Best Quality Amps Ever?

[Eugenics 5,000+ posts]

zuki

although if you take the cover off you will burn in hell.

 

[Fast1one 10+ year member]

yea there good for the money....at lest better then hifonics lol.

Unless it was ZED audio built //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/veryhappy.gif.fec4fed33b4a1279cf10bdd45a039dae.gif

 

[KingDiamond 10+ year member]

Old school: PPI, MMats, Orion.... and Jensen, yes Jensen. I had an old Lincoln with two 100x4 Jensen amps and I don't remember the models but they were still made in the USA

New: US Amps, Zapco, McIntosh, Nakamichi

 

[caligirl2k 10+ year member]

I love the old school Precision Power (PPI) PCX Series

 

[Grinder1989 5,000+ posts]

I can't wait to hear my Promos 450 in my car.

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

I love the old school Precision Power (PPI) PCX Series

what was the first year of pcx?

 

[SQChevy 10+ year member]

Focal, Audison, and JBL GTO are probably some of the best quality amps I've seen. I love the Dual Monitors that Focal has, extremely well built and can be hooked up to your laptop for on the stop tuning.

 

[entropie 10+ year member]

i've been pretty happy with my a/d/s/ ph30.2. although, i've though about selling it for something different.

on that note, any new a/d/s/ or directed = junk.

 

[Pl8er 5,000+ posts]

Mcintosh without question. You pay a premium and you get exactly what you pay for.

 

[XXVANN 10+ year member]

I had a PPI4200 AM (art series) for several years. Bought it new in 1994 and it was reliable for all the years I owned it. Probably shouldn't have sold it, but it sat unused for over a year. Furthermore the art series graphics ruled! This was right before Xtant came out, taking most of the decent PPI engineers with them (so I heard).

A friend of mine had a 225 HCCA running 16 speakers (4-10", 4-8", 4-6", 2-4" and 2-tweeters) and it rocked. I had never seen anything like it (this was in 1991).

Surprised nobody mentioned the late 80s/early 90s Linear Power for raw power in a no-nonsense package.

 

[jluv 10+ year member]

I always see a huge boner for PPI Art Series amps, but after over 10 years of using them myself, I know that they aren't the end all be all of amps. I've had A600.2s and an A600, as well as an older PPI Sedona amp. Sound quality is great. They look cool. At least at 4 ohms, they never miss a beat or get too hot.

But their terminal design is lousy. Worst I've seen. The little plugs are easy to lose and expensive to replace. The gold plated metal in them is extremely soft. The screws get stripped easily and they just don't hold onto wire very well. Considering the power and ground wires are right there next to each other, and can slide out pretty easily, it's downright dangerous. Those who have really used these amps in a few different installs will know exactly what I'm talking about.

I had the same Art Series boner for a long time and refused to upgrade my amps. They finally started to crap out. Dead power supplies, bad RCA inputs, etc. I'd pay a LOT to have them repaired, only to have them go out again. It's like once they start to die, they really start to die. Finally, back in '06, my truck was broken into and they stole three A600.2s and the Sedona amp. I was devastated, but replaced them with three JL Slash amps. I really, really like these JL amps, and they haven't given me any problems at all. I had an A600 in the shop when that all went down, and got it back shortly after. I use it to run my front mids, and it works great. But as soon as it craps out, I'll replace it with a Slash amp, too.

In all fairness, I can't say that Slash>Art Series, but that's only because I haven't used these amps for 10 years to see what kind of longevity they have. But as far as today is concerned, I'd rather have a new Slash amp than any amp that's a decade old.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

I had a PPI4200 AM (art series) for several years.

That is NOT an Art Series amp. It is an AM series amp in white. The Art Series had plugs for all connections (not nearly as bad as the previous poster thinks since they're the exact same plugs used by all my Orions that I've had ZERO problems with) no visble fins and one side of the amp had a circular profile while the other side had a triangular profile.

 

[jluv 10+ year member]

...The Art Series had plugs for all connections (not nearly as bad as the previous poster thinks since they're the exact same plugs used by all my Orions that I've had ZERO problems with)...

LOL. It's not a case of me "thinking" they were bad. I've used those plugs in 4 different amps for ten years in several different installs. When you say that your Orion plugs are the "exact same", do you mean that they're interchangeable with one another? Because the plugs I used with my Art Series amps sucked when it came to holding 4 ga wire securely. Perhaps they are similar designs with different material or a different mechanism on the inside. The PPI plugs had gold plated, wide, flat, convex tabs that were pushed down by the tiny screws. Even when screwed down as far as possible, minimal effort would slide the wire right out. I've seen a similar design in plenty of applications, but differences in the shape or surface qualities of the actual tab itself. Some have formed edges, like teeth. Some have holes in the tab for the screw to go through and "bite" into the wire. Some use beefier screws that can be torqued down further and tighter, etc. It's not so bad laid flat and with the wires secured before the amp so that they won't be moving. But in an upright install, or in a setup where the box and amp is removable and the plugs stay in the vehicle (the good thing behind the whole design) they just weren't as secure as they should be. And when it comes to power wire, that's a pretty big flaw in my eyes.

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

Mcintosh without question. You pay a premium and you get exactly what you pay for.

This is what I was thinking...

McIntosh Amp

 

[sickofsoyo 10+ year member]

JBL\Crown amps are high quality, McIntosh, Sundown, old school soundstream...