Polk PA 880.1?? and PA 660.4

Roswellien

Just picked up a new Polk 880.1 and I am having one heck of a time tracking down specs for the amp. The website specs conflict with it self as well as the manual, which conflicts with the specs on the BestBuy website (only place I have found selling it so far).

Does anyone have a true spec list for this amp. Or most importantly do you know if its actually 1ohm stable (manual says no, website says yes), and what the RMS rating is at 1ohm?


Im also looking at picking up a Polk PA660.4 and its stats are conflicting on the website as well as with bestbuy. I would love to know the exact specs on the amp before I pick it up, as I have a feeling it will be a perfect match to run my Polk MOMO's 6 1/2s I have in all 4 doors.

Thanks

Topper

wow they look really good. I think i might want to try a few.



ROSWELLIEN:

I believe the PA880 is 300w rms @4ohms and 500w rms @2ohms

Vital

WOW!! Didn't even know Polk came out with new amps.
I love my PA500.4 and PA600.1 but 1 thing i always thought of as "CON" is the size. They are too big for what they do compared to most other brands.
didn't check the size to compare but per Polk both of these new amps are "compact". Hope so....

EDIT: About time to come out with SR-replacment series, huh?

arun1963

Yeah, me neither. They're smaller for sure. The 4x75 watts pa660.4 has a 40% smaller footprint than the pa500.4. I guess all amps are going the pdx way.

The manuals haven't been uploaded yet, but based on the overview, the mono block is stable at 1 ohm and will put out 800 watts. With the pa660.4, the 4ohm momo's will get 75 watts each which is good enough.

Roswellien

Well since it appears I am one of the first to have these amps (just went and picked up the PA660.4 a few mins ago). Ill post a review/impression as soon as I can get them installed, wiring kit and sub box are next on the list.

I will say they seem to be almost exactly the same size and are indeed very small for the rated power output. Dare say thinner then the Alpine PDX series I have worked with.

I've worked with a ton of different amps before, but never a Polk, I hope the SQ holds up to the SQ of their speakers.

Topper

super looking forward to that review bud

MacLeod

Hell yeah! That has been my only **** from the get go with the PA amps, they're gianormous! The smaller the better I say.

Roswellien

Well i picked up a wiring kit finally, my preouts are already run but its going to be a few days before i get a chance to complete the install. The amps are so small I am now planning on doing an under seat install under my front seats. Ill try and post pics of the amps and such in the next few days.

Roswellien

Well have the amps mounted and in, put the PA880 through a quick test to see if it was indeed 1ohm stable. Plays pretty well. Here is a vid of the test, this is before I dropped them in the box.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-YZKzYTe34

Can say that the amp is not nearly as loud as my old setup which was 2 1/2x more power and a larger box tuned to a lower freq. But so far its very tight and sharp and seems to be handling the subs very well.

TakeTheTime

0:09 - haha flexy membran.

Roswellien

Cant tell if you mean that in a good way or not...;)

TakeTheTime

A good way, I guess.

Roswellien

Well amps are in, install is great, still have a little cleaning to do. The under seat install went perfect and I have about 65% of the range of the seats left (front and back), which is about 100% of what anyone would ever use unless you are 4ft tall.

Here is a list of the full setup and I will break down my thoughts on the Amps at the end, just to give an idea of what I am working with.

Vehicle : 1996 Nissan Pathfinder
Wiring : Kicker 4ga Power & Ground
HU : Pioneer 6900UB
Amps: Polk PA660.4 & Polk PA880.1
Doors & Pillar: 4x Polk MOMO 6 1/2 & Stock Tweets in Pillar (tweets run of HU)
Subwoofers : 2x TC Sounds TC-1000 12" 4ohm DVC


Polk PA660.4
So far I have been very impressed with the clarity and strength this amp has given back to my Polk MOMO's in my doors. It seems to provide that sweet spot of power to the MOMO's and its amazing to have them at rated power again. I forgot how alive these speakers become when feed properly. I still have tuning to do on the crossovers between the doors and subs, but so far very impressed with the Polk PA660.4 as a SQ Amp.


