PA 880.1 vs. PA D1000.1

[rpc33]

Hey guys,

I have a PA 880.1 hooked up to my MM1040 DVC in a sealed enclosure, and recently the amp went bad (started smoking! power supply issue I guess). Its about $80 to get repaired. I ordered a PA D1000.1 anyway for about $200 and saw some posts on here about how the subsonic filter is bad, and how class D amps arent as good as AB. I just wanted to get some discussion about the two amps because I couldn't find much when i searched the forums and google. Was this a bad choice? I was also considering adding a second MM1040 DVC sub if that changes anything at all.

Thank you for your help!
Ryan

[MacLeod]

Class D is just fine. The people that say otherwise are also the same people that swear they can hear grass grow. When Class D amps first came out they had a lot of distortion in the upper frequencies but were fine for subwoofer applications. Eventually they got all that cleaned up and Xtant was one of the first ones to come out with full range Class D amps then Alpine got into the fray. Theyre much smaller and use a good bit less power to make the same power as their A/B counterparts. The "golden ears" will always love their A/B's so there will always be a market for them but Ill take the smaller footprint and better efficiency of the Class D amps.

That one series of amps between the first PA's which were great and that 880 you got were garbage. Don't know what the hell Polk was thinking but Im glad they dumped them. The new D amps are much better so youre much better off with that 1000.1.

[rpc33]

Thanks for the detailed response MacLeod. I noticed you have 2 mm1040 subs. I currently have 1 and was thinking of adding a second.

When I looked at the box plans from Polk for 2 mm1040's, it only has a ported box configuration. I always thought sealed provided cleaner bass and better SQ. Where as ported were for loudness and usually provided "sloppier bass". I'm probably way off on this, but I was just curious if your box is ported or sealed.

[MacLeod]

Sealed only for me. Ported is better for volume but the difference is that ported boxes are built around a certain frequency and so it pounds that out but it means a hump in the response as output will fall off around that peak. For bass heads, this won't hurt and they'll never notice that but audiophiles will because your sub can become "one-note'ish".