DLS vs Soundstream
 

Hey Guys,

I recently sold my Zeff built NAK amp, and I'm looking to try out something new. I have a set up K2Ps for my mid/high and an IDMAX12 in the boot.

It's become pretty clear to me that a true 100w rms is not enough for the K2Ps so I'm looking for something with more oomph - but certainly am not willing to give up any SQ.

There are 3 amps that I have been looking at:

(new)
DLS RA20 (reference line) - 450.00
Soundstream HRU.4 (same internals as original) - 499.00

(used)
Arc 2150SE (cream)

I am running passive right now and am happy to do so until next summer. I already have a 1000/1 running the idmax so really I will only be using 2 channels from the human reign if I go that direction for now.
Please do not make your recommendaitons based on flexibility - rather only on your own experience, and even better, experience listening to any of these on K2Ps.
Obviously the focals are forward and bright in the highs, and I would love to tame them a bit if possible, but not if it means compromising the mids.

Any suggestions would be great! The more detailed your reasoning the better!

Cheers,

Sorry - for what it's worth - the power ratings are as follows.

DLS RA20 - 130rms x 2 @4
SS HRU.4 - 140rms x 4 @4
ARC 2150se - 150rms x 2 @4

Based on my personal experience with K2Ps they love power and IMHO if you plan on achieving this with Soundstream of this era isn't the same according to my source. The parts that matter are cheaper, even though they look identical.

DLS - NO comment (never used)

ARC Audio 2150 is a very well built amplifier with SQ oriented people in mind. If you can afford the AEC SE 2300 I would go that route for added power buffer-especially since you are running passives that kill dampening factor.

Hope this help and good luck with your search

btw ARC SE 2300 BNIB RETAIL is $1349 well worth it

You were selling a 2150se back in the summer were you not?

I assume that is long gone? If so, know anyone selling a 2150 or 2300 on here?

Yes it's long gone - The last used 2300 on CCA was sold my French teammate.

Check here: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/

Yeah we need high damping factor because passives kill damping hahaha

Just do like any sane person does when they want a ton of power. Bridge a 4 channel.

The HU amp is huge and IMO doesn't even look nice (although maybe they are better in person).

BTW going from 100 to 150 would yeild a slight audible difference but not worth it IMO. You need to at least double your power for it to be noticable... this is where bridging comes in.

Doesn't dampening go to hell when you bridge though? I thought I understood that bridging also messes with the imaging of the sound as well.

I was looking at a tru tech 4.65 that bridges to 200x2 @4ohm but my concern was of course the above mentioned.

I've though of going full active - but it always seems strange to me to run a 4 channel amp that puts out say 100x4 and have 100 watts going to the tweets too - is there really NO drawback to dropping your gains way way down for the the 2 channels the tweeters run on?

Thoughts?

The damping factor will halve when you bridge the amp. The distortion doubles too. Neither are audible anyway so do not let this deter you in the least. The argument could also be made that you are not going to have to push your 200watts nearly as hard as the 100watts to get it to the same listening level so the distortion you can't hear will be reduced and the headroom you can hear will be increased.

If the choice though is to run double bridged through passives or be 4ch active, go active.

If you do double bridge, make sure you use both lefts for one pair of channels and both rights for the other pair of channels to arrive at a bridged left and bridged right.

Forgive me if I am missing something from the original post, by why would you not get the Soundstream HR and run active? That would give you 140W for each of the mids and allow you to dial in the tweeters however you like (to tame them)
You didn't mention which K2P you are running, but even the 165 KRX2 are specc'd at 100W RMS, 200W max ... so a clean 140W should keep them (and you) very happy.

Where I get stuck on going active is, for the quality of amp I want, I can generally only afford something in the 60-80w x4 range.

I have the K2P UV 6.5 components and the mids are power hungry. If I run active, I don't think even 80 watts is enough power for them so I look for 4 channels so I'd have to find an amp with more oomph.

There are two reasons I'm hesitant about the SS Human Reign is 1) It's fecking enormous and I drive a VW golf 2) I've heard more than a few people saying it's not the same quality amp as it's ugly predecessor. (prove me wrong please)

Then - lets say I can find a place to mount the hru.4, I have to pray my 140amp alt and kinetik hc1800 can power it along with my JL 1000/1.

*** So here is a couple more questions***

1. Do A/B amps or class D amps with regulated power supplies pull full amperage regardless of what the gains are set to? - or if say I have the gains on the tweeter channels of a 4 channel active amp turned way down - that amp will behave like a smaller amp in terms of current draw?

2. Do you loose some of the signal/fidelity (is there effectively a "dumbing down" of the signal) when you reduce gains? And theoretically, would running 80 watts @ 60% gain sound any better/different than running 140 watts @ 30% gain on the highs? The thought of running a channel that produces over 100 watts to a tweeter just feels weird to me.

3. THIS ONE HOPEFULLY HAS AN OBJECTIVE ANSWER. Will my focal components(both woofer and tweeter - no playing favourites) be happier on 200x2 passive, or 65x4 active?

Sorry for just spilling my brain all over the page.... I think i asked more like 10 questions in there, but thanks in advance for anyone who is staying on-board :)