The Skinny:
For quite sometime, we've had customers and installers asking us to bring back the SS1; a small, potent amplifier that can fit almost anywhere. We decided that if the SS1 were to come back, it needed to be upgraded in power, cooling capability and efficiency. The revision, the all-new SS1a produces a rock-solid 500wrms @ 2ohms, is 1ohm stable and is less than 7" x 9" in size. Everyone knows that finding a place for a suitcase-sized amp doesn't make an easy install, so the cries for a strong, small amp were heard and acted upon. By now, those of you who know DD know that we don't go in for following the crowd, so we took a 180 with this one. The heat sink was designed to take full advantage of convection cooling by putting aluminum mass where needed and fins where they would do the most good. We're not saying this puppy is light; as it's far from it. We are however saying that you should be able to appreciate it's power-per-square inch ratio.
The SS1a doesn't just make a lot of power, it makes nice power. It utilizes the newest generation of class D, high-speed chipsets for the best audio quality possible. The SS1a is quite an impressive little amp, high power, high quality audio from a size barely bigger than a piece of paper folded in half. We think it's also a cool little change from our popular Z series heat-sink profile. The SS1a can fit into the smallest cars, the smallest spaces or make a light-weight system for cars whose right pedals often get stuck in the WOT position. The SS1a is a strappable monoblock; so building nearly multi-kilowatt systems is only a few connections away. The SS-Class amps will make installing stealthy, powerful systems simple and easy without sacrificing quality.
Why the new heat-sink design?
The new SS heat-sink was developed to gain maximum heat dissipation from minimal cross-sectional area. Nearly the entire surface is covered in cooling fins while the mosfet and transistor rails are beefed up to move heat from the devices to the fins. These small but heavy heat-sinks are essential when the amps are mounted in space-challenged interiors. Convection cooling is possible in horizontal or vertical mounting applications. Our custom extrusion gets the DD brushed aluminum finish with long-wearing, anodized clear coat and CnC machined DD logo in the familiar spot.
The audio circuit in the SS1a nearly matches the M3's specs. The compact layout allows shorter path lengths, tighter tolerance control and efficient current management. Finer-tolerance components, thicker PCBs and over-spec'd power supply round out the design of the sound quality oriented circuit. These are small and easy to use amplifiers which will bring out the best in your labor of love installation. The preamp section features 24dB/oct subsonic AND low-pass xovers, high-end chrome plated RCA connections and custom terminal/speaker blocks. The separate filters are necessary to finely tune the subwoofer section of a hi-end automotive sound system. The SS1a subwoofer amp receives the new DD Reverse-Gain remote, the remote gain cannot exceed the gain level set on the amplifier itself; rather it can only attenuate the level. This allows proper gain settings to be made during initial tuning and helps prevent valet smoke.
DDSS2 - High-End Stereo A/B Amplifier
The 411:
The SS2 amplifier was born mainly from the needs of our dealers to have a smaller-than-normal chassis amplifier that can run a set of mid-power components, mid-high power coaxials or slam plenty of power into a bridged 4ohm load for applications such as tri-amping a high-power set of components. The chassis of the SS series amps was designed around the SS2 board to dissipate the heat generated from a class A/B design. This heat sink was designed to take full advantage of convection cooling by putting aluminum mass where needed and fins where they would do the most good. It isn't light but you should easily be able to distinguish the sound quality difference between it and other similar output amplifiers.
The output power of 80wrms x 2 @ 4ohms, 130wrms x 2 @ 2ohms or 260wrms bridged into a 4ohm load is easily handled by the size and profile of the heat sink. The SS2 can fit into the smallest cars, pretty small spaces and help keep a sound system light-weight for cars whose right pedals often get stuck in the WOT position. The SS-Class amps will make installing stealthy, powerful systems simple and easy without sacrificing quality. To let you know JUST how small these amps are; we've got 5 of them in our Smart Car and have lost no useable space!
DDSS2 also have the new heat sink design!
DDSS4 - High-End 4Ch A/B Amplifier
The SS4 was designed to be a useful tool in configuring channels and power delivery in high-end systems where mounting space is limited; or when a small, cool looking amp fits the bill. Like all the S and SS Series amps, design emphasis is on delivering True To The Source sound quality. These design elements include a strong power supply, high quality components, clean front end circuit, wideband filters and thermally efficient heatsink design. The SS4 makes your dream system easy to integrate into your vehicle.
The small chassis of the SS4 belies its power capability delivering over 160 watts of power into two bridged channels. This is perfect for driving high-end component sets and powerful midbass setups. The separate high-pass and low-pass filters allow 50Hz to 5kHz range of high-pass, low-pass or band-pass capability. Bridging the SS4's four channels brings the power output sweet spot to 4 Ohms, the optimum output load for driving a pair of speakers.
The SS4 delivers over 40 watts of power @ 4 Ohms into 4 separate channels, or 4 x 80 watts of power into 2 Ohm loads. Four-channel mode can drive up to 8 sets of 4 Ohm mid/high speakers, over 320 watts of system power, all from this small footprint.
OEM upgrade-systems is another application where the SS4 can be a single amp solution; two channels driving up to 4 mid/high units with high pass filter engaged to protect them against low frequencies and two channels bridged to drive a sub with over 160 watts of continuous power. When future power upgrades are in the budget, the SS4 can be used to drive more power to the mid/high units while adding the SS1a monoblock to drive the subwoofer.
The SS4 is also perfect for powering the four pole syncromotor on the new DDMMMa, Digital Designs Mobile Margarita Machine. The new "a" Series machine features the revolutionary Mezcal attachment which captures the worms rather than grinding them up in the stew. The Mezcal attachment strores the worms in a cryocylinder for later consumption.
