Dayton Audio SPA500 500W Subwoofer Plate Amplifier

The UI on the computer is great and easy to use if you know audio and computers. I was not happy in not seeing a dampening rating anywhere online and still not once i bought this. HOWEVER! This unit is completely solid and gave me life to my PL200V2 that the bash amp took a crap. The UI let me fix the peak at 40hz in that box in two ways. Dropped the 40hz down in a certain setting. I think - 4db in 24 db oct to remove peak, while raising 5 25hz at 12db oct to add the low end back (and then some!) I'm not saying it's The GREATEST. But I settled on this for my 90 movie/10 music and was very happy with the results vs price! Literally said good enough and moved on because 1. It's not a dead amp, and well that's just a bummer. (Oh it was a 2 sub setup and is one now after this!) 2. It was better than the pl200 bash amp 3. Saved the money and bought a motocycle too.

Love the options provided for tuning amp; for most part work very well. Love the 24db/octave option on the crossover filters. Love that the gain switch affects both the sub amp; main speakers so track together. Love the balanced connections for both amp; out. It was good that they provided a USB cable as well as the speaker wire being more than long enough. These last two I have seen people complaining about so it shows they are listening. Now for the not so good things. Main one is when you want to go really deep as in below 20Hz there appears to be a nondefeatable subsonic filter that once it kicks in you can't boost to compensate as the parametric equalizer does not respond to boosting once you try to boost below 20Hz. This does not appear to be a lack of power issue as the amp doesn't appear to be strained at all. I wish they could release a firmware that completely turns off the nonconfigurable nondefeatable subsonic filter but still include the one that is configurable one as this is truly needed for those with vented or passive radiator subs. The subsonic filter should be able to be adjusted to lower than 25Hz to take into account people who tune thier ported subs ports to lower than 25Hz. By the way my sub is sealed so there was no need to use the subsonic filter. I couldn't bottom driver even with the old 300watt BASH amp amp; the subsonic filter on that was defeated through modification. But I will say it definitely did push the driver to its max unlike this one. Most everything runs cool except the core of the main transformer core amp; the large double inductor near the output of the amp. This seems to be power related amp; not output related as it even stays hot even if your not playing music for a long period. Bare in mind the main transformers coil doesn't to get much over luke warm, it is just the core of the transformer. This is no matter how much power you sending to the speakers. Where this could be an issue in the future is the close proximity to the filter capacitors as they don't like heat in the long term. Also why is the power rated at 100Hz amp; not lower such as 30Hz? This is a subwoofer amp. Not a woofer amp for some nondescript micro life style system. It is for serious sbwoofer use. I was expecting a bit more output as it goes below 25Hz. This is a subwoofer after all. Other than this fault it is an excellent well put together sub amp Correction; I connected my phone that has a signal generator using a high quality DAC/AMP amp; using that I was able to confirm that the subsonic filter is indeed fully disabled when you disable it in the controls menu amp; the parametric equalizer is indeed fully functional below 25Hz. I was able to achieve 12db boost16Hz, so very functional. Note, this frequency is below the human threshold of hearing bus can be felt if loud enough. It was able to rattle windows16Hz with a small 10 inch woofer in a sealed cabinet. I would say that is an accomplishment. My system is in a 12x12x7 foot space, small but not super tiny. Note, while it does have less power than my old stock amp the options available on this results in a significantly better result than I could get with old amp. Rebuilt my subwoofer with a larger cabinet amp; better driver added a very low tuned passive radiator that is tuned slightly below 16Hz. I have music that goes as low as 16Hz. Testing shows low distortion output to 16Hz. It is audible to me. I am running this without any EQ below the crossover frequency. There is still a subsonic filter at 18Hz that is non defeatable but I still have good response to 16Hz. It is within reasonable spec to being flat from 45Hz down to 20Hz and 16Hz is still very usable with low distortion without using any EQ. I have some question as to the claimed limit of human hearing being 20Hz as I can clearly hear 16Hz amp; even below on my headphones in testing. With my magnetic planar headphones I could hear as low as 6Hz amp; it was not doubling I heard. I did a sweep down to 6Hz amp; there was smooth decrease in frequency to my ears all the way down. Only time I heard any doubling is if I set the source volume too high. I could set the output volume as high as I wanted.

I installed this thing on a 3ft subwoofer i built. I set it once and even thout i play it loud I forget its there. Greal value