300 GBP tops and insane audio... though it will destroy your neighbours sanity.

[Tired9]

Focal Audio 5.25" Coaxial speakers in solid wood boxes, 2" thick.
DOUK Audio 320W Bluetooth 5.0 Power Amplifier 2.0 Channel Stereo Amp (For Bluetooth and RCA / USB input and full range speaker power)
Amazon basics single RCA to double RCA cabled (Sub pre-out to Sub amp)
Vibe Audio 400.1 amp 800w. 1OHM stable.
Vibe Audio Pulse 12" 400w RMS 900w Max passive subwoofer wired to 1 OHM for maximum power from the amp.

I had a spare 1000w Silverstone Strider 80 Plus silver PSU (12 years old and still going) to power the car amp.

I am also using a Neoteck 192KHz DAC Converter Digital to Analog Audio Converter.


There is zero interference and no noise when silent or played at low volumes.
Superb clarity and the bass is enough to make your ribs shake, I have never played it on max volume, gets scary loud.


Obviously not a surround setup, just a hardcore 2.1 setup.


Stick with me I will get some images etc.

 

[Tired9]

 

[Tired9]

Sounds sweet. Wouldn't mind some advice as it looks like you know your stuff.... got a spare pair of Mission speakers and Denon amp I want to rig to pc, whats the best setup. Oh, and amp allows sub which i also have spare.

Does your monitor or TV have a headphone out?

 

[Tired9]

Video...

Sorry for the low light, I don't have bright bulbs in.. hate them.
Like a sensual mood.

Best heard with headphones, good ones if you have any.

I turn the subwoofer up a tad towards the end when Roxette is playing, the audio before is EQ'd in perfect harmony with the rest of the music and as not to be having the police coming round every 2 minutes.

I can turn it up more during the week if I get a day off from work, it's fun as hell as it has gobs of power.

I find it awesome how big the bass port is, I am a 6 foot lad and not the smallest of hands and lose my fist easily in it.

 

[Tired9]

As good as these little class D amplifiers are (I've picked up one of these last year to power a spare set of speakers), they certainly aren't "insane", and they may "destroy your neighbours sanity" but it will be through the amount of distortion and interference when played at even a moderate level.

Interesting, that must mean all good reviews have no clue about anything.

There are bad too, I mean faults do happen.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07XKSQHT2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Which means you think you do know!

Was it this one you tested?

There is no distortion at all, it is supplied with a 32v/5amp power supply, you can use 35v for an extra squeeze which is the amps limit.

My speakers I use are high sensitivity and rated for 50w RMS, there is no distortion even at really loud volume.

The bass amp by the way is just a rebranded Sundown audio amp which hit's it's numbers with ease.

I do have a Denon AVR 1902 and Pioneer VSX 2014i and they sound no different to the little amp in Direct Stereo mode, I even have some Denon SC 103's that sound great on it too.

 

[Tired9]

This is the Vibe 400.1 being tested, it is in Russian, but you can definitely see it's numbers.

The problem with such small amps is people believe before using them, they are trash, so they don't even bother buying to review them.

 

[Tired9]

This is the same design reviewed as my DOUK Audio one.

 

[Tired9]

From the reviews you are so proud of:
"This amp really struggles if you crank it up past "background" noise level, if you have it on loud then you're in for a distorted shock... and it's not normal noise, it's like a dodgy low quality MP3 sound...."


No I haven't tested that specific model, however I've linked the model I own (Another very similar class D amplifier that ships with the same 32V/5A Power supply, uses the same TDA7498E etc.), and when run at higher listening levels (e.g. with my pair of speakers used outdoors) there is noticeable distortion.
Compared to my budget AVR (Denon X1300W), it could easily run at higher listening without any distortion.

Class D amplifiers have their purpose - they are small, cheap, and are ideal for driving a set of small good quality speakers to use with a PC (or even a phone or MP3) for example, but if they didn't have limitations, then manufacturers would be using them in "proper" home cinema/hifi kit and in every application they could find, purely to save cost.



35v/5amp = 191 Watts - a long way short of the 320Watt claimed power


At the end of the day as long as you are happy with the sound, that is all that really matters

Interesting. The one above is very close to rated, you will never hear a 10 watts difference in loudness, so it is a moot point.

You chose a bad review versus several very positive reviews.

It completely relies on the power supply being up to standard but also the unit being non defective.

 

[Tired9]

My housemate years ago used to do this, everything rattling and sounding awful, but he loved it used to put a speaker in the window of his bedroom so the rest of the street could also hate him as much as I did.

I am not that guy and I enjoy quality sound.

You get thickos driving thing shard just for noise, you also get people using big power setups for efficiency and also how low the bass can go, not boomy and awful sounding.
Below 30hz is not easy to achieve but it can be done.

 

[Tired9]

Well, the 400.1 isnt a rebranded sundown 500d. The 500d has more filtering caps, higher rated internal fuses, more output fets. It's basically a the 400.1's bigger brother . Both of which are generic class D amps, neither designed by vibe or sundown. That said, they are both very capable.

I have huge doubts as to the quality of the audio though. Not because of the 400.1, but because you're subwoofer designed and built for car applications outside of car. This can work fine if you are using some kind of room correction or at least DTA, but even then a small ported sub isnt going to be particularly accurate and it wont have much of a bottom end below whatever that port is tuned to and vibe dont even bother telling us on the website so yeah... That coupled with stereo speakers driven from an amp presumably with no high pass filter would suggest initially at least that the frequency and phase response of that system is probably all over the place.

I'm no strange to use car audio gear at home - i've been using a sealed 15" JBL GTO in the living room for years and my pc audio setup includes a sealed 10" boss. Sealed because they are easier to integrate and in both cases i am using room correction to properly time align the drivers. You cant just slap a ported sub in a home system and expect it to sound great, no matter how loud it is.

So why are you doubting I made any adjustments?

What I hate is how defensive you guys are and you lack any ability to be reasonable, you just point out things that most people already know.

Slap some **** together, yeah no it will never sound great, any audio done like that won't sound great even if it comes form the engineering gods on some forbidden planet.

The speakers I run are pretty **** for bass, the Focal audio's, they literally don't move unless I push the bass knob up on the DOUK Audio which kind of negates the need for a high-pass filter as they get all the high information with ease, they were not designed for bass.

The boxes I built are small purposely to limit the drivers from over-excursion.

But this amp won't deliver mighty bass anyway so that saved me some.

The 12" driver is capable of 27hz as I tested with a frequency tester just listening to it, I could enhance this frequency by placing the sub in the cupboard with the door off it's hinges simulating a cabin, but you just get boomy bass at all frequencies, unnatural sounding,. but it is not comfortable there, the volume drops off the lower it goes which seems to be the box, not exactly the subwoofer driver it's self.

The cut off on the bass amp is 15hz, it simply cuts off. Not a major deal breaker.

I run the subwoofer with the low-pass filter at 100hz.

 

[Tired9]

If you were using any kind of room correction, you'd have said so. And since neither the douk or the vibe offer anything close to room correction, and you've since replied and still havent said you are, then my only conclusion is...you are not.

Am i wrong?

Windows has room correction in the sound properties, yes I am using it, but it don't do much, the sound signature is still pretty much the same.

The Subwoofer has it's own gain control as does the stereo amp.. which makes this kind of pointless to begin with.

 

[Tired9]

Gain control is not room correction. Gain control merely matches the level of the drivers. room correction time aligns them, corrects for any imbalances in the frequency and phase response. RC is soo much more than gain control.

With 3 speakers?

The room they are in is not the largest of rooms, perhaps that is why, we are talking 20ft / 30 foot.

 

[Tired9]

Phase... quite literally just swap the RCA leads around, job done.

You just said it depends on the room, then go and say that SQ it is not.

Well I can tell you, if you limit the subwoofer because that is the first issue, blend it in properly... it begins to sound like a good hi-fi, no it is not a surround setup which the stuff you are pointing out are all surround sound options.

I use it as a 2.1 system, in stereo.

I made this point early on.

All the subwoofer does is make up for the lack of ability that smaller drivers all have saving money at the expense of using up more room.

There is no speakers I have used that go as low cleanly as with a dedicated sub or sound as great separating the sub frequencies from the mid bass - high frequencies.

 

[Tired9]

That only lets you flip the phase (aka 180 degrees). What do you do if the correct phase for your application is 90 degrees?

Well you have an issue then don't you.. but I don't have this issue so...

 

[Tired9]

No it doesn't unfortunately ... mobo has this according to spec - Realtek® ALC1220 Codec + ESS SABRE9018Q2C combo DAC, here's piccy ...

Most onboard solutions are fine, so long as you put them to their highest sampling rates, for example the old ALC 889 would deliver it's best results at the highest sampling rate... does depend on how well implemented it is on the motherboard, but you should not have any worries with a modern sound chip... hopefully!

You have optical out, does your receiver have this?

