a normal analogue amp.
 
I just want reduced power draw, isn't that an advantage of Digital amps?

Which digital kenwood did you test. I need a 1000w (ish) amp.

Recommendations will do if it's easier than explaining it.

I'm not dense, just think : )
 
Yes digital amps do draw slightly less current. Not hugely but digital may be upto 90% efficient where as analogue may be around 70%.

I quite liked the kenwood one. It did make a lot of power for a small size.

Ed
 
im running 2 pro plus iampor amps. theyre fully digital and very very powerfull. they are a little on the expensive side but in my opinion are the best for the price. if you worried bout the power draw why not either by a power cap (capacitor). for 120 quid you could by a very very nice one or if you dnt wanna spend that much money just run a second battery which is what i do. ive got to of the afformentioned amps *(1200rms each) and two pro-plus data subs (900watts each) with pionner components (260watts) up front and an alpine head unit. not once has my car not started due to battery lost all its charge.
 
Dont get me started on caps! The money could be spent better elsewhere.. Save a bit more and get a decent battery.
 
Cool, so a second battery should alleviate the problem and shouldn't cause problems for the altenator?

K i'll give that a try. (should be cheaper anywhoo)

Thanks again guys
 
Power Caps = NO!

And Pro Plus amps are not expensive, gimme an SPL Dynamics 3000 anyday......mmmmm bridgeable 6kwrms.

Are you looking for 1000wrms, or just generally saying 1000w max? Do you know the difference? Just making sure, as quite a few people dont :)

What will you need that power for, and what will you be running?

Class-D's are generally suited to subwoofers, as they draw less current, are more efficient, and the SQ on subs isnt too important.

Class AB's are better suited to running your standard components, as often the SQ produced can be noticably 'better' :). You also dont tend to draw kw's with class AB's, as that equates to rather large currents!
 
Got 2 Kenwood tornado's, 700w and 800w. They can both handle Quite a bit of power although the rms is around the 300 mark for each, i'm shovin a (claimed) 500w through each at the mo but not sure at what ohm-age.

Want 2 500w channels at 2 ohms (which shouldn't cause the subs any problems), through a D-class amp. But like i say, with the whole "altenator maxing out problem" i'd like an amp that doesn't draw too much so it won't affect driveability too much.

My amp currently is 1000w (not sure of the rms of the amp, but it is a sh*te one) it uses 2 40w fuses if that helps. I'm sure ed posted a formula for working out exactly what your amp delivers.

But it draws loads, that's all i know. I've been told that compensating by raising the idle speed would help but as i lose about 600 revs on a good base-line, i'd have to idle at about 14-1600 revs (hmm......!)
 
It's probably not 1000wrms. To be honest, I'm not sure the Tornado subs would much like having nearly double there rated power put through them!

How about getting one decent sub, and one decent amp?

I'm running around 1400wrms at the moment, and thats off of 200amps worth of fuses.....
 
well it depends on what you call expensive. 300 quid per amp is pretty expensive in my opinion. running one sub and amp can sound the bollox. i know someone running a rockford fosgate punch sub (very expensive) with an alpine V12 amp. personally if money was no object i would get rockford fosgate stuff. however there are other budget very good quality stuff. eg lightning audio (owned by rockford fosate) pro-plus (virtually indestructable subs) phoenix gold (no personal experiance but ive heard they are good). then theres the old favourites alpine and pioneer. me personally i wudnt by anything if they wasnt from any of these companys. power caps are good in some situations. like if you havent any room for a second battery. or you run very very powerfull system then these can release all the power they store in split second for those extremely low bass notes). battery cannot. however you would always accompany power caps in ahuge system with audio batterys. oh and as a little note do going doing anything daft ike running 6x9's on your parcel shelf with subs in your boot. very daft haha:laugh:
 
I've never had a problem? But then again with the subs running, i can't hear the mumbling of the 6x9 base notes!!

I'm not into SQ, i like good bass and good treble, after all i'm a barry plain and simple. (no debates please!!)

1 sub is good but, i'm a man of symmetry, the only reason i started this topic was because i've got the materials ready to fibreglass my install and before i do that i need to A) get rid of my existing amp and B) get an amp that does drain too much.

When the 1.8 goes in it won't matter what size amp i have as the charge system will easily cope, until then i either need a stop-gap or a good Digital amp (or 2 if necessary).
 
You need to get something that kicks out 600-800wrms into 2ohms, split to the two subs.

Also, your not likely to draw that many amps unless your running huge amounts of power with Class D. Your alternator should be fine, mine is 70amps and my amp only draws more than that on heavy bass hits.

Although I'm mainly after SQ.
 
Sorry, trying to keep the system Kenwood (in the boot at least).

The KAC-PS811D is more expensive but seems to be relatively the same the only difference i can note on Kenwood's website is the for the 9152 it uses the word "Quality" and for the 811 uses the word "performance"?

Sorry to drone on.
 
Max Power: 1800W @ 2 ohms
RMS Power: 500W x 1 @ 4 ohms
THD at 4-Ohm RMS Power: 0.08%
RMS Power: 900W x 1 @ 2 ohms

If i connect 2 subs to the single channel will i be passing 450w through each? I presume it splits the power?

Can anyone check if the old KFC-3003 is 2ohm stable?
 

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