Hi-power Plate amplifier - give your input (1 Viewer)

[MichaelAngelo]

Ok. PE amp 250 watts @4 ohms. 130.00 (on sale for 99.00 at times)

1000 watts for 399.00?? 450.00? Doable?



and I read almost every post here, from The Beginning, and still, I go and say subsonic, when I should have said infrasonic....*slaps forehead*

 

[John E Janowitz]

Jeff,

I don't see the Speakon connectors as much of an option. Very few people would need that for HT use. Not sure what you meant on the 120V connector on the inside. Can you explain? The power supply will be large enough so that your available power to the amp never becomes an issue. Clip indicator could be included. That should be fairly easy.

Michael, yes, 1000W could be doable in that price range. It all depends on how fancy things get.


Another thought I had was to do a fairly simple set of features on the amp itself, then have a seperate Stryke Audio subwoofer control Center. The control center could have the LT built in, 1/3 octave parametric for more control, filters, etc. This control center could then be used with any amplifier for those who may just want the controls but already have a nice K2 or somethign else. This would also keep the cost way down on the amplifier itself.

Not sure if that would be a good option or not. Thoughts?

John

 

[JimRHIT]

Let's say .. to go along quite nicely with the new AV series... these need not be kilowatt amps.

how about 600W @1ohm - perfect match for the new series

or 1200W@ 1ohm ... this will work nice with the tumult

how would pricing look..

any estimated production dates???

thanks...

jim

 

[MichaelAngelo]

The idea of a separate control center is a clever one, would let us upgrade the amp as needed.

1000W @ 1 ohm, or 1200, would be enough to power 2 relatively inefficient subs (2 Tumults,1 in each corner, each getting 600 watts? ahee ahee ahee ahee *rubs hands gleefully*)

 

[Jack Gilvey]

My thoughts on the parametric EQ was to have a 5 band 1/2 octave EQ. This would allow to EQ room modes, much like with the AudioControl Richter Scale. Points would be at 21.5Hz, 31.5Hz, 45Hz, 63Hz, and 90Hz if done at 1/2 octave like the Richter Scale. You'd have ability to boost or cut by 6-12dB at every one of these frequencies independently. Price wise it would add $25-$40 to the price of the amp. Much cheaper than buying a seperate EQ.

Other options would be the variable subsonic/infrasonic filter, whatever you want to call it. Most likely 4th order. Adjustible maybe 10Hz to 25Hz.

Xover 4th order adjustable 40Hz to 100Hz or so. This would be defeatable.

Phase may just be a 0-180 switch. Most people never use anywhere between.

As far as pricing goes, I can't get too specific yet. For an amp that will do 1000W or possibly even 2000W into a 1ohm load, with ALL the features I mentioned, we're talking around the ballpark price of the HD500 or LESS.

Yes, yes, yes to all of this! Absolutely. Infrasonic range and slope is perfect.

 

[Shawn Solar]

1000watts @1ohm is good for the new dual voicecoil drivers but what about the people with BP1503's and such. They have a single voicecoil at 4ohms. Now 1000watts @4ohms that can handle a 2ohm or 1ohm load would be good. I would even like 800watts @ 4ohms. phase, infrasonic filter, led clip indicators, and at price that would not break the bank. If you could do this I'll take one
Can you make it curved. So I can fit it in my sonosub just kidding.

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

John, I believe your best idea is the SEPARATE Control Center. Yes, please investigate this. That keeps the powr amp simple and at lowest cost, and as you said, the control center can be used with existing quality amps, so price it separately also. Parametric, if it's usable enough, LT for sure, and infrasonic filter. Adjustable LT OR, user accesable portion of the box that's a separate compartment from power wiring (avoid those lawsuits!), maybe accomodate plug-in modules for LT curve modification ala the Marchand crossover plug-in modules.

Another word on the parametric feature - if it has enough points, it could replace a BFD, but at what cost?

Power? How about 400 honest 8-ohm watts, and circuitry that's robust enough to deliver 700 - 800 watts at 4 ohms and 1000 watts at 2 ohms?

Cost? $300 for the amp, $100 for the control box.

You asked.

