# Polk Audio PA D1000.1



## jbowers (May 3, 2009)

Picked up the Polk PA D1000.1 for sub duties this week, and thought I'd give it a little write-up since I've seen no feedback on it yet. 










First off - this thing is tiny! Feels very solid, I'm not at all worried about it getting knocked around in the trunk before I get my false floor built. 










Car keys for comparison










Size comparison to what it's replacing










And compared to the manual










And my fat-ass cat










Connections










And the twiddly bits










As you can see from the first pic it comes with a level knob and cable, spare fuses, allen wrenches and a power terminal adapter. The amp accepts 4 gauge directly and up to 0 gauge with the adapter. 

I've had it installed for a few days now and overall I'm very pleased. It replaces a Rockford T1000.1BD that's been kicking around for years and does it very well. Gains are set by ear to roughly 1/8 of the way up and man, does this thing kick! It's very clean, plays the deepest notes with authority and just seems effortless. Currently it's wired up at 1 ohm to a Rockford T2 12 in a 1.25 cf sealed enclosure and it makes this somewhat jenky sub sound mch better than I've ever heard it, although it doesn't begin to touch my dearly departed JL W6V2. 

Compared to the Rockford it's a bit less bloated sounding, although I suspect the former amp has some sort of non-defeatable bass boost or eq curve designed into the preamp. The Rockford was set to zero boost before I installed it, and I double checked for good measure by plugging in the Rockford level control and zeroing it out. 

Size-wise there's no comparison. You could fit three of the Polks in the space the Rockford took up. Efficiency seems to be much better too, although you'd hope so in the seven years since the T1000.1 was released. 

Overall I'm very pleased. It's tiny, it makes power and it's fairly cheap. Time will tell if it releases the magic smoke though. If not I'll be adding a pair of the Polk PA D4000.4s for mids and highs shortly. Hopefully those will prove to be as good. 

Thanks for suffering through my first review. I'm grabbing a beer...or five.


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## jcollin76 (Oct 26, 2010)

Thanks for the review!

I was just looking at these tonight. Lol sure look like the same platform as the PPI phantoms.
I like the Polks cosmetics more though. 
Let us know how this one goes, and if yet grab the 4 channels...


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## jbowers (May 3, 2009)

There's a lot of similarity with the Hertz HDP, especially the chassis. It came down to the cosmetics for me in the end to be honest, or the PPIs would have had a shot. If I was willing to spend a few hundred more it would have been the JL HDs, but so far I don't think I made a bad choice. 

The 4 channels will be had as soon as the fundage allows, I'm tied up with a couple of ninja projects but those are on the list. One bridged at 200 wpc on midbasses and another one for mids and tweets. The Rockford T800.4 has got to go - I'm tired of having such huge amps in the Jetta


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## Vital (Feb 23, 2010)

Looking to replace my current Polk PA1200.1 and PA500.4 amps with these new class D amps stricktly due to size.... and i guess becuase it's time to try somthing new, i've had these PA amps for some time now.

Glad to hear too feedback on D1000.1, i'm sure other PAD's are as good but for some reason NOONE sells 4 channel yet - there's lots of D1000.1s, D2000.2s and D5000.5s but for some reason no 4000.4 which is exactly what i want to buy in addition to 1000.1

Can you post a pic of it powered up? Does POLK logo on top light up?
Is that blue led stupid bright or does give out just enought light to be noticable?


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## jbowers (May 3, 2009)

I'll take a pic of it tomorrow. The light is pretty bright, but about the same as any other blue amp led. Logo is only a flat chrome-ish deal, no lighting. 

The more I listen to it the more I like it, and I definitely like the trunk space I have back. 

The four channels were available briefly, but I missed them. Got an availability alert going on a few different sites - hopefully soon.


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## JAX (Jun 2, 2006)

how much was the mono? just curious as compared to what my neighbor paid for his PPI version.


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

would you wanna sell the hug rf amps? pm .


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## jbowers (May 3, 2009)

JAX said:


> how much was the mono? just curious as compared to what my neighbor paid for his PPI version.


I made an offer on Sonicelectronix and got it for $265 shipped. For what it's worth, I'm positive it's a different amp internally than the PPI.


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## jbowers (May 3, 2009)

optimaprime said:


> would you wanna sell the hug rf amps? pm .


Actually yeah, I've got no use for them. I'll send you a PM.


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## jbowers (May 3, 2009)

Vital said:


> Looking to replace my current Polk PA1200.1 and PA500.4 amps with these new class D amps stricktly due to size.... and i guess becuase it's time to try somthing new, i've had these PA amps for some time now.
> 
> Glad to hear too feedback on D1000.1, i'm sure other PAD's are as good but for some reason NOONE sells 4 channel yet - there's lots of D1000.1s, D2000.2s and D5000.5s but for some reason no 4000.4 which is exactly what i want to buy in addition to 1000.1
> 
> ...


Sorry, almost forgot to post up the pic. Excuse the half-assed install, it shall be fully assed shortly. You can see the led, not too bad brightness-wise. Also as a size comparison next to my XS Power 2700 battery - how many amps are smaller than the battery supporting them?


