Alpine MRP-F240

cam5860 · December 2005

For everyone that has been questioning just how good the alpine v-power series amps are. Here is the guts in this MRP-F240 v-power amp. The digital processor in alpine's amp's is state of the art technology. It monitors the temperatures of various sections of the amp, and automatically reduces power output by 6db if the heat becomes excessive.

MacLeod · December 2005

You sure thats not a V12 amp?

They dont have a digital Class D in the V Power lineup.

Ima thinkin' thats a cutaway of a V12 Class D amp.

cam5860 · December 2005

No this is the v-power series. It shocked the hell out of me also to see that they put processors in the v-power lineup. If you don't believe me go to alpine.com and go to europe to see the lineup. It's much better than the usa website. They explain there products much better there.

SportsFan · December 2005

Hey cam, thanks for this info. I'm looking at this particular amp....so I'm glad to know that it has your "stamp of approval" (LOL). I'll let you know if I get it, and if I do, how it sounds once it's been installed. Thanks again for the heads up....

cam5860 · December 2005

Hey sportsfan you won't regret owning this amp. It is a solid performer.

audiobliss · December 2005

Hmm...I'd like to see the guts of a V-12 series amp...

skydeaner · December 2005

Nothing on the circuit board looks special. PWM is nothing new and it doesn't use very many capacitors, or very high of value even for 200watts rms... but from what I've heard they sound good, so they must be pretty efficient.

cam5860 · December 2005

Hey if anyone is considering owning a alpine v-power amp you better wait, because they have a new series of v-power amps coming out this month. I saw them in my new crutchfield book. Plus they are going to offer a lot more models of the v-power series this year. Here are the new models. (MRP-F250 40X4 OR 100X2) (MRP-F450 75X4 OR 200X2) (MRA-F355 50X5) (MRP-M450 400X1) (MRP-M650 600X1). Here is a pic of the new v-power amp.

skydeaner · December 2005

New ones are styled a lot better if you ask me. I would actually consider showing one off now! Seriously the old ones just looked like garbage. It's not even all that much of a change, but it is definitely a whole lot better looking.

cam5860 · December 2005

Yeah i agree, they don't look near as cheap as the old model one did.

SportsFan · December 2005

Considering that amps are usually mounted either under the seat or in the trunk, the looks of it are the least important aspect to me. Besides, I really don't think the V series amps look that bad at all to begin with.

I did some googling, and I believe you misquoted the MRP-F450's watts per channel RMS rating, cam. According to what I found, they are 50 X 4, not 75 X 4. Anyway, I found the MRP-F240 on sale for around $150, with a one year warranty (same as Alpine's) through an online dealer....so I just ordered it yesterday. Hopefully I won't regret it, because the power appears to be the same as the newer models, and the price was definitely right

cam5860 · December 2005

I just double checked in my crutchfield book and it says the MRP-F450 is rated at 75x4 or 200x2. Now crutchfield could have made a mistake on it but i doubt it. They are usually on top of there game.

SportsFan · December 2005

Hmmmm....that's interesting. I get a Crutchfield catalog through the mail, and the latest one I received only highlights 3 Alpine amps (MRP-T220, MRP-F240, MRP-M350)......BUT....their web site has a lot more, but no mention of the MRP-F450. Here are the ones listed through their website:

Alpine MRP-F240
40W x 4 Car Amplifier
100 watts RMS x 2 bridged BassEngine® with selectable low- and high-pass crossovers and tuned Bass EQ preamp outputs

Alpine MRP-M350
200W x 1 Car Amplifier
350 watts RMS x 1 at 2 ohms speaker-level inputs Bass Engine® with low-pass filter, subsonic filter, and Bass EQ bass boost speaker-level inputs

*Alpine MRV-F450
50W x 4 + 200W x1 Car Amp
60 watts RMS x 4 at 2 ohms + 200 watts RMS x 1 at 4 ohms BassEngine® with variable high-pass/low-pass crossovers, subsonic filter on the sub channel, and a tuned Bass EQ