 

[Brad Dixon]

Hank said "Power? How about 400 honest 8-ohm watts, and circuitry that's robust enough to deliver 700 - 800 watts at 4 ohms and 1000 watts at 2 ohms?".
What about 1ohm power @ 1500 watts ( or 2500 ). An amp that was designed for 1 or 2 ohm operation only might not sell well though. I don't know but if that is one of the only ways to get that kinda power from a plate amp(inexpensively) I could live with it.
I had planned on passing on the high excursion drivers do to WAF for a rack amp. If there were more plate amps that could push these drivers it'd make me jump off the fence today.
Since drivers are heading toward smaller enclosures and less efficiency and lower impedances(or seems that way) the more power the better in my opinion. Not to mention that LT's may become more popular with more drivers able to handle high power and tons of excursion coming out.
OT: I got an OK for a huge Tempest ebs but not for a rack amp. Go figure
Brad

 

[Shawn Solar]

I to like the idea of a seperate box for LT and parametric eq vs. building it in to the plate amp. You coulds offer just phase, level and a defeatable lowpass built in with maybe a pushbutton infrasonic filter fixed at 15-18hz. And an extra long power cord
then offer a parametric eq with low level highpass fiter(for 2ch) a more comprehensive adjustable infrasonic filter and optional LT or something. The external box could have a remote and two parametric eq settings. One for movies and one for music. I am probably way out in left field with this though. Or too lazy to get up off the couch

 

[VinhT]

Most important features for me:
at least 1000W @ 4 ohms
Multi-position subsonic filter switch like SVS with bypass for those doing LT or sealed; should probably start from 20Hz (variable would be a nice bonus, but hardly necessary)
Low-level RCA input
Fanless
Sealed (for example, the new SVS Bash amp leaks air through the power switch)

Less important features:
Variable phase
Digital heatsinkless design

Not important:
Crossover
High-level inputs/outputs
Auto-on
Low-level output
EQ
LT (not commonly used, yet would raise the price)

I would pay up to $500 for a plate amp that had the most important features. The separate control box is definitely a good idea.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

Yeah, I think $500 is fair for a hobbyist looking to use such a plate amp in a DIY project.

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

ah man...I was hoping for $5.00 not $500 ....I could afford the first price

 

[Jack Gilvey]

Well, $500 is cool only if it can outperform/out-feature a similarly-powered "pro" amp. The fact that it may be in a "plate" form factor means little to me as I tend not to mount them on the sub anyway.
Hey, the cheaper the better, I'd rather pay a little more for quality, though. And I'm not looking to buy and resell it in a product for profit, I'm but a hobbyist.

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

agreed. I already hafve a K2, so I don't need an amp for my current system....but as long as I can string the funds, I would be interested in making a HSG12 clone using this amp and an appropriate HE12 driver

 

[Steve Fiedler]

I would like to cast my vote for lowest cost basic sub amplifier with high conversion efficiency (~class D)and decent specs (THD under .1 @ rated power, 10-1000 Hz?), in the 500 watt @ 4 or 8 ohm range (dream ~$250 preorder?). 1000 watt would be nice, if not significantly more (fantasy ~$350 preorder?). ...I believe there are alot of people running 4 or 8 ohms.
I know there are many new speaker options in the 1 or 2 ohm range, heck, I preordered one of the Stryke AVs & passives. But I don't plan to run 1 ohm, since I have some distance from the amp to speaker (didn't plan to integrate). ...1 ohm at 1000 watts would be over ~30 AMPS RMS, no wimpy gauges need apply!
If you can add the variable electronics (high/low pass, variable Q, & couple band parametric equalizer) for $25 - $50 range I would spring to have that integrated in the amp.
Hope this help, Steve / New Mexico

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

You've seen my price request for the basic amp and for the control box and I'm stikin' with 'em. Some people, in polls like these, reveal their very large funds resource, but they are not the average.

 

[Jeff Rosz]

Not sure what you meant on the 120V connector on the inside.

for those of us who dont mount our amps on the sub itself and instead build seperate boxes for them. where we could run the power cord from the inside of our diy amp box and through its back wall. um, so the power cord isnt wrapped from the front, along the side, and around to the back, to be plugged into the wall. follow? i guess its not a big priority in the big picture, but it would be nice.

