[johnwoitalla]

What makes a plate amp a plate amp? Why choose a plate amp over outboard amps? I use an old Adcom 545 to power my diy sub (sealed box with twin 12" JBL car audio drivers) and it never clips even though it is only rated at 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms. It delivers home theatre entertainment quite well.

[Jon L]

Placing the amp right in the subwoofer which experiences the most vibration and turbulance is a sub-optimal idea, but people do it to reduce floor space usage, the included crossover function and possibly servo/EQ/DSP.  You must be using something to act as crossover to your Adcom..

[Early B.]

Yeah, a plate amp typically has crossover functionality and other features for subwoofer optimization. The downside is that most of them don't sound so great.  However, the sound quality of some plate amps may have improved recently with advancements in Class D technology. There are a few outboard subwoofer amps that typically outperform most plate amps. Parts Express sells one that's quite good: https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-SA1000-Subwoofer-Amplifier-Rack-Mountable-300-811?quantity=1