What should you look for when looking at the amp guts?

[danz24 10+ year member]

How can I identify if an amp is good or bad??

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[Colt9699 10+ year member]

Burn marks = bad

Melted items = bad

broken pieces = bad

 

[Millertime1028 10+ year member]

Smell

 

[matrxx dude 5,000+ posts]

you really cant.without hooking it up

 

[Millertime1028 10+ year member]

most cases yea .. ^

 

[danz24 10+ year member]

well then why is it that people look at the amp and say, wow this is a quality amp?

 

[lostdaytomorrow 10+ year member]

well then why is it that people look at the amp and say, wow this is a quality amp?

Bigass toroids and FET's I guess....

 

[yunvme666 10+ year member]

ok open it up and make sure the board takes up the whole heat sink not an 1/8th of it....lol.... beside that im sure the above statement deems true , bigs parts will speak for them selves.....

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

Just big parts in general......ie capacitors and power rails

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

well then why is it that people look at the amp and say, wow this is a quality amp?

Quite honestly I'd venture a guess that better than 90% of the forum members really haven't a clue what to look for or how to "interpret" them. For example, the "bigass toroids" comment earlier.....the "size" of the toroid is going to be dictated by the design of the amplifier. Two amplifiers can make the same power into different loads and use two completely different sized toroids. The one with the smaller toroid isn't "worse"....it simply doesn't need a larger toroid.

Really unless you had a relatively solid background in electronics, there isn't much for the layperson to gleam from these pictures. Most worthy engineers wouldn't pass judgment without looking over a schematic of said amplifier or getting into more intimate detail of the design than simply looking at a picture. And even then it doesn't answer the most important question of all.....how does it actually perform ?? This can only be obtained by measuring the amplifier. No internal pictures required.

About the only thing I use those pics on places like ampguts for is to compare who's using what boards (which doesn't necessarily indicate two amps are identical even if they use the same board....but you can get an idea of who's making them).

 

[desertheat 10+ year member]

Quite honestly I'd venture a guess that better than 90% of the forum members really haven't a clue what to look for or how to "interpret" them. For example, the "bigass toroids" comment earlier.....the "size" of the toroid is going to be dictated by the design of the amplifier. Two amplifiers can make the same power into different loads and use two completely different sized toroids. The one with the smaller toroid isn't "worse"....it simply doesn't need a larger toroid.
Really unless you had a relatively solid background in electronics, there isn't much for the layperson to gleam from these pictures. Most worthy engineers wouldn't pass judgment without looking over a schematic of said amplifier or getting into more intimate detail of the design than simply looking at a picture. And even then it doesn't answer the most important question of all.....how does it actually perform ?? This can only be obtained by measuring the amplifier. No internal pictures required.

About the only thing I use those pics on places like ampguts for is to compare who's using what boards (which doesn't necessarily indicate two amps are identical even if they use the same board....but you can get an idea of who's making them).

What he said hahaha. **** beat me to it mang.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

**** beat me to it mang.

You don't accumulate 25k+ posts by being slow on the draw //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[desertheat 10+ year member]

Haha, All good, I would have ended up writeing it in a more... @hole tone anyways haha.

For example, which of these amps measures better in every aspect? They are both rated at around 150 - 200x2 and can produce 1200rms bridged... Both class a/b

99% of the noobs would automatically say amp 2. And while a visually stunning with the beefcake build it does not test as well as amp 1. "yeah it is bad@ss looking and one of my fav amps haha"

Both are great amps, but from gut shots you have absolutley no clue.

Amp 1 is a DLS A3

Amp 2 is a US AMPS USA400 "old school"

 

[lostdaytomorrow 10+ year member]

Yeah, so looks like I was wrong. My bad.

 

[SlipTap 10+ year member]

Haha, All good, I would have ended up writeing it in a more... @hole tone anyways haha.
For example, which of these amps measures better in every aspect? They are both rated at around 150 - 200x2 and can produce 1200rms bridged... Both class a/b

99% of the noobs would automatically say amp 2. And while a visually stunning with the beefcake build it does not test as well as amp 1. "yeah it is bad@ss looking and one of my fav amps haha"

Both are great amps, but from gut shots you have absolutley no clue.

Amp 1 is a DLS A3

Amp 2 is a US AMPS USA400 "old school"

hey, in pic 2 . . . how much does that double elephant amp put out, the one above the target receipt. Is that a new pyramid design?//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif