This is a review and detailed measurements of the Kicker Key180.4 four channel car audio amplifier with built-in DSP and auto equalization. It was donated to me by a kind member and costs US $220 on Amazon including Prime shipping.
The 180.4 comes in small but sturdy package:
A multi-pin plug at one end terminates in four RCA jacks. On the other side, a much larger one provides power and speaker outputs. A bunch of DIP switches set various settings such as bridge mode, EQ, compression, delay, crossover, etc. A microphone input is provided for auto-correction. I did not get a chance to test any of this functionality and focused on pure performance of the amplifier itself.
Kicker 180.4 Measurements
It did not take any time for the amplifier to stabilize (this is a highly zoomed graph):
So I moved on to our usual dashboard:
Yuck! We have lots of distortion peaking up to -60 dB. Average of all amplifiers tested is about 79 dB SINAD and here, we fall short by huge 20 dB.
Noise level is not anything to write home about either:
Crosstalk falls in the same category:
Frequency response shows class D amplifier filter interacting with the load and causing peaking in the audible range:
Not good.
Power is modest but it is what you expect in this small package:
At least it matches spec which is unusual in car audio world:
8 ohm load naturally lowers output:
Stepping through different frequencies shows sharp rise in level:
I don't think I have seen such poor performance at 10 kHz before.
Multitone results were completely wrong and I could not make sense out of them so I am not going to post it. But you get a sense of it in the above test.
Conclusions
Performance of the amplifiers in 180.4 is horrid. It is what I expect a $50 amplifier to provide. So this better have one heck of a DSP subsystem to make up the cost difference.
I love the functionality of DSP+amplifier but need to see a better implementation to recommend the Kicker 180.4. Disappointing.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The 180.4 comes in small but sturdy package:
A multi-pin plug at one end terminates in four RCA jacks. On the other side, a much larger one provides power and speaker outputs. A bunch of DIP switches set various settings such as bridge mode, EQ, compression, delay, crossover, etc. A microphone input is provided for auto-correction. I did not get a chance to test any of this functionality and focused on pure performance of the amplifier itself.
Kicker 180.4 Measurements
It did not take any time for the amplifier to stabilize (this is a highly zoomed graph):
So I moved on to our usual dashboard:
Yuck! We have lots of distortion peaking up to -60 dB. Average of all amplifiers tested is about 79 dB SINAD and here, we fall short by huge 20 dB.
Noise level is not anything to write home about either:
Crosstalk falls in the same category:
Frequency response shows class D amplifier filter interacting with the load and causing peaking in the audible range:
Not good.
Power is modest but it is what you expect in this small package:
At least it matches spec which is unusual in car audio world:
8 ohm load naturally lowers output:
Stepping through different frequencies shows sharp rise in level:
I don't think I have seen such poor performance at 10 kHz before.
Multitone results were completely wrong and I could not make sense out of them so I am not going to post it. But you get a sense of it in the above test.
Conclusions
Performance of the amplifiers in 180.4 is horrid. It is what I expect a $50 amplifier to provide. So this better have one heck of a DSP subsystem to make up the cost difference.
I love the functionality of DSP+amplifier but need to see a better implementation to recommend the Kicker 180.4. Disappointing.
----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/