Alpine MRV-M500 Mono V-Power Digital Amplifier

...although it should be no surprise that my last infatuation (in the mobile arena) was an Alpine Type-S from back in 2005... Here, in 2013, Alpine still keeps me going. This amp is awesome. The included Hi-Level inputs do an amazing job. When getting your system installed, your installer is going to push you to use their Hi-Low Level Converter. The reasoning behind this is nonsense. Be sure to get your amp installed, etc., but, if they insist on using it, just keep the included cables and do it yourself. It took me all of fifteen minutes to wire the hi-level input on the amp, and what a difference ten-minutes makes... Something tells me I'm going to miss the hi-level input once I get my new head unit, but I'm in no rush at this point (even though the display no longer works and the CD no longer ejects lol). I use my phone and the stock auxiliary input... It's not as loud, but it's loud enough. The human ear adjusts your perceived amplitude anyway, so it doesn't really matter what system you have (in the lower, consumer-grade category). The adjustments on this amp are straight forward and useful. The 45Hz Boost is good (used sparingly), and the Low-Pass-Filter seems quite accurate. There is a lot of power in this amp, but I'm only using a 250W Bazooka BT1024DVC BT Series 10-Inch 4 Ohm Dual Passive Tube , so I don't really need to push the amp. In its operating range, this amp seems amazing! If I were to upgrade my sub, I would probably just buy another one of these and let it go... In the past, I skimped on amplifiers...going for the bigger number over the higher quality... Now, I know a LOT better, and will not waste my time on inferior amps. I would've bought a Kicker Amp for a great deal, but ultimately decided to spend a little more for a brand KNOWN for consistent quality. My amp came with a card denoting 565W RMS (lower than others I've seen here :-(), but I'm happy knowing that I'm atleast getting 400W... Either way, go ahead and add it to your cart...it should definitely be considered in your final decision. UPDATE (12/21/2013) After quite a few months of ownership, something I've noticed is that the amplifier will overheat if not provided enough ventilation (duh?). In my trunk, mounted to the back of the seat (surely not the best configuration, considering heat dissipation and the angle of the seat), the amp will cut off after a short while UNLESS I have my back seat stowed (opened to the trunk)... Although it's not a deal breaker, it's definitely annoying. In the end, I'll likely end up mounting my amplifier on the trunk floor... Regardless, again, it's not a deal breaker... Great amp, that seems to be quite durable. It has already blown my Bazooka tube...(not surprisingly)...and is definitely something that my new Boston subs absolutely love! Thanks again, Alpine!

I purchased this amp to power a subwoofer in my boat. Class D was important for efficiency reasons and playing on the sand bar for hours at a time without draining my batteries to quickly. This amp is fantastic. It's paired to a JL Audio M10IB5 10" woofer that's stuffed into the cutout in the footwell of my boat. The boats only a 20' Supra wakeboard boat, so not much area to fill with sound, and this thing just pounds and pounds. The sound is incredibly clean, the amp stays nice and cool, it has a very small footprint, easily adjustable, and just all around what I'd expect from my history of alpine products. Besides all that, you can't beat the price this little amp boasts for the power it provides. One thing to note, this does have a remote bass adjustment that can be used with the amp to adjust the gain on the fly. The Alpine specific gain control is NOT REQUIRED. I used the control that came with a piece of junk BOSS amplifier with this amp, and it worked just fine. So if you cand find a adjustment knob that has the phone cord looking plug in on the amp side, it should work the same as the alpine add on, at a much lower price. I've since upgraded to an equilizer that gives me control of the sub channel through RCA's, so no need for the knob any longer, but when I used it, it worked great. Another thing with this amp, keep in mind it is rated at 300W RMS at 14.4 volts. It's rare that you'll actually be pushing 14.4V, so don't expect 300W RMS. Account for a bit of loss in power due to lower voltage. For this reason, I chose this amp paired with the JL sub. JL sub is rated at 250W RMS, so with the voltage drop in my system (especially after being parked at the sandbar for hours in my boat), I expect some loss in power from the lower voltage which allows this amp to mate up to the sub I'm running superbly. I don't even have to crank this sub to get good boom out of it either. This pair has great bass even at high volumes when sometimes subwoofers will fade out and be taken over by the mids/highs because maxing the amp out. Not a problem with this little guy. It has good sound at low or high volumes and never fades out. LOVE THIS AMP!!!

The Alpine MRV-M500 is a tried and true model, first introduced back in 2013. As of December 2019, this amp is still being sold on Amazon despite it's discontinued status. Nevertheless, the amp is one of the top sellers in the mono amplifier category, so I felt compelled to buy one to test on my SMD Amp Dyno. How did it do? Let's find out: 4 ohms (Rated 300W) - Tests below at 40Hz 332W at 13.93 volts certified to 1% THD 332W at 13.93 volts at clipping 343W at 14 volts dynamic power 2 ohms (500W rated) 563W at 13.71 volts certified 582W at 13.59 volts at clipping 676W at 14.03 volts dynamic power As you can see the amp exceeded it's rated power at each ohm load and test. Love to see this! Here are the positives: - Amp exceeds it's rated specifications - Has RCA outputs for connecting another amp - Has high level inputs for use with systems without aftermarket head units - 24dB/oct low-pass crossover - 4ga Power/Ground inputs - 8ga speaker outputs - Plastic end caps snap on without screws or mounting hardware - High end ELNA capacitors 105 degrees C Could be better? - Doesn't include Bass Remote / Cable - available as option - Discontinued - probably won't be available much longer - No subsonic filter - be careful using this amp with subwoofers in ported enclosures - Proprietary IC output drive circuitry making this amp nearly impossible for 3rd party repair techs to fix when it breaks Overall, fantastic amp! I hope my review helps someone. -Dereck from Williston Audio Labs