Polk PA880.1
The PA880.1 is incapable of giving my Subs their RMS rating, but don't tell it that. Despite being quite hot to the touch this amp has yet to go into protect or overheat, suppose only time will tell. The amp is able to feed plenty of power to my 1200 watts RMS of subs for my needs and I am greatly hoping it continues to do so as the SQ so far seems great. Its also able to push the subs quite hard it, while not outrageously loud it still is able to give you that great gut punch feeling when you want it, just afraid to run it to long pushing it that hard. Right now the only thing holding back this setup it seems is not the amp or the subs but the prefab box I had to purchase do to time/money/tool constraints.


Overall I am for an "SQL" setup, I look for nice tight, responsive, and accurate bass. Right up until I just get a hankering to "feel the music" which so far this setup seems to be able to provide in spades. I worry slightly about the PA880.1 due to the heat and being unable to clarify weather this amp is truely 1ohm stable or not.

Polk PA660.4 Grade - A
Polk PA880.1 Grade - B+

Roswellien

Lasareath wrote: »

I have a PA1100.5, I wish I can put that under my seat!

Honestly under my seats is a SUPER tight fit, it has air ducts for the ac/heater and the seats also sink 3-4 inchs below where they normally would. Someone with more clearence (IE you can actually fit a subwoofer under your seat) could probably fit 2 of them with a little effort. Heck if i put flat bottomed racing seats in my truck I could probably fit 2 under mine.

I will try to post pictures of the install as soon as i clean up the mess (tools ect) in the truck.

Topper

I'm so psyched for these amps . Glad to hear their living up to the little bit of hype i had for them in my head .

Post some pix bud

Roswellien

Alright here goes, just took em, its almost completely dark out and camera's battery died right after the subwoofer shot. Excuse the mess as well, haven't cleaned it up since I finished the install. Can't really make it out in these shots but there is about 1 1/2in clearance on the topside with the seats fully back, and about 1in clearance on the bottom. I had to mount them at the angle because of the bottom of the seat extruding down 3-4in about 1in from where the back of the amp is in its current position. Plus it gives the added benefit of some additional air flow on the bottom side.

Pic 1 & 2 is sub amp on passenger side. Pic 3 & 4 are of 4chan amp on driver side, and the others are obvious.

P.S. if ANYONE has experience changing the stock tweets out in the 96-00 Pathfinders please let me know, I have yet to figure out an easy way to remove the pillar to get at the tweets. I would love to throw a nice new set in if at all possible.

Roswellien

1 more showing a little bit better angle of the clearance the amps have. Plus my lovely Pioneer 6900UB which I have now come to have a love/hate relationship with. If only Polk made head decks....

Topper

Cool! glad you had no probs fitting them under the seats as thats what i got planned for them as well

Roswellien

Just to let everyone know BestBuy.com is running a sale on the PA880, currently running only $160. Thats crazy low for that much clean power.

mizike

Ok I decided to grab the PA 880.1 and it is clean, hits pretty well but it overheats in about 3 hours. On my way to myrtle beach right after I bought it and 3 hours in to the trip it is super hot, then of course it will shut off every 15 minutes or so unless you let it completely cool down or turn your bass way down. I only have it running at 2ohms, wanted to run it at 1ohm on my limited edition fosgates but if it cant do 2ohms and not get hot in a trunk then I would say it is definitely not 1ohm stable. Great sound, kind of big for the power, but overheats with the gain only half way, at 2ohms, that would be the negative. If anyone has this amp and it doesnt heat up too much, let me know please what I can do besides putting in an amp rack with fans, I didnt think I shoudl have to do that with this amp running at 2ohms, seems kinda crazy.

arun1963

Turn the gains down. 10' o'clock

Roswellien

I am running the amp at 1ohm with a pair of TC Sounds TC-1000's mounted under seat. The TC Sounds are 600w rms subs and I have yet to have the amp over heat. Indeed sounds like you need to turn the gain down slightly and if you are using "bass boost" or a "loud" setting on your deck turn that off. You cause your amp to push FAR harder with those settings then what its designed to do and can overheat and damage your amp. Those settings at best should be used for Burps and short periods of time.

And if you think this amp is big for its power your insane, its TINY for its rated RMS.

