to the salt plains in South Australia and strap rocket motors and aero-foils to it, you could ‘probably’ get it up to 1000kph in the right conditions, but you don’t see the manufactur-ers marketing it as a 1000kph hot hatch! No; when it comes to amplifi er power ratings there is a massive difference between what the amplifi er is stable at and what it is happy to output all day every day.

The other various specs of the PDX-M12 are also impressive to say the least. For start-ers, the total harmonic distortion is 0.004% however this is taken with the unit is output-ting only 10 watts. Now before you climb into Alpine saying 10 watts is bugger all, when the amplifi er is going at full tilt the THD is still only 0.04% and, let me you, if your ears can detect the difference between these two fi gures at anything approaching 1200 watts of volume then you’re a better man than me Gunga Din! Likewise, the frequency range is also well and truly covered with it able to play between 5Hz and 400Hz. Remember these are designed to run subwoofers so going as high as 400Hz is literally above and beyond what’s required. The A-weighted signal-to-noise ratio is 123dB and even without the weighting the fi gures still dictate that the amplifi er is very quiet. Turning to the control of the subwoofers cone and the speed in which it changes direction; the damping factor and slew rate are head and shoulders above what is required for high quality sound reproduction.

LOOKS AND SUBSTANCEAs I’ve mentioned previously the physical look of Alpines amplifi ers has been somewhat

hit and miss over the years – even as recently as the PDX-Power range. Chrome circles on the corners of a perfectly rectangular black box? Thankfully the PDX-Audiophile range are not only the best sounding Alpine ampli-fi ers, they’re also the best looking although it took a bit of time to warm to these designs because I like my heatsinks – does anyone remember the old Alpine 3544? But so far as smooth and ultra-clean goes; these are the bomb! They’re fi nished with a blend of ma-chined black anodized aluminum (on the top and sides) and a stamped steel back plate.

Located in the centre of the top plate is the Alpine logo that is backlit with a blue LED square. Around the perimeter of the top is a 16mm wide black Perspex insert which can be swapped out for other colours to best suit your install. Because of their frame design they can be stacked vertically too. Besides the footprint being small they’re also very light with the PDX-M12 only weighing three kilos. Dotted along the front edge are the connec-tions for power and signal in addition to the speaker plug ports. The speaker plugs are designed in such a way that there is a square socket with a large centre section so the out-side becomes the negative while the centre section is positive – kind of like how an RCA plug works. This is a God-send for plugging the speaker wires in because no matter how you plug it in, you cannot get the speaker cables out of phase.

Control wise, there are not a whole bunch of them but the ones which are important, like subwoofer control, are there, as are an adjustable 50Hz – 400Hz low-pass crossover, gain control, input sensitivity switch and a 15Hz/30Hz switchable subsonic fi lter.

Whenever I review an Alpine product I take the time to remove the top plate to check-out the internal design and build quality. This is because, as I said above, Alpine is famous for spectacular electronic wizardry. This is yet another fantastic example. The PDX-M12 uses a standard design layout, in that the input circuitry and stiffening caps are on one side, the air-core transformers and power storage caps are front and centre, while the MOSFETs are lined-up along the heatsink for optimal thermal performance.

However the centre piece of the layout is a single chip which is the brain of Alpine’s new power management system. This complex multiprocessor oversees all aspects of the amplifi er’s performance and monitors voltage, temperature and output, ensuring you enjoy uninterrupted audio bliss at all times. Naturally, the componentry within is all of a very high standard, and the design is very robust, so if you go knocking the amplifi er around it won’t completely fall apart and fail on you.

In the box you get all the goodies required to get her up and running including mounting screws, tools, spacer plates for stacking and the plugs for the speaker terminals so install-ing the unit ready for auditioning isn’t hard. In the test car it fi rst got a trial run with a Focal

Utopia 21WX – a subwoofer largely accepted as perhaps the best sound quality unit in the world. Starting out with some ultra-fast Fear Factory, I listened with interest as the amplifi er controlled the subwoofer, reproducing Gene Hoglan’s impressive double bass blast beat drumming with defi nition and clarity while also thumping hard at my chest. Moving onto a completely different type of double bass in the form of Jacques Loussier, the PDX-M12 also excelled at playing detailed bass notes, producing an accurate representation of the real life instrument as opposed to trying to cave your face in with raw power.

