M50 vs ZX450

[Mr. Wild]

I have been wondering whether a ZX450 would be louder or have more headroom than an M50.
My M50 runs Hertz HV165 comps in the front and they get pretty loud. The sound does get a bit harsh and edgy though when cranked.

Both amps have similar (unbridged) power, right?

Its possible that the speakers are to blame but i had the same problem with peerless comps too, only worse.

[stipud]

Unbridged they are similar but bridged or active the zx would offer more power and clarity at high volume

[tonym]

No dif in high volume clarity here that I can tell unbridged..to me they both seem very clean and clear and SUPER DUPER loud........I never thought to test them bridged seeing how good I thought the results were after a few days of tweeking..

[Mr. Wild]

More thoughts about the comparison..

M50 has 35V rail caps, whereas ZX450 has 50V caps. Yet the M50 is specced higher at 4ohm??


ZX450 has four channels and over twice the specced power of M50, yet rail capacitance is only 2x4400uF?
M50 has 2x4700uF

M50 ZX450
35V 50V
4700uF 4400uF
2x85W 4ohm 4x75W 4ohm
2x120W 2ohm 4x150W 2ohm

Has anyone actually measured any these ratings. I'm especially interested in the unloaded power ratings (headroom)

[Eric D]

I can tell you that a ZX450 does 24V RMS prior to clipping with no load.

Since the M100 is 27V, I am guessing the M50 would be below that of the ZX450. But, I don't know for sure without testing one. If I ever get a chance I will test mine out.

[Mr. Wild]

Wow, that's a lot of headroom! 4x75W, yeah right.

Next season the ZX is going in da trunk, I can tell you. It can handle comps active, which should be nice.
The M50 could be great for sub duty. Its a 3 ohm load so I'm a bit sceptical. I'm running just one channel off a JBL P180.2, because it doesn't sound right bridged. A JBL GTI1200 is very unforgiving but with only one amp channel the control is really good.

I'm even more sceptical about using just the ZX for comps + sub. Will a 3 ohm sub bridged swamp the ZX and make comps sound dirty? If it doesn't, I will be impressed. I listen to heavy rock and prefer it loud.

[Eric D]

I ran one of my ZX450s (a V2 model) at 2 ohm mono a pair of subs, and 3 ohm stereo on a pair of components. I never had any issues, and it sounded great.

Your results may vary though.

In my case I ran the amp with no clipping, and that itself made things a lot easier on it (so little average output this way).

[Mr. Wild]

Sounds good! I don't do clipping so I'm set.

Thing is the GTI sub is just so damn efficient that roughly 100+ watts is enough for my listening habits. No danger of clipping. The comps high-pass is at 60Hz 24dB/oct. I really have to push them with an M50 to hear any distortion.