Bonified, Certified High Quality Amps

[Pl8er 5,000+ posts]

Before anybody says it.I'm far from Diddy but I can afford ANY amp out there.

RF makes that big amp that is like $20,000 You should grab one of those.

price is up a bit

T15kW

15,000 Watt 4-Ch. Hybrid SQ/SPL Amp

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It is stored in the form of potential. As the potential energy increases your heart surges, adrenaline rushes and your body braces in anticipation. The energy demands to be released. When you choose to release the potential, is now up to you.

MSRP $24,999.99

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/product_details.asp?item_id=105829&locale=en_US

 

[Macklessdaddy 10+ year member]

Nobody gives a shit what you can afford, sounds like you wouldn't be able to extract the best it had to offer anyway.[/quote

I give a shit boyI don't give a **** about extracting all the goodness out of an amp,car audio is not my life like you ****ing ca nerds who value this shit more than life.You know more ca than I.Happy now?

 

[Macklessdaddy 10+ year member]

RF makes that big amp that is like $20,000 You should grab one of those.
price is up a bit

T15kW

15,000 Watt 4-Ch. Hybrid SQ/SPL Amp

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It is stored in the form of potential. As the potential energy increases your heart surges, adrenaline rushes and your body braces in anticipation. The energy demands to be released. When you choose to release the potential, is now up to you.

MSRP $24,999.99

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/product_details.asp?item_id=105829&locale=en_US

That's what I'm running now:fyi:

 

[cleansoundzz 10+ year member]

Everyone should look at the thread started about how long you have been using your amplifier by Mackless Daddy. There are so many different brands that people have been using for 5+, 10+, 15+ years ranging from RF, Cadence, Linear Power, Lanzar, etc. Hell there is a guy on that thread who has been using the same Jensen amp for 15+ years. That just throws the whole theory about the higher end amps lasting longer and being more reliable out the window. Here is the thread.

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=314093&page=9&highlight=long+amplifier

I have heard pretty much all the amps out there. True the so-called higher end amps have better tuning capabilities, etc. But when it comes down to it all I care about is reliability, performance, build quality, etc. The differences between the THD levels between the high end amps and medium level amps are so minute that it does not justify the price. Yeah they are more expensive but who the hell wants to spend the extra money on a amp where the differences in sound are very small. If I am going to spend the money on anything car audio related it will be the speakers.

Yeah one can justify spending the extra money on the so-called higher end amps but that is how those companies stay in business. They are in business because there are dummies out there that really believe that the higher end amps sound so much better that all the others. I just won't be one of those dummies. In the end, unless you are in a SPL contest no one really cares how much a person is spending on their car audio system except for the car audio shoppe where it was installed. The only way I would spend that kind of money on a so-called high end amp would be if I am insecure about myself and need to stroke my ego //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif For the people spending the money on the Audisons, Tru, McIntosh amps, etc brag if you will but don't get mad if the other people running Sundown, RF, Cadence, Atomic, etc are using their products just as long and sound just as good.

 

[Macklessdaddy 10+ year member]

Everyone should look at the thread started about how long you have been using your amplifier by Mackless Daddy. There are so many different brands that people have been using for 5+, 10+, 15+ years ranging from RF, Cadence, Linear Power, Lanzar, etc. Hell there is a guy on that thread who has been using the same Jensen amp for 15+ years. I have heard pretty much all the amps out there. True the so-called higher end amps have better tuning capabilities, etc. But when it comes down to it all I care about is reliability, performance, build quality, etc. The differences between the THD levels between the high end amps and medium level amps are so minute that it does not justify the price. Yeah they are more expensive but who the hell wants to spend the extra money of a amp where the differences in sound are very small. If I am going to spend the money on anything car audio related it will be the speakers.
Yeah one can justify spending the extra money on the so-called higher end amps but that is how those companies stay in business.

true dat

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

This statement:

People like tubes because of the warm sound they bring...some people think that warm sound is distorting the actual source.

