Lets talk Class D

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So I'm starting to see some class D stuff popping up in boats now for full range. A few here on this site are running the Eclipse amps with the ICEpower tech. Alpine have been out for a bit now. JL's "new technology" is about to be out. I'm just curious who's using them and what their opinions are.

When I heard them, I immediately picked up a lack of midbass. But my ears tend to be exceptionally sensitive to this stuff and I didn't get to mess with the settings. After further research others point this out as well, so maybe I was right on.

Just curious what others opinions are. As drawing less power is always nice considering our power limitations and extended play times, but at the sacrifice of what????

Then we have another kid about to roll into the playground sporting a class G classification. Things are getting interesting now.

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You know it's kind of funny how all this "New Technology" is popping up, when in reality it's been around for a longggggg time but was just wayyyy ahead of it's time.

Case in point... JL's RIP technology that keeps the amps giving the same power no matter what the Ohm load is. Well BLADE amps did that way back in 93. Actually these little guys were probably one of the most wayyyyy ahead of their time amps ever. I know most you guys probably don't even know these amps, but they were AWESOME. They had the technology I mentioned b4, and were even an A/B amp that delivered Class D efficiency. And were TINYYYYYYYYY to boot. I wish Indigo would produce these little guys again, the SE line at least.

The 6 channel would have been nice for us with 6 cabin speakers 6x100 ... it was quite long though...lol.

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I am running a Class g/f amp in my boat from my understanding. It sounds great to me and I can hear the sound at 65 feet for sure. This technolgy only enhances upon the A, B, and D classes.

But again, Phil will be online today I would hope to clear up a little information regarding this to... Where is sp also?????

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Which brand of amp are you running david?

I can't think of anyone off the top of my head that have them out right now. Unless your testing for someone. Course I could be missing someone. Although there are some home audio stuff that is class G.

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ARC Audio KAR series 300.2 and 1000.1 is what I have.

http://www.arcaudio.com/amps.asp

Ops, it's G/H per the documents. i thought it was F....

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I actually knew what you were trying to say .... should have known it was Zeff.

I guess I'm old school, I'm still concerned with all this switching and processing aimed at calming distortion in these Class D and G amps, that the sound Q suffers some. Of course... you have to take into account the environment we're in, so Sound Q is slightly out the window...lol. I'd be curious to see what these sound like hooked up to a set of Rainbow's or Utopia's in a properly set up car. Could be great for all I know... just kind of curious.

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I really like them. The only time I hear distortion is when it's cranking. Now, it does sound like you have a more sensitive ear than I do.

You can query the dealerships to see if one is close to you so you can hear for yourself. All you need is a zip code...

http://www.arcaudio.com/dealer.asp

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I know right where my Arc dealer is already ... I used to run all Arc stuff And I'd put money that your pleased as punch with your amps

Guess I'm gonna have to go give them a listen. I'll tell you the new class G amp that's coming out should flip some things upside down here. It definately sounds awesome if the Sound Q is up to par like it sounds like it should be.

I'm waiting to see Phil or Tim's opinions on things.

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Those new classes are Zeff's makings???

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No no no .... Zeff designs all of Arc's stuff... used to do all of Zapco's stuff. Those classes of amplifiers have existed for some time... it was always a matter of employing them into car audio though. For some time it was cost prohibitive, among other reasons.

You have the Tripath class D stuff... or some refer to as class T. You also have the ICEpower class D stuff which is from the B&O lab. Then you have the class D stuff that JL is about to release... not sure who's designing this. Then there's the BASH technology that I mentioned above which is still A/B but operates at Class D efficiency. It comes from Indigo who only sells to manfucturers now, instead of producing their own line. But as far as I know, Zeff was the first to implement class G into car audio amplifiers. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Something I should note though, is that the class G should come closer to reproducing the sound of an A/B amp as it's based on A/B amp. Hmmmm, sounds kind of like the Bash stuff I mentioned... could there have been a class G floating around way back in 93? Nah... I don't really think the Blade stuff was class G. But we're getting above my knowledge level. That's a question for Spharis or Phil.

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Come on guys.... I knowwww some of you guys are itching to chime in

[wetsounds1]

I was going to type here but remember reading an article from Robert. He can explain it better than anyone.

http://www.caraudiomag.com/specialfe...ier/index.html

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Good find Wetsounds1. Very informative and easy to understand.