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## Vital (Feb 23, 2010)

Does beaty cover come off (like it did with older PA amps)?
And if it does can you "switch it around" so you could have amp's RCA outputs facing either to the left or right depending on how you want them and still place that beaty cover on top of the amp so it's doesn't look "upside down"?... I hope you understand what i'm saying here....

EDIT: now that i look at it that blue led isn't dead in the middle which most likely means that cover is NOT "switchable" like covers on old PA amps, if you are to switch it around led will not be where it should.... please tell me i'm wrong lol.


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## JAX (Jun 2, 2006)

jbowers said:


> I made an offer on Sonicelectronix and got it for $265 shipped. For what it's worth, I'm positive it's a different amp internally than the PPI.



why do you say that? looks just like my buddies ppi which was $209 I think it was from Sonic.

I would like to know. I know the review of the 4 channel put out less power than the PPI 4 channel.


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## Vital (Feb 23, 2010)

JAX said:


> I would like to know. I know the review of the 4 channel put out less power than the PPI 4 channel.


Can you post a link to that review?
I haven't seen many reviews on these amps nevermindactuall comparrision.

As for price differance - maybe because Polk 4000.4 has fully active crossover??


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## JAX (Jun 2, 2006)

PPI 900.4 here: PASMAG | PERFORMANCE AUTO AND SOUND - Test Report: Precision Power P900.4 Amplifier


Polk here:

http://www.pasmag.com/car-audio/test-reports/2049-test-report-polk-audio-pa-d40004-amplifier-


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## Vital (Feb 23, 2010)

JAX said:


> PPI 900.4 here: PASMAG | PERFORMANCE AUTO AND SOUND - Test Report: Precision Power P900.4 Amplifier
> 
> 
> Polk here:
> ...


I've just read both review and yes, it sure does seem like they are same amps. Not sure why wattage is different but both share same things that are just way to difficult for me to disregard:

1. both have same 10x multiplying crossover
2. both have 2 fuses - one 35A and other 40A - i mean really, what are the chances of both using identically weird fuse combination?
3. Both have same gain. 

Here's quote out of review for PPI:



> About the only minor gripe I had was the amp didn’t have quite as much gain as I might have liked, requiring about 280mV of input to drive it to clipping with the gains maxed. This is no problem if you have a high volt output radio, but if your head unit’s preamp output voltage is on the anemic side, high quality recordings with wide dynamic range and lots of crest factor may not be able to get the amp to full power. But any good 4 volt or higher sources will be perfect.


And here's quote from Polk's review.



> I did note that the PA D4000.4 was a bit low on gain compared to some of the competitive products out there, but with a decent 4V head unit you’ll have no problems at all.


4. Same size. Actually identical size given a few eightth of an inch for "beauty cover" differances:
Polk 10.95” long, 6.75” wide, and 1.8” tall.
PPI 10.5” x 6.75” x 2” tall

5. Very similar, close to identical layout of inputs/outputs.


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## jbowers (May 3, 2009)

Vital said:


> Does beaty cover come off (like it did with older PA amps)?
> And if it does can you "switch it around" so you could have amp's RCA outputs facing either to the left or right depending on how you want them and still place that beaty cover on top of the amp so it's doesn't look "upside down"?... I hope you understand what i'm saying here....
> 
> EDIT: now that i look at it that blue led isn't dead in the middle which most likely means that cover is NOT "switchable" like covers on old PA amps, if you are to switch it around led will not be where it should.... please tell me i'm wrong lol.


I don't have any experience with the older PA series, from what I gather you're referring to a trim piece. Maybe it could be modded in the way you're referring? Looks like they're going with simplicity in this case. Routing cables so that you can orient it the way you want should be cake seeing as how small this thing is.


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## jbowers (May 3, 2009)

An amp guts comparison would tell us for sure, but looking at the two reviews I'd say there is a huge amount of similarity. Makes you wonder about the build house for these. Also very similar to the Hertz HDP, although weirdly enough the Hertz has a less sophisticated crossover. Cosmetically though, the Polk wins hands down between the two. Same amp? Maybe. Even knowing so I'd choose the Polk if I'm the one who has to look at them every day.


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## jcollin76 (Oct 26, 2010)

jbowers said:


> An amp guts comparison would tell us for sure, but looking at the two reviews I'd say there is a huge amount of similarity. Makes you wonder about the build house for these. Also very similar to the Hertz HDP, although weirdly enough the Hertz has a less sophisticated crossover. Cosmetically though, the Polk wins hands down between the two. Same amp? Maybe. Even knowing so I'd choose the Polk if I'm the one who has to look at them every day.


X2 the Polk's have a more understated and elegant look to them. All things considered, I'd choose the Polk for it's appearance alone...assuming they are near identical amps.


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## jbowers (May 3, 2009)

jcollin76 said:


> X2 the Polk's have a more understated and elegant look to them. All things considered, I'd choose the Polk for it's appearance alone...assuming they are near identical amps.


I'd also like to get the PPI in my hands and see how it feels compared to the Polk. That little thing just feels solid and extremely well built.


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## Vital (Feb 23, 2010)

While we're at it i'd also go with Polk due to looks AND (more important) fact that all my other gear is Polk lol. It just makes sense to me to have Polk amps driving my Polk speakers and sub.


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## JAX (Jun 2, 2006)

While I like the outside of the Polk, the price of the ppi is nicer 

But it's your call. Enjoy them


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