Subwoofer Amplifiers

[tubesaregood]

Are there any companies beyond DBX and NHT that make or have made separate (NOT plate) home audio subwoofer amplifiers? If so, what are they?

 

[Rik]

Velodyne SC-1250
or
DAYTON HPSA1000-R

 

[agarwalro]

I dont mean to hijack the thread... but a related question came to me when looking at the original question.

What is the difference between a subwoofer amp and a regular amp? Cant I use a regular amp (say Behringer A500 bridged to mono) coupled with an external cross over or receiver handling the cross over?

 

[j_garcia]

I saw that Dayton in their flyer recently. I'm about ready to pick one up, but it doesn't have an SS filter like the current plate amp I'm using. It will give me about 300w more peak power though...

 

[Rik]

I saw that Dayton in their flyer recently. I'm about ready to pick one up, but it doesn't have an SS filter like the current plate amp I'm using. It will give me about 300w more peak power though...

It has a sub sonic filter, it's set at 18 hz. The tech support at PE will refer you to a how to article to change it lower, but it voids the warranty of the amp.

 

[j_garcia]

Interesting, cuz the flyer didn't mention that. I'll have to check it out. My sub is tuned to 17Hz though, so I might need it set lower. With my current amp I have it at 14Hz.

 

[jeffsg4mac]

I dont mean to hijack the thread... but a related question came to me when looking at the original question.

What is the difference between a subwoofer amp and a regular amp? Cant I use a regular amp (say Behringer A500 bridged to mono) coupled with an external cross over or receiver handling the cross over?

I have two velodynes that I took that amps out of and I am driving them with a behringer EP 2500. Way better. IMHO, the only way to drive a sub is with a very powerful external amp. I just need to build a sub that goes down below 20 now.

 

[JES14]

I'm using a PSB CWA-1 sub amp for my SVS 25-31 passive sub. It's 300 watts RMS and has the usual room eq. settings, gain, boost and cross overs.. I have had it about a week and really has a lot of grunt, low, loud and shook my hair during the shootout in Open Range. It was $400 CDN and I was told by PSB tech support that is a BASH design.

 

[j_garcia]

There are some small things that generally differentiate a sub amp from a regular amp, most notably the x-over capability. Others may have things like continuously variable phase, boost, built in EQ, etc... and they are generally designed with driving extreme power demands of a sub in mind. If you don't need these features and are feeding the sub with a preamp out already, a pro amp will work well too. The guy I bought my sub off of was driving it previously with a bridged Crown amp with a total of 1200w peak. I'm giving it about 700 peak and it will give me well in excess of REF level.

 

[B5I8]

Crown makes some nice subwoofer amplifiers.

 

[tubesaregood]

Thanks, guys. It's pretty unfortunate that there really aren't very many out there. I've been trying to get my hands on a DBX XB140 on eBay for awhile now, and I was just wondering what my other options are. Obvioulsy, they're limited, and of all those amps, the XB140 looks like the only one I'd want, really. The NHT amps aren't stereo and the others are either too powerful/too expensive for me to justify buying. I have a DBX sw-15 which is actually pretty sweet, and I wanted a separate amp to power it or even car subwoofers for my room. I guess that the sw-15 is almost not designed for use with a subwoofer amp because of its crossover design. Hell, I have a couple of Rockford Punch HE 8 inchers in a box that are being replaced in my truck by one Polk db10. It would be pretty sweet to use those in my house with that amp.

I WILL have an XB140 one of these days!

 

[GreenJelly]

I dont mean to hijack the thread... but a related question came to me when looking at the original question.

What is the difference between a subwoofer amp and a regular amp? Cant I use a regular amp (say Behringer A500 bridged to mono) coupled with an external cross over or receiver handling the cross over?

A subwoofer amp can switch at a much slower rate then a regular amp. This lower switch rate isnt notice able due to the lower freq.

A Lower Switch Rate can lead to more effecient designs, though will start to break apart at higher freq. This is most often seen in the Car Audio market, but I would assume it also occur's at the Home Theater level too.

Remember it is a Quality = Value - Price, So if you can find a Low Priced Item that offers high quality then you win! But each subwoofer is different, and the opperating freq, they use will be important.

Let Me state that I know the above is true, and that I suspect the following (though cant back it up with anything but discussions with people who seem to know what they are talking about). Lower Switch Rate Amps can provide more power with less failure (Clip) at lower Hz.