Ideas For A Beefy Solid State Amp For Subwoofer Duties

@wolf_garcia 

Yes, good point. I don't want to hear fans..not the spinning variety.

Interesting comments.

@russ69  it’s been on my mind, the point you make about lightweight amps with lots of watts, versus heavy hitters weighing 100lbs that deliver a lot less power, at least on paper:)
I suppose SMPS help in this regard, but yes... point taken.

@millercarbon   I’ve been messing around with powered subs and plate amps and I want to try a different approach. In theory, once all the hardware and cabling is in place, the room measured and DSP working, I should be able to pull out one amp and replace it with another, with only basic software tweaks to the DSP. Then I can see how one amp compares to the next and which sounds better. Look at it a different way -  roughly speaking, we slice up the sound of our systems into 3 fairly equal portions - high frequency, midrange and bass. When looking at the attention to detail and the money we spend on powering the HF and Mids, it seems crazy handing over bass duties to a crappy little plate amp mass-produced in China and sold here for a few hundred bucks. I know, you can pick many holes in my logic, but for me it makes sense...and... it’s another project and more stuff!

I have all the hardware other than the amps, so I’m almost ready to rock and roll.

@spatialking thanks, I’ll check those out.

Rooze

UPDATE:
Well, I came home with a new toy on Monday, a Crown XLS2502 power amp.
Last night was spent making some major changes. Pulled the plate amps from two Aerial SW-12 subs. Was relieved to find that behind the plate amps was a sealed enclosure with binding posts already sitting there for direct connection to the driver! (saved me making a plate to cover the hole and fitting new posts).

Initially I just hooked-up the XLS2502 and set the low-pass on the amp to 80hz, and took it for a spin.
Wow. Just in this crude configuration the bass sounded better than via the plate amps with their EQ / Phase controls etc. The XLS2502 has a firm grip on the big 15" drivers, even at high SPL's they sounded far more controlled than before. I could 'feel' more air moving in the sense of more visceral impact, and things were rattling in the room that hadn't rattled before!

So far so good.

Next, I setup the new miniDSP 2x4HD. Leaving my main speakers out of the circuit, it was a breeze to drop-in the miniDSP with an output from my vari-out on the Manley Steelhead, into the DSP, then a pair of outs, one each to the XLS2502 amp.

It took me a couple hours to get the miniDSP working, and another hour to run some measurements, create new values for the PEQ, get them loaded into the miniDSP and the system back online.

Hmmm....these were very rough and crude measurements, just basically me figuring out the new DSP for the first time....but....Wow #2.

OK, it's far from perfect as it stands but it's a great start, and already better than using the plate amps. I found the REW software a pain so today I bought a firmware update for the miniDSP to use Dirac, and I'm waiting for Hong Kong to wake up so I can get my software!

Summary - replacing a plate amp, even one from a $5000 subwoofer, with half of a $650 ProAudio amp, gives better bass....tighter, deeper, more controlled.
Once I get the DSP working my plan is to pull the XLS and try different amps to see how they impact bass performance.
Again, why do we think it's ok to spend $$$$$ on amps for the mids and highs, yet hand over bass duties to a $200 plate amp strapped to the back of a vibrating box!! 
I intend to find out!
rooze