cheater amps? you tell me....

[dreamer33917 10+ year member]

I was sitting around a stereo shop the other day, and heard a heated discussion about cheater amps, which i had never thought about or even heard of...But it did raise some questions. The shop manager was out and the techs/installers were up front when this kid pulled up dropping balls. When he walked in the installers called him .Then he said to them that if prices were different he would buy . I then asked whats a cheater amp?The tech guy said it's an amp that gets benched, and certain parts are researched to find out what upgrades can be done; such as rewiring, bigger power supply, etc... The tech also said it used to be real common back in the "watts class days". People would often take a 50 watt amp, take it apart ,and put on a 500 watt power supply. Coupled with a bunch of cooling fans, they would enter the 50 watt class and destroy everybody. Then the kid turned and said, "look, i agree with the whole cheating thing, but i don't consider what i have done cheating since i don't compete. I love car audio, but i am a poor college guy who wants the expensive top line equipment and can't afford it. I mean, hell, u by 1 name brand big bass amp and you have easily spent over 1000 bucks. I cant afford that!" So i said ,"So, what have you done??" He said before his brother went back to Iraq, he took all his lightning audio amps apart.. He then did some researching on the net, ordered some parts, and gave his amps what he called a tune up. "My brother laughed and said amps are a lot like Hondas and Acuras, you can swap parts between different models no problem, and get a way better car. He even said they will sometimes use the same mother boards, but just different power supplies, etc... So he just swapped out my power supplies, changed some wires with the biggest ones that the mother board could handle. He then built an amp rack, leaving the backs off the amps, and added cooling fans so it has constant air. Now all of a sudden I'm sounding much better than most of the people that used to make fun of me because i didn't have the more expensive brands like them. Just because my system sounds louder, and better, and cost a 1/2 of what their's did, they started calling me cheater amp. Then another customer said, "i don't see the difference between amps and cars in that meaning? he replied," I think about it like this, let's say you buy a car, any car, and you like customizing or hot rodding; then you can always enhance what you have and get more out of what you got. For example, CAI, suspension, turbo, nos, internals etc... Now if i have a 1000 watt base amp and i research and find out by changing 2 wires and swapping out a power supply with proper power and adding a couple of cooling fans i can get 2000 watts out my amp. It would still be reliable? Yes, then no problem. Hell, why not? its your amp if you wanna do it do it i mean it's just like i want a Ferrari, but i have to get the mustang gt. I can still get much more out the stang by upgrading a few parts and never get close to the Ferrari in cost." It was then I felt like I might want to upgrade my system. However, I have no idea who would install or even know how to find out if my amps are even reliably upgradeable. But if it is possible to double my power by spending 100 or so extra bucks, and that would make my amps better than the series I couldn't afford, then I'm all for it. As long as I don't go to car shows who cares, and i couldn't afford the 4000 watts at 1ohm true power that cost 2500 bucks. I got the 600 dollar 1500 watt 1ohm true power amp saved up 200 bucks and had it tweaked out like putting a turbo on a Honda. Now I have a 3000 Watt 1ohm true power amp, then please sign me up... but now i ask you what do you think about it would you upgrade if you found out you could? why? why not? if you know a reliable car audio repairman, or someone that puts better than stock quality parts on amplifiers, I would love to talk further about this. I would love to enhance the loudness and clarity of my amps for a few dollars more.

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[cman9012 10+ year member]

Holy crap. CLIFFS??

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/ohsnap.gif.17c4c91be09a7a4a3995fb7145adac39.gif

cliffs?

 

[groundpound4200 5,000+ posts]

W....t....f......

 

[05fronty 5,000+ posts]

cliffs i'm not reading all of that

 

[djman37 5,000+ posts]

yow.

 

[Enellz 10+ year member]

Hmmm this is new to me. However I do think it's cheating. Where's the reward in that? Even though I hate the saving up part, but once u get it, it's worth it. I mean I saved up for a whole to get my sundown. it's like paying dues.

 

[Kicker Guy 10+ year member]

Cliffs are as follows.

Some kid says he swapped parts out of his amp to make it better and OP wants to do the same so he can save some cash but needs to know how.

God I have a headache now.

 

[01 S 10 10+ year member]

i read it. wow that sounds retarded.

I wouldn't even consider taking apart an amp to do anything like that, unless the amp was under $50 and i didnt give a shit. you better know what your doing when upgrading the shit in it. i seriously doubt it will be reliable if you did. btw, a good 3000-4000w amp is NOT $2500 LOL.. more like $600-$800.

 

[andrewmoore13 10+ year member]

Cliffs:

Kid came into local car audio shop with Lightning Audio amps that had upgraded internals.

Techs at the audio shop said he was a "cheater" and made fun of him for doing that.

 

[Shinju 10+ year member]

 

[csu87 10+ year member]

Cliffs are as follows.
Some kid says he swapped parts out of his amp to make it better and OP wants to do the same so he can save some cash but needs to know how.

God I have a headache now.

me too. i havent read that much in my life.

as for OP, if your not competing and know what your doing, go for it. But dont go around saying your shitty amp is outperforming. you have to say your shitty upgraded amp is outperforming

 

[Villeza1 10+ year member]

Oh yea, I've heard ab cheating amps. They say 10k rms but what they dont tell you is that it'll do whatever you put into it. So ppl who go to comps and say, "I'm only running 10k @ 13.8 volts" and it says that on the amp, but they're actually running 30k watts with 24 volts...yea thats def cheating. Its hard to tell b/c most comps only ask how many batts ur running

 

[oldschool4me 10+ year member]

thats not what would be considered a cheater amp actually. it is cheating in a competition to do such and would be a disqualification. that is a moded amp not cheater. cheater amps are amps that are rated one thing and actually produce alot more power than they are rated for but are not moded and are still in factory state. most commonly found in old school high current amps such as the us amps vlx, orion hcca, crossfire hc, etc. like my crossfire 15hc, its rated at 15w x2 @4 but does about 500w when ran at 1 ohm bridged or .5 ohm stereo. in a competition this would be considered a 30w amp.

 

[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying.