Are Earthquake PH-D2's really as bad as they say?

[grimreper912003 5,000+ posts]

Iv been looking for a "budget" amp to push a Fi BTL 18", and I came across Earthquake PH-D2's (the 1st gen, old school ones also known as the shredder?) which range from $150 to $200. But after reading reviews I have mixed thoughts on it. about 60% say its a great amp that puts out AT LEAST 2000 watts RMS at 2 ohm but the other 40% say its a horrible amp. They say its overrated, horrible sound quality and its just noise. Anyone have any input on this? I also looked at DD amps, I already knew they wern budget but the Z2 //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wow.gif.23d729408e9177caa2a0ed6a2ba6588e.gif is huge!

Click to read more...

 

[ShockingCanada 10+ year member]

The D2 is a descent amp but it has issues. First they have a history of spontaneously blowing up...some people have even had them blow up when they aren't turned on. Also, they do not do the rated power at 2ohms...in fact they do really not much power at 2ohms, if you want to get 2000+ wrms you have to run them at 0.5ohms which they will do for competitions but not for listening to music and there is still a good risk of them blowing up. If you want a great cheap amp the Earthquake D3 is amazing. It is rock solid, you can run it at 1ohm all day long and will put out 2000watts and if you want to do any kind of competition you can run at 0.25ohms and not have to worry because they are rock solid. I have owned both amps and the extra money for the D3 is well worth it because they do more power and are WAYYY more stable

 

[terra 5,000+ posts]

try the ph5000d

 

[grimreper912003 5,000+ posts]

Right now Im working on buying A US amps USA-400. They rate it at 1200 watts at 4 ohms but most people are claiming over 2000 watts at 1 ohm. Nice old school amp //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif. Any one have a broken USA-400 Their willing to part with?

 

[ShockingCanada 10+ year member]

those old school US amps were good amps, only problem with them is that they are class a/b so they will be drawing ALOT more current than a class D which menas you will be more likely to need to upgrade your wire, battery/batteries and alternator to give it the juice. As far as the other guy who said try the PHD5000 the PHD5000 and the PHD3 are the same amp just they changed the model number to be a max rating instead of RMS and they changed the case from flat grey to red and black...other than that they are basically the same amp

 

[skeptikal Premium Member]

I've got the PHD 3000 and its holding up great, I like it alot. It's actually modded so it doesn't kick into protect too.

 

[grimreper912003 5,000+ posts]

those old school US amps were good amps, only problem with them is that they are class a/b so they will be drawing ALOT more current than a class D which menas you will be more likely to need to upgrade your wire, battery/batteries and alternator to give it the juice. As far as the other guy who said try the PHD5000 the PHD5000 and the PHD3 are the same amp just they changed the model number to be a max rating instead of RMS and they changed the case from flat grey to red and black...other than that they are basically the same amp

If I was worried about draw I wouldent have choosen an 18" BTL...I noticed the PH3000 and The PH3 looked very similar. Thank you guys...I almost bought a EQ PH-D2 last night, until I read the thread.

 

[yunvme666 10+ year member]

i ran a modded d2 daily at .7 for a yr or 2 no problem....

 

[ShockingCanada 10+ year member]

yeah some people will say they did that. But others had them smoke at 2ohms or smoke with the amp turned off, or smoke at 0.5ohms during a 1 second burst. Its not worth it imo buy the D3 and you won't have to worry about it

 

[grimreper912003 5,000+ posts]

what about a PHD5000.1?

 

[DBDRAGGUY 10+ year member]

i ran a modded d2 daily at .7 for a yr or 2 no problem....

Some hold up some dont, I had a brand new one smoke at 2ohms in less than a week. Then I have seen others run under 1ohm and be just fine. Must be a quality control thing.

 

[bumpin buick 5,000+ posts]

I had a comp car sponsored by earthquake, we called them the firecracker amps

 

[vehementSPL 10+ year member]

The D2 is a descent amp but it has issues. First they have a history of spontaneously blowing up...some people have even had them blow up when they aren't turned on. Also, they do not do the rated power at 2ohms...in fact they do really not much power at 2ohms, if you want to get 2000+ wrms you have to run them at 0.5ohms which they will do for competitions but not for listening to music and there is still a good risk of them blowing up. If you want a great cheap amp the Earthquake D3 is amazing. It is rock solid, you can run it at 1ohm all day long and will put out 2000watts and if you want to do any kind of competition you can run at 0.25ohms and not have to worry because they are rock solid. I have owned both amps and the extra money for the D3 is well worth it because they do more power and are WAYYY more stable

Well as far as power I disagree. I heard at .5 they would do close to 3kw. at 2 ohm prob close to 1800. BUT I 100 percent agree they blew up all day. Really when modded. Man if that is a mod D2 stay away. My friend blew his up 3 times. last time they repaired it. he put it on my subs. started to turn it up got up to 1/2 volume and POOF. NO way in hell I would ever use one of the old ones too unstable.He wants to send it for repair again WTF?

 

[vehementSPL 10+ year member]

Actually thinking about I am pretty sure back in the day I heard of them burning a few vehicles to the ground WHILE off.

 

[Phiber Optik 10+ year member]

I had a second gen D2 (grey case with end caps) and personally I think the distortion levels are much worse then the "firecracker effect".

Even at 4ohm (~1400rms) the amp made the sub sound terrible, with a meter I noticed unusually high DC current levels going into the sub, the amp was fed a clean signal from an Alpine 9815 coupled with an audiocontrol EQL, and a dual alternator/battery setup. So it wasn't an input problem, The class A/B amp I used for daily was just noticibly cleaner and much more percise.

I couldn't use the D2 as a daily driver, comps only.

If you get one, make sure the voltage doesn't drop below 11 volts, that is what makes these amps blow up.