Alpine MRV-F345
75W x 4 Car Amp
85 watts RMS x 4 at 2 ohms BassEngine® with variable high-pass/low-pass crossovers and subsonic filter Amp Link preamp outputs

Alpine MRD-M1005
700W x 1 Car Amplifier
1,000 watts RMS x 1 at 2 ohms Bass Engine® with low-pass filter, subsonic filter, and parametric EQ, Amp Link preamp outputs

Alpine MRD-M605
400w x 1 Car Amplifier
600 watts RMS x 1 at 2 ohms Bass Engine® with low-pass filter, subsonic filter, parametric EQ, and Bass Compensator preamp outputs

Alpine MRA-F350
50W x 5 Car Theater Amplifier
Dolby Digital, DTS, and Dolby Pro Logic II processing built-in BassEngine® with variable high-pass/low-pass crossovers and subsonic filter optical digital input

Alpine MRA-D550
60W x 5 Car Theater Amplifier
Dolby Digital, DTS, and Dolby Pro Logic II processing built-in BassEngine® with variable high-pass/low-pass crossovers and subsonic filter two optical digital inputs

I don't even see the MRP-F450 through Crutchfield....just the *Alpine MRV-F450. But when I did a Google earch for MRP-F450, there were a couple of links for it that were brought up:

http://aspensound.com/amplifierdetail.cfm?recordID=MRP-F450
http://www.pimpmycar.net/brands_alpine-amp-multi-channel-mrp-f450.html

cam5860 · December 2005

Crutchfield does not even have the new alpine v-power series amp listed on there website yet. These are spankin new products no one even really knows about them yet. Besides it will be awhile before you could get one. They will sell out the first day. Then it takes about a month just to get a few more kinda like what you see with the xbox360 right now. Most of the model's you have listed there are the v-12 amps not the v-power amps.

SportsFan · December 2005

So could you post what all information (through your Crutchfield source, including specs and price) that you have for this particular amp? I'd like to check it out, because I could probably cancel my order and I might be interested in this "new" amp, if it looks like it would be worth it.....

cam5860 · December 2005

This is all the information i have on them right now.

1996blackmax · December 2005

audiobliss wrote:

Hmm...I'd like to see the guts of a V-12 series amp...

I opened up my MRD-M501D. It looked pretty similar to that.

One day I will crack open my Arc Audio ones and see the goodies inside

.

MacLeod · December 2005

Im glad they are finally expanding their V Power lineup. I may have to look into some of those when I get tired of my Crossfires.

audiobliss · December 2005

My first thought would be that the 75x4 that Crutchfield is quoting for the MRP-F450 (and if that's not the right model number, forgive me...I'm not scrolling up to check it...though that'd take less time than typing all this....:p), is that they're quoting the power output at 2ohms, though SportsFan's info says it does 60x4 @ 2ohms. Perhaps Crutchfield is lessening the fifth channel's load in order to get more out of the other four channels. Beats me.

Mac - If you dare even think about replacing those sweet Crossfire amps with some cheap Alpine V-Power series amps....well, I'll be sad. Unless, of course, you'll sell me those Crossfire's really cheap!

SportsFan · January 2006

Well, I've thought about it some more....and I think I'm just going to stick with my original purchase of the MRP-F240. I was able to purchase it new at half of what the "MRP-F450" costs ($150 compared to $300), and I don't know that the extra wattage would justify doubling the cost (for my tastes). From everything I've heard and read...the MRP-F240 is a great little amp, with truly great clarity in the sound quality, and is much louder than the "Watts per channel" rating would seem to indicate. I've heard that it is much more of a true rating, and that many amps which are rated higher in watts per channel actually are not what they "claim" to be, while this one definitely is.

I guess only time will tell, but to tell you the truth I'm not disappointed with the volume levels and power of my current head unit, so I'm sure that I'll be pleased with the additional power and clarity that this little amp has to offer......

MacLeod · January 2006

Most high quality amps will easily and cleanly exceed their rated power however Alpine V Power amps dont. My 40x4 amp was about 40x4 with little left over. In comparison to my Crossfire 50x4 amp, the 40x4 is less than half the size!

