Shop for the Alpine PDX-M12: Amazon - amzn.to/2zGg9np eBay - goo.gl/tPPoey Send me a few bucks if you want to support: paypal.me/BigDWiz My Favorite Screwdriver Kit: amzn.to/2x0VzcE Test Your Own Amps! SMD / D'Amore Engineering AMM-1: Amazon - amzn.to/2u2EgKV WCCarAudio - goo.gl/CVCgU3 Full disclosure: Affiliate links are provided for your convenience. I receive a portion of the sales from these links, which help me bring you more unbiased content for this channel.
I’ve been using the M6 for 3 years now and have always wondered what it “really can do”, and can now assume it’s roughly half of this M12. Thanks for the review Big D! I will need to say that the M6 melted my JL13TW5V2 cone then snapped its voicecoil, as it had started outputting 43VDC before snapping back to playing music (I of course didn’t know anything was wrong until I smelled burning coil, and that this 43 VDC would only happen on startup if it would happen). I didn’t induce any of the failure by clipping the amp while listening. The protection circuit, as sophisticated as it is with the uCOM controller and complete current, voltage and temperature monitoring, and power throttling, doesn’t detect when the output is dumping DC voltage - and its potentially a fire hazard. Never had a red badge color- it was always blue! This was a somewhat common issue if you check Amazon and Crutchfield reviews. Mine still does it, but maybe 1% of the time only on startup, but since the board and FETs were pristine looking, I workaround it by simply shut the radio off if I hear the thump then turning the radio on again until there isn’t a turn-on thump. It’s been a very solid amp aside from that startup 43VDC issue.
Btw BigD, this amp can run at 1-ohm no problem but will just scale back output to 1000w. There is a processor inside that monitors thermals, clipping and voltage drop and will scale output accordingly which is pretty slick. I ran this one on my old vehicles with a 75A alt and would dim the lights, but progressively over about thirty seconds there would be a slight drop in spl output as the amp adjusted itself to available power and accordingly the dimming stopped.
@@RWL2012 Yes, a true 1-ohm resistive load. Its not advertised but I can confirm, as well as the actual Alpine rep on the diymobile forums. (This is applicable to the later PDX M series, not the prior generation PDX1.1000 with the silver ring) The regulation circuitry is much more sophisticated than your typical protection... You essentially cannot kill this amp.
Yeah, I think for actual daily street beat applications (aka. music) where you are subject to impedance rise, this amp should be on par to the 2000-2500W Korean offerings which are actually weaker at 4+ ohms.
No it will back down power if it gets too hot. That said my PDX-V9 did shut down once but it was under the spare cover and not much air flow, so at high volume I would experience this maybe about two hours of really hard/loud play but at more moderate levels it never shut down.
People will say that there are cheaper options but you have to remember that this amp uses high quality parts and proprietary designs that take R&D rather than ordering a design from Zenon.
I’ve got this amp and a type r 12” ran at 2 ohms in a sealed box. Love it. Beats hard in my car. Never dB tested yet but will next year when cars back togather
Just when I mailed you on Friday, we get the results of a Alpine PDX. That's fantastic results from such a small footprint. Also knowing alpine does what it says it does! I love my PDX M12! The power and sound quality have beaten 4 bigger amps double the wattage. Money well worth spent on these. Thanks for the video big man 👍
This video is near and dear to me being that I own a PDX V9. The PDX series are wonderful amplifiers. Some of the best I ever heard. Thanks for the video.
@@richarcm Yea dude for that Sundown you're probably right. Mine is pushing a Zstat ZHP 12 not enough for it either but sounds pretty good. Cool talking to ya
I too also have the v9 and I have it pushing a Skar Audio MA-8 and in a ported 1cu ft box. It sounds great at low volume but lose a little going up. Pretty happy with it. Do you guys have a capacitor hooked up to it? I don’t and was wondering if it should be done.
I picked up a set of type x 6.5s in 2010 used off amazon for 125 bucks shipped. Ran them in an 02 firehawk was an amazing system, type r 12s, mrp 600 4 channel running them all.
Nice! I'm really glad Alpine has stayed as consistent as they have over the years. I've been kicking around the idea of finding a late 90's/early Y2K basic 4-channel Alpine for my next stereo build (to feed my new school Alpine components and coaxials).
I have literally been running my M12, since 2011, in 3 different cars. The reliability has been sooooo worth the price, and these tests prove what we always assumed about these, that they put out much more than rated.
Holy crap BigD! I’ve been waiting for this bench test for a while. I went ahead and bought one last week and glad I did (before your test increases the demand). Thanks Brother!
Made my day this video! Finally i now understand why I was getting some solid performance! This amp eats box rise for breakfast! Devastated that they have discontinued the amp though.... wonder how the new X-Series Amps stack up against it... I'm currently putting some pressure on Alpine for you to get them to send you an X-Series Amp for testing, As if they do and the results come out good, i will replace all my PDX amps with the X series amps!
I miss my complete Alpine PDX setup I had in one of my previous cars. But I had to get school books and supplies at the time so sadly the amps had to go. (College books seem to be worth more than gold at times...) Shortly after that I replaced it with Zapco equipment but I always regretted selling the Alpine setup. Although in the end I did get a great education that has more value than the amps.
