old school MTX thunder amps, anyone runnin em?

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

i love my 1501d's. only problems i had were the rca's got loose and led to the demise on the first one i had. the other problem was that the 1/0 inputs broke free from the board somehow, and i had to get them re-soldered. the third one is just sitting in a box waiting to go in or be sold. i also have a 2150x, and i'm pretty sure i had it down to 2 ohms. maybe it was 4 per channel. idk. but they are solid amps, and yes they love the power.
@ dbr - what is "teh blowup amp" you speak of? it has me concerned because mine is mounted to my box. lol

i also have a 404 and a 801d btw //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

The 1501D's that I worked on, and the 81000D's all had broken legs on the mosfets from vibration.... I wouldn't mount it to a sub box, but depending on your box flex, you may not ever get "teh blowup amp"... LOL...

The SSP45N20A mosfet was the problem with those, it was already discontinued when MTX started selling those 81000D amps that used them as the outputs and the way the drive circuity is no other FETs would swap in. Not even the SSP45N20B without problems. So they can't be fixed. The 1501D uses IRFB42N20D I believe and they are still availible, so your okay on those. Though there may be some early 1501's that used the SSP45N20A fets...

 

[t-money 10+ year member]

i just gave my cousin my old school mtx 2300w(white with chrome mtx letters), was made in 1995, great amp and pretty strong

 

[SubbinNCali 10+ year member]

I used to run a 225HO, very solid amplifier. I'd like to have one again.

I still do along with a 4200x in one of my vehicles. They never let me down!

 

[lacboi 10+ year member]

i had a thunder 684 pushing the whole car. the subs on 2 channels and highs on the other 2 it sounded good. and had a blue thunder pro150x2 or whatever it was on a sub it was clean. mtx was the $hit

 

[86civicSI 10+ year member]

i used to run all MTX thunders i had 2 280's, 2 2160'3 and a 2300.then a thunder 302 and a 500d.when they were new i had a problem with the 500d it turned on and started to burn my voice coils with the car off and the door locked at the time i worked for a MTX dealer when i spoke to the rep he said MTX knew about the problems with the amp's and mtx was fixing them as they came in under warranty.that didn't fix my 500 dollar rf power dvc 15. the 280's were sweet but one went bad in the closet.and that dam 2300 worked for a week on 2 rf 8 ohm 12's with a optima yellow top on it it burned up when i was riding down the road at LOW volume they fixed it under warranty and it lasted 2 more weeks before it burned up again in a different car they fixed that boat anchor again and i got rid of that POS AND ALL THAT MTX JUNK!!! i was loyal to mtx for a while!the only amps i never had trouble with was the 2160's.when mtx started making the thunders it was in Arizona and the design came from a fosgate defector they were fosgate HD'S in mtx heat sinks.there was a reason fosgate left the HD technology behind(it sucked)so i say friend's don't let friend's run MTX!!aren't they made in china now??

but if you like them go for it you will learn like i did

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

I loved the mtx thunder series amps but it seems like every mtx amp I ever had or saw would have the same issue with the rcas breaking/loosing connection from the board and then killing the outputs.Still love the old mtx thunder 2300's though.i had four of them at one point running two 15's when I first started competing.I actually recently got one of these back from a friend and I'd love to run it but it is in need of repair as well.Looks like another bad channel due to broken rcas.May have taken the power supply with it.as long as you are careful with the rcas they would last(at least for me)

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

I just acquired a 2300 today, blown of course, and missing one of the bottom panels //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

I also have a 250x with one channel working

 

[86civicSI 10+ year member]

i'm 40 i was working as a installer at a a mtx dealer(not circuit city)when the thunder's were new like 96 97 98 and i ran them and i here to tell you they are junk most of them are burned up or burning up!!! i wouldn't even waste my time tring to fix one or take a broken one if you gave it to me!!all they are good for is boat anchors or paper weights.

my 2 cents.i would say audiobahn is better and more reliable. OMG did i just say that?

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

i'm 40 i was working as a installer at a a mtx dealer(not circuit city)when the thunder's were new like 96 97 98 and i ran them and i here to tell you they are junk most of them are burned up or burning up!!! i wouldn't even waste my time tring to fix one or take a broken one if you gave it to me!!all they are good for is boat anchors or paper weights.my 2 cents.i would say audiobahn is better and more reliable. OMG did i just say that?

LOL.

The old Thunders from back in THOSE days can benefit greatly by better mosfets that are availible today. I had a 280 that kept popping the power supply FETs when under heavy loads bridged. Simply replacing the power supply FETs with IRF3205's solved that, it's still going strong in a friends vehicle and that's been years back. The IRFZ44's just kept popping.

 

[Boomin_tahoe 5,000+ posts]

The all black heatsink/red lettering Thunder I used to own several of them...very good amps.

 

[SPLaudio 5,000+ posts]

very good amps. i have a old school bluethunder 2160 i machined cooling with a fan and it will run 2ohm mono alll day long. if burped below 2ohms i could blow both 30 amp fuses right out of the amp,lol.

a few yrs ago i doid a 140.1 with that amp and a single 10"...

the black/gold,white/gold all had rca problems...

 

[86civicSI 10+ year member]

i say friends don't let friends run mtx