samson 700 amp for subs

[lowfi]

howdy all,
i'm gathering parts for a serious sub project. and am wondering about amps. has anyone got any advice regarding my two contenders?

hypex HS500 $ us 549

or

Samson 700 $us 369

to drive a dual, Lambda SBP-12, push-pull, TL sub?

thanks for any input!!
cheers,
scott

[Dustin Haug]

Can't comment on the Hypex, but unless I'm mistaken SVS sells the Samson amps for use with their Sonosubs. From what I've heard they're supposed to be very good price/performance amps. But if you should check out Crown K1 or K2 or lots of people here tend to recommend Bryston amps which I haven't heard but are supposed to be awesome.

[lowfi]

thanks for the reply,
i'd like to keep the cost to no more than $550 or so. maybe i should just by a good used amp online or something.

[brainsalad]

I run a subwoofer array (4-12's & 4-15's) in my home theater and have tried a couple of different pro amps and have had great success. Pro amps do much better than "hifi" amps due to their ability to drive complex impedance curves, they typically have very high damping factors, and they don't have all the "voodoo" and "hype" typically associated with the high end amps so they can keep the costs down. I run several Crest CPX1500's and Mackie 1400i's. The Crest's are around $500 and produce tons of power. stereo - 300@8, 500@4, 750@2, bridged 1000@8, 1500@4. Another great amp is the Mackie 1400i, about the same amount of power, and they are also around 500-600 price range. The disadvantage's - they have fans so I have mounted mine in a closet/storage room and if you put them in a cabinet with doors on them, you can't hear them. Another down side is they are typically run balanced or can be run unbalanced via 1/4 phone plugs.

[Original Burnedfingers]

You could pick up a used Altec Lansing 9444 or 9446 or EV 2600 or 3200. The 9444/2600 will put out 800watts mono bridged. The 9446/3200 will put out 1200 watts mono bridged. Both of these amps were designed for commercial/industrial usage and will take the punishment. You can usally pick up a used 9444 for less than $150.00 on ebay and a 9446/3200 for less than $200. To be honest I wouldn't purchase a cheap amp like you are looking at. No offense meant. A "Good" hifi amp like a Briston, old SAE, Ampzilla or the like will have no problem driving a 4 ohm load. There is nothing wrong with HiFi amps the problem lies in the bargan basement cheap amps. In other words if you buy the cheap amps be prepared for them to blow up. Its all in design, a properly designed amp will run a complex load. Just my .02


Joe

[MRehorst]

Pick up a used Soundcraftsmen PCR800 for about $150 on ebay. Absolutely bullet proof with ANY load. 200W/ch 8 Ohs, 300 W/ch into 4 Ohms. Bridgeable for huge amounts of power.

I have been using an older PM860 for about 15 years and it has NEVER given me ANY trouble, even driving ESLs, ribbons (without transformers!), and normal speakers.

MR

[Redeye]

Worth having a look at the Crown Pulse amps (designed by C-Audio, rebadged due to Harman Group politics). The sound quality is superb and they are bomb-proof in my experience. There's 4*350W, 2*650W and 2*1100W versions, all bridgeable.

[bob4]

Hi lowfi,

Another great amp to look for on ebay: Crown CA series.
I bought a used CA 6 (it was used at the EXPO 2000) for 900 EUR (notice that there was still warranty on it, and it was in perfect condition, checked by a tech before selling etc. on Ebay you may find cheaper offers.

The amp puts out 2 x 400 watts @ 8 ohms, so it's a real hefty one!

[patch]

Patch here:

I bet that samson would work fine. I've used a skinny little 120 samson to run a 12 inch Emience (92db) in sub setup. I don't play the lower half octave all that loud, and the amp works fine. Good luck with your testing!

[SleeperSupra]

The Soundcraftsmen PCR800 is supposed to be stable to 0.8 ohms.

I am running both of mine bridged mono driving 4 ohm loads with no problems at all. Very rugged amps and they sound amazing. Probably the best Dollar per watt and sound quality ratio of any amp in the world...