If so there is your answer, you will need to buy an optical cable with measurements that won't restrict you from placing the amp where you want to, as some of these optical leads are very short.

Do that, set up your speakers to the A-B or front speaker terminals, change the audio mode on the receiver to Direct / stereo and you have a 2.0 setup.

AVR receivers are awesome amps for a simple setup like this but produce a tonne of heat and are generally massive.

It was the setup I used before going smaller.

The amp has a Subwoofer pre-out, if you don't want to be experiencing sub 30hz bass, then you can get away with going with cheaper home audio subwoofers.

It will need to be active and have it's own amplifier.

 

[Tired9]

All the gigabyte onboard audio is very poor, lots of distortion and background noise.

Realtek onboard typically has a dynamic range of 97 dBA when tested in RMAA, my Asus ST has a dynamic range of over 133 dBA. But it's not just numbers, better sound card / external DAC also sounds better.

Gigabyte have been catching a lot of flack recently...
I had no issues with my X570 Aorus Elite, I plugged my X2HR's into it and it sounded pretty good, but as a rule I tend to use my external DAC / amp for those purely to drive them better.

The MSI B550I MPG Gaming Max is also rather good, I have only used my in-ear Beyerdynamic DTX-102's

 

[Tired9]

phase is not a binary state, it's not in or out of phase. it's constantly variable through 360 degrees. the phase response of a driver will vary throughout it's range. the box the driver is in has an effect. ports have an effect. crossovers have an effect. eg, first order crossovers found in budget speakers will push a driver 90 degrees out of phase at the point where the response is 6db down, as i recall. none of it is as simple as swapping rca leads around. That wouldnt do anything but swap your left and right channel anyway. And yes, i know what you meant - reversing the wiring on the rca - but that would only shift everything 180 degrees out of phase. Not a solution.

What if the setup in question don't have this issue?

What if you only bring this up for argument sake?

Can a cheaper solution deliver all-round goodness?

Is a cheaper solution ever going to fill in that 1% spot which drivers people to obsessive lengths...? I highly doubt it.

I have Some X2HR's, these are the most expensive headphones I have bought, everyone loves them generally for their sound at such a low price.. and to me this is not a low price.
Then I needed separate gaming headphones because the X2HR's are not light on the head....

Some HyperX Stinger Cloud.... I was completely happy listening to them and found no issues in what they sounded like especially for 30 quid and I thought about it, are the X2HR's that much better? Not really, they offer a small improvement compared to what you pay.

Then I thought, just how much more better can things get when you start paying 10,000's?

I was already happy with what I had...

 

[Tired9]

It's all relative to what your use to, if you were to back-to-back test against a very good sound card or external DAC you would notice quite some difference.

It's like the people that lowered their Vauxhall Astra and claimed it handled good, put them in a Lotus Elise or Honda S2000, they would realise that lowered VX Astra not quite as good as they realised, as I say everything in life is relative to what your use to.

I used to go into richer sounds in Stoke-on-Trent when I was like 13 years old and mess with the stuff on show, I had a hard on for audio back then.. just a curious kid.
I still have yet to find really any difference, the only thing I could do is rationalize the expense I paid with.. oh it does sound better... I could convince myself.

The worst sounding crap I had was actually a Sony Genezi MHC system.

I had a Morphy Richards hifi that sounded awesome.

I also heard a Sony MHC-W25 which actually did sound amazing.

The thing is even within a product range systems can sound drastically different.

The MHC-W25 is a completely different animal the Genezi MHC-GT 555 which sounded like dog crap.


W25 (Very rare setup now)

GT 555

 

[Tired9]

Every setup has it. Amps, speakers, rooms - they are all imperfect. I didnt bring this up just for the sake of an argument. Go back and read my original reply - i bought it up because i know you arent doing anything to correct for it and i KNOW from 20 years of experience playing around with audio gear exactly where that system will be falling shorty.

These claims of no distortion (when that douk is rated at output power only at 10% distortion!) are false. Your claims of not having any issues with phase response when we live in an imperfect world are false. And your lack of knowledge isn't an excuse to presume you are right while everybody else is wrong.

10% at 160 watts, 1% at 125 watts, yes I did not fail English in school.

I still need you to quantify this issue.. what issue...?

 

[Tired9]

So its going to look something like this with the big Jamo under the table ... hoping for a big improvement over crappy little logitech 2.1 system. The Missions are over 20 years old now but always liked them. Rear port so will have to bung up as against wall?

Will definitely beat out a Logitech system, even their higher end stuff.