Plate amp reliability- MCM, Dayton, bash, etc.

duanebro

I was looking at buying mcm 120watt plate amp. But the reviews and 90 day warrenty make me wonder about how long it will last. So I looked at PE and found a lot of reviewers stating that they died regularly also... Any thoughts or input on what is the best budget plate amp?

jhollander

I've had three fail, two Dayton and the other one similar to the Dayton.  I thought the Yung class D would be better but apparently not from the reviews.

My current plan is to either is build my own with the Sure amp board or go pro amp like the inuke.  Maybe used pro amp.

In the mean time I'm running with the Dayton plate amp in the manual on mode.  With the previous plate amps in the auto mode on I'd find the amp on and warm when the receiver was off.

JasonP

I owned a older Dayton (a few years back) that was rock solid. I eventually sold it when it was no longer needed. I also owned a Keiga from Madisound years before that, but during the stun gun scene in Minority Report it took out my woofer in a horrible murder-suicide combo. Don't think those are worth the price, IMO.

isaeagle4031

jhollander said:

I've had three fail, two Dayton and the other one similar to the Dayton.  I thought the Yung class D would be better but apparently not from the reviews.

My current plan is to either is build my own with the Sure amp board or go pro amp like the inuke.  Maybe used pro amp.

In the mean time I'm running with the Dayton plate amp in the manual on mode.  With the previous plate amps in the auto mode on I'd find the amp on and warm when the receiver was off.

This is the way I'm leaning as well. The berry 1000 is really hard to beat at the price. I had a yung200 that apparently has no short protection. My Dayton plate amp works fine as well as the Dayton 250w rack unit. 

jr@mac

I had a pair of the SA240 with boost that both failed within weeks of each other. It was a common problem (random noise that sounded like cinder blocks dragging across concrete), reported by many others. Mine were out of warranty (barely) and PE wanted a lot of money to repair what amounts to a $100 amp with a history of failure. No thanks. 

Over the years, I realize I have a love-hate relationship with Dayton Audio. They very nearly lost me as a customer with the way they handled the Woofer Tester fiasco. That still burns me, time and again being told by PE, by the designer, by the community to essentially "RTFM" - only to find out the stability issues I experienced were extremely common and even acknowledged by PE. When they released a "fixed" version, they offered the existing holders of flawed hardware no recourse. I came back because on some things, their customer service is outstanding. I will no longer purchase electronics from them however, as the DTA120 I use has a turn-on thump they do not admit exists and they have a history of rushing products to market only to clearance them and release "fixed" models. 

Buyer beware on plate amps. especially - not sure any of them are actually worth a crap. Not at the cost of modern Class D pro amp.

duanebro

My issue with this is that this is for my brother. I dont want to build some thing that is going to fail... nor do it think he will want another amp to turn on.

jr@mac

In that case, Duane - you might consider a commercial sub just to introduce that layer of warranty protection. By all accounts, the Dayton Audio powered subwoofers are a solid value. 

Face

I used a Yung 200w plate amp to power bass shakers for a few years and never had an issue.  I switched to Dayton's rack mount 230w amp about 6 months ago and no issues yet.

jhollander

I have zero experience with these, but when I was looking at plate amps the back plane and construction of the OEM plate amps at APEX Jr seemed so much cleaner/ better than my daytons.

http://www.apexjr.com/KRK_250.htm

greywarden

My little Blackweb Gunner 2.1 system has recently started picking up the local gospel radio station somehow, rather annoying because even when it's all the way down, I can still hear it. Except it appears to be silent tonight.

hongrn

 I still have 2 BASH 300W amps that are now about 8 years old, and no problems. By the way, if you built your own sub amp, which crossover circuit would you use?

jhollander

hongrn said:

 By the way, if you built your own sub amp, which crossover circuit would you use?

Hong I was looking at second order line level but I need to understand the amplifier input impedance better.  Do you have some ideas?