mono amp for sub

In a similar situation and wrestled with this. Used 1 channel of a cheap Sony stereo which worked pretty well. Tried a DIY plate amp, not enough gain control. Found that a straight amp and the prepro's lfe +/- adjustment wasn't enough. Was leaning towards proamps (crown, qsc, etc) with a gain adjustment. I also used a good quality car audio amp I had around (hifonics zeus) with a 12vdc power supply, worked well but clumbsy configuration...

Here's what I have coming and I'll let you know how it works out.... I bought a Buttkicker amp. Class D that only responds in the 10-200Hz freq range. Said to put out 1100W into 4ohm (way more than I need or the sub it rated for) and is said to be 2 ohm stable and double power. It has the crossover and volume level control.

email me in a few days or maybe I'll follow up with how it works as a sub amp.

Eldartford

That was my point although you said it much better. My Onkyo M-504 has large power meters, at 60hz. and below my Vmps subs hardly draw over 100 watts even at extream volume levels. Those power levels are peak at that!

90% of music is in the 0-50 watt range to be honest.

Something like an $2,500 Bryston for that limited freq. range is a waste of money IMHO.

Dave

Rooze...I use CarverPro zr1600 amps for my subwoofers, and they certainly do the job. One advantage, for a SW, of the zr1600, or any digital amp, is that their efficiency is very high. Much music has no signal content in the SW range, and where the music does have such LF content it is usually only for a small portion of the time. Digital amps draw almost no power when there is no signal.

The Carver zr1600 pro has a mono switch and would work well for a sub. It has a good deal of lower end control in stereo mode, so ought to work well.
Rooze

Not sure why you would want to waste an amp like the Bryston in the first place, subs need no such amp.

I use an Onkyo M-504 to drive my Vmps subs...over-kill to say the least.

Dave

KGvet,

I was in a similar situation to yours a couple years ago when I decided to try a better amp on my NHT SW3P. The NHT SA-3 mono amp wasn't cutting it. I also considered the Bryston 7B, but opted for a 4B instead just in case I decided to do a dual sub DIY. I still haven't built it.

I'm still using the 4B, and just one channel is much better than the NHT amp. Maybe you could go with an older 7B or 7NRB which should save you some cash as opposed to getting a newer 7ST or 7SST.

Otherwise, the Crown amp idea is a good one.

Good luck.

Crown K1. Easy to drive, gobs of power, can be found cheap used, no fans, awesome bass.

Ron-C

Try the Outlaw M200 (www.outlawaudio.com).

Kenwood LO7M (vintage from the 80's). DC coupled from input to output, and super for a SW amp. (Lots of luck finding one).

Cheap solution: an Eagle amp--those suckers put out the bass.

It shouldn't be a good sub amp with only 4 output devices per channel, but it is, the best for pace I know of so far, but then again, I haven't tried a Krell, Levinson, or other for a sub amp either.

Can find them used for about a kilobuck.

loon

Try one of the many new digital amps...small, very powerful and fast. Some can even be found as mono-block. Of course a stereo unit can also be used with only one channel used unless you added another sub some day.

What sub are you using by the way and how much power do you need? How large is your room?

Dave