# Memphis 16-PR1.1000



## pat_smith1969 (Feb 17, 2010)

The Specs...
Power Reference Series Class D Monoblock Car Amplifier 
RMS Power Rating: 
4 ohms: 300 watts x 1 chan. 
2 ohms: 600 watts x 1 chan. 
1 ohm: 1000 watts x 1 chan. 
Remote bass level input (remote level control sold separately) 
LED power and protection indicators 
Tuned Bass EQ (0-18 dB bass boost at 45 Hz) 
Preamp RCA outputs 
Internal cooling-fan 
RCA level inputs 
Variable low-pass filter (50-350 Hz, 24 dB/octave) 
Subsonic Filter (20-50 Hz) 
Frequency response: 10-400 Hz 
Dimensions: 12.6"L x 10"W x 2.3"H 


Initial impressions:
The first thing I thought when taking this beast out of the box was "Man this thing is built like a brick **** house". It is HEAVY, with big solid looking heat sinks. It just feels like quality. Looking at the terminals you can tell they are solid and meant to take the rated size wires. They are all phillips (or a fine flat head) screws. I have always wondered why manufacturers of amps feel that you want Allen heads on the amps when the rest of the world uses phillips heads. Overall I found this amp to look and feel like quality.

Setup:
I have this amp pushing a SI BM MKIII wired to a 2 ohm load. Specs say the amp will be pushing 500watts at 2ohms. The amp can actually do a 1 ohm load pushing 1000 watts. I am thinking of adding a second MKIII later so I wanted the option of using the same amp.

It is replacing a kenwood 500 watt amp so all the wires were already run and this is a simple A/B swap. The rings of the power/grnd wires that I had used on the Kenwood had to be cut off because the Memphis has a screwdown type connection.

first run:
After turning on my car for the first time I immediately noticed a "noise floor" that was NOT there when the Kenwood was installed. I discovered a high pitch whine coming from my tweeters suddenly, revving the engine did not make this noise change in pitch so it is not the typical alt whine you get but it is definately an issue... Perhaps I did something wrong, loose wire or something... hopefully

I went back to hatch and found I could hear the engine from the sub. It is hard to explain as again I am not talking about an alternator whine but I could hear noise that sounded like my engine coming from the sub. Playing with the Low Pass filter I was able to get rid of all the engine noise. Before Install I turned the LPF all the way up to 350hz because I wanted to use the LPF on my head unit instead, which was set to 80hz (just like it had been with the Kenwood). After turning up the LPF all the noise went away.. so far I am very unhappy, the one thing I want more than a great sounding system is a system that makes no noise (if that makes any sense). 

Sonic Impressions:
I fiddled a bit with the gain and found that at 3/4 of the dial was a good spot. This is the same place where I had it on the Kenwood too. I played a few bass tracks for testing. I must say that I had kinda expected a 100% increase in volume over the Kenwood eventhough they are rated at the same power. The volume was almost exactly the same as what the Kenwood had bee (when the Kenwood was not clipping that is). What I did notice however was more "Authority" in the bass lines. It almost seemed that the lower the note the happier the amp got. There was much more punch in the rapid moving bass notes and the REAL low notes were voiced with much authority.

I played the track of "Still Fly" (I forget who does that song.. Chamillionaire maybe) Anyways... There is a part in that song where they say "The bass notes hit and the amps didn't see no fires" then there is an awesome transient that drops way down low. Well my other systems could play that just fine (or so I thought) but when the memphis played it.. it was night and day. That transient remained the same volume from the high not to the lowest note, other amps I have heard tend to get quieter, the kenwood almost didn't even hit that last note.

I played several other tracks until my wife came out to the car and asked me if I was going to help her at all with getting our son ready to go? You guys know that "tone" of that question... it means business. The other tracks all were impressive with the consistent musical nature of the amp. I found that while the bass track was pronounced and solid it never got fatiguing to the ears. Typically I end up turning down the sub after 10 mintues or so but I was still enjoying the new awesomeness in my system for about 45 minutes. 

Synopsys:
The jury is still out on this one. I really wanted to write a glowing review on the amp and had even thought about totally re-doing my whole system with Memphis PR series amps (the feel of quality is that high out of the box). I like the looks and they are fairly cheap now too since the new lines are coming out soon.

The music reproduction of the amp was awesome. The new authority the bass gets from this amp is really impressive and addicting (I am thinking of going out right now to listen to my car... just for a bit). The fact it can do this and not actually increase the overall volume of the bass line shows a lot. Usually I have to bump up the bass to make it pound to the point where it is over powering the highs, but not with this amp. I guess you call that headroom. 

The noise issues are really worrying me. I still need to run through all the wiring and rca's to make sure there is not fault on my own, but if I cannot remove that whine between tracks this amp is going bye bye. I will update this thread in a week or so to post my long range opinions. Also I will post some of the pics I took.


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## pat_smith1969 (Feb 17, 2010)

Some pics of the amp.


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## pat_smith1969 (Feb 17, 2010)

Just a few shots if it installed in my unfinished amp rack.


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