I know this is an old video, but I wasn't too surprised by this. I had an Alpine M350 to a single 12" 400w fosgate back in the day. I wasn't a total bass head, I wanted just enough to have that deep bass effect and that fit the bill perfectly. Was still enough to rattle some components on a brand new car. Anyway, I had that amp/speaker setup for nearly 10 years without faults. Before that Alpine, I had a cheapo "1200w" ebay amp, assuming I'd get ~1/2 rated power at best. Well it crapped out in a year and I decided to spend more money to get quality after that.
Just got myself an alpine pdx m12 and a PDX f4 for my all alpine system. The last alpine system I built used the alpine PDX f4 and pdx m6 and I was more than happy with them so the m12 should be great.
@@wal I've been running the PDX M12 for just over an hour and a half a day for a year now and it is still going strong and sounds great pushing two type R 10s sealed. Would love another M12 but you always want more.
@@cockneyzombie I have the exact same setup since 2009. I just had to replace the type r’s due to a blown voice coil. Just installed 2 type s subs rated for 600 rms each that match perfectly with the m12.
I purchased a 27' boat that had 4 sets JL 7.7" components mids and highs and 3 alpine type r 10's. It was the cleanest smoothest sound system out of any boat stereo I have owned. I think the pdx are very clean sounding amps. Those JL components soynded GREAT with them 👌
Thank you so much for this. Not many alpine dynos out there. Many ppl sware by the jl hd. But I've always preferred these. Cheaper and just as good IMO.
ive got the "first gen" version.... the PDX 1.1000 and ya... i LOVE IT......been used hard for 10 years.... never overheated, never failed me . powered 2 type R 12s in a 99 buick century lol it almost ripped my parcel shelf off.... . ended up blowing 1 sub (wire fell off... sent all power to 1 sub) but i mostly listen to rock.... but like country and rap so 1 sub on ALL THE POWER is MORE than enough
kenabi, For those that will spend the money on this amp, spending a little more for the Alpine bass knob is not a problem. Also, you can`t compare a Pioneer amp to this Alpine amp.
@@wal , I agree that it`s not cool and i`ve just come to accept and expect this with higher end and up amps. Sometimes there will be exceptions but for the most part, it`s the norm for these types of amps and a selling point for lower end amps.
i've had alpine gear, i've had pioneer gear, sony, kenwood, denon. the amp under my trucks seat is a current gen pioneer. it just flat out managed to beat out the other amps i could get my hands on for what i needed, and the space i had. and it included the knob in the deal. i'm not going to pay the idiot tax for the alpine name when i can tell no functional difference and still get the same performance level from a cheaper device. high price tags aren't indicative of ultra quality. is it good quality? sure. but these days its still kind of a premium price for 'good'. i'll leave models like this to the people who have no issues with the tax that comes with it. i can take the amp i have, buy a second, recap that with the best quality low esr elna's i can find and still be under the price of this alpine. nope nope nope nope. and frankly, if ~$550 is worth an ever so slight signal performance difference you get on the waveform between this and a similar spec'd pioneer (hint: no.) then i might as well just stop even looking at audio gear, because to me a name means nothing if it can't back it up beyond "this is expensive because it's 'good'". it doesn't need to be good at that kind of markup, but at almost 4x the price of the competition in the same class, it better be outstanding. a slight bump for component quality, sure. but at 750 retail vs ~200 for the similar models i was poking, all of which can do a similar ohm rating and wattage and still stay clean. meh. bang for the buck quality of build + clarity is more important to me than a name. one of the best amps i've ever seen was some no-name two channel bridgeable i ran for years till some knucklehead spilled his drink on it. super clean, ran fairly cool, pounded my old JL12 like a jackhammer.
@@kenabi, To each his or her own but one gets what they pay for and many people can tell sonically the difference between a 1000 watt amp that cost $200.00 and a 1000 watt amp that cost close to or more than $1000.00. That extra money, which many people don`t care about goes into the R&D, better components, build quality, and other things. To get this amount of power out of a package this size is just insane. With that being said, would it having a bass knob make it worth the price to you? The class that this Alpine amp falls in, how is it 4x the cost of the competition and what are you comparing it to when it`s actually much cheaper than it`s main competition which is the JL Audio HD1200.
I bit the bullet and bought a full Alpine system. Definitely could've gotten louder gear for the $ 1700 I spent , but man, is it clear as day! There's definitely a quality of sound difference
Alpine makes good amps, at least they used to. I had an alpine v12 mrv-1002 running 2 jl audio w4 12's back in 98 or 99. That alpine would beat them to death. Still never had problems until 5 years ago when I retired them and the ground terminal some how broke(kids) and the foam dried out on the subs. Lasted a long time...
I have an interesting tidbit. I have installed alpine pdx amps in the past and noticed a huge roll off in power below 40hz. I tested a car with two separate amps. They both hit 143@40 hz but the alpine dropped 7db at 30hz compared to the other class d. After some research on the net it looked as though alpine purposely gated the amp regardless of the subsonic filter.
Sub 40Hz takes quite a bit of power and I think what is happening is that the amp is scaling back power because you are dropping voltage. This is not the case with unregulated power supplies where it will keep pushing power (probably dirty) until it drops below a set hard voltage (~10.5V).
