Lets discuss is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ?
DSP Amplifiers are all the rage in the car audio world currently, with manufacturers bringing new products out all the time but Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice for you ?
Well that depends on a lot of variables such as what car you have, does it have any upgraded factory sound system such as Harman Kardon, Bose, Burmester or Meridian. It also depends on your budget and what you want the system to do for you. At K&M we offer many different Amplifiers with different amounts of channels, size and power output and we always like to speak to our customers to make sure that the Amplifier suits their needs for the audio upgrade to see is a DSP Amplifier a good choice.
With technology advancements over the years and lots of products out there with bold claims attached people can be under the impression that they need a DSP Amplifier rather than asking Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ? What we want to do in this blog is point out some key facts about DSP Amplifiers to give you an answer to Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ? and more importantly is a DSP Amplifier right for you.
So lets talk about DSP Amplifiers and what they can do, now this isn’t AI this is a member of the K&M Team with years of experience and a bit of an Amp if I do say so myself. A DSP Amplifier basically incorporates many features such as EQ (Equalisation), Time Delay (Creating better imaging) and Crossovers (Adjusting which speakers play which frequency’s). Yes there’s some products out there that do a lot more but for the most part these are the main features you’re spending your money on to decide Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ?
Now some factory systems have awful outputs that have built in EQ from the factory and DSP Amplifiers make light work of correcting this factory input and making the input into the amplifier flat. This is called de.eq and it can make a big difference to sound quality if you don’t like how the factory system sounds. Now this is where we ask the question Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ? Because if you like how your factory system sounds but maybe want more volume and more bass i would say no to Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ? And here’s why.
Looking at the currently amplifiers that we normally sell in 2026 the Audison SR5.600 is our biggest seller, it packs a punch with lots of power, lots of quality and its compact size. So for example in a BMW with Harmon Kardon if a customer comes into our shop, likes how the HK system sounds but wants more volume, better dynamics, cleaner sound and more bass. Our normal go to would be the SR5, we would run channels 1 and 2 on the front 4 and tweeter, channels 3 and 4 on the underseat woofers and channel 5 would be for our subwoofer.
Now the SR5 isn’t a DSP amplifier but it certainly still has a built in crossover network and a very clever one where channels 3 and 4 can be bandpassed. This means the crossover can be high passed and low passed at the same time and the benefit to this is we can take away some of the lower bass freqency’s that the BMW underseat woofers don’t like and give them to the subwoofer. This is a huge upgrade over the standard system and gives great value for money normally costing around £1420 fully fitted depending on which subwoofer is used.
Going back to the question Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ? now our £1420 fully fitted for the SR5.600 and an Audison Voce 2 Subwoofer if a customer where to ask ok what’s better than this we may suggest the Audison Voce 5.1K amplifier again not a DSP Amp. But an amazing sounding amplifier the Voce 5.1K is one of our all time favourite amps ! We could write a whole blog on the 5.1K alone with its Class A, Class A/B and Class D design its a fantastic bit of kit.
But lets say this customer wants a compact amplifier and wants to go down the DSP route we would then recommend the Audison FORZA M5.11, similar in power to the SR5 but with built in DSP. It’s a step up in price for sure at £2150 with a subwoofer so what does our £730 buy us to answer Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ?
I won’t list every feature of this amplifier, Audison do a much better job than me but to answer the question Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ? Yes the FORZA 5 is better than the SR5.600 with all of its features you can get it to sound better than the SR amplifier.
Now we didn’t write this Blog to tell you a more expensive amplifier is better than a cheaper amplifier we were asking Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ?
The problem comes when we have a cheap DSP Amplifier that claims a lot a but the actual amplifier components are of poor quality. But lets not name brands ! A DSP should get a good sounding system great but what they can’t do is make a bad system great. Back in the 90’s there used to be a rule for great amplifiers which was £1 per Watt, now times have moved on from this and for example the SR5.600 manages £0.50 per watt and this is a great quality amplifier. From our experience these cheap DSP Amps don’t sound good and then with the DSP features used they sound clinical and uncomfortable to listen to. Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ? matters on which DSP Amplifier and your budget. If your budget for your amplifier is £500 often the SR5.600 will sound much better than a £500 DSP amplifier just because of its raw quality. If we have a good quality signal going into the SR we will get quality out of it and this is what customers like.
Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ? speak to us at K&M, we’ve been doing car audio for over 30 years and know how to get your car sounding great. We don’t believe in a stage 1 system, stage 2 system etc as we like providing a bespoke quote for each customer tailoring each component of the system to suit the customer needs and requirements. If you’re still reading this Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ? the answer would be to speak to us let us run over your budget and what you want out of your system and we will build you a system that delivers !
Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ? Pop down to our shop, listen to our demo cars, listen to different amps and speaker set up’s and decide exactly what you want. Is a DSP Amplifier a good choice ? its up to you, but don’t believe all the marketing that you must have a DSP Amplifier because, YOU DONT !
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