Is true. The "Warm/fuzzy" sound comes from distortion. Tube amplifiers are high distortion. Doesn't mean it sounds bad, but this is true.

So is this statement:

People are far more likely to screw up their speaker placement before having to really worry about a high end amp.

Other than that a lot of the things said in this thread makes me want to puke. But that's normal anytime people start going back and forth arguing about anything to do with SQ. It's just not for me, all the shit sounds the same to my ears. It's hard for an amplifier to sound different than the next amplifier because they use the same parts, same design. This is 99% of the stuff out there. If you want the big dollar amps and you are an SQ kinda guy, look into the brands that are small-time and built here in the US like those Lunar amps. I have never seen one at my shop, but I hear they are well built homebrew type stuff. Probably not the most powerful out there by ANY means, but if you want a "special" amp that is good check those out. I am not familiar with TRU either, I think they are built here too, but not sure. I just know all that stuff is high $$$ and people who own it like it.

Other than that if you want to go with what would normally be considered a good amp, most of the Korean built amps are good and are similar on the inside regardless of what it looks like on the outside. Some companies underrate their amps, others overrate, same parts, different ratings, go figure.... LOL.. Also bewarned the older Korean amps (like Orion 2500D's) are not better than the newer amps, quite the opposite. Most of the older Korean class D amps are junk. The Class AB's are all about the same, the design hasn't changed since early 90's. Other classes of amplifiers out there are G and GH. These are fancy class D's with switching rail voltages as output is increased, really does nothing for your setup, just a neat supposedly more efficient amp design that sounds the same, LOL... Class T, Class X etc is all just bullshit madeup crap, there is only A, AB, B, C, D, G and GH amplifiers out there that I am aware of, none of the crap that comes through my shop claiming to be Class X or Class T is any different than D, G, or GH. I haven't had my coffee yet, I may have left something out....

Older Rockford Fosgate stuff is NOT better than the new, the new stuff is better, don't let these fools tell you stuff they don't know anything about (the inside of an amplifier).

 

[Pl8er 5,000+ posts]

This statement:


Is true. The "Warm/fuzzy" sound comes from distortion. Tube amplifiers are high distortion. Doesn't mean it sounds bad, but this is true.

So is this statement:

Other than that a lot of the things said in this thread makes me want to puke. But that's normal anytime people start going back and forth arguing about anything to do with SQ. It's just not for me, all the shit sounds the same to my ears. It's hard for an amplifier to sound different than the next amplifier because they use the same parts, same design. This is 99% of the stuff out there. If you want the big dollar amps and you are an SQ kinda guy, look into the brands that are small-time and built here in the US like those Lunar amps. I have never seen one at my shop, but I hear they are well built homebrew type stuff. Probably not the most powerful out there by ANY means, but if you want a "special" amp that is good check those out. I am not familiar with TRU either, I think they are built here too, but not sure. I just know all that stuff is high $$$ and people who own it like it.

Other than that if you want to go with what would normally be considered a good amp, most of the Korean built amps are good and are similar on the inside regardless of what it looks like on the outside. Some companies underrate their amps, others overrate, same parts, different ratings, go figure.... LOL.. Also bewarned the older Korean amps (like Orion 2500D's) are not better than the newer amps, quite the opposite. Most of the older Korean class D amps are junk. The Class AB's are all about the same, the design hasn't changed since early 90's. Other classes of amplifiers out there are G and GH. These are fancy class D's with switching rail voltages as output is increased, really does nothing for your setup, just a neat supposedly more efficient amp design that sounds the same, LOL... Class T, Class X etc is all just bullshit madeup crap, there is only A, AB, B, C, D, G and GH amplifiers out there that I am aware of, none of the crap that comes through my shop claiming to be Class X or Class T is any different than D, G, or GH. I haven't had my coffee yet, I may have left something out....

Older Rockford Fosgate stuff is NOT better than the new, the new stuff is better, don't let these fools tell you stuff they don't know anything about (the inside of an amplifier).