Hey D, I've been away for a bit. Good to see you guys still making vehicles pleasant to ride in. Any chance that you've tested the Alpine MVR-250? I was that "Factory integration" guy. Im a project manager now. I'm still a bass head,(not base head...) and think this little gem might be worth a test. I would even send you one for testing? Take care... Hank
Gorgeous amp if you have the dough! I am personally not a fan of tight power supplies but they do have some benefits and this amp is a perfect example of a well executed design. Glad to see Alpine is staying on the cutting edge. Thanks for the vid as always Big D
BigDWiz love your channel - Thanks for running the Dyno test for these amps. I've been waiting for someone to do this for a long time. I have two of these along with an PDX F4 in my 2012 Dodge Durango. I didn't by these for people to hear me down the block but for a very clean and deep bass when you sat in the cabin which myself and other people were amazed. For the size and the power they produced was well worth it. Had alpine 10s in a custom made box and the amps worked the shit out of them. Thanks again. Love your channel.
Just picked up one from a buddy for $20, running it on two punch 10's. Ñot sure of it's capabilities yet, waiting on a bass knob. Very informative video Awesome work
After seen your video today, ordered two off them for two Morel titanium ti124; was always looking for a good mono amp who easily delivers 1000 watt RMS to my new beasts. Never expected it would be Alpine. Maybe not the newest model, but I was always a sucker for Alpine. Thanks BigD!
Hey Big D...I would love to see a test of the Alpine amp one tier lower than this one the MRV1200. I have one running a pair of old school infinity perfect 12's wired to 2ohms and it is ridiculous.
@@wal I'm a bass head since the first day but I never thought I would be into watching amp Dyno and reviews wish I would have thought of it and made a Channel myself but I really enjoyed just watching you take care of business and tell us the truth about these companies
Big D, you really gotta rate these amps at 12v, 14v and 16v to give a wide range of tolerance. It would not only be extremely entertaining but for all the people with stock alternators and batteries running amps like this you can show them how much they're losing out on and how much they can gain at a given distortion rating, even amps like this alpine would change power dramatically from 12, 14 and 16 volt inputs, and you'd be surprised how much you'll get out of it
This amplifier cuts out at 16.1v. I know this as my ford smart charging voltage bounces about and hits over 16v. In current car voltage drops to 12.8v and can't hear/tell this difference which full voltage is given 👍
Hey Big D, what’s the chances we can get a dyno vid on the MRX-M240, Alpine’s largest amp every produced? Some say 3k @ 315ish amps @ 1.5Ω, def would be worth your channel bro
That's pretty impressive and I like the roll back feature. I might have to start paying attention to Alpine again. Never been a big fan of it though because when I did have an Alpine head unit from back in the day I just wasn't pleased with it considering how much I had paid for it. It was just lacking in features and it didn't perform better than the Clarion I replaced it with and it seemed like they were reluctant to change their aesthetics while everyone else was looking better and giving you more for your money. Again, this was many years ago. Anyways....great video! I just dont understand the 4 thumbs down 🤔🤔🤯.
@@wal Thanks for the reply! I literally looked at this amp online two days ago. Had a 5-channel PDX once and loved it, then I "needed" to try new stuff... Now I want and need PDX again!
Awesome video! I was really curious what Alpine has been up to. I never ran Alpine personally but I always thought of them as a good 4 channel option back in the day with their V12 amps. I was always intrigued with their F1 status and jubba gear. I don't know where those monikers came from or what was meant by them but when people apply those terms it's usually on a very premium product. I'll get in touch with you on that 2350. I've been out of town but I want to send you two of them so you can really have some proof positive results to show and one is in much better cosmetic condition.
I always felt alpine amps were underpowered for the rated power. They dont sound like power claimed. I was underwelmed the first time i hooked this one up
Tammy Forbes agree, alpine is SQ not SPL, i have a old school 3566 amp, running 2 10s, it may not have a bunch of boom but when quick and punch bass comes in it is loud as hell its a whole different beast
I can play Ludacris "How Low Can You Go" and it shakes the car and that's with a sub in terrible prefab box. Loves the Hertz components not harsh at all, I can play it fairly loud for hours.
@@tammyforbes2101 I had 2 of the X 12s with an M12 on each one. 4.5 cubic foot ported box. That thing tore my Ranger apart and sounded amazing while doing it!
Alpine PDX M-12 and RF T1500bdcp are both awesome. I have both of them. I like the RF a bit better because it goes all the way down to 1 ohm, for flexibility.
My JL HD series amps have that rollback technology. I guess it’s kind of cool that when they overheat they still play some thing. But it doesn’t sound good and there is zero bass. Good technology I guess. Great video 👍🏼👍🏼
Hey BigD, this video almost hit home with me, been wondering for years about my Alpine amp. I have an old school Alpine MRP-M350 which runs 350 RMS at 2ohms... but I have a Rockford R1200d which is 800 RMS at 2ohms. Both test over rated power, BUT this is the part I dont get. The Alpine sounds cleaner and deeper, but not as loud. The Rockford is loud, and hits, but it doesnt seem to get as deep. Why does this sound so different when both are good clean power? Both ran with exact same wiring, power supply and speakers (2 RF 12p2-)d2. I swapped back to the Alpine and put the RF in my truck to power 2 DD 508s.
Man i finally found some one with the exact same problem i have .I have the Prime 1200 on two Old-School Hx2 12 Punch and they sonud like crap on that Prime 1200 but before i bought that amp i had them on a Power T 1000 and they sounded louder and deeper .I have the exact same setup when i had them on the T1000 and now on Prime 1200 but they sound like mid bass driver's now wire to 1 ohm
@@beerman9807 yeah, it sounds good. Very clean on the DDs in my truck, but still not as deep as the Alpine. There is enough power, and its LOUD. But it's not "rich"... like having eggnog vs having egg not flavored drink... both good, but the eggnog is "rich".
