WARNING: VERY LONG
*This amp is currently still in prototype stage and is not available to the public yet.
Top View
Top View - Cover Removed
Top View - Plenum Removed and Cicuitary Visable

Personalization
>Sound Quality, DSP control, and power. The toughest decision might be selecting a TYPE RF amplifier from the seven models in the product line. Choices include three stereo models, a 4-channel model and three mono subwoofer amplifiers utilizing Rockford's patented Class bd design. Once the correct system configuration has been determined, the innovation continues by selecting the personality of the amplifier colors. The cockpit and suspension covers are available in seven different colors, all named for rare gems and jewels. After all, it is personalized artwork. These combinations will allow up to 196 different color combinations.

The Challenge
Why did we start building the Type RF Amplifier the years ago? Simply put, customers asked for it. Rockford Fosgate has always been focused on customer demands. And, the customers in the last 5 years have become very demanding. Especially, with regards to sound quality, power, and wanting more control of the audio signal.

Type RF is the result of thousands of man-hours of research, and 3 years of experimenting, designing, testing, then finally, and most importantly listening. The result? Seven amplifiers that in our biased opinion are the finest sounding, sonically controllable, powerful amplifiers that have ever been designed in the Universe.

The Type RF team addressed the challenges of building the finest mobile amplifier in a unique way. Some of the technical information about these challenges are provided here. The complete behind the scenes Type RF evolution, along with specifications, design models and engineering white papers from the Type RF team are available on the Internet. These documents are only viewable on the Type RF area of the rockfordfosgate.com web site. These documents will not be printable from the web. Some secrets still need to be kept.

The Process
Designing a product as unique as the Type RF amplifier requires talent and vision. This team has both. The design team was actually divided into two sub teams: Cosmetic design and engineering. The cosmetic team, headed by Mark Lowe, employed a process that began with field research. Talking with, and more importantly listening to discriminating customers about real world applications for this never before seen series of amplifiers. The engineering team headed by Jim Wilson, began researching the newest technology in heat transfer, and most importantly sound quality. These components are the finest ever considered for the automotive environment.

The Amplifier
The end result of this work is the Type RF, the new benchmark of sound quality, DSP audio control and power… lots of power.
Let’s go on a tour of what is happening inside the Type RF.

Controlling Heat
Controlling amplifier heat is the engineer’s most important hurdle when designing a powerful sound quality amplifier. That is because when a component heats up, it can alter its acoustic signature. That is manifested as various types of distortion in the reproduction of music. Therefore, the solution is keeping all critical components cool.

Sound Quality First
Patented TRANSnova circuit topology
Many people who have listened to TRANSnova design amplifiers call them the sweetest, warmest sounding solid-state amplifiers available!

Almost 10 years ago, Dr. Jim Strickland, Rockford’s VP of Engineering designed and patented a revolutionary new amplifier design called TRANSnova. The old saying that “less is more” applies to TRANSnova…it’s simple but brilliant design has won awards and accolades from around the world. Taking advantage of this sound quality technology the Type RF full range amplifiers use the TRANSnova design for unsurpassed audiophile sound quality.

Control the Sound Quality
Controlling this great sound quality without altering it in any way was the next challenge. Type RF engineer Richard Povenmire, one of the best DSP engineers in the business who had a plan that would set the Type RF DSP apart from the echo boxes that seem to be the accepted norm. This was serious Digital Signal Processing. Richard has built-in virtually every signal control a critical listener could use, right in the amp…all in the digital domain.

The DSP features include adjustable input gain to accommodate 150mV to 6V input signals. This means maximum flexibility when integrating other components. In the crossover section, the amplifiers allow High Pass, Low Pass, or All Pass crossover configurations with variable frequency selection in very useful steps. Add to that selectable 12, or 24 dB per octave crossover slopes. This is a lot of control all built into an amplifier, but that’s not it. Rich then goes really exotic by adding Linear Phase crossovers and individual channel time delay circuitry.

To finish off the audio control there is Punch EQ style Bass and Treble controls plus an adjustable and switch able Subsonic filter. All of these DSP functions are easily adjusted from the 16 characters, two line scrolling display screen mounted conveniently on the top of the amplifier.

The best part is that should Mr. Povenmire decide to make an improvement in the parameters of the DSP technology, or realize that he left a feature out, these DSP features are upgradeable from an authorized Rockford Fosgate Type RF dealer.

Now for Power
The MOSFET transistor is the best type of device to use when building a good quality mobile amplifier. That’s why Rockford Fosgate has been using them for more than 25 years, in every amplifier it has ever built. In some sense it could be said that early Fosgate Electronics engineers Jim Fosgate and John France were visionaries.

Their vision established the MOSFET as the industry standard in high performance mobile amplifiers.

Activity in the semiconductor industry has begun to run counter to the needs of the high power audio world. Fewer and fewer MOSFETs are available in the desired power ranges and convenient package styles. At the same time, silicon foundries around the world are pressured into shrinking the size of their silicon in response to the need to miniaturize and cut cost in the automotive and telecom sectors. This industry-wide shrinkage is in part availability and power handling restrictions. This is not good news for the audio designer. But it does present an interesting opportunity.

As the demand of the telecom industry’s cell phones has skyrocketed over the last few years, so too has the need for more powerful base stations to keep heavy call volume regions connected. Manufacturers of power base stations command a great deal of attention from the silicon foundries and have driven them to continue to build big, powerful silicon. However, all these companies realized that the most economical way to produce high performance power MOSFETs was in the TO-247 package, not in the traditional TO-220 commonly in use in mobile audio. The Type RF family takes advantage of this industry trend driven by some of the biggest names in the high tech world. The Type RF with its TO-247 MOSFET components stands as a unique power plant in the landscape or audio amplifiers.

The TO-247 is a very powerful, and very expensive component. They’re big, their powerful, and they are in every Type RF amplifier in the family.

The Cooler the Amplifier, the Better
Rockford engineer Jim Wilson is the guy that developed the revolutionary MEHSA technology that keeps all of Rockford Fosgate Punch and Power series amplifiers running cool and allows them to produce the power that Rockford Fosgate is famous for. In the Type RF amplifier the MEHSA technology of cooling the output device before attaching it to the heat sink has been improved by increasing the thermal conductivity of the dielectric material by 20%.

Once the heat has been transferred out of the critical components the real innovation takes over by increasing the fin density to mass ratio. The award winning airflow management design is a four-stage component that forces air through the amplifier much like an inter-cooler for a turbo charged engine. To understand how the system design works, it is necessary to understand each of the four components.

First, the foundation
For the Type RF amp (and for the first time ever), Jim used extensive predictive calculations confirmed by computer modeling to optimize the mass of the heat sink to the surface area need for cooling. Just like in a high performance engine, high surface area aluminum is the key to dissipating heat. Controlled airflow across this finned radiator increases power dissipation 5 times more effectively than conventional cooling systems.

Second, the PC Board
Here again we see our engineers overbuilding to make the best. Aerospace grade FR4 PC board material has been utilized for the Type RF amplifier, as only the best will do. In addition, the PC Boards are a series of stacked FR4 boards. The benefit to this stacked design is space. By, mounting the controls for DSP and other audio controls on the on the top of the amplifier the Type RF design allows more space between components. Once that space is freed up, the circuit engineers like Jim Strickland and Carlos Castrejon were able to reduce thermal hotspots. See the theme? Reduce heat through balanced power distribution and increase the sound quality, power, and reliability.

Third level, the Plenum
The third level of the cooling system is a polycarbonate insert called a Plenum that helps to create a custom Volute. Basically, a Volute is a null area where airflow can build up velocity and be distributed across the fin arrays. The centrifugal fan pulls air through the top mounted vents in the cowling of the amplifier forcing it over the circuit board into the Volute and over the fins escape. The result is an amplifier design that stays very cool where it counts, in the sound quality and power components.

The finish, the top cowling
The cowling completes the system design with its curved trailing edges that partially hides the fin arrays. The shape of the edge on the cowling keeps the airflow even, and guarantees equal performance from each the fins in the array.

Class bd POWER & POWERsync
The three mono subwoofer amplifiers incorporate Rockford Floodgate’s patented Classbd amplifier design. Developed by Jim Strickland and Carlos Castrejon. They know amp design better then most…they have been designing amps for Rockford Fosgate for the past 16 years. The Class bd amplifiers make huge amounts of tight, clean and dynamic bass. And these Class bd amps do it with around 80% efficiency. That is to say that 80% of the power being drawn from the car’s electrical system is being converted into acoustic energy, or music power, and not being wasted on heat. Just in case a single Classbd amplifier is not enough, use two. All Class bd amplifiers have the ability to POWERsync, that is, for two mono amplifiers to be powered into one sub bass system. More is always better, especially when reproducing the tones of today’s digital recordings, and digital playback

Real World Power
Don’t let the conservative RMS power ratings on the Type RF amplifiers mislead. Rockford Fosgate engineers built loads of headroom into all 7 models. “Headroom” is another word for an amplifiers ability to reproduce the musical peaks and dynamics so common in today’s digital music. Type RF’s ability to almost double its power output when the music requires it, guarantees there will always be power in reserve to insure that kick drums and bass guitars, or full fortissimo orchestral pieces hit with clarity without distortion.. In order for an amplifier to accomplish this feat it must be over built, and very well cooled, and we’ve certainly covered that.

The Class bd amplifiers include some very useful features including for single control and installation flexibility including a Low Pass (12dB fixed 12dB variable) crossovers and Remote Punch Bass. Also an easily accessible, switch-able top mounted 24 dB @ 20 Hz Subsonic filter for very critical system designs.

Award Winning Design
Choosing the Type RF amplifier is more than just a statement about selecting the best in audio performance for a system design. It’s about choosing a piece of artwork designed for incredible sound quality and unmatched power. From the minute that Mark Lowe’s team first considered the project, the single-minded goals were “something no-one has ever seen before”.

But, as usual Rockford Fosgate doesn’t have to say it. The prestigious Innovations Award is a design award that celebrates innovation and technology. Among all of the global entries in the amplifier category, the 2002 Type RF X3 was selected as the winner of this coveted industry award.

All that is left is selecting the correct amplifiers for a given system design. Seven different models from stereo and four 4-channel configurations to the Patented Classbd mono designs. Once the correct system configuration has been determined the innovation continues by selecting the personality of the amplifier colors. The cockpit and suspension covers are available in 6 different colors that will allow up to 196 different color combinations.

Built with Pride in the USA
Rockford Fosgate has always stood for American values. In this case it’s the freedom of expression. We choose to express ourselves by designing the most incredible piece of technology every assembled in America for car audio fanatics all over the universe. The Rockford Corporation has been located in Tempe, Arizona; USA since the beginning and it is the home of the Type RF engineer, design and manufacturing groups.

Closing
The 18 engineers and designers on the Type RF team represent 120 years of collective of experience in amplifier circuit designs and technology. Their goal was simple: to build the best series of automotive amplifier in the world. To se a new standard by whish amplifier would be judged. Achieving that goal was anything but simple. For almost 3 years they labored, tested, retested, sweated the details and put their formidable experience into this project. The outcome? We believe the Type RF to be the finest amplifier that we have created in our 25-year history. After a visit to the password protected, Type RF area of the rockfordfosgate.com website, we suggest an audition. See why of the Type RF amplifiers are the final decision in high performance.

Sorry about the length but its amazing to see that Rockford Fosgate puts so much detail and research into their components. Definatly an interesting read and once its released they will have a winner on their hands!

Source: Rockford Fosgate USA

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Media Contributer and News Promoter
1968 Ford Cortina Mark 2 (Rare 2 Door Model)
Head Unit: Pioneer DEH-1350B CD Tuner
Front Stage: Infinity Beta 1" Tweeters, Pioneer TS-C1625 6" Midbass'and Pioneer TS-C1625 Crossovers
Subwoofers: 2 x 8 ohm 12 inch Oz Audio Custom Built for SQ.
Sub Amps: Weconic VX-4475 4x75WRMS (bridged to run 2x200WRMS)
Wiring: Aerpro, Stinger and Jaycar
Waiting to be installed: Infinity Beta 6.5" Midbass.
[email="Slain@mobileelectronics.com"]Slain@mobileelectronics.com[/email]

[Edited 1 time by Slain on 29 March 2002 at 13:49]

Onya Slain. They look Da Biz don't they?

Keep up the good work, moit

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Mazda SP20 - NOT yellow,Dynamat Extreme in front doors
HU - Alpine CDA-7876RB
Amplification - Alpine MRV-F407 bridged to front splits
Kicker ZR240 bridged to sub
Front Splits - Boston RC820. Faded completely to front.
Rear fill - stockies with power from HU (not that they get any)
Sub - Alpine Type R 10" in ported box
Stinger cables and connectors etc
The little mouse that ROARED