Roswellien

I will say that while the amp did exhibit high heat that was BEFORE I had a chance to properly adjust the gains. Look up a gain setting tutorial online and USE IT. The fact that this is able to CLEANLY drive 2 high powered very musical subs very accurately and cleanly is a testament to its abilities.

mizike

Well I had the gain from 3/4s I dropped it to only half, did use the bass boost on the amp but thats what it is designed for you should be able to use it. If I have the gain down that low its not enough bass. This isnt my first amp, I have put plenty of amps in my trunk and none have overheated yet, the rms on this amp is not that high if you start turning the bass boost off and the gain down that low. Yes it is clean but the trunk is wide open and I lifted it up on a rack so air all around it, didnt think it should get hot.

So do you think it is better for me to run it at 1ohm and put the gain lower? I would love to use my rockfords they were showing 1.6 ohms in parallel, they really slammed but many amps have trouble with that low of ohms.

No I dont think it is too big for what it puts out when I have it cranked but I felt it was too big for the sound it was putting out at half gain. It hits only as hard as my 250 watt SAS Bazooka AMP it just replaced which was a cheapy amp. But it shines and blows it away with the gain at 3/4s and the bass boost on, then the subs hit really hard for a couple hours.

Roswellien

Again look up the gain setting tutorials. Gain is not a "volume knob" (technically it is but not in this situation) and has NOTHING to do with the power output capabilities of the amp. The amp has the ability to produce full RMS and PEAK power with the gain at both minimum and maximum levels.

"Bass Boost" is simply a cheater button, it will in many cases cause the amp to send a clipped signal which can damage the amp and the subs. Bass Boost should only be used sparingly AFTER the gains have been set properly, if even then. If you have had amps fail in the past this paired with improper gain settings was the most likely culprit.

Here is a good gain setting tutorial if you lack a DMM. http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/diyma-tutorials/70258-amplifier-gain-settings-without-dmm.html

Again by no means am I going to call the PA880.1 the greatest amp on earth. But for its price (as low as $159 at retail), clean power to RMS, and very small size its an amazing amp.

Keep in mind the last amp I had powering these subs was a 2kw RMS amp that pushed them to their limits, does this amp get as loud, of course not, but its still a very respectable output. I would need 2 of these amps to push my subs full fledged, and that may actually be a future upgrade.

mizike

Well I know the Gain isnt a volume knob per se but it is, basically, because if It is running at 1/4 you have no bass, at half your bass is hitting better then at 3/4 the bass is hitting how it seems like it should for the RMS rating. I could drop the bass boost on the amp even though seems silly, would think the bass boost is there for a reason, to help boost those frequencies of bass to hit better and with it on everything is still clean, no clipping. I know its not the best amp in the world but I also cant see how its pushing your subs satisfactory when my subs are 150watts RMS each 300 max. This amp should be too powerful for these subs or push them too the extreme but it doesnt.

With my gain at 3/4s and volume at 20 it sounds clean and hits really hard.
No I have not had other amps heat up or damaged in this same set up and running the same easy volume down, gain moved up, volume max to your listening and gain back down to even it out landing at around 3/4s or so. Thats the method I have used for years. I will try to lower this gain and see if I can get the same sound out, but have not been able to yet.

The U.S. AMP I just took out of it was hitting so hard you couldnt hear the lyrics or instruments anymore, not what I am looking for but just saying. This polk is clean nice bass and keeps the other instruments and lyrics right there sounding perfect, but my issue is heat. So maybe I need a stronger amp to do what I need, maybe I am asking too much from the polk, I will try the exact tutorial and I will also try to push them at 1ohm with lowered gain, see if either makes it how I really want it to slam.

Withought a doubt 160 is cheap, thats why I got it, but if the 200 dollar alpine v12 can run stronger, longer, hit harder and not heat up then the 60 bux would be worth it.

Roswellien

You say the rest of the system "overpowers" the subs when the gain is low, my question becomes, what are you running and is it ALSO externally amplified. If it is the gains on both amps need properly adjusted.

Another question would become how is your electrical, have you preformed the big 3, I have not yet completed it but I have started and already notice a difference in heat output from the PA880. The 880 does not seem to like voltage drops at all. And since its a Class A/B amp it is probably far less efficient than your previous amp which I will assume was a Class D. Meaning it demands more from your electrical system. Again I have no idea since you haven't listed everything you are running.

Another thing that MAY be working in my favor over your setup is that I am willing to bet my subs are far more sensitive then what you are running. Though you haven't listed exact model so I do not know.