CRAZY dynamic numbers for sure! I want to know what barevids has to say about this "constant power" and how it works or why it puts out such a drastically higher number at 2 ohms dynamic.. Also quick question... What brand capacitors does this amp use?
Definitely a great amp. Love how it's all packed into a small chassis. Great for those needing the space. For the price of this thing though, I'd rather go with either an Orion XTR2500.1D or a US Acoustics Mike. Great video as always BigD!!
Hell yes! Anyway to bench an MRX-M110? I’m pretty sure it’s the only Alpine amp rated down to 1ohm stable (the MRX-M line of amps from that year all seem to be 1ohm stable)
Can the logo be rotated to line up with how its installed? I mounted it vertically with the power connections facing down on an amp rack behind my rear seat in my F150 so the logo is upside down.
![Most Powerful 5 Channel Amp? Cosmos Audio EP-2000.5 Amp Dyno Test and Review [4K]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZI53dKUVeXc/mqdefault.jpg)
![Most Powerful 5 Channel Amp? Cosmos Audio EP-2000.5 Amp Dyno Test and Review [4K]](/img/tr.png)
Shop for the Alpine PDX-M12:
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Full disclosure: Affiliate links are provided for your convenience. I receive a portion of the sales from these links, which help me bring you more unbiased content for this channel.
Where is the link to the Dyno test and what they mean ?
@BigDWiz I'm curious about 8 Ohms. Any idea how they perform there?
Hi. Can you find a 5 channel. At around 200$ with accurate 500 rms for the bass and around real 60 rms for the 4 channel speaker thanks
Need some help I have a lp 1000.1 and a sdr 12 2ohm I also have a alpine type r 4ohm how can I hook wire these up and what ohm would the amp see.
Have u tested a alpine MRX-M100
That might be the best dynamic power I’ve ever seen out of an amp with 100 Amps of total fusing. Nice job alpine.
In the 90's their head units wear always stylish with the green light
See OldSchoolStereo on Facebook or Instagram for the 30 sec 1983 Alpine commercial
Totally miss the old green chicklets.
You could spot them a mile away when you got in someone's car with the 6 button configuration. Ah the good ole days 😏
6 and 8 crystal Alpine's were the shit. About the only more desirable head units for me were flip face AIWA and a dead power Nakamichi.
I'd love to install a Alpine in my 2013 Ford FX4. The factory system is too intergraded into the truck. I miss the ole school way of things.
I’ve been using the M6 for 3 years now and have always wondered what it “really can do”, and can now assume it’s roughly half of this M12. Thanks for the review Big D!
I will need to say that the M6 melted my JL13TW5V2 cone then snapped its voicecoil, as it had started outputting 43VDC before snapping back to playing music (I of course didn’t know anything was wrong until I smelled burning coil, and that this 43 VDC would only happen on startup if it would happen). I didn’t induce any of the failure by clipping the amp while listening. The protection circuit, as sophisticated as it is with the uCOM controller and complete current, voltage and temperature monitoring, and power throttling, doesn’t detect when the output is dumping DC voltage - and its potentially a fire hazard. Never had a red badge color- it was always blue! This was a somewhat common issue if you check Amazon and Crutchfield reviews. Mine still does it, but maybe 1% of the time only on startup, but since the board and FETs were pristine looking, I workaround it by simply shut the radio off if I hear the thump then turning the radio on again until there isn’t a turn-on thump. It’s been a very solid amp aside from that startup 43VDC issue.
I've been hoping to see a dyno on this amp. Big D, I having nothing but mad Bro-love for you!
👌😉👍
Btw BigD, this amp can run at 1-ohm no problem but will just scale back output to 1000w. There is a processor inside that monitors thermals, clipping and voltage drop and will scale output accordingly which is pretty slick. I ran this one on my old vehicles with a 75A alt and would dim the lights, but progressively over about thirty seconds there would be a slight drop in spl output as the amp adjusted itself to available power and accordingly the dimming stopped.
a true 1 ohm load or a "1" ohm ported box setup...?
@@RWL2012 Yes, a true 1-ohm resistive load. Its not advertised but I can confirm, as well as the actual Alpine rep on the diymobile forums. (This is applicable to the later PDX M series, not the prior generation PDX1.1000 with the silver ring) The regulation circuitry is much more sophisticated than your typical protection... You essentially cannot kill this amp.
recon440 wow nice :)
Yeah, I think for actual daily street beat applications (aka. music) where you are subject to impedance rise, this amp should be on par to the 2000-2500W Korean offerings which are actually weaker at 4+ ohms.
What's with the heat? Can it run on 1000w on 2 ohm without overheating? I think the heatsink is a little bit too small for that power...
That’s a lot of juice in a small box!
Do shizzle!
Only thing that concerns me is how long it can sustain that power since its such a small package. Surely cooling is an issue?
No it will back down power if it gets too hot. That said my PDX-V9 did shut down once but it was under the spare cover and not much air flow, so at high volume I would experience this maybe about two hours of really hard/loud play but at more moderate levels it never shut down.
