Ideas For A Beefy Solid State Amp For Subwoofer Duties

Interesting comments.

@russ69  it’s been on my mind, the point you make about lightweight amps with lots of watts, versus heavy hitters weighing 100lbs that deliver a lot less power, at least on paper:)
I suppose SMPS help in this regard, but yes... point taken.

@millercarbon   I’ve been messing around with powered subs and plate amps and I want to try a different approach. In theory, once all the hardware and cabling is in place, the room measured and DSP working, I should be able to pull out one amp and replace it with another, with only basic software tweaks to the DSP. Then I can see how one amp compares to the next and which sounds better. Look at it a different way -  roughly speaking, we slice up the sound of our systems into 3 fairly equal portions - high frequency, midrange and bass. When looking at the attention to detail and the money we spend on powering the HF and Mids, it seems crazy handing over bass duties to a crappy little plate amp mass-produced in China and sold here for a few hundred bucks. I know, you can pick many holes in my logic, but for me it makes sense...and... it’s another project and more stuff!

I have all the hardware other than the amps, so I’m almost ready to rock and roll.

@spatialking thanks, I’ll check those out.

Rooze

"...that is a myth, there is no stereo..."
99% true but I guess you didn't own any stereo Beatles albums, lots of single channel bass.  

"...I suppose SMPS help in this regard..."
There are times when you can't pull enough power out of the wall, that's why the lights dim when you crank up the big systems. Big caps help with that.  

I own Dayton plate amps SPA1000s and 1200s (DSP). I like all 3 of Daytons bass amps. Plate, Plate (with DSP), and the SA1000s. They are tough, have some good features, run quiet and pretty cool

I fell in love with Behringer products, two of the greats are their 12K, 2 channel power amps and their active crossovers (2496). That amp will push a 1 ohm load. The active XOs (2496) have full blown DSP with mic tap, active monitoring and on the fly correction. It will do 6 channels per unit. I keep two here and 3 12K power amps. They have fans.. I disconnect two of the three fans and leave the one over the PS hooked to micro toggle. Late night listening I flip it off. I’ve NEVER overheated one of those amps.

I have 1300.00 invested in two new and one used amp. I got the 2496s for 300.00 each. New.. One amp would power 20 12" speakers BUT you would loose the individual speakers ability to be perfectly tuned for about 270.00 usd per 1700-4K rail. Beat that with ANY combination.

HEAVY cable, add 100.00 per 2 rails and 120vac at 20a another 50.00. 150 total for GREAT cable. Speak-on and twist-locks for speaker and PC connections..

6 channels and cabling under 2K. 36K of power and can do everything. Each channel will run 8-12 12" heavy sub drivers, or 6-10 15" subs, no problem..
Boom Boom in the Room Room. OK!!
How about Boom Boom the Block Block, LOL

Regards..

Bryston will have have a whole bunch of refurbished 4B, 4B-ST, AND 4B-SST up for sale soon. They have a buy back program for old 4B's and will resell them, likely on their web site.