Ice Amplifiers for Subwoofers

[svollmer]

Does anyone have experience with using amps with Ice circuitry for subwoofers? I'm currently using a Crown PowerBase III to power my four 2245H subs (2 per amp channel). It's an excellent performer, but I'd just like to do away with the fan noise.

Some attractions to the Ice amps are efficiency, cost, power output, small size and no fans. One I've found is here: http://www.htd.com/Products/subwoofer-amplifiers/SDA-500-digital-icepower-amp#

They sent me a pdf and it says the amp has a damping factor of 2,000. They use the Bang and Olufsen ICE power technology.

If you have any experience, opinions or thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks!
Steve

[baldrick]

I've just used the more powerful 1kw version of B&O ICE for subwoofers and they are quite good. And I know many who uses them on quite serious hiend setups, both for subwoofer duty but also full range.

This quite highend speaker was orginally powered by 10xICE amps:

http://www.hifisentralen.no/forumet/attachments/mitt-anlegg-og-billedtra-der/23371d1335552547-gaia-img_2563-1.jpg

[DS-21]

That HTD unit is a little pricey for a bridged 125ASX2. Also, won't drive low impedance loads, because it's already bridged.

If you can use a plate amp or build a cabinet, miniDSP's PWR-ICE amps are excellent. The smaller one (https://www.minidsp.com/products/plate-amplifiers/pwr-ice125) uses the same amp module but has a much more flexible front end. The larger one (https://www.minidsp.com/products/plate-amplifiers/pwr-ice250) costs about as much as the HTD box, but uses the larger 250ASX2 module.

I use the PWR-ICE250 to power subs in one system, and it's really an excellent sub amp.

[svollmer]

That HTD unit is a little pricey for a bridged 125ASX2. Also, won't drive low impedance loads, because it's already bridged.

If you can use a plate amp or build a cabinet, miniDSP's PWR-ICE amps are excellent. The smaller one (https://www.minidsp.com/products/plate-amplifiers/pwr-ice125) uses the same amp module but has a much more flexible front end. The larger one (https://www.minidsp.com/products/plate-amplifiers/pwr-ice250) costs about as much as the HTD box, but uses the larger 250ASX2 module.

I use the PWR-ICE250 to power subs in one system, and it's really an excellent sub amp.

Thanks very much for that information. Looking at all the features of the PWR-ICE, it does look like a much better value than the HTD units. But, I'm using an outboard crossover/eq and am very happy with the sound of the room. So, all I need is a brute amp with high damping factor. But, those PWR-ICE units do provide a lot of flexibility.

Are you (or anyone else) aware of just a plain ICE amp that's really good? I'll keep searching too and report if/what I find.

Thanks!

[baldrick]

I use 3 of the largest MiniDSP pwr-dsp amps, eachb2x700+1x2400... Quite powerfull amps :)

[dr_gallup]

http://www.audioholics.com/audio-amplifier/clone-amplifiers

[svollmer]

http://www.audioholics.com/audio-amplifier/clone-amplifiers

Thanks much! I'll check it out.