People will say that there are cheaper options but you have to remember that this amp uses high quality parts and proprietary designs that take R&D rather than ordering a design from Zenon.
Definitely more expensive to go the route of designing your own amps
The caps in there United Chemi-Con from Japan. First rate stuff.
Nice work BigD, love what you do. Alpine PDX rocks, got M12 running 2 * jlW6v3 at 4 ohm and Alpine F4 for the speakers, sounds awesome.
Same setup, JL 10 W6’s + M12, Focal VR3’s + F4 (Should have gone F6). Been running it for years now without any issues. Love them still!
I’ve got this amp and a type r 12” ran at 2 ohms in a sealed box. Love it. Beats hard in my car. Never dB tested yet but will next year when cars back togather
Just when I mailed you on Friday, we get the results of a Alpine PDX.
That's fantastic results from such a small footprint.
Also knowing alpine does what it says it does!
I love my PDX M12! The power and sound quality have beaten 4 bigger amps double the wattage. Money well worth spent on these.
Thanks for the video big man 👍
Don’t expect turnaround like that on other requests...just happened to request one I was editing for a vid 😬
This video is near and dear to me being that I own a PDX V9. The PDX series are wonderful amplifiers. Some of the best I ever heard. Thanks for the video.
Brian Miles I’ve got a V9 as well. But it’s barely enough power for the 12” Sundown sub I have in the trunk. Works for now though.
@@richarcm Yea dude for that Sundown you're probably right. Mine is pushing a Zstat ZHP 12 not enough for it either but sounds pretty good. Cool talking to ya
I’ve got one as well and it pushes two JL w3 pretty good, very clean sound and very respectable output for a small footprint
Sundown drivers are not that efficient so you need a fair amount of power. You should do more research on speaker selection.
I too also have the v9 and I have it pushing a Skar Audio MA-8 and in a ported 1cu ft box. It sounds great at low volume but lose a little going up. Pretty happy with it. Do you guys have a capacitor hooked up to it? I don’t and was wondering if it should be done.
was good to see this, just got my self some alpine type x 4ch and mono amps to run 4 type r 6.5s and a type r 12sub.
I picked up a set of type x 6.5s in 2010 used off amazon for 125 bucks shipped. Ran them in an 02 firehawk was an amazing system, type r 12s, mrp 600 4 channel running them all.
Love Alpine equipment
Great review! That PDX is a power house of an amp. Would be cool to see a dyno test of the new Alpine XA90-M monoblock which replaced this.
Awesome! Love to see more Alpine, especially the old school amps!
Gotta Love alpine .
Nice! I'm really glad Alpine has stayed as consistent as they have over the years. I've been kicking around the idea of finding a late 90's/early Y2K basic 4-channel Alpine for my next stereo build (to feed my new school Alpine components and coaxials).
I have literally been running my M12, since 2011, in 3 different cars. The reliability has been sooooo worth the price, and these tests prove what we always assumed about these, that they put out much more than rated.
Awesome 👏
That's a nice amp a lot of power in a small package. Love your channel BigDWiz keep the video's coming.
Man those were GREAT amps. Still bummed out their not made anymore
Holy crap BigD! I’ve been waiting for this bench test for a while. I went ahead and bought one last week and glad I did (before your test increases the demand). Thanks Brother!
Made my day this video! Finally i now understand why I was getting some solid performance! This amp eats box rise for breakfast!
Devastated that they have discontinued the amp though.... wonder how the new X-Series Amps stack up against it...
I'm currently putting some pressure on Alpine for you to get them to send you an X-Series Amp for testing, As if they do and the results come out good, i will replace all my PDX amps with the X series amps!
You said it brother 👌
I miss my complete Alpine PDX setup I had in one of my previous cars. But I had to get school books and supplies at the time so sadly the amps had to go. (College books seem to be worth more than gold at times...) Shortly after that I replaced it with Zapco equipment but I always regretted selling the Alpine setup. Although in the end I did get a great education that has more value than the amps.
I know this is an old video, but I wasn't too surprised by this. I had an Alpine M350 to a single 12" 400w fosgate back in the day. I wasn't a total bass head, I wanted just enough to have that deep bass effect and that fit the bill perfectly. Was still enough to rattle some components on a brand new car.
Anyway, I had that amp/speaker setup for nearly 10 years without faults. Before that Alpine, I had a cheapo "1200w" ebay amp, assuming I'd get ~1/2 rated power at best. Well it crapped out in a year and I decided to spend more money to get quality after that.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
thanks for the teardown, reminded me how it goes together as mines been in pieces for a year lol
Just got myself an alpine pdx m12 and a PDX f4 for my all alpine system. The last alpine system I built used the alpine PDX f4 and pdx m6 and I was more than happy with them so the m12 should be great.
Reply back and let us know what you think
@@wal will do the pdx m6 was good so the m12 should blow my socks off.
@@wal I've been running the PDX M12 for just over an hour and a half a day for a year now and it is still going strong and sounds great pushing two type R 10s sealed. Would love another M12 but you always want more.
@@cockneyzombie I have the exact same setup since 2009. I just had to replace the type r’s due to a blown voice coil. Just installed 2 type s subs rated for 600 rms each that match perfectly with the m12.
