How Bad Are The Amps In An Ipod Dock?

[Patrick Bateman]

Does anyone know if the amplifiers in those 3 piece sub-satellite systems are garbage?

Here's the situation.

I upgraded my speakers recently, and relegated the old ones to a spare room. I didn't have an extra amplifier, so I hooked up my $800 speakers to a $400 Ipod dock that I had. Basically I replaced the tiny little 4" Ipod Speakers with a 15" two way. Lo and behold, it didn't sound bad at all. And it's SO convenient - I love being able to charge the Ipod, play PS3 games on great speakers, etc.

Basically it's working just fine as an amplifier, and I'm happy. The amp is a 150 watt class D affair, so this isn't some cut-rate model from Wal Mart.

So here's the problem. The speakers have *very* high efficiency, so the sub can't keep up. The idea that I had was to add THREE more subs, wire them all series parallel, and hang them off the plate amp that powers the FIRST sub. Since it's series parallel, the load remains the same. But the overall efficiency will improve, with three additional subs.

Is this a bad idea?

Here's the ipod dock:

http://www.jamo.com/Default.aspx?ID=5915&M=Shop&PID=17154&ProductID=17629

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

 

[wakibaki]

It's not a bad idea, you'll probably get a bit of an improvement in the bass.

If you'll forgive me, it's an unusual way to spend $1200+ on a sound system...

w

 

[Patrick Bateman]

Yeah, my intention was to put them in the spare room temporarily, and the Ipod dock was already there, with the 4" satellites.

I was surprised how good it sounded, the use of quality speakers with the dock was a DRAMATIC improvement.

 

[ostripper]

150 W PMPO, I use a REAL 150W to drive a huge dayton 12"
sub.

this uses a small class d chip that does a true 40W and
satellites use another to do 20w/ch true rms.

I'm sure it sounds good but it can't "shake the glasses off the
table".... a true 150W with a large sub is "scary" and will
get the police called to your house ...

BTW , that little class d chip will "scream" with 3 subs
hooked to it. Get a hypex.nl 180 Watt unit (will run 2ohms)
real cheap....

 

[MJL21193]

a true 150W with a large sub is "scary" and will
get the police called to your house ...

Just 150 watts? Peanuts.

 

[ostripper]

That all has to do with efficiency , 150W with a 92+ db/watt sub
will out "crank" a 400W sub w/88watt/db so I "save the
planet" and get the cops called for 1/3 the power !!

BTW , I dont want 1Kw.., I want most DB/ per watt
I get 150 all day / 300+ on peaks , very good for HT..
low power bills, no auditorium here..

Cool amp though.. must be rich/cheap canadian hydropower $$$$ !!
(my amp has only 4 outputs 65-0-65 V /50$)

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

 

[MJL21193]

.. must be rich!!

No, just deranged.

I'm using 93db/watt drivers.
Here's the Unibox sim. Take note of the output at 500 watts. The amp has an LT tailored to the response of those drivers in that 100 litre box. The LT gives me nearly flat response down to 20Hz at 123db.

 

[ostripper]

here you would get homeland security called on you....
I only get 115 db/30hz at 150W ,but that only gets The glasses
moving. (practical application).