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.