I purchased a 27' boat that had 4 sets JL 7.7" components mids and highs and 3 alpine type r 10's. It was the cleanest smoothest sound system out of any boat stereo I have owned. I think the pdx are very clean sounding amps. Those JL components soynded GREAT with them 👌
😬👍
Thank you so much for this. Not many alpine dynos out there. Many ppl sware by the jl hd. But I've always preferred these. Cheaper and just as good IMO.
ive got the "first gen" version.... the PDX 1.1000
and ya... i LOVE IT......been used hard for 10 years.... never overheated, never failed me
.
powered 2 type R 12s in a 99 buick century lol
it almost ripped my parcel shelf off....
.
ended up blowing 1 sub (wire fell off... sent all power to 1 sub)
but i mostly listen to rock.... but like country and rap
so 1 sub on ALL THE POWER is MORE than enough
for 750, you'd think they could include a remote bass control. even pioneer includes one on their ~$200 models.
kenabi, For those that will spend the money on this amp, spending a little more for the Alpine bass knob is not a problem. Also, you can`t compare a Pioneer amp to this Alpine amp.
I have real beef with this!
@@wal , I agree that it`s not cool and i`ve just come to accept and expect this with higher end and up amps. Sometimes there will be exceptions but for the most part, it`s the norm for these types of amps and a selling point for lower end amps.
i've had alpine gear, i've had pioneer gear, sony, kenwood, denon. the amp under my trucks seat is a current gen pioneer. it just flat out managed to beat out the other amps i could get my hands on for what i needed, and the space i had. and it included the knob in the deal.
i'm not going to pay the idiot tax for the alpine name when i can tell no functional difference and still get the same performance level from a cheaper device. high price tags aren't indicative of ultra quality. is it good quality? sure. but these days its still kind of a premium price for 'good'. i'll leave models like this to the people who have no issues with the tax that comes with it.
i can take the amp i have, buy a second, recap that with the best quality low esr elna's i can find and still be under the price of this alpine.
nope nope nope nope.
and frankly, if ~$550 is worth an ever so slight signal performance difference you get on the waveform between this and a similar spec'd pioneer (hint: no.) then i might as well just stop even looking at audio gear, because to me a name means nothing if it can't back it up beyond "this is expensive because it's 'good'". it doesn't need to be good at that kind of markup, but at almost 4x the price of the competition in the same class, it better be outstanding. a slight bump for component quality, sure. but at 750 retail vs ~200 for the similar models i was poking, all of which can do a similar ohm rating and wattage and still stay clean.
meh. bang for the buck quality of build + clarity is more important to me than a name.
one of the best amps i've ever seen was some no-name two channel bridgeable i ran for years till some knucklehead spilled his drink on it. super clean, ran fairly cool, pounded my old JL12 like a jackhammer.
@@kenabi, To each his or her own but one gets what they pay for and many people can tell sonically the difference between a 1000 watt amp that cost $200.00 and a 1000 watt amp that cost close to or more than $1000.00. That extra money, which many people don`t care about goes into the R&D, better components, build quality, and other things. To get this amount of power out of a package this size is just insane. With that being said, would it having a bass knob make it worth the price to you? The class that this Alpine amp falls in, how is it 4x the cost of the competition and what are you comparing it to when it`s actually much cheaper than it`s main competition which is the JL Audio HD1200.
Tha nks big D wiz!! Im so glad someone finally did some alpine amps!!
No more whine, I tested an Alpine 😂
BigDWiz Do the MRV-M500 next, just for the record
I always wondered how this amp would do on the dyno.
Can’t wait to see the results!
Great job Big d Wiz 👍
I bit the bullet and bought a full Alpine system. Definitely could've gotten louder gear for the $ 1700
I spent , but man, is it clear as day! There's definitely a quality of sound difference
Alpine makes good amps, at least they used to. I had an alpine v12 mrv-1002 running 2 jl audio w4 12's back in 98 or 99. That alpine would beat them to death. Still never had problems until 5 years ago when I retired them and the ground terminal some how broke(kids) and the foam dried out on the subs. Lasted a long time...
Nice video as usual!! I was waiting for this dyno for a while.... and nice amp by the way!
Also these Alpine PDX amplifiers should fight off impedance rise like the JL HD amplifiers and Rockford Fosgate constant powers.
Yes, another reason why they are more $$
Alpine doing what it’s been doing since I heard of the brand in early 80s KEEPING IT REAL .
I have one powering twin Sundown SA-10 D2s. Very happy with it.. never had an issue with it, even in the blistering Arizona sun.
I have an interesting tidbit. I have installed alpine pdx amps in the past and noticed a huge roll off in power below 40hz. I tested a car with two separate amps. They both hit 143@40 hz but the alpine dropped 7db at 30hz compared to the other class d. After some research on the net it looked as though alpine purposely gated the amp regardless of the subsonic filter.
Sub 40Hz takes quite a bit of power and I think what is happening is that the amp is scaling back power because you are dropping voltage. This is not the case with unregulated power supplies where it will keep pushing power (probably dirty) until it drops below a set hard voltage (~10.5V).
recon440 I don’t think voltage was the issue. I think alpine rolls off their pdx amps they make the full power they claim but only from 40hz up.
I used to have this amp on one l7 kicker 12inch.nice amp first time seeing one on a dyno.great job alpine
Thank you for doin this amp. Greatly appreciated. I’ll be keepin both of mine now, im happy with those numbers.
I have a few Old School Alpines and they sound good. Not heavy on the power but good looking and consistent.
