JBL amps?

[slug420]

what do you guys think of JBL amps? any good? im not gonna get JL or phoenix gold or anything high end like that. RF(power series), audiobahn and jbl are the kinds im lookin at

so what do you think of them

gonna be pushin about 1000 watts to 1 or 2 12s.....brand not yet decided but im just asking for a general opinoin, not neccesarily specific to this application

 

[Rider69]

For the $$ they are very good amps, highly rated on various car sound discussion forums and used by me.

Get them at http://www.bsless.com for the best prices. For pic of my stereo, click on sig pic.

 

[JellyBean98]

I have the JL BP600.1 and the JBL P80.4 in my P5 and love them both. I have had no issues with eithr one of them and like Rider69 said, you can't beat them for the price. My wifes 240sx has the JBL BP600.1 and a Alpine MRVF307 (soon to be P80.4) and she loves the BP600.1 also. I used to have a BP300.1 in my old Dodge Omni work car and it worked great as well. The only reason I got rid of it was because the car didn't do to good against a deer. I also owned a JBL BP1200.1 but ended up selling it because I didn't have the need for it so I sold it to a friend and he has it on 2 Kappa Perfects and it sounds awesome. I would definately go with the JBL amps even if they weren't priced so nicely.

 

[slug420]

JellyBean98: IM me on AOL IM: slug420 I wanna chat about your friend's setup if you get a chance

 

[1sty]

They don't put out the power they claim too, plain and simply. There not junk but if you want a true 1000 watt rms amp, keep looking. The 1200 maxs at 1400 which puts its best rms estimation around 700 watts. Take its MSRP which is $550 and you will get the same power from a JL 500.1 which rms to 733 watts and is the same MSRP.

Conclusion - You get what you pay for!

 

[Rider69]

But unless you work somewhere where you can get deep discounts on JL (cough...Tweeter... ), they are simply more expensive than some other brands. I am not going to get into the whole which amp is better, I will admit that JL has better features, but this gentleman was asking about JBL and said he wasn't going high end. For the $$, I am talking street prices, they are very good amps!

 

[1sty]

Rider is 100% correct, (i bet he never thought I'd say that!)

If you are going internet sales you can find JBL at some absolutely amazing prices. JL regulates the hell out of there dealers so you won't find them cheap anywhere. I don't reccomend ever buying from a dealer thats not authorized though. I've seen and heard to many horror stories.

 

[brokemp3]

i know a place you can get the jbl 1200.1 for around 300 you can also get the jbl gti for super cheap. one of the best subs i have ever heard

 

[slug420]

ok....i didnt know wtf any of you were talking about with "not putting out what it is rated for" as far as amps go, so I did some lookin around last night and LEARNED MYSELF some new stuff

here's a link for anyone who cares...
http://www.carstereo.com/help/amps.cfm

basically to figure out the tru power of an amp (or get a general idea of it) this says you can multiply the size of the fuse by the amount of power (volts) OR....you could multiply the current by the voltage.

the JBL 1200.1 which claims 1200 watts.....
the manual says it draws a peak of 114 amps...
114 amps times the voltage of 12 volts is 1368 watts!! sounds terrific. But not amp is 100% efficient and JBL amps are not class D amps as far as I know so they are class B amps which are 50% efficient. so a real realistic output of the amp is
684 watts.

take a Rockford Power series 1000bd (another amp I was considering) and they dont supply you with the maximum current draw but they do say the amp has one 100 amp fuse. 100 amp times 12 volts....1200 watts. once again sounds terrific but its not 100% efficient. it is however a class D amp so it is 75% efficient so its tru power output is closer to 900 watts.

but what does all this mean? nothing really. you could get a expensive JL amp which claims 1200 watts and puts out 1200 watts. or you could get 2 JBL amps for the same price as the one JL, and your 2 JBL amps combined would have the same true output as the JL. so once again folks, it all comes back to nonsense and poppycock. All the s*** is the same.....

im sure most of you already knew all of this. But i didnt. And it will probably be most useful to anyone else who doesnt know this stuff but is trying to pick the best amp for their setup.

I am getting either 2 infinity perfect 12s or one rockford power 12

as for ym amplifier. if I get the power 12" i will get a RF 1000bd amp, if I get the infinity subs I was thinking of going with a JBL 1200.1. But that doesnt seem like it will push my 2 650 watt RMS subs as hard as I was hoping. At any rate, im now able to make a better decision

 

[slug420]

also worht noting, and possibly worthy of its own thread. RF has come out with new gear for 2k3

they have a new line of subwoofers, only available it looks like in 12 and 15 inches but they can handle 2000 watts rms and a peak of 4000 which is pretty impressive

They have also redesigned their amps (THANK GOD!!!) which eliminates my biggest reason to buy another brand......

also.....has anyone seen/heard/heard of these new infinity perfects? i dunno if its worth waiting for these instead of getting the 2k2s.....

"Kappa Perfect VQ series subwoofers provide a patent pending approach to adjusting Q. Kappa Perfect VQ woofers allow the motor strength to be varied using metal pole piece inserts. Q adjustments allow the woofer to be optimized for a particular enclosure or application and may provide the user with optimum performance for several applications in a single enclosure."

found that on carsound.com

the infinity site doesnt seem to have any info about em

 

[1sty]

Unfortunitly there is alot missing from that.
First, damping factor, Not a factor of power at all but is very neccisary for SQ with subwoofers and class D amps have horrible damping factors which is why the JLs were totaly redisgned class Ds to operate like a class AB. Class D amps are also typicaly around 80% effiecent however the numbers you would have found based on fuse size would be max power not RMS. RMS is the only meaningful power rating plus fuse size isn't realy a relavent value either.

MOst of the times an ampos ratings will show its peak power to be double its RMS.

Hit www.cardomain.com and go to the review sections, there you can see the results of real tests on many amps including some JL, JBL and RF. Keep an eye on the RFs damping factor which is terrible. Also keep in mind that JL amps have a >500 rating if powering a 4 ohm load and never drop power between 4-1.5 ohm loads.

In my opinion 2 JBLS at the price of 1 JL still isn't a good comparision since the JLs daming, bascily the amount of control an amp has over the moving mass of the sub is far superior as is the frequency response and the low voltage input power output.

 

[brokemp3]

the jbl amp has a max output of 2400 watts. rms is 1200. most cars run above 12 volts mine does over 12 with the engine off in park. the jbl has more than enough power to push the subs you want. you would have to more then double the watts to get 3db louder no matter what amp you use
for example if you have an amp that puts out 600 watts and your subs ar putting out 140 db then you would need 1200 watts to get 143 db
3 db is about the least amount of change the human ear can detect. you can not tell the difference between 140and 142 by listening to it you would need a mic for that.
in my opinion buying an amp that puts out 1000 watts and an amp that puts out 600 is not really going to be that different. if you are competing and every db counts then it matters but not for everyday use.

 

[slug420]

thanks for the tips.

ill check out cardomain....i have looked around at reviews everywhere but never find ppl saying anything bad about any amp so i can never believe the reviews im reading are very objective....

 

[1sty]

Actualy according to JBLs own test labs the 1200.1 only does 1400 watts max. Hence 700 watts RMS. True that mathmaticly to achieve 3db you will need twice the power but this is only if things such as distortion and control are ignored in a car and likewise in car audio things aren't that simple.

 

[1sty]

Cardomain goes by the numbers plain and simply. If it perform then it preforms if not they let you know about it, just check out the review on the Kenwood 929 to see what I mean.

 

[slug420]

do u have AOL IM 1stMP3?

 

[brokemp3]

wtf

 

[brokemp3]

i can still get you the 1200 for 300 if you are interested. let me know. no a bad deal if you ask me

 

[slug420]

i cant find any reviews on cardomain other than those of customers and those are pretty unscientific......i dont tihnk cardomain even carries JL so im not too sure what reviews you are referring to.......

at any rate.....ill be online later tonight AOL IM: slug420 so if anyone cares to help my car stereo education feel free to drop me a line..

 

[1sty]

Wow thqats what i get the JL 1000/1 for.
for em only though
But definitly a nice price