£500 bass amp..?

Never understood, why some crews spend real money on 18" sub drivers, then try to power them, with el cheapo, sub par, sub amps.

False economy, as it will result in blown drivers, when the amps clip, and send square waves to the 18" voice coils.

Aye.

Most important? The cab design!!  

BrainlessTekno wrote: i agree with all what you sad but my point was to figure out what factor is more important, drivers or amps, lets say i someone could not afford best amp and best drivers but just one of them, so should he choose amp or drivers? i know there is no definite answer to this and i do not demand one, just theoretical talk

In terms of loudness, I would say that it really depends on what type of music is being played. Cheaper amps for sub duty would be more favourable to house and techno, whereas D&B and dubstep have more sustained very low frequency content.

  Many of these newer amps claim high power output but for very short durations, whereas the old skool welding variety can actually produce sustained sinewave bass for long periods.

  We were discussing the difference between a Thomann T-amp 1200wpc vs a Crest Audio CA9 900wpc. While not a Class D 20m/s burst claim example, the T-amps 1200w is claimed with a THD figure measured only at 1khz, whereas the CA9 is rated 20hz-20khz. I have no doubt that measure with a 40hz sinewave the T-amp will not be able to compete with the CA9.

  The same can be said for bass drivers. There are so many claims of high power handling, but they are not all measured in the same way. Also, dedicated subbass drivers really need a lot of clean power to operate properly. If the damping factor of an amp is not suffienct, it can lead to driver damage even way below the rated power handling of a driver because it cannot control driver excursion. Amplifier clipping will also lead to voice coil overheat even if the rated output of the amp is below the rated power handling of a driver. People often used to assume that a 100w amp can't damage a 200w driver, but that's not the case.

  Good quality amps have always been more expensive than speakers, but there's been a long standing trend in soundsystem culture of the uneducated to spend more on speakers than amps because the speakers are more impressive to look at and the amps are pretty much invisible. I'm in no way suggesting that the majority of owners/operators see it that way, but I'm sure some of you know what I mean!