# me being the curious fellow i am i got 2 amps today



## zfactor (Oct 19, 2005)

to play with today. the eclipse and pioneer ice power series amps.. i wanted them mainly to compare to me pdx's to see if there is really any differences or if there are what are they... let me say they are VERY different animals.. all three of them are VERY different amps,... they each have flaws and advantages to them. i spent most of the afternoon doing listening sessions and installing a set of blinders lol in the wifes suv... so here goes...

to start with i had a pdx 4.150 in her vue. that is running currently cdt es-07 2 way set in the front door/a-pillar and a set of massive audio 6.5 coaxials in the rear doors (mainly for rear seat listeners and surround for movies)... so i am now very familiar with the pdx amp... no need to re-listen i hear it all the time...

i got my normal ref material out this includes rebecca pidgeon, tori amos, some of the rare gold prince releases, kamakirad, mary chapin carpenter, some misc jazz and blues i have made into a test disc... and a few others. 

first i dropped the eclipse in. now one thing right off the bat i love that i cant stand about the pdx is the placement of the adjustments. with the pdx the cover has to be pulled off every time what a pain in the neck. yes i give it to alpine this helped make the amp much sleeker in looks but a damn pain to adjust all the time..also note the eclipse was larger in size than the pdx by a decent margin. when you guys are looking at these type of amps really the main 2 selling point are going to be size and efficiency. the xa was almost the same size as some a/b 4 channels ive used in the past but def not a large frame amp by any means. i adjusted the gains and set off for my drive (also did a ton of listening in the driveway as well). right off the bat the slight lack of midbass from the pdx i sometimes notice was gone. the eclipse had far "snappier" midbass to it when compared to the pdx. but it ended there. the top end of the eclipse lacked the openess and air of the pdx. it seemed sorta restrained in a way, i had to play with eq/ta to try and adjust the stage. not that it sounded bad or like a 50$ amp..lol... it def was no where near that bad. this imo would make a great mid/bass amp. one thing i really dont understand and i didnt realize this till half way in (just slipped my mind when adjusting initially) is the x-over is always on?? IT CANT BE TURNED OFF it either on high or low only there was no off setting on the switch this sucks imo. so it cuts off 30hz and down.. this seems like a dumb idea to me... this therefore imo would make a bad amp to run a whole system off of. the top end did have good definition between instruments but the soundstage i am used to with my pdx was basically gone.. and i did try to get it back. this amp overall sounded very good but imo its not in the pdx's league as far as ice or full range class d. alpine seems to have done a better job than i originally gave them credit for. one thing i noticed is certain things did sound a bit more real with the xa. piano's seemed to have a bit more nautral timbre to them, and female vocals seemed to come through with less eq needed than my pdx. at least from what ref material i am used to. i could get into a by song review but id be typing for hours..lol....i also did notice the relay click of the xa was pretty loud. 

now i switched to the premier amp, i actually really like the styling of this amp. this amp in person looks really clean imo. very simple styling and its just sleek. again imo the placement of the controls sucks. but i guess if you want a good looking amp you have to deal. imo the eclipse "looks" cheap i hate the fake carbon look it has... anyway onto listening..this once again sounds much different than either of the other 2. now i have to disagree with another review ive read. to me the eclipse had a much worse stage than the prs did. the prs didnt seem to really affect anything nearly as much as the eclipse did. still def not as good as the pdx though imo. this amp sounds more in your face than either the xa or the pdx does. had more air/wider than the eclipse and a bit more shimmer and seems to like to play louder. things were not as overall nautral though this time. it was mostly a bit more colored the top end was a bit harsh pianos were a bit to emphasized imo. with a bit to much bite to them. tori's voice seemed to break up a bit and i didnt hear the breaths and fingers as much around this time. again i am being very picky here guys..this amp loved metal though. with it seeming to like to get loud i was def able to crank the rock/metal up and unlike with other listening material it just didnt seem to want to give up or get to shrilly or harsh... strange?? again not as overall real and nautral but def this amp has some balls. i think the pdx could borrow some. this like the xa would make a great amp just not for me. wow what a great job the prs does overall on the low freq's this would make a great lower power sub amp. when i hooked it to the type x it rocked even for only a rated 150x2. the pdx still has a more foward placement to it. things seem to be wider and farther foward with it then these two. i actually kinda wished i would have liked the prs more since they are freaking cheap online and at cost. overall when comparing these 2 the pdx series these would make a great amp. they are almost less than half the cost if bought online and both have their strengths and weakness to them. overall i think the pdx is a better performer and i will not switch out to these. now i am thinking going back to a/b though as i still hear certain things with these ice amps sometimes that i dont like. depends a lot on the recording, but overall it seems all the ice amps have a warmer tone to them than a/b is known for. and they seems imo to all have their own freq anomolies which is wierd if they are all using b&o ice chips they should imo be closer in overall sound to me. at least that would be my thought.


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## zfactor (Oct 19, 2005)

btw both were borrowed from a freind at a local shop so i have to give them back lol

il be benching them for actual power output tomm hopefully before i give them back though


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## dodgerblue (Jul 14, 2005)

great review impressions on some new interesting amps ,some may argue a watt is a watt but in the past i have found soundstage differeces among a good number of amps .


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