Still, they are good amps for the money.

hrdhtdvr · January 2006

Would someone tell me which series is the latest and greatest ? V-12 series or V-Power ?

1996blackmax · January 2006

The V-Power is below the V-12 Series.

MacLeod · January 2006

Yeah, the V Power is their entry level offering. Nothing fancy. They make their rated power cleanly but not much beyond that. They have good build quality but not astounding and have pretty much no features.

The V12 are much better. They cleanly exceed their ratings, are built better and have a lot of cool features.

SportsFan · January 2006

MacLeod wrote:

Yeah, the V Power is their entry level offering. Nothing fancy. They make their rated power cleanly but not much beyond that. They have good build quality but not astounding and have pretty much no features.

The V12 are much better. They cleanly exceed their ratings, are built better and have a lot of cool features.

Oh yeah.....I'm sure that the V-12 series are much better amps......all anyone really has to do is compare the prices to figure this one out

But what do you mean by "pretty much no features", Mac? Compared to other similar amps in their price range, or compared to the V-12 series? And what all features are you referring to?

MacLeod · January 2006

The V Power has only the low pass crossover variable from 50-120 I believe.

The V12 has the Bass Engine, phase selector, their Tuned Bass EQ (whatever that is) and a couple other I think.

SportsFan · January 2006

Hey Mac, I did a little research, and here is what I could find as to the differences between the "V-Power" and "V-12" Alpine amps. While you're right about the V Power only having a set low pass crossover variable (80 Hz - don't know about the V12)....both have the "Bass Boost engine and "Tuned Bass EQ" features.

The main differences (besides price, which is a big advantage to the V-Power series) appear to be an advantage to the V12 in the areas of:

Significantly More Power
Digital Information Center
Thermal Managment Processor
MultiMode
One Side Terminal Layout

Also, the V-Power amps are class "AB" amplifiers...which are excellent amps, and dominate the market, where as the "V12" series appears to be class "D" amplifiers.

I'm not sure what all that means, but I just thought I'd throw it out there.....

MacLeod · January 2006

Both V Power and V12 have Class D and Class AB amps.

A Class D amp is a mono amp used for subwoofers. Theyre a much more effecient amp and can make more power with less voltage but they arent as clean as a AB.

1996blackmax · January 2006

There are actually some full range Class D amps out. I would not want to experiment on those yet though

. I would rather stick to class A/B for the mids and highs.

PoweredByDodge · January 2006

The only full range Class D derivative is Class T, a proprietary model based on class D, by a company called Tri-path, hence the "T". Crown's class "I" proprietary derivative of D is also full range.

There is no such thing as a digital amp. Period. The "distributor" just switches fast enough on T and I that it can produce full bandwidth power as opposed to only up to 250 or 400 or whatever most standard D's go up to.

The audio signal is not converted from analog to digital and then back to analog. The audio signal is piped through the outputs with the "distro" PWM setup being fed a mirror of the signal to be output so as to switch Fet's on and off accordingly.

The term "digital" comes from a complete abuse of the word. Because the output transistors are switched either fully on or fully off (pinch off through saturation) they call it "digital" -- on or off... well what they're pumping out when they're "on" or "off" is analog signal.

.... regarding that specific amp in the first picture.

The power supply looks weak. Then again, it's a small amplifier, so it appears appropriate. However, the whole "drop output by 6 db's" when it gets hot -- hell, that's a 75% drop... why not just shut the damn thing off when it hits critical temp. Seems a little idiotic to let it keep playing when its overheating. If it has thermal issues, then correct them! Put a fan in it, build a better heatsink with fins... yes I knwo we hate fins these days - but they add area for heat transfer.

MacLeod · January 2006

Xtant and MB Quart both have full range Class D amps, but theyre the only ones I know of.

I still say thats a V Power amp and not a V 12 amp which would explain the less than stellar inards.

The audio signal is not converted from analog to digital and then back to analog.

Ive always wondered that about "digital" amps. I always figured it was kinda dumb to take an analog signs, convert it to digita and then convert it back to analog again!

Alpine MRP-F240

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