And built like tanks...last forever
When you said it was big as a sheet of paper, my brain was thinking thin as a sheet of paper. XD. Good video sir!
He he he...I meant footprint. My bad, lol
Certainly dont regret buying and running this beast
Hey D, I've been away for a bit. Good to see you guys still making vehicles pleasant to ride in. Any chance that you've tested the Alpine MVR-250? I was that "Factory integration" guy. Im a project manager now. I'm still a bass head,(not base head...) and think this little gem might be worth a test. I would even send you one for testing? Take care... Hank
Gorgeous amp if you have the dough! I am personally not a fan of tight power supplies but they do have some benefits and this amp is a perfect example of a well executed design. Glad to see Alpine is staying on the cutting edge. Thanks for the vid as always Big D
BigDWiz love your channel - Thanks for running the Dyno test for these amps. I've been waiting for someone to do this for a long time. I have two of these along with an PDX F4 in my 2012 Dodge Durango. I didn't by these for people to hear me down the block but for a very clean and deep bass when you sat in the cabin which myself and other people were amazed. For the size and the power they produced was well worth it. Had alpine 10s in a custom made box and the amps worked the shit out of them. Thanks again. Love your channel.
Just picked up one from a buddy for $20, running it on two punch 10's. Ñot sure of it's capabilities yet, waiting on a bass knob. Very informative video Awesome work
$20 Lmao
After seen your video today, ordered two off them for two Morel titanium ti124; was always looking for a good mono amp who easily delivers 1000 watt RMS to my new beasts. Never expected it would be Alpine. Maybe not the newest model, but I was always a sucker for Alpine. Thanks BigD!
👌😬👍
Hey Big D...I would love to see a test of the Alpine amp one tier lower than this one the MRV1200.
I have one running a pair of old school infinity perfect 12's wired to 2ohms and it is ridiculous.
Good video Big D Wiz keep up the good work
Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@wal I'm a bass head since the first day but I never thought I would be into watching amp Dyno and reviews wish I would have thought of it and made a Channel myself but I really enjoyed just watching you take care of business and tell us the truth about these companies
Awesome! I think this is the first Alpine dyno test I've seen. Very interesting
I tested an old one from 1989, 3545
@@wal I guess I missed that one. Thanks! Big fan by the way. Keep it up!
Expensive. Either way its a little beast. Even output. Good to fight of box rise. Not a fan of the connector. Great video
Thanks for watching and providing feedback 🤙
I love regulated power supplies. Takes some of the guesswork out of speaker configurations when it doesnt matter which impedance you're running at
Solid amp. I have a PDX F-6 that I'm pretty happy with. The pair would power a great 4.1 setup.
Big D, you really gotta rate these amps at 12v, 14v and 16v to give a wide range of tolerance. It would not only be extremely entertaining but for all the people with stock alternators and batteries running amps like this you can show them how much they're losing out on and how much they can gain at a given distortion rating, even amps like this alpine would change power dramatically from 12, 14 and 16 volt inputs, and you'd be surprised how much you'll get out of it
This amplifier cuts out at 16.1v. I know this as my ford smart charging voltage bounces about and hits over 16v. In current car voltage drops to 12.8v and can't hear/tell this difference which full voltage is given 👍
Hey Big D, what’s the chances we can get a dyno vid on the MRX-M240, Alpine’s largest amp every produced? Some say 3k @ 315ish amps @ 1.5Ω, def would be worth your channel bro
That's pretty impressive and I like the roll back feature. I might have to start paying attention to Alpine again. Never been a big fan of it though because when I did have an Alpine head unit from back in the day I just wasn't pleased with it considering how much I had paid for it. It was just lacking in features and it didn't perform better than the Clarion I replaced it with and it seemed like they were reluctant to change their aesthetics while everyone else was looking better and giving you more for your money. Again, this was many years ago. Anyways....great video! I just dont understand the 4 thumbs down 🤔🤔🤯.
Great video Big Wiz. I currently have this, and its great. I got it for $350. I am powering a 12w7.
Great setup 🤙
John Perez what are you getting at 3ohms?
I am assuming i am also getting at least 1200 watts RMS.
This amp is rated at 1200 watts RMS from 4 ohms - 2 ohms.
John Perez buying one tomorrow
Thank you for the video! I guess I'll need to buy one for myself now...
Yeah boi!
@@wal Thanks for the reply! I literally looked at this amp online two days ago. Had a 5-channel PDX once and loved it, then I "needed" to try new stuff... Now I want and need PDX again!
That's some good power for such a small amp. Big d good job
Real good test esp with the below 2 ohm at the end of vid...
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Big-D it time to myth bust these amps and call them out.... I won’t buy until I see you shine light on these contenders......
Awesome video! I was really curious what Alpine has been up to. I never ran Alpine personally but I always thought of them as a good 4 channel option back in the day with their V12 amps. I was always intrigued with their F1 status and jubba gear. I don't know where those monikers came from or what was meant by them but when people apply those terms it's usually on a very premium product. I'll get in touch with you on that 2350. I've been out of town but I want to send you two of them so you can really have some proof positive results to show and one is in much better cosmetic condition.
👌😬👍
Nearly the same size and power of the Jl hd amps but half the cost. I will definitely consider these in any future builds.
Love to see what alpine will design next .
