Wetsounds SYN4 Amp Vs Eclipse XA5000

My brother asked me to get him an amp for his boat for christmas and being that im a big car audio guy I started looking around. He is totally sold on the Wetsounds SYN4 which to me looks very similar to the ARC Audio KS300.4. Help me out guys, especially that Tim guy from Wetsounds who Ive been reading his replies in the forums. My brother wants to get one of your 10 inch free air subs, the only one listed has dual 4ohm VCs, which by my calculation can only be ran either 8ohm series or 2 ohm parallel, do you have a dual 2 ohm free air sub available? A syn 4 is rated at 125x4 and can be bridged to run two tower speakers and a sub which is what he wants to do, and is being suggested by his boat dealer, Is the syn 4 stable at 2 ohms on the bridged rear channels? or do they run your sub at 8 ohms most the time for half the rated power? I read the part that was stated the syn 4 is different than a KS 300.4, it has 3x25 amps of fuses and specs at 125x4 yet the ks 300.4 has even larger 3x30 amps of fuses and is specs at 90x4 and tested on their own web site to put out 109.5 watts per channel drawing 40 amps at 13.5 volts, it also noted when the rear channel is bridged to drop in efficiency to 66% at 361 watts per channel at 82 amps per channel, how similar are the specs of this amp to the syn4, are there any tests of this amp besides what the manufacture states? Ive been trying to get him to consider the Eclipse xa5000 class d amp, for the fact that it is more efficient, especially in the sub channel, its a 5 channel and one of those is a mono block which is stable at 2 or 4 ohms and from my understanding one of those class d amps they talk about that doesnt have inferior specs for full range, i have an alpine pdx4.150 in my car and a jl 1000/1, oh by the way the price of the syn4 is 599 on the web site and the eclispe is 349 on websites , course i dont know if the syn4 can be found for less, what do you guys think? ive heard arc audio is good and i know zapco is, but if these syn amps are the next best thing since sliced bread let me know and ill replace all my car audio stuff with them

jason

Hey jason,

Just got your e mail as well and sent a response to you there but will list it here so others can read too.

We have both dual 2 ohm and dual 4 ohm XS-10FA subs. So he would go with the dual 2 ohm in series making it a 4 ohm load.

So he would be running 125x2 plus 400x1.

We co-devolped our SYN amps with Robert Zeff (arc audio, formerly of Zapco) We worked together on the design of the base platform. We upped the rail voltage a bit on our 4 ch to produce more power in line with our speakers for a better match. Test results on the SYN-4, it does 4 x 125 at 51 amps with 68% efficiency at 14.4 volts according to cea2006 specs. with the back channels bridged at 4 ohms will do 396x1 with 87amps and 63% efficiency. We will be changing out the fuses to 30 amps on the next run. Most dealers that are running it at the higher power needs swap to 3-30 amp fuses.

The SYN amps are full marine rated as well with conformal coated boards, stainless hardware and the chassis design is built for marine out of stainless and vented to allow horizontal placement and mounted right next to each other. which is how most marine amps will be mounted.

I can't seem to find any specs on the Eclipse in regards to efficiency specs. But the Class H and Class D amps are usually very close in terms of efficiency. So current draw for both types of technologies will be very close. Both huge improvements over class ab.

The biggest drawback I have with the full range class d amps is the higher distortion ratings. Even though some are rated at good ratings. When listening to them. They all sound like there is something missing. Usually described as the difference between a cd and mp3. Cd sounds nice and full and mp3 while it still sounds good, is compressed and feels like something is missing. Usually not a big deal in most set ups or when running a car audio speaker. But I feel that when running a class d amp on a pro audio tower speaker with compression drivers, the small nuances become more apparent as you have such efficient high frequency drivers that with a horn will amplify them. Plus some of the class d amps have issues with high voltage on the input stage and noise issues. As well as RF interference. The full range class d amps are getting better each year as the technology improves. we have built many prototypes with both class d full range and class H.

We went with the class h technology. As you can get the small size and efficient design but still have the sound quality of a class ab amp.

Let me know any other questions.

Tim
Wet Sounds

hey cool man,
my fear is the eclipse might not handle the boat environment as well, im glad you spelled out that you guys coated the boards and made them more sea worthy, my first impression was this is just a repackaged arc audio amp, which is a good amp by the way but I see where that would be important. The eclipse is 91% efficient across the board from my understanding, so I believe it would produce more power with less wiring and battery, I myself have a 2nd optima battery and a 1/0 wire. Most the high end class D full range amps now days sound amazing, i have the alpine pdx running my boston pros in my car and its cleaner than any amp ive ever heard in its price and power range, although ive heard the new jl hd amps dont sound as nice as there class ab counterparts. xtant makes a sweet full range class d amp as well so they do exist and can compete price and performance wise imo. Zapco is a great brand also, but in a real world environment, how many of your amps receive 14.4 volts at the terminal, or in a car for that sake. So i guess this decision will come down to price, and what wiring and battery upgrades will be needed if any, if a 1/3 gain in efficiency is worth it in going from class ab to class h, is an additional 1/3 gain, 91% compared to 63% worth it? From what ive seen most class d amps are closer to 90% in efficiency, the drawback to my jl monoblock being it was only 67% and i went with it anyway. Im wondering if a single 4ga wire off his stock battery would be enough for the syn4 or the eclipse which has specs 150x2 at 4ohms, and 450x1 at 2ohm mono on the sub channel. anyway hes going with your free air sub and tower speakers, can you get me a good deal on a syn4, something less than 599$ it would make for a great christmas present and help a fellow austinite and wake boarder out lol

heres a link for some tech on class d amps

http://www.eclipse-web.com/amp/ice.html

http://www.caraudiomag.com/0607_cae_alpine_pdx_4150_amplifier/index.html

Jason,

Don't let the specs fool you on the 91%. Most class d amps are not nearly that efficient. The class H are only a few points less efficient. So small that you won't notice it and they make up for it on the sound quality side.

As mentioned, the full range class d are OK on car audio speakers like your bostons, but you are talking about a compression speaker. If you get a chance. Do an a to b with your pdx and a class ab on you brothers tower speakers.

Yeah alpine and eclispe and a few other are using the ice-power chip. I know the guys at B&O/Ice Power as well. I have prototypes with the chipset.

I do think that switching amplifers like Class H, Class G, Class G/H and Full range Class D amps will be the future of car and marine audio amps. I am partial to the Class H and variations like G and G/H right now as I just am not crazy about the SQ of the full range d amps right now when comparing. Maybe in a year or two as the full range class d's improve.

Tim
Wet Sounds

(Message edited by wetsounds1 on November 16, 2008)