Amplifier Review - Alpine MRP-M350
1 Channel V-Power Class-D Mono Amplifier
By Paul Sonoda
Retail Price $200
In the late 1980’s, Alpine created a following with “The Alpine Touch”. Many young boys dreamed of having an Alpine head unit with the green buttons. Alpine was bitchen, expensive and if you had an Alpine head unit, you were the…well you get my point. Today, Alpine has products from the very expensive F1 system to the very affordable gear like the MRP-M350 being reviewed here. At $200 USD, the M350 is an extremely affordable way to get good bass in your vehicle.
First Look
The MRP-M350 is a single channel, Class-D, dedicated subwoofer amplifier. The 2 ohm stable amplifier includes a variable low-pass crossover and a Bass EQ. The efficiency of Class-D operation makes it a great choice for subwoofer amplifier designs. The amplifier chassis is powder coated black with a nicely styled aluminum insert with a cool looking blue square LED. Power, ground and speaker connections are made via gold plated terminal screws.
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topCloser Look
The fit and finish of the Alpine MRP-M350 is excellent. The M350 uses a single pair of speaker connections can accept either “U” shaped connectors or bare wire. Considering its lower impedance capability, it would have been nice to see a pair of speaker terminals to make connecting a pair of woofers easier. The power connections are properly sized and well marked. Two 20 amp fuses provide the MRP350 with 40 amps of current capacity of your vehicle’s electrical system. On the other end of the amplifier, the M350 combines RCA and speaker level inputs with the gain control, Bass EQ and crossover frequency controls. The M350 is designed to accommodate source units from 200mV up to 4Vrms and speaker level inputs from any standard type source. The 24dB per octave crossover is variable from 50Hz to 200Hz. The Bass EQ is set to 50Hz with a maximum boosting potential of 12dB. To protect the subwoofers from potentially damaging over excursion, the M350 included a subsonic filter at 15Hz
Installation
Installation of the MRP-M350 went without a hitch. The M350 uses very sturdy well place mounting feet. The gain control is set from the factory to 1 Volt rms which is a good starting point for system tuning. The always engaged low-pass crossover is easy to use and well marked. Due to its low-impedance design, it is recommended that an Authorized Alpine Dealer perform the installation.
Manuals/Web Support
First let me start by saying Alpine’s website is excellent! When you go to their site at http://www.alpine1.com, you will find easy navigation to what product you want to learn about, a cool system builder that helps you to design a system and the young to dream. The website also has a technical support center that is helpful and informative. To access this section of the website, you will need to register on the site. The owner’s manual is east to follow and provides all the necessary information required for proper installation. It is also important to note that the manual is written in English, Spanish and French.
Sound Q & Performance
This entry level amplifier delivers impressive performance giving its weight and price. It delivered over 255 watts into 4 ohms and an impressive 396 watts into 2 ohms. At 5.5 pounds, this amplifier gets it done. The only negative I could comment on was some residual noise on the outputs. On my oscilloscope, there was some noise present at the crests of the sine wave between 80 watts and the rated power of the amplifier. I should note that these noises were not audible when I connected the M350 to a subwoofer and measured below 1% THD.Efficiency is very desirable and the M350 does not disappoint. At max power, the M350 returned between 75 and 83% efficiency. At the least efficient load of 1/3 power the Alpine MRP-M350 delivered between 59-61% efficiency. Very impressive.
Summary
Those looking for an inexpensive amplifier that delivers, look no further. When you consider the price, the Alpine MRP-M350 gets the job done. This is a great entry level amplifier for all applications. When it comes to building good products like the M350, Alpine definitely still has its touch.
4
out of 5
5
out of 5
