TaylorFade
10+ year member
I fail.
Introducing the B2 Audio Zero.3. a.k.a. - "The Cube."
I've been annoying Jay and Jack for a while now for an amp to span the gap between the little Quota and the Zero.5. And believe it or not, those guys listen to customers. I'm not saying they developed this amp because of me, but they definitely pay attention to what end users need and want. And with the ridiculous success of the other Zeros, the Zero.3 is a welcome addition and an extremely viable option for the "average" guy.
The spec sheet. Nothing here will jump out at you other than the bass knob with clipping indicator that I know a lot of you love. I didn't get one so I can't tell you how well it works. And frankly, I don't use them anyway.
First thing you will notice about this amp is how beefy it is. It's almost 20lbs. And like I always say... you can tell a lot about an amp by it's heft. The sink is just like the other Zeros but obviously smaller (and this one is black). Don't fret, the production sink will be white. It's almost a perfect 14" x 14" square; hence the moniker "The Cube", which I'm told was the codename for this little beast. Some G-14 classified stuff right there.
Here it is next to my Zero.5 for size reference (and a shameless amp **** pic).
Standard stuff here except that not everyone has a variable frequency bass boost. This is basically a 1 band parametric EQ. You will also notice that this amp is capable of strapping 3 amps together. Yep, one amp to control 3. That's some handy ****.
Solid 1/0's and 8awg speaker.
Smexy.
Well... on to the testing. I was asked (Read: pleaded with) not to go bananas on this amp. This is an "average Joe" amp so let's do average Joe testing. Grrr! That ain't how T-Fade rolls! But... Ok.
I added a batt to the trunk (where I usually run caps). So, OEM alt and batt + an XS Power d3400. I decided to go one step further in the average Joe bologna and just set it with output voltage. But just as an aside... most good amps I've tested are pretty close on the voltage (square root method) and what the O-Scope says, so take that for what it's worth.
What I did after setting voltage was to burp on the Termlab, adjust the gain and clamp where it was the loudest. In my experience, this is usually in the clean- soft clip range on a 0db burp tone so where this amp ended up is still "safe" in my book. Besides, I would hope most don't listen at their burp volume. Lol.
Just as a reminder, this amp is rated 600 @ 2 and 1,200 @ 1 @ 12v.
1 ohm nominal
- 53acv x 24.9aca for 1,320w rising to 2.1 ohms and dropping to 12.9v.
.5 nominal
- 52.7v x 45.2a for 2,382w rising to 1.2 ohms dropping to 12.3v.
It's doing rated AFTER rise at 1 ohm nominal. Which I'm rather fond of amps doing. You will also notice that it didn't suffer from much efficiency loss by being wired down or voltage drop. These are numbers that you would/could expect from a solid 2k.
Pricing is TBD, but it will be competitive and less than some other amps that I've tested that did similar power. Availability... well, you'll have to talk to the B2 boys about that, but they are in full swing production as we speak.
I've been annoying Jay and Jack for a while now for an amp to span the gap between the little Quota and the Zero.5. And believe it or not, those guys listen to customers. I'm not saying they developed this amp because of me, but they definitely pay attention to what end users need and want. And with the ridiculous success of the other Zeros, the Zero.3 is a welcome addition and an extremely viable option for the "average" guy.
The spec sheet. Nothing here will jump out at you other than the bass knob with clipping indicator that I know a lot of you love. I didn't get one so I can't tell you how well it works. And frankly, I don't use them anyway.
First thing you will notice about this amp is how beefy it is. It's almost 20lbs. And like I always say... you can tell a lot about an amp by it's heft. The sink is just like the other Zeros but obviously smaller (and this one is black). Don't fret, the production sink will be white. It's almost a perfect 14" x 14" square; hence the moniker "The Cube", which I'm told was the codename for this little beast. Some G-14 classified stuff right there.
Here it is next to my Zero.5 for size reference (and a shameless amp **** pic).
Standard stuff here except that not everyone has a variable frequency bass boost. This is basically a 1 band parametric EQ. You will also notice that this amp is capable of strapping 3 amps together. Yep, one amp to control 3. That's some handy ****.
Solid 1/0's and 8awg speaker.
Smexy.
Well... on to the testing. I was asked (Read: pleaded with) not to go bananas on this amp. This is an "average Joe" amp so let's do average Joe testing. Grrr! That ain't how T-Fade rolls! But... Ok.
I added a batt to the trunk (where I usually run caps). So, OEM alt and batt + an XS Power d3400. I decided to go one step further in the average Joe bologna and just set it with output voltage. But just as an aside... most good amps I've tested are pretty close on the voltage (square root method) and what the O-Scope says, so take that for what it's worth.
What I did after setting voltage was to burp on the Termlab, adjust the gain and clamp where it was the loudest. In my experience, this is usually in the clean- soft clip range on a 0db burp tone so where this amp ended up is still "safe" in my book. Besides, I would hope most don't listen at their burp volume. Lol.
Just as a reminder, this amp is rated 600 @ 2 and 1,200 @ 1 @ 12v.
1 ohm nominal
- 53acv x 24.9aca for 1,320w rising to 2.1 ohms and dropping to 12.9v.
.5 nominal
- 52.7v x 45.2a for 2,382w rising to 1.2 ohms dropping to 12.3v.
It's doing rated AFTER rise at 1 ohm nominal. Which I'm rather fond of amps doing. You will also notice that it didn't suffer from much efficiency loss by being wired down or voltage drop. These are numbers that you would/could expect from a solid 2k.
Pricing is TBD, but it will be competitive and less than some other amps that I've tested that did similar power. Availability... well, you'll have to talk to the B2 boys about that, but they are in full swing production as we speak.