Seriously, we could end the thread on this. If you don't know who db-r is....well you should know He can fix just about anything and looks at amp guts all the time.

So his word = the truth //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

I appreciate the kind words too!

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

I am not the end-all take my word as final word person.

I just give my opinion. Honestly I have only been working on amps for 4 years now. So I don't know everything, I don't have a college degree, though I do have about 4 semesters of credit toward an EET degree way back in the mid-90's, kinda out of date now, but I don't care for school much.

Remember guys, it's just my opinion, I am wrong from time to time, not always right. Been around car audio since back in the mid-80's, so I remember a thing or two, but I was completely out of it from about 97-2004 so alot of the crap that came out during those years I may not have my facts straight on, but I try. Like US Amps for example. I don't think I ever heard of them until I started repairing amps, yet a lot of people regard them as "old school". But to me that's not old school, that's new shit. Old school is like Kenwood KAC-1020. Linear Power, Old Original Punch series amps, 45, 75 and 150. Old Autotek 7600's etc.... that's old shit.... A US Amps VLX is newer stuff.... My first amp was a pyramid amp, it was ugly as hell, it made noise even without the speaker attached, you could hear the bass inside of it, going through the transformers or whatever was in that thing.... I think it was a PB200, it was 4 channels, sqaure with fins, had the red and black home stereo hookup style speaker outputs, you know the ones you lift the lever, insert the wire and then push back down, or maybe they were spring loaded, maybe. Find me one of those I will give you $50 for it. Find me a KAC-1020 (dead or alive) or a 1021 and I will give you $100 for it.

 

[tinmanchris217 10+ year member]

Lunar, Helix, Audison, Zapco, Mac, Arc...

Trimmed your selections, but any of these will give excellent SQ (for the most part). SQ, to me, is clean digital silence (noise free system), minimally distorted signal, good channel separation, and reasonably flat response for all volume levels you choose to listen at.

As others alluded to, these are HEAVILY dependent on a clean headunit with strong pre-outs, heavily shielded RCAs, proper wire routing, and a clean, unified ground. The OP seems to have been in the game for a while, so I'll assume he's good on the above details.

 

[Pl8er 5,000+ posts]

Trimmed your selections, but any of these will give excellent SQ (for the most part). SQ, to me, is clean digital silence (noise free system), minimally distorted signal, good channel separation, and reasonably flat response for all volume levels you choose to listen at.
As others alluded to, these are HEAVILY dependent on a clean headunit with strong pre-outs, heavily shielded RCAs, proper wire routing, and a clean, unified ground. The OP seems to have been in the game for a while, so I'll assume he's good on the above details.

Say Waaaaaaa? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

People like tubes because of the warm sound they bring...some people think that warm sound is distorting the actual source.

I don't want to sound too philosophical here, but it's a design aesthetic as well, to some degree...minimalist, KISS, whatever you want to call it. My monoblocks have less than a dozen components in the signal path, and no circuit boards in sight - I still think it's pretty cool that that's all it takes. No NFB, even.

Where I draw the line is with tube "buffers". No real point, IMO.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Say Waaaaaaa? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif

Perfect Sound Forever...

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[Pl8er 5,000+ posts]

Perfect Sound Forever...
//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Exactly

 

[ciaonzo 5,000+ posts]

I don't want to sound too philosophical here, but it's a design aesthetic as well, to some degree...minimalist, KISS, whatever you want to call it. My monoblocks have less than a dozen components in the signal path, and no circuit boards in sight - I still think it's pretty cool that that's all it takes. No NFB, even.
Where I draw the line is with tube "buffers". No real point, IMO.

Do you find that you prefer a circuit with or with out feedback?

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

It depends. With the crossoverless Fostexes, it's great //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif I realize in a lot of designs, though, you don't have a choice.

And tubes don't have the monopoly on the simple Class A1 goodness, either...those Nelson Pass First Watt amps are nice too, I'd want to own a pair some day //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif