Especially those who participate in SPL competitions: I remember seeing some amps able to go as low as 1 ohm.
Way back in the 1990s Orion was already making amps that were ½Ω stable. As it is now 1Ω is a typical mono amp rating. They do this because you can buy subwoofers in any load you want, even dual 1Ω voice coils. Getting the most from each piece is not limited to how well it tests on a bench. Matching pieces needs to consider size, power draw, mounting style and how well parts work together on top of the final overall look. There's much more to car stereo than you think. With so many choices available, you're only real limitation is how much room you have available and how much room you want to have after the installation is complete.
The way they make cars now has severely dampened the aftermarket sales and installation business, climate control is now integrated with the audio system which makes for a complicated installation. It's no longer a matter of tossing a new head unit in the dash and running wires to your trunk, then building a box that fits in that area.
Once you're ready to upgrade a system in any car made after 2010 you'll be shocked at the price of installing and not the cost of the parts that make up the system. To see big gains it takes a bunch of knowledge in the field. A constant changing field that requires more experience with each part than any home system. The time spent planning a system is not even comparable to the time spent planning any other audio set up (except live or maybe movie theaters) since you're limited on space and custom changes will cost a fortune.
Read up in some car audio forums and see if you can even decipher what they're even talking about. Knowledge of current parts has never been more important, the problem is, where to start, that's something only the best installers can answer and it comes at a price. You'd be foolish to consider tackling it yourself, you'll just end up spending more money and time after you find it doesn't work.
Never expect an upgraded system to be a competition winner even when the cost far exceeds what a typical competition system installed in an old Blazer or Jimmy will cost. You just can't make those changes to new vehicles, read more about how each car maker has put safeguards in place to stop you from even trying to upgrade a speaker.
Car audio has surpassed the McIntosh amp tested here, there are so many amps available that can exceed what you can do with that amp, for its day, it was fantastic for SQ but for competition there were amps capable of much more for the same price, sadly those amps have little value in today's market. Power output is no longer a problem, amps now can put out over 10KW for about $500, problem is powering them. That piece is one for a collector and has no real world use, you can get the same output from new amps at half the price and half the size and half the current draw. Upgrading charging systems on a new car is just as costly as the install of a system in a new car, you simply cannot consider skipping the upgrade of both unless you aren't expecting any improvements over the stock system.
Electric cars have removed audio upgrades completely, as I said, car audio is dying, it's for the wealthy and the poor., no longer a middle income investment. I say that because poor people own older cars that can be easily upgraded by the owners. Although it's nice to see old pieces like this tested by a true professional but the limited interest in that amp makes it barely worth the time. Due to the high output and huge power needed to power car amps, dyno testing can only be done by a few reputable sources and I doubt Amire is going to invest in a 14.4vdc / 1KA PSU or a bank of 10 batteries plus ½Ω loads that can handle 10kw!
You'd be surprised at how many people would be interested in seeing much cheaper items tested rather than testing pieces that everyone expects to have good results. Popular stuff is rarely costing over $500, regardless of what it is, I guarantee you'll find much more interest in results concerning cheap stuff or even older very popular items over higher priced new gear, I'm not saying don't test new stuff, but it's to a point now where the differences in results are minimal and don't really reflect the pieces usefulness when in use in an audio SYSTEM rather than numbers on a graph.
Speakers tend to make the largest changes to sound in any system. Even though they all are totally different and some work better than others on certain other pieces, we all know that tests can't give a real description of their sound or how well they'll match up with other pieces. I guess what I'm saying is testing numbers can only be used to see if manufacturers are truthful, other than that, tests are kinda useless in this hobby.
Nothing against this site, I see the minimal differences in results coming down to cost of each piece. Kind of like an overall value per performance rating would need to be used to get a buyers stand point rating on new gear. I think price is a major factor in choosing pieces with specs being a distant second place when buying new gear. Then maybe looks, longevity seems to be forgotten in these times, something that was one of the main concerns in years past. Just shows you how priorities change and tests used to be important since there was a huge difference between pieces, not so much now, unless price is factored in.
As always thanks for the professional tests posted here, few are capable of doing this correctly and even fewer ever join in the conversation after the results are posted. Responding with facts and a level head has always been what makes this site appealing.
. McIntosh in the Clarion era was SOTA. Clarion was so focused on precision that they introduced the water jet glass front panels of the home unit.