In the end there are so many variables it could take a while to track down. I can say I have never worked with the MR series of Alpine amps but I have worked with the PDX series and I would say this latest line of POLKs comes to rest very CLOSE to the PDX series.

US Amps can be outright amazing amps, depending on model. Ive heard the newer lower end models are comparable in quality of construction to the other "name brands" instead of far exceeding them. But I have had no experience working with them in quite a while.

arun1963

mizike wrote: »

Well I know the Gain isnt a volume knob per se but it is, basically, because if It is running at 1/4 you have no bass, at half your bass is hitting better then at 3/4 the bass is hitting how it seems like it should for the RMS rating.

With the gains at 1/4, yes you would have less sub bass. Now the trick is to bring everything else down to match the sub level. Also, if you have time alignment, getting your sub and mids in phase will bring out a lot more of the sub output.

mizike

No my highs and mids are not on an amp yet, but I have a phoenix gold waiting for me at home when I get from vacation to put on the mids and highs. But as it is now its just the sony xplod radio on mb quart speakers. Yes with the U.S. AMP 1600.2 the bass was sick and you could only hear the bass at high volume, it was awesome bass, which is why I was going to add an amp on the mids and highs. But the polk is no where near drowning out my sound. The subs that are in right now are cheapy sony xplodes 10 inch 150 watt RMS 300 max and they surprisingly are very clean and strong. I put these in for vacation, the subs I want to use are the ones at my house but they are 1.6ohm in parallel rockford fosgates P1 made for the HUMMER by GM. Very low ohm subs. THey are ridiculous and slam like no other sub I have heard in a while but the low ohms scare me, less then an ohm each sub SVC. I figured I would see if the amp can handle the sonys, then throw them to the Fosgate wolves, but overheating on those worries me.

I do have good wiring, 4 guage for power and ground but I am using really thin for the speaker wires, maybe need to increase the size of that. Yes the U.S. AMPS are great, it was pushing about 400 watts x 2 at 2ohms RMS so would think comparable to the Polk but not really I guess. There AX series are top notch competing with the best amps and there old amps, but even the xterminator and newer amp by RE are solid and perfect for the price range. My older xterminator that I was using was class D, maybe that can be an issue too, but I dont think my cheap SAS bazooka was class D.

Would a larger fuse at the batter help? What size should that fuse be? Maybe I should get thicker wire, better wire. This should be more watts then my other amps outside of the U.S. AMP but it ran the sonys fine, but could not handle the two fosgates for more then a couple hours because of trying to push less then 1ohm in stereo, pretty tough for any amp lol.

mizike

Well did you read my posts or just pull all you hear is bass out of it lol. NO I DO NOT WANT JUST BASS, I love music not bass but with my music I love bass. With the 1.6ohm fosgates and U.S. AMP the bass overpowered the words, that is not what I am looking for, but the Polk is providing the opposite, not enough bass. It is almost good at 3/4s, and my volume goes to 21 before any type of distortion in my sound, the subs do not distort at all ever even with the gain all the way up, the polk definitely puts out clean wattage.

I have never blown a sub. Always run 10s because I enjoy hard rock, soft rock and RAP, so a good clean tight strong bass is what I am looking for. THe polk provides almost that at what seems to be its max RMS at 3/4 gain and bass boost on, but at 20 on my radio volume the sound gets loud but bass is not where it should be correlated to the volume of my instruments and words, it sounds about 100 watts short. When I ran my fosgates I could put the U.S. Amp down to half gain and the bass was good but it can not run less then 1ohm in stereo stable, not sure anything will. But I want to put this POLK on them, but if I cant get them to run at 2ohms strong with out overheating then I figured running it at 3/4 ohm or 1.5ohms would be too much for the amp.

I want more bass then what I had, so I bought a phoenix gold amp to run my mids and highs to match the subs, I like music and am not a bass head nor a 15 yr old that just wants a loud THUMP, I WANT LOUD MUSIC THAT MOVES YOU and you can feel it and hear the bass as well as everything else. I feel like I need to put one amp on each sub but I can not do 3 amps in my car that would be too much.

Roswellien

Well let me say this, I was running Rockford P3's before I UPGRADED to my current subs. So to me it all seems like something in your setup. You buy quality amps, but you really have to do some research. Best help I can give you at this point is read read read. DIYMA and CarAudio forums. Im running 1200w RMS of subs and this amp is pushing them great for what it is.