small underrated amps? kicker/orion/usacoustics?

[Proskier 10+ year member]

there are a lot of 1000+watt amps that are vastly underrated. i need an amp for my components, are there any small amps that are underrated? some of the ones i was wondering about in particular were kicker, orion, and us acoustics.

EX:

orion 3002; 2002

kicker 150.2; 200.2; 250.2

and the us acoustics smaller amps

how underrated are these amps or are they not very?

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[tRiGgEr 5,000+ posts]

I know the Kickers and Orions will be a tad bit under rated. Never used a US Acoustics yet.

 

[Nikuk 5,000+ posts]

Why does everyone to expect a 150rms amp to put out 250rms?

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

I would class US acoustics right alongside Profile. Slightly over-rated (you'll likely not get quite rated output) but uber-reliable and tough to beat for the money. I've owned a few US acoustics amps and I have to wonder if they aren't made in the same buildhouse as Profile as they resemble one another more than a little inasfar as how they're put together.

Anyone looking to get into car audio on a budget (for amps anyway) I usually tell them to look to Profile or US acoustics first.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Why does everyone to expect a 150rms amp to put out 250rms?

Because marketing departments tell us that a rated 150w amp that puts out 250w is better than a rated 250w amp that puts out 250w.

 

[tRiGgEr 5,000+ posts]

Why does everyone to expect a 150rms amp to put out 250rms?

???????

I expect it to put out under 150 when playing music

But as birth sheets and bench tests go kicker and orion are pretty much under rated if not 100% acurate. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Proskier 10+ year member]

i wouldnt expect that but i mean there are a lot of underrated amps...how much are these underrated by? i wouldnt expect them to be largely underrated cause they are small amps....

the kicker 150.2 is rated at 60x2, will it do 70x2? and so on.

 

[Proskier 10+ year member]

i guess that i came across wrong here, what i would like to have is either a PG octane 4.0.2 or a PG octane 5.0.4 and i was wondering if there was any other good options open for me in those power ranges. i can get those 2 amps fairly cheap and they do 75x2 and 150x2 and neither one are underrated. they are supposed to do actual power. i am really just wondering if there is a better option here rather than one of those 2 amps? maybe its not a kicker or orion, i was just asking about them cause everyone on here seems to like those 2 brands. i like pg and wouldnt mind having any brand so long as it suited my needs. it can be profile or whatever brand.

 

[Nikuk 5,000+ posts]

Because marketing departments tell us that a rated 150w amp that puts out 250w is better than a rated 250w amp that puts out 250w.

at what kind of THD rating? 10%? Square wave? :shakes head:

 

[btnhfan 5,000+ posts]

Why does everyone to expect a 150rms amp to put out 250rms?

They look at RF birthsheets //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

t3002

t8004

etc...

 

[Nikuk 5,000+ posts]

yea, and they get what they pay for!!!

LoL

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[dflock 10+ year member]

I've seen lots of Pioneer Premier birthsheets that are grossly under-rated. 50rms x 2 rating and a birthsheet showing 100+rms x 2. Dunno if that just a pioneer thing though. Generally, any company rating the amps at 12.5v will give you 10-20% more power than rated.

 

[jsloan10 10+ year member]

Why complicate your shopping this way?. Just go out and buy an amp that is rated closely to the same RMS of the components.

As long as your not buying a 20 dollar Pyramid you should be fine, budget 100 bucks, shop around buy something that has an RMS rating you need.

Whats the difference between the overrated amps and the regular amps? look at this-(Kicker is only used as an example of a well known manufacturer)

Take a Profile amp thats rated at 100watts RMS x2, then take a Kicker amp thats rated at 100watts rmsx2.

Lets say the profile amp actually puts out 95watts x2 RMS @.5%THD and costs 100 bucks.

Now say the Kicker amp actually puts out 130watts x2 RMS @.5%THD but cost 200 bucks.

The Kicker will sound better due to the fact that it puts out more power, but it cost twice as much, the extra cost is OK because its underrated? You still paid for the extra wattage, OH It says Kicker on the heat sink, I see.

If you went a bought a Profile amp that was rated for 150watts RMS x2 for 175 bucks and it actually put out 140x2 RMS @.5%THD, thats 20 more watts then the Kicker for 25 bucks less and will sound just as good. But because its overrated its junk?, The logic escapes me.

Take away the fancy heatsinks and the big brand names and suddenly things change.

To prove my point take a well known "garbage" amp and a well known "awesome" amp of similar size and rating and remove their curcuit boards, post the pics of the curcuit boards up here and have people guess what their worth and how powerful they are.

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

Why complicate your shopping this way?. Just go out and buy an amp that is rated closely to the same RMS of the components.As long as your not buying a 20 dollar Pyramid you should be fine, budget 100 bucks, shop around buy something that has an RMS rating you need.

Whats the difference between the overrated amps and the regular amps? look at this-(Kicker is only used as an example of a well known manufacturer)

Take a Profile amp thats rated at 100watts RMS x2, then take a Kicker amp thats rated at 100watts rmsx2.

Lets say the profile amp actually puts out 95watts x2 RMS @.5%THD and costs 100 bucks.

Now say the Kicker amp actually puts out 130watts x2 RMS @.5%THD but cost 200 bucks.

The Kicker will sound better due to the fact that it puts out more power, but it cost twice as much, the extra cost is OK because its underrated? You still paid for the extra wattage, OH It says Kicker on the heat sink, I see.

If you went a bought a Profile amp that was rated for 150watts RMS x2 for 175 bucks and it actually put out 140x2 RMS @.5%THD, thats 20 more watts then the Kicker for 25 bucks less and will sound just as good. But because its overrated its junk?, The logic escapes me.

Take away the fancy heatsinks and the big brand names and suddenly things change.

To prove my point take a well known "garbage" amp and a well known "awesome" amp of similar size and rating and remove their curcuit boards, post the pics of the curcuit boards up here and have people guess what their worth and how powerful they are.

I agree with most of that excepting:

If you went a bought a Profile amp that was rated for 150watts RMS x2 for 175 bucks and it actually put out 140x2 RMS @.5%THD, thats 20 more watts then the Kicker for 25 bucks less and will sound just as good

While I agree that a considerable part of the price difference is going to be marketing and paying for nothing more than a brand name. But you also have to consider a Kicker amp will be more well constructed than a Profile of comparable actual output.

No, I couldn't tell one specific brand from the other looking at a ***** circuit board but I bet if you were to put say a Kicker and a Profile or an Alpine and a US acoustics board next to each other even a novice will be able to detect an obvious difference in the quality of the components used to build each example.

To use the same manufacturers as you did for an example let's compare the Kicker KX450.2 and the Profile AP1200.

The former is rated @ 150w X 2 @ 4 ohms stereo and 450w X 1 @ 4 ohms bridged. The latter is rated for 200w X 2 @ 4 ohms stereo and 600w X 1 @ 4 ohms bridged. Kicker generally being underrated and Profile on average overrating their amps let's assume for the sake of argument that the actual usable output of each amp is roughly the same.

Using Crutchfield as a guide to average retail pricing you're looking at a $400 amp vs. a $170 amp.

Do you really think the SQ of the Profile will be as good as the Kicker? I don't believe it will, myself. I can't say for certain if the quality difference will rate the Kicker costing over twice as much but a difference will be there nonetheless.

 

[Chevyaudio 5,000+ posts]

Why does everyone to expect a 150rms amp to put out 250rms?

because the companies put max power 140000000000 watts on an amp that has an RMS of 300 watts at 2 Ohms