quote:
Originally posted by FuK[NuTz]2k:
the difference would depend alot on the speakers.
lets just wait for shiny to arrive shall we 
i think a lot of people will have an opinion here, and quite likely people will disagree.
IMO, there
is a difference between amps. but as fuk[nutz] mentions, it would depend largely on the quality of the speakers and any difference is small. and it helps to have a premium HU and CD recording.
the more 'revealing' the speakers, the more any difference is likely to be noticed. as such, it would be more apparent with quality splits. any difference does not necessarily render one amp better than another, just different. people often comment on clarity and stereo imaging/soundstaging (essentially good channel separation), and an amp that's either highly revealing or sterile compared with warmth. overall, there is different 'colouration' to the sound reproduction depending on the amp, speakers, and HU.
as i say, many people disagree that you can hear difference, but i will disagree with them.
for subs and subamps, you'd won't notice a difference when the amps are not pushed. however, push amps toward their limits (combination of high volume and difficult loads (eg: power hungry sub of low impedence), and lesser amps will run ragged. quality subamps will maintain their power outputs by virtue of their design and internal powersupply as much as anything and provide better SQ.
IMO, a couple principles to follow:
*you get what you pay for: a quality amp, depsite its perceived lower power outputs, should always perform better than most budget ones hyped up with high power specs; most splits will perform at their best with an amp offering 50~100WRMS per channel
*component match: in terms of overall quality, no point buying a $3000 amp to run some $300 splits; so match things together and they will better compliment each other
*choose the correct amp for the job: a subamp requires grunt, so look for dedicated subamps (eg: monoblocs, class D amps, premium 2-channel amp); of course any amp can run a sub, and should do so very well at lower volumes or with lower power handling subs, creating a decent combination (again, about component matching); for splits, look for nice SQ at the expense of rated power outputs
*xovers: better quality xovers can help; for splits using HP filters, usually 12dB/oct steepness is fine; for subs, a steeper 24dB/oct xover can be better as it more dramatically filters out the unwanted (higher) frequencies that can upset the soundstage if detected from the back of the car where your sub is; variable xovers rather than fixed offers much better flexibility when it comes to tuning
maybe i'm not directly answering your Q, but hopefully it illustrates that more expensive amps offer more than just better specs. there's also build quality and reliability, so in the example of VNET vs V12, it's more than just SQ. premium amps are often much more underrated powerwise than budget amps (where the specs can be optimistic).
like others say (cyberpunky
), if you could get top SQ and quality from a budget amp, we'd all be using boss amps.
however, i will add that, for a given price range (eg: amps $500~800) there would usually be no audible difference. the different costs could account for build quality and R&D, which equates to better reliability hopefully. but, matched to the right components, you should notice a difference between a $300 and a $1000 amp.
and at least i'm hoping there's a difference between 2 V12's of $1600 value and 2 audison VRx's of $3400 value!
hope this helps. will be interesting to see what other have to say.
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/////ALPINE audison DYNAUDIO polkaudio OPTIMA Stinger LIGHTNINGAUDIO
!
spewin about that 6 channel!