TaylorFade
10+ year member
I fail.
I've been eyeing this amp since it came out. I'm a 2-3k ***** and I love Cadence, so when a 500 @ 4, 2k @ 1 amp with dual 1/0 inputs popped up, my interest was definitely piqued. The problem was... they were (and still are) like, $959 MSRP. Yikes.
They can be had for ~ $500-600 outside of the Cadence store though. And I ran across a decent deal on one so I pulled the trigger. I had to see for myself.
It comes in a fancy schmancy box with a cloth like bag covering the amp instead of plastic. It's a good looking amp. It's not super hefty and I can do without the lights in the sink, but some people like that stuff.
First thing... it ain't friggin dual 1/0's. It's dual 4awg. So poo poo on Cadence for that. It even states dual 1/0's on their website. As seen... Olympia - Cadence Sound Store . Also, only two terminals for the speaker wire even though they're huge. I know, not a big deal, but it's nice to have (4) terminals. And especially at this price point.
I know they *look* big in this pic, but trust me... they're 4awg.
Same ol' same ol' here. Pass through RCA's which is nice sometimes. It comes with a gargantuan bass knob that is embarrassingly cheap looking/feeling. Sorry, no pic of that but I swear it's about the size of a baseball. Lol.
Here's the good stuff. And when I opened it up, I was surprised at the size of the torroidals. But size isn't everything. Doesn't say anything about the number of winds or whatever. I showed this pic to someone who knows more about amp guts than I and he said, "It looks dirty." ** (see footnote)
Just for size reference. Although, looking at this pic again, it's too close for perspective, but they are huge in comparison to most 2k's.
Setting it up. 49v clean. That's promising. Well... maybe a teenty tiny clip //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
Anyway... I wired it up to a single Odyssey 2150, which is a beefy Group 31 100Ah batt incase you didn't know. Half ohm nominal and I used different notes to get different rise. So, this test is a single batt and batt only. No power supply at all. Basically this is worst case scenario for voltage. I didn't bother wiring it up in my daily or trying it on caps. Perhaps I will at a later date.
Numbers...
.5 rising to 2.2 and dropping to 11.8v - 1,291w
.5 rising to 1.3 dropping to 11.3v - 1,772w
So, the bad news here is that it only did 1,800w rising to around 1 ohm at 11.3v. But the good news here is that it did 1,800w around 1ohm at 11.3v. Lol. I have no doubt that rated would be easily achieved with some voltage.
Conclusion... not quite up to T-Fade snuff price to performance wise but a solid daily for someone who doesn't need a "cheater." It's seemed to be very durable. It never protested even after many, many burps on a depleted batt and close to 10v. There are much better options for the money (new), but if you run across a deal on one, it would be a good buy at ~ $300-350 shipped maybe.
** footnote: When set perfectly clean, this amp suffered badly from these types of voltages. I only managed ~ 600w perfectly clean rising to ~ 2ohms. So, I stepped it up to a soft clip to achieve the numbers posted. So take that for what it's worth.
They can be had for ~ $500-600 outside of the Cadence store though. And I ran across a decent deal on one so I pulled the trigger. I had to see for myself.
It comes in a fancy schmancy box with a cloth like bag covering the amp instead of plastic. It's a good looking amp. It's not super hefty and I can do without the lights in the sink, but some people like that stuff.
First thing... it ain't friggin dual 1/0's. It's dual 4awg. So poo poo on Cadence for that. It even states dual 1/0's on their website. As seen... Olympia - Cadence Sound Store . Also, only two terminals for the speaker wire even though they're huge. I know, not a big deal, but it's nice to have (4) terminals. And especially at this price point.
I know they *look* big in this pic, but trust me... they're 4awg.
Same ol' same ol' here. Pass through RCA's which is nice sometimes. It comes with a gargantuan bass knob that is embarrassingly cheap looking/feeling. Sorry, no pic of that but I swear it's about the size of a baseball. Lol.
Here's the good stuff. And when I opened it up, I was surprised at the size of the torroidals. But size isn't everything. Doesn't say anything about the number of winds or whatever. I showed this pic to someone who knows more about amp guts than I and he said, "It looks dirty." ** (see footnote)
Just for size reference. Although, looking at this pic again, it's too close for perspective, but they are huge in comparison to most 2k's.
Setting it up. 49v clean. That's promising. Well... maybe a teenty tiny clip //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
Anyway... I wired it up to a single Odyssey 2150, which is a beefy Group 31 100Ah batt incase you didn't know. Half ohm nominal and I used different notes to get different rise. So, this test is a single batt and batt only. No power supply at all. Basically this is worst case scenario for voltage. I didn't bother wiring it up in my daily or trying it on caps. Perhaps I will at a later date.
Numbers...
.5 rising to 2.2 and dropping to 11.8v - 1,291w
.5 rising to 1.3 dropping to 11.3v - 1,772w
So, the bad news here is that it only did 1,800w rising to around 1 ohm at 11.3v. But the good news here is that it did 1,800w around 1ohm at 11.3v. Lol. I have no doubt that rated would be easily achieved with some voltage.
Conclusion... not quite up to T-Fade snuff price to performance wise but a solid daily for someone who doesn't need a "cheater." It's seemed to be very durable. It never protested even after many, many burps on a depleted batt and close to 10v. There are much better options for the money (new), but if you run across a deal on one, it would be a good buy at ~ $300-350 shipped maybe.
** footnote: When set perfectly clean, this amp suffered badly from these types of voltages. I only managed ~ 600w perfectly clean rising to ~ 2ohms. So, I stepped it up to a soft clip to achieve the numbers posted. So take that for what it's worth.