However that said I couldn’t let it off the hook without having a lash at caving my head in and so I wheeled in the big guns in the form of my 30kg Crescendo Etude5.12. Now this behemoth requires at least 1000 watts just to wake up so I suspected that while the PDX-M12 would have absolutely no trouble in moving the cone, it might struggle a little with … wow did that thought quickly disappear midsentence! I accidently hit the pause but-ton with the volume up before I was seated and ready; holy cow it’s loud! Ten minutes and a set of ear plugs later, I can tell you the PDX-M12 is perhaps one of the most powerful amplifi ers on the planet for its footprint – it just churns out power like there is no tomorrow!

CONCLUSIONNot surprisingly Alpine has again hit the mark with its new PDX-Audiophile range, offering a blend of impressive specs, good looks, excellent build, top fl ight digital technology and above all copious amount of clean power. All for an asking price of $999 which just coincidentally is less than one dollar per continuous watt. Brilliant!

When Alpine electronics kicked off in 1967 it had no idea of the impact it would eventually

make on the modern day car audio scene. Simply called Alps Electric Company Ltd back then, this modestly-sized company from Japan started designing and building audio components almost as a side project. Two name changes and 45 years later it has evolved into what can only be described as an audio/visual deity, with Alpine nowadays being hugely famous for its electronic wizardry.

While it was happy to possess this reputation, it wasn’t about to rest on its laurels either – Alpine wanted to deal with the title for raw power and earth shaking bass that still seemed to belong to the Americans. This was unacceptable to Alpine, a company that was used always aiming to be the best at anything it set out to achieve, especially where electronics were concerned. So around ten years ago Alpine turned its attention to the one area it was yet to really conquer – that pertaining to extreme sound pressure levels. To cut a long story short it hit a few speed bumps along the way but eventually Alpine held the world SPL record.

POWER TO THE PEOPLEIt was during this time that Alpine engineers learnt many valuable lessons regarding the design of amplifi ers capable of outputting copious amounts of power; and reliably. It then incorporated many of these lessons

into its standard range of amplifi ers but decided to delay the release of its monoblocks for some time as it refi ned and improved on the initial designs. The result is that today Alpine monoblocks are famous for having a very clean sound in addition to being hugely powerful.

Size was the next thing to be tackled head on and to that end the Alpine monoblocks have been getting smaller each year despite getting more powerful to the point now where the brand new PDX-M12 monoblock that just landed at our offi ce measures a piddling 257mm x 192mm x 50mm despite being able to output over a thousand watts continuously! How’s that for a power to size ratio…

This new amplifi er forms part of Alpine’s PDX-Audiophile series and these amplifi ers are, basically, the beefed-up and vastly improved variants of the highly acclaimed PDX-Power range that were initially developed around fi ve years ago. Not that the PDX-Power range had anything wrong with them it’s just that you know Alpine; if you lock it in a dark room with anything electrical it cannot help but improve upon it. Therefore the PDX-Power range is still available but now there’s also the PDX-Audiophile range for the hardcore audio enthusiasts that demand power with performance specifi cations far beyond human hearing. Enthusiast bragging rights? Perhaps, but Alpine tries to cater for everyone.

The PDX-M12 is a sibling to the PDX-M6 and is the larger of the two monoblocks. Complimenting them to complete the range are also two four-channel amps in the PDX-F6 and PDX-F4. They’re all high power digital class D designs and the PDX-M12 is rated at 1200 watts continuous at either 2- or 4-ohms thanks to its fully regulated design. We won’t delve too deeply into the class-D design (see our article dealing with these issues on page 52) other than to comment on Alpine’s PDX-M12 power fi gures, unlike some of its competi-tors, being in compliance with the CES2006 amplifi er rating standards. So you can rest assured it actually outputs what it claims to.

To that end they all come with an individual birth certifi cate to inform you of exactly how much power your particular unit outputs at the test bench. This concept came about be-cause in order to sell inferior amplifi ers, some companies began claiming unrealistic power output fi gures while using such terminology and acronyms as watts maximum, watts PMPO, watts EIAJ and taking measurements at 16 and sometimes even 18 volts! After all; if you take your standard family hatchback down

ALPINE PDX-M12 MONOBLOCK AMPLIFIER

• Oodles of clean power• Superb build quality• Elegant styling

• Not extensively featured

The KS-AR9501D amplifi er from JVC offers less power at 500 watts but at

the lower price point of $749

Option Audio’s OAX3500 is another powerhouse offering a somewhat reduced 900 watts at 4-ohms and

priced at the next bracket of $1299

TYPE: Class-D one channel amplifi er

CONTINUOUS POWER RATING:

1 x 1200 watts at 4- or 2-ohms (CES2006)

FEATURES: Adjustable crossover, stack-

able, power management processor, inter-

changeable Perspex chassis surround

COST: $999

CONTACT: Alpine Electronics Australia

on 1300 765 760

WEB: www.alpine.com.au

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