Amplifiers change sound. Please note that this does not include crossovers, eqs,time-alignments. or any other items that might be included in the amplifier casing. An amplifier does nothing but amplify sound, it cannot change it.....which means if you have have two amps verified as putting out the same wattage at the same voltage (same thd, s/n ratio. seperation, etc also) and one cost $250 and the other is $1000 you will get the exact same sound from the amplifier section of each one regardless of what the sales people will tell you.

Edit:

I know someone is going to come back with some amp being "cleaner" and causing distortion. Two amps rated at .05% THD cause the same amount of distortion (look at the measurement, it's right there). One will not cause more than the other in this case, they will however, amplify any pre-amp distortion already there.

 

welll..the sound itself is the same...but the 1000$ amp will sound cleaner. but the overall song or music will be the same...amps are power sources, not DJ mixers. so dont worry about the sound changing

 

Like I said above, the $1000 amp cannot "sound" cleaner unless the THD differences between the 2 amps are enough to be noticied by the human hear. If one was .10% and one was 10%, then yes, you could hear a difference but if both are less than .10% the human ear cannot hear a difference.

 

that's like saying an xa is like buying a benz... they are both cars with wheels... you will not notice a difference between them...

granted most people might not notice a difference between a 500 dollar amp, and a 1000 dollar amp... but you will notice a difference between a 250 amp and a 1000 dollar amp...

please don't look at pure numbers...

dodge neon srt4.... rated from manufacture at 200 hp... measures 230 - 240 to the wheels...
00 civic rated 160 hp... measured 138 - 147 to the wheels...

measurement numbers are to sell products... 900 watt max, 2400 watt max... all to sell... anyone can write anything down and there are no real standards yet.. cea 2006 is the closest thing going.. but it still doesn't tell how tight the tolerences of manufacturing really are! use and familiarity of products do!

 

Well here is a myth in reverse. Please this is not a flame but damn you are wrong!
Listening test have proved this for years. I understant your statement, but the rating system for amps is very flawed. Untill the new CEA ratings come out it is still the
ear that will tell it two amps sound the same. The parts in the amp will and do change sound, not in a eq or crossover type of way but bad parts or poorly selected parts
will affect the sound or warmth of the sound. Please dont try and argue about ratings
for the most part the are misleading. Only a few companies post true or close to true
ratings. AND YES I DO THIS FOR A LIVING. In the real world were most cars dont run 14.4 volts all the time with out help.

 

Another thing is that I don't think the ratings are for the entire spectum of the sound the amp is amping. THerefore the amp could very well have a curve in the amplification and noise of the sound across all frequencies being amplified.

 

You are reading more into the statement than is there and it has been thoroughly tested. CarSound magazine's editor even offered up $10,000 to anyone who could prove what I stated wrong. No one has won the money yet and the offer was made around 7 years ago. The lead engineer at JBL even attempted it twice and failed both times. All you have to do is be able to tell the difference between 2 different amps with equal amplifier sections.

Regarding ratings, I'm not referring to manufacturer ratings but ratings taken at the same time under the same conditions by an independent lab.

 

oh, well then I'm with you on that one. But, this means you're saying that if two amps sound the same to machines that can hear better than we can, then they'll sound the same to us

 

Dude please don't EVER post BS from Richard Clark again. He is a very knowledgeable man but does no good for the industry. You know those championships he won were bought right? Speakerworks in CA built that Buick and then sold it to him, then he goes off and wins and gives no credit.

Did you know he uses hundreds of thousands of dollars to equipment to equalize the amps? You have one thing going for you, you mentioned to take out variables such as crossovers and etc built into the amp. But mind you, my current amps which cost $1800 a piece and my previous amp which cost $2500 did not have any sort of crossover or EQ. Am I stupid? Quite possibly, but I am a stupendously happy stupid man. :D

Also, RC claims that most capacitors are worthless. He use to push caps big time in the early 90s, now he's against them becuase they don't meet HIS specs. Caps do help prevent dimming, but they do lower voltage. I don't use them becasue I see them as a crutch.

In short RC does no good for the industry. How would you as a shop owner like to hear well this RC guy who was undefeated in competition said that all amps sound the same. Most people don't pay attention to all the equipment RC uses and how he disables any of the amps features. You don't buy a Mercedes cause it looks nice, you buy it because of build quality, features and etc.

 

Of course you will get better build quality and even more features in a more expensive amp, that isn't in question. The fact that an amplifier can change sound is. Even by definition, all it does is amplify sound. Engineering is engineering, period. If you have an eletrical engineering degree from say, MIT, then I'll trust your knowledge, otherwise, your opinion is no better to me than anyone elses.

 

You said it yourself, its just an opinion. The problem is people go out and spread false truths which is not good for the hobby at all.

 

Great, now we're going to have people buying 200 dollar amps and saying they're as good as a McIntosh or Dynaudio because they sound the same. The thing is, you're not just buying the amplifier section, you're buying the whole entire amp. These "myths" posts are the most banal topics I've seen in a while.

 

Super, that's completely valid. Most people are not just buying an amp as an amp. They buy the eq, crossover, etc all in one because it's simpler to configure and manage but for people that do only need an amp to amplify, it's not worth it to spend an extra $300 to get a built-in eq or crossover because you won't use it. It's not going to change the sound just because it's there. I'm an advocate of a full active system (passive crossovers rob ~50% of the power you send threw them in the form of heat) and I have a parametric eq, time-alignment, and 3-way crossover in my source unit. I just need an amp to amplify what I send it and pass that to my speakers. I also use raw speakers since I don't need passive crossovers and I'm not paying some car audio company to repackage and markup something I can buy direct.

 

I see you've been doing some research.

So then do you believe the internal processing of your head unit is just as good an an external one with the same features?

Also, it doesn't seem like it costs more to get built-in eq and crossovers. Seems like it costs more to get "pure" amps that don't have extra features.

 

my $300 planet audio amp is as good as a Tru amp. (just thought I would dumb this thread down a little) :D

 

grnxb, sound wise...that could be very possible.

vt, I think the lesser components you have in the signal path, the less chance you have of picking up distortion or interference. By everything being in the HU (amp aside) things are almost directly connected and you don't have patch cables running all over your ride to connect your devices. Active vs. passive can be debated all day but I'd rather have my sound tweaked before it's amped rather than after.

 

Yes chance of noise being introduced into the system is very possible, but I take it as part of the install process. I don't know, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Got this great processor sitting under my bed, but just too lazy to install it.

 

Amen

 

One of the huge factors no one mentioned in this thread is Slew Rate of an amp.....the higher it is, the faster it is..This has an effect on how the amp sounds

 

Errr....I used to pay attention to slew rate and damping factor....especially since my Zapcos were tops at that almost. But I'm just not sure anymore if they make a noticeable difference, gotta check the specs of my current amps sometime.