Wetsounds SYN 4 vs Alpine PDX 4-150 comparison

Is a digital amp better than a H class in terms of sound quaility for 3 pairs of xs-650's. I need one more amp and wanted to get opinions on the two amps mentioned.

I have 2 wetsounds 485's on the tower and they are UNDER powered and I know it because of I'm only using a single JL300/2. I'm either going to use both/two of my JL 300/2's to power the 485's which I think gives them 600 watts and put the SYN 4 on my new set of xs-650's.

Or do I put the SYN 4 on the 485's and get 800 watts and use BOTH (2) of the JL 300/2's for the 3 pairs xs-650's.

What is the best set up and use of power??

pictures of the amps. I want to buy either the SYN4 or the PDX4-150

one amp clears the confusion and allows both speakers to be tuned evenly. The Syn amp is designed specifically for the 485's. If you do not buy the SYN you will regret it al summer long, (and i will have to hear about it!). Get the SYN, and we will set it all up with JL 300.2 for the cabins. As you know when i installed the Cadence 300.2 on my four pro 60's it made a world of difference.

IF you just want an amp for the 485's, use a Syn2. That'll be a 2 ohm load on the amp.

aqua, You will be getting more power using the SYN-4 in 2 ch mode. It will be 400x2 vs. the two JL amps you have bridged mono, 300x1 and 300x1. And the pdx 4150 which is 300x2 as well.

So sounds like Gary has the plan! Use the JL's on the XS-650.

To your original question. It has always been known in the past that a class AB amp has a more natural sound than a class D amp. A class H amp like the SYN-4 is a switching amp but it does it based on rail voltage so has a class AB output stage. So as far as the sound quality side, think of it as a class AB and as far as the efficiency side, think of it as efficient as a class D. So you get both the high sound quality and the high efficiency. This is why we use class H. You get the best of both worlds.

Now, recently, there is a new generation of class D's that have upped the sound quality side. In fact we have some prototypes we have been playing with. So the field is narrowing.

John, he cannot run the SYN-2 mono. It is not stable to 2 ohms mono. Only 4 ohms mono or 2 ohms stereo. So he could only use it as a pair, so 200x2. So the SYN-4 is the best choice for a pair of 485's unless you are nuts and want to do a SYN-2 per 485!! 700x1 to each!

Tim
Wet Sounds

IMO only a very well trained ear could tell the diff between a good class AB ( think JL audio) amp and these new digital amps ( specifically the PDX).

On a boat where alt output is very limited, effeciency should be at the very top of amp qualifiers.

(Message edited by wake1823 on April 17, 2009)

I don't think that you could really tell the difference either. I would consider the JL HD600/4 though. I think that would be a good choice if you were wanting to stick with JL. That amp won't put out the same amount of power as the Syn-4, but it is super efficient (80%) and will draw less power.

I personally like to stick with all one company when powering my stuff. I currently run all JL slash series. In the future when I upgrade, I will either go with the Syn amps, or upgrade to all JL HD. I am not sure if there is any advantage to running amps that are all the same, I am just kind of OCD about that kind of thing.

Also, who makes the Syn amps? Is it Arc?

Yeah, sound is so subjective. Some can hear it and some can't. I have been doing this for so long, it is second nature and I can hear so many tiny details in everything. It annoys my wife as I have taught her a lot about audio and now she can hear the differences so she notices when we go to places and the sound is bad etc..Before she would never care. And now she is an audiophile like me!

Whether you look at the SYN amps, or the pdx or the JL. All of them are going to be very close in terms of efficiency. They are all efficient designs.

Wet Sounds and Arc co developed the amplifiers. Robert Zeff, who started Zapco and then sold it to start his own engineering company, is the engineer behind the technology. All 3 of the companies work together on the amps. This was we can share development costs and share some tooling costs. Arc focuses on car audio and Wet Sounds on marine. So we make the design changes we need on our end in terms of power output and crossovers and chassis designs and conformal coating etc...so it is a true marine amp.

Tim
Wet Sounds

^^^From an earlier post, I wanna say it was designed in conjuction with Robert ??? Z. from Zapco.

I think the wetsoudns amps are a great step forawrd to the red-headed spte child we call marine audio. The only con is the casing....everytime I see one of them they remind me of a flashy chromed out audiobahn amp.

I can attest to the power of the syn4. My buddie told me to turn it down while he was riding. He said it was too loud at 75'. I have two pro485's that are being powered by it. Never thought that I would hear that one????

sam, we were worried about the shiny chassis. But it is all stainless and not chrome. So we figured once people found out it was stainless. It changes that perception. And once we got them in and installed in a boat, reflecting off the carpet, it just looked at home in there. Also, a really cool thing you can do is remove the chassis and paint or powder coat it. So you can color match it to the boat. Swap it around so the logo is correct if you want the power connections on one side. Add LED's inside to glow through the holes!

So it gives the owner some custom options.

Tim
Wet Sounds

Syn 2 won't play 2 ohm mono? Glad to know that... Guess I should pay attention to the description more. That'll help on my next sale.

hhhmmm, i didn't know you could swap the cover around, that's good info!!!! thanks tim!

Def. take the class H for your tower speakers over the D.

But in all honesty, the class H & G amps in my experience, are a bit thin and just lack that "punch", when up against an A/B amp. If you talk to Tim about it, he'll be straight up with you, and even he'll tell you, that he catches it. I used to compete in IASCA for sound Q though, so like Tim, I regretably listen for these things! However, unless you have a trained ear, you probably never will catch it.

All that being said. Look at the environment we're in.... it's not exactly conducive to Sound Quality. I wouldn't concern yourself to much with it, b/c as Tim said, sound is sooooo subjective. I would say 99% of people will never notice anything. Especially not without listening to it right next to the same speaker w/ an A/B amp.