Used the MRV-M500 mono amp to power my Rockford P1S4-10 Punch P1 sub (rated at 250W RMS @ 4-Ohm). It more than suffices for the job & create little to no heat. It's well built and I am more than satisfied w/ the performance. It creates very clean power going to my subwoofer & was easy to mount in my trunk due to its light weight & small size. The only gripe I have with this amp is that the LPF doesn't have an On/Off switch. This came as a surprise to me since I also have the Alpine MRV-F300 4-channel powering the front & rear speakers in my 15' Camry & it does have an Off/On switch for the HPF. It bothers me because I chose to tune my crossover points from the Pioneer AVH-4700BS I replaced the OEM head unit with & am not sure it the LPF on this amp clashes with it. So I set the M500's to the highest frequency & caped it at 100Hz at the head unit. ** Note ** I tuned this amp w/ the SMD DD-1 playing 40Hz @ -10dB test tones in order to find the distortion levels. I barely had to turn up the gains & yet it was pushing a clean 230W RMS to the sub using Ohm's law & my multimeter to determine the voltage. Sounds surreal once it's tuned properly.

It's been a little over a year so it's time to review. I've got this amp on a. P3 10 in a ported box tuned to 35hz. This amp makes my sub sound very good, and very deep too. I'll start off with some things I didn't like to well: The amplifier did not come with a birth sheet. Or at least mine did not. There is no infrasonic/subsonic filter on it. That's honestly it. Just something that throws me off a little bit, the amp has a built in -24db octave and no infrasonic filter. It just seems like the amp was made for a sub in a ported box with that type of slope. But enough of the gripe. I do want to see this amp on the SMD AD-1 because I wanna see if Alpine stands to their name. Other than my gripe, I love this amplifier. Does get warm but that's because of the heatsink doing it's job and because it's hot where I live. So I'm not too worried about that. 5 Stars.

Using this amp with a single Focal RSB-250 Auditor 10" dvc 4ohm sub, running through a Pioneer AVIC-8200NEX head unit. Sound quality is quite good with the combination sub/amp/stereo, solid bass and almost no noticeable THD at high volumes once it was properly dialed in. The crossover in looks to be good, but its missing two key items, a 0/180º phase switch, and it would be nice to have a switch to completely disable the low pass filtering. Why? Because most decent head units now have full active crossover networks built-in, and being able to disable the amp's network completely would be a good feature to have for those who are already running one through their stereo, or better, a dsp unit or likewise. Neither of these are really deal-breakers though, and for what you get at under 200 bucks, its a steal! Wiring connections are solid and feel firm, the amp's size is small enough to fit under most seats and other small spaces, and after an hour of playing/tuning at high volumes, the amp wasn't even warm! Wish I could say that about the sub, as it was definitely warm at the center dustcap (not dangerously hot, just noticeably warm)! My last Alpine amp experience wasn't a great one, with a 6 channel V-12 or something like that, the amp didn't make it 2 years with a very modest setup, so I'm cautiously hoping for a positive experience with this one. Of course, I'll update if I do end up with issues!

Work great at a good price

Amazing amplifier that does more than its money's worth. I initially had a boss riot M1100 which worked great for about 5 months and then shorted. I hear that's a comon problem with that amp and many others that are on the cheaper side. I decided to do things right the second time around and spent a bit more for the alpine. Money well spent. Until you have used a lower quality amp and upgraded to one like this I don't know if you can truly appreciate how much better alpine is. There is more power, better sound, and it's solid and compact. The less powerful boss amp I had was larger and was not a solidly built. Rattles came free :/. I already had a remote level control installed and it works great. If you don't have one I would suggest buying alpine's as well. I highly recommend buying this amp and if you can avoid messing around with the cheap and unreliable stuff you'll save money buying this first instead of wishing you did and upgrading later like me.

Easy hookup, sounds great. Tons of power, and it's Alpine!

Muy bueno, se siente la potencia. Lo puse para un subwoofer Pioneer Champion de 12 pulgadas y lo puede fácilmente! Alpine es calidad

Great little amp. I have it powering a 10" JL sub at 350 rms 4 ohms. Sounds great and hits hard.

La marca lo dice todo , un precio muy accesible. Llegó muy pronto , me gustó bastante.

This amp is a tiny beast ! Paired with the kicker 50dcwc122 dual 12s in ported box . Setup using 40hz test tone and a multimeter with head unit at 75% of max volume raised gain till it reached 31.6v and holy moly it has no problem driving these 12s to a point where my car feels like its gonna rattle apart and causes pressure inside my ears and vibrates absolutely everything