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Dual DA10004D Review (Car Amplifier)

amirm

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Dual DA10004D Car audio amplifier. It has 4 channels and is on kind loan from a member. It is sold everywhere it seems for just US $110.

Despite its very low cost, the Dual brings a bit of style to the party:

Dual DA10004D Review budget Car Amplifier 4 channel Class D.jpg


The shocking bit is on each end:

Dual DA10004D Review cheap good Car Amplifier 4 channel Class D.jpg


Check out the beefy power terminals and array of filtering and gain settings. I had no trouble getting my 8 gauge power cables into its terminals. Both low pass and high pass filtering is provided together with bandwidth for each.

I have been testing a few car audio products but good bit of frustration. When I used to repair them decades back, we always had a lead acid battery to power them so that we could have a) plenty of juice and b) not have mains interference. In anticipation of getting this amp to test, I decided to bite the bullet and build a high-current LifePoFE4 battery. I had four spare cells from my work on our RV when I converted it from AGM to Lithium. Decided to build a solution around that and was most impressed with what you can get these days. Bought a 100 Amp sustained/200 amp peak BMS for just $16 including Prime shipping from Amazon! The one I put in the RV cost me $1,000! Granted, that is a much more flexible unit but still, this one even has a current switch in it which I had I build externally for my RV. While I was at it, I spent just $20 for a power monitor. Most of the rest of the parts I had. Put it all in a battery box and this is how it came out:

Lithium Battery Cell for Car Amplifier Testing.jpg


It worked beautifully during this test! Not only did it power this amp without blinking, the power monitor was fantastic in showing current usage and voltage that were completely accurate. Being Lithium, it had slightly higher output voltage of around 14 volts fully charged so probably overstates power just a hair if you are running on the alternator with led acid battery.

Dual DA10004D Measurements
Here is our usual dashboard at 5 watts into 4 ohm with gain adjusted to 29 dB:

Dual DA10004D Measurements Car Amplifier 4 channel Class D.png


This is quite good! Average of all home amplifiers I have measured is 78 dB and here we are almost there with a SINAD of 75. Definitely a competent design.

Same story continued for signal to noise ratio:

Dual DA10004D SNR Measurements Car Amplifier 4 channel Class D.png


Frequency response at 4 ohm is reasonable:

Dual DA10004D frequency response Measurements Car Amplifier 4 channel Class D.png


But as you see, with 8 ohm load it overshoots. The class D amplifier filter is resonating with that load causing that peaking. Only the best class D amplifiers for home use have post filter feedback to deal with this. Will have to test high-end car class D amps to see if any of them do the same.

Here is the effect of the low and high pass filters:

Dual DA10004D frequency response HFP LPF Measurements Car Amplifier 4 channel Class D.png


All look fine except when using the HPF filter at its minimum setting. It causes that overshoot which is going to screw up your crossover. Seems to behave if you go up a bit in the dial. You better measure your system to make sure you are not getting hit with this.

Crosstalk is not great but certainly good enough for the application:

Dual DA10004D Crosstalk Measurements Car Amplifier 4 channel Class D.png


Multitone test shows fairly sharp rise in distortion with frequency:

Dual DA10004D Multitone Measurements Car Amplifier 4 channel Class D.png


Company rates the amplifier as 80 watts into 4 ohm for 4 channels. I only created a setup for 2 channels but there, we seem to be getting what they say:

Dual DA10004D Measurements Power into 4 ohm Car Amplifier 4 channel Class D.png


Dual DA10004D Measurements Peak and Max Power into 4 ohm Car Amplifier 4 channel Class D.png


Power drops a lot with 8 ohm though due to power supply voltage being too low:

Dual DA10004D Measurements Power into 8 ohm Car Amplifier 4 channel Class D.png


Testing for frequency sensitivity we get:

Dual DA10004D Measurements Distortion vs Frequency vs Power into 4 ohm Car Amplifier 4 channel...png


As noted earlier, high frequencies are not treated well but otherwise, this is a very respectable design seeing how the lines at 1 kHz and below are smooth and similar to each other.

Conclusions
You look at the price and you think you are going to get junk. Indeed the bit of chatter that was about this amplifier online, said the same. Objective performance though erases any such thought. This is a very well designed and feature rich car audio amplifier. I don't know how they have done. Or why they decided to set such a high bar for themselves when they could have gotten away with far less. But hey, we take it! This amplifier outperforms many home amps and does it for next to nothing. Just remarkable.

By the way, in use the case got warm but nothing to be concerned about. If you drive 4 channels though, that may be a different situation. Then again it may just divide the available power between 4 channels rather than 2.

I am happy to recommend the Dual DA10004D.

I am pumped to test more car audio amps now! :)
-----------
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/
 

anphex

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High end car amp manufacturers seeing Amir is now starting to measure those too.

 

Tks

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That price lol. Call up the company and ask who they have enslaved making these for them. Such great work.
 

Matias

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ASR going car audio, nice!

Although... we already knew it: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DwuJM1AX4AAZnzH?format=jpg&name=small
Returning to car audio you mean:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...undigital-sd-600-1d-nano-car-amplifier.11521/

I wish someone could send an Alpine PDX-V9 for testing. Specs are promissing.

CEA-2006 Power Rating: 100W RMS x 4 + 500W RMS x 1 (4-ohm/2-ohm, 14.4V at <1% THD+N)
THD+N (10W into 4 Ohms) for CH-1/2/3/4: <0.005 %
THD+N (10W into 4 Ohms) for Subwoofer: <0.006 %
THD+N (Rated Power into 4 Ohms) for CH-1/2/3/4: <0.03 %
THD+N (Rated Power into 4 Ohms) for Subwoofer: <0.05 %
Damping Factor for CH-1/2/3/4: >500 into 4 ohms at 100Hz
Damping Factor for Subwoofer: >1000 into 4 ohms at 100Hz
Signal to Noise (Rated Power into 4 Ohms) for CH-1/2/3/4: 112 dB
Signal to Noise (Rated Power into 4 Ohms) for Subwoofer: 119 dB
Weight: 2.7 kg
 
Last edited:

AudioSceptic

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Dual DA10004D Car audio amplifier. It has 4 channels and is on kind loan from a member. It is sold everywhere it seems for just US $110.

Despite its very low cost, the Dual brings a bit of style to the party:

View attachment 147406

The shocking bit is on each end:

View attachment 147407

Check out the beefy power terminals and array of filtering and gain settings. I had no trouble getting my 8 gauge power cables into its terminals. Both low pass and high pass filtering is provided together with bandwidth for each.

I have been testing a few car audio products but good bit of frustration. When I used to repair them decades back, we always had a lead acid battery to power them so that we could have a) plenty of juice and b) not have mains interference. In anticipation of getting this amp to test, I decided to bite the bullet and build a high-current LifePoFE4 battery. I had four spare cells from my work on our RV when I converted it from AGM to Lithium. Decided to build a solution around that and was most impressed with what you can get these days. Bought a 100 Amp sustained/200 amp peak BMS for just $16 including Prime shipping from Amazon! The one I put in the RV cost me $1,000! Granted, that is a much more flexible unit but still, this one even has a current switch in it which I had I build externally for my RV. While I was at it, I spent just $20 for a power monitor. Most of the rest of the parts I had. Put it all in a battery box and this is how it came out:

View attachment 147409

It worked beautifully during this test! Not only did it power this amp without blinking, the power monitor was fantastic in showing current usage and voltage that were completely accurate. Being Lithium, it had slightly higher output voltage of around 14 volts fully charged so probably overstates power just a hair if you are running on the alternator with led acid battery.

Dual DA10004D Measurements
Here is our usual dashboard at 5 watts into 4 ohm with gain adjusted to 29 dB:

View attachment 147410

This is quite good! Average of all home amplifiers I have measured is 78 dB and here we are almost there with a SINAD of 75. Definitely a competent design.