I’m betting we’ll see at CES 2019 in January
Alpine makes a beautiful and powerful little monster
I always felt alpine amps were underpowered for the rated power. They dont sound like power claimed. I was underwelmed the first time i hooked this one up
I’ve heard that before...interested to compare with JL HD1200/1 in car
Alpine? Back in the 90s it was all about Alpine. Fast forward today, this Alpine may be the exception.
Michael Aranda I agree with you 1000%
You're right... Then newer head units lack the appeal.
Tammy Forbes agree, alpine is SQ not SPL, i have a old school 3566 amp, running 2 10s, it may not have a bunch of boom but when quick and punch bass comes in it is loud as hell its a whole different beast
I can play Ludacris "How Low Can You Go" and it shakes the car and that's with a sub in terrible prefab box. Loves the Hertz components not harsh at all, I can play it fairly loud for hours.
@@tammyforbes2101 I had 2 of the X 12s with an M12 on each one. 4.5 cubic foot ported box. That thing tore my Ranger apart and sounded amazing while doing it!
Alpine is amazing sound quality.
I used to have this amp and I didn’t like it. I ended up replacing it with an older Alpine M1000 amp which sounded better
Thanks for the video
I’m gonna test it in vehicle vs lots of other similarly powered amps at 3 ohms on JL 10W7
That should be interesting 😄
I don't believe that for a second
That’s what I’m talkin about!!! You know I like my Alpine, BigD!!!
Lookin fine, Alpine 👈😊
I had a PDX-F4 in my BMW, awesome amps.
Awesome 👏
Alpine PDX M-12 and RF T1500bdcp are both awesome. I have both of them. I like the RF a bit better because it goes all the way down to 1 ohm, for flexibility.
Which one has better sound quality in your opinion? Thanks
Great channel mate!
My JL HD series amps have that rollback technology. I guess it’s kind of cool that when they overheat they still play some thing. But it doesn’t sound good and there is zero bass. Good technology I guess. Great video 👍🏼👍🏼
I love alpine I have the 4ch
Yeah boi
Yes! I have one of these laying around at home
Hey BigD, this video almost hit home with me, been wondering for years about my Alpine amp. I have an old school Alpine MRP-M350 which runs 350 RMS at 2ohms... but I have a Rockford R1200d which is 800 RMS at 2ohms. Both test over rated power, BUT this is the part I dont get. The Alpine sounds cleaner and deeper, but not as loud. The Rockford is loud, and hits, but it doesnt seem to get as deep. Why does this sound so different when both are good clean power? Both ran with exact same wiring, power supply and speakers (2 RF 12p2-)d2. I swapped back to the Alpine and put the RF in my truck to power 2 DD 508s.
Man i finally found some one with the exact same problem i have .I have the Prime 1200 on two Old-School Hx2 12 Punch and they sonud like crap on that Prime 1200 but before i bought that amp i had them on a Power T 1000 and they sounded louder and deeper .I have the exact same setup when i had them on the T1000 and now on Prime 1200 but they sound like mid bass driver's now wire to 1 ohm
@@beerman9807 yeah, it sounds good. Very clean on the DDs in my truck, but still not as deep as the Alpine. There is enough power, and its LOUD. But it's not "rich"... like having eggnog vs having egg not flavored drink... both good, but the eggnog is "rich".
@@Views.from.the.center yea i feel u man but i just stuck with till i get enough for a T1500
I always appreciate you showing the guts... thanks man
It was a total pain, but yeah can’t not show da guts
CRAZY dynamic numbers for sure! I want to know what barevids has to say about this "constant power" and how it works or why it puts out such a drastically higher number at 2 ohms dynamic.. Also quick question... What brand capacitors does this amp use?
U just have to like the quality u get from the top guys kicker alpine fosgate and mtx all legends in my book
Love the videos keep them coming
This little amp is a beast
Definitely a great amp. Love how it's all packed into a small chassis. Great for those needing the space. For the price of this thing though, I'd rather go with either an Orion XTR2500.1D or a US Acoustics Mike. Great video as always BigD!!
Great 4 ohm power at the size
@@wal would love to see the new Alpine R2-A150M
Hey Derick if u ever have a chance or get ur hands on 1 can u please Dyno a alpine mrv m1200 ?
Thanks for the suggestion
I wanted one so bad but the price wasn't right. Guess I will never get one now.
I’m betting Alpine releases new models at CES in January
They're going for 600 on crutchfield
Big D what do u think about the older earthquake subs from the mid 2000s ????
Best "compact" amp I ever seen not including Taramp amplifiers.
JL HD/1200 very similar too
Hell yes! Anyway to bench an MRX-M110? I’m pretty sure it’s the only Alpine amp rated down to 1ohm stable (the MRX-M line of amps from that year all seem to be 1ohm stable)
I love your channel. I love alpine products. I hope u do a pdx v9
Can the logo be rotated to line up with how its installed? I mounted it vertically with the power connections facing down on an amp rack behind my rear seat in my F150 so the logo is upside down.
Please do a review on the Alpine PDX-V9 5 channel amp
This is how amps should be rated good job alpine
I wonder how the passive cooling does after heat soak and running a long time or stacked?
Alpine is the way to go.
They make great equipment 👍
Like always..Nice vid Big D
Can you do the Alpine MRX-M240 please!!!!! I have it if you need to use it. Thanks
Knew there was a reason why my mrv m500 the size of an Oreo cookies pack pushes big ass woofers cranking 1500 watts like a champ.