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

Jeff, that should be pretty easy to mod yourself. just remove the leads going to the plug on the inside and add your own plug. You are looking at a 10 minute fix including the time for your soldering iron to heat up.

 

[Cam S]

What I would really like to see is a basic model with the same features as the AVA250/PE250 amps but have more like 400-500 watts @4 ohms, and be able to go down to 2 ohms stable, with say 800+ watts. This would be a great high power replacement for those aformentioned amps and would still be fairly cheap, say $300 or so US? The outboard extra controls such as LT, EQ's etc etc is a great idea and would make it an option for those poeple who don't want that, and for poeple who do want it, great idea.

BTW, how much power do the new Stryke AV subs need to shine, and what kind of box's??

 

[John E Janowitz]

Some more thoughts. I talked to Doug Goldberg today regarding DSP options, etc for the amp/control center. One idea that he likes is to use DSP for the EQ/LT/Xover, etc. His thought was to include a serial port on the control center. You can then plug into any computer and have a nice graphical user interface to fully adjust your EQ.

Nice thing is that because it's DSP you're able to do just about anything. You'd be able to have limitless EQ options, slopes, bands, Q's, etc. If you wanted to completely eliminate everything below say 15Hz, you could. No 2nd order or 4th order slope. You could literally brickwall anything below that frequency.

The plan will be to have this DSP control center be complete with a measurement mic and a pink noise generator. This would even allow you to measure the in room response curve with the click of a mouse. Then the DSP will have certain options that can be done automatically. One would be to completely flatten the response for you. No need to mess with sliders, or play by ear. It would all be automatic. I know Deon had played with some DSP with his subwoofer. It automatically EQ'd his subwoofer to be completely flat at his listening position from 15Hz up to 100Hz, +/-.25dB.

The user could also be allowed to save different curves. You could save one for HT, one for music and easily switch between the two. With the DSP, the possibilities are nearly limitless.

I had talked to a friend who is an installer and he said he'd really like to see somethign like this with a microphone to measure the in room response. For installers it would be more of a one time use thing. It would be hooked up, they'd measure the response, automatically EQ the room, and unhook the computer.

The only downside I see is the need to hook up to a computer. I know some wouldn't like that. Others probably wouldn't mind for the option to do just about anything they wanted with the response.

The plan is to keep the amp simple. Just the basics on the plate. I'm looking into options right now on power. Most likely the first amp will be 2000W into 1ohm to use with HE15's, Tumults, etc. This is what I will be using in our production Power15 subwoofers. The difference in cost between 1000 and 2000W is actually very minimal. The 2000W amp will just be a better selling option for me. Doing the same power levels into 4ohm becomes much more expensive due to the power supply requirements.

I'm looking into this now. It may be a possibility. I'll have to see if it's worth it. If I can offer an amp that puts out 2000W at 1ohm for $100 less than 1000W at 4ohm, I don't know how many people would want the 4ohm amp.

So with keeping the amp simple, there will be a Sub Control Center 1 that would feature all the analog options for LT and parametric EQ. Possibly 1/6 octave EQ, plus the LT option similar to the Bassis unit. Then a Control Center 2 will come out later with the DSP option for complete control of the subwoofer system.

Shawn,

1000W into 4ohm is much more expensive to do than 1000W into 1ohm. The problem is that to do it into 4ohm you need much more power supply. The difference between say 800W to 1000W is very minimal. The steps seem to be 400W, 500W, 1000W and 2000W. There also isn't a whole huge jump in price from 1000W to 2000W.

I thought about the 500W into 4ohm application, but that would basically be the same amp as the 2000W into 1ohm version. The AMP350 I sell now will actually put out 380W into 4ohm. Eventually I'd like to have my own design to replace this amplifier, probably 500W, but for now it's not worth the extra cost. Going from 380W to 500W gives only about 1.2dB more output capability.

Right now that isn't worth the cost as there are other options out there. The immediate plan is to come up with an amplifier to power HE15's, UE15's, Tumults, etc. Unless you go with a seperate pro audio amp, there really isn't much out there. I get people asking me all the time what I have to power the HE15, and unfortunately right now I don't have anything. The 1000W or 2000W into 1ohm will be a good option for this. Also, I need this to start selling powered Power 15 cubes.

John