Same story continued for signal to noise ratio:

View attachment 147411

Frequency response at 4 ohm is reasonable:

View attachment 147412

But as you see, with 8 ohm load it overshoots. The class D amplifier filter is resonating with that load causing that peaking. Only the best class D amplifiers for home use have post filter feedback to deal with this. Will have to test high-end car class D amps to see if any of them do the same.

Here is the effect of the low and high pass filters:

View attachment 147414

All look fine except when using the HPF filter at its minimum setting. It causes that overshoot which is going to screw up your crossover. Seems to behave if you go up a bit in the dial. You better measure your system to make sure you are not getting hit with this.

Crosstalk is not great but certainly good enough for the application:

View attachment 147413

Multitone test shows fairly sharp rise in distortion with frequency:

View attachment 147418

Company rates the amplifier as 80 watts into 4 ohm for 4 channels. I only created a setup for 2 channels but there, we seem to be getting what they say:

View attachment 147415

View attachment 147416

Power drops a lot with 8 ohm though due to power supply voltage being too low:

View attachment 147417

Testing for frequency sensitivity we get:

View attachment 147419

As noted earlier, high frequencies are not treated well but otherwise, this is a very respectable design seeing how the lines at 1 kHz and below are smooth and similar to each other.

Conclusions
You look at the price and you think you are going to get junk. Indeed the bit of chatter that was about this amplifier online, said the same. Objective performance though erases any such thought. This is a very well designed and feature rich car audio amplifier. I don't know how they have done. Or why they decided to set such a high bar for themselves when they could have gotten away with far less. But hey, we take it! This amplifier outperforms many home amps and does it for next to nothing. Just remarkable.

By the way, in use the case got warm but nothing to be concerned about. If you drive 4 channels though, that may be a different situation. Then again it may just divide the available power between 4 channels rather than 2.

I am happy to recommend the Dual DA10004D.

I am pumped to test more car audio amps now! :)
-----------
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/
I remember a Blaupunkt FM car receiver doing very well in The Audio Critic many years ago. I wonder how current digital car players would compare with domestic ones.
 

restorer-john

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Dual have become this?

I do however see the logo is different:
1628944878329.png

Original Dual logo:
1628944984723.png


And this from wiki:
1628945268089.png


But the legendary Dual name on cheap car audio is a step too far IMO. :facepalm:
 

dfuller

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Be real interesting to see those monstrous multi-KW class D sub amps on test here. Those things have a bizarre tendency to blow up - judging by how much work that dude BareVids on youtube has.
 

Alt-Wrong

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Dual have become this?

I do however see the logo is different:
View attachment 147444
Original Dual logo:
View attachment 147445

And this from wiki:
View attachment 147446

But the legendary Dual name on cheap car audio is a step too far IMO. :facepalm:

thanks for the dual info. haven’t heard their name for years.
my last turntable was a dual cs741q (w/ the ol’ shure v15mr cart.), and recorded from with a revox b77,
sometimes using a dbx222 in between. AKA, the old days/technology.
cheers
 

DSJR

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Looks like it may be discontinued now, even in the US. Once again, we in the UK may be further hobbled here :(

Amazing performance for such a device. Back in the 80's, domestic stereo amps would be substantially worse in terms of distortion, especially at very high frequencies if my HiFi Choice books are anything to go by...
 

DSJR

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thanks for the dual info. haven’t heard their name for years.
my last turntable was a dual cs741q (w/ the ol’ shure v15mr cart.), and recorded from with a revox b77,
sometimes using a dbx222 in between. AKA, the old days/technology.
cheers

We were suspicious of the more solid plinth Duals, but I retain and still very much enjoy my CS701 with currently a low hours ADC ZLM (the V15MR was accidentally damaged [I wonder if the cantilever could be spliced together as the diamond is very low hours] and suited it so well) and have a small collection of lesser Dual models tucked away in my stash. Damned good decks some of these were and better than ever with modern pickups, especially AT's in my opinion (MC as well as MM if you choose right).

Sorry, as you were :)
 
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