What's "best" lol

[PasFet]

Clickbait title I know. Been out of the car audio world for over a decade (used to install professionally, did some SQ competitions in IASCA and SLAP), and am wondering what the respected brands are these days. Mainly I'm looking for reliable class D amplification that doesn't sound like ass (relatively speaking). Keeping weight down and small size are the priorities right now.

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[Bobbytwonames 5,000+ posts]

Clickbait title I know. Been out of the car audio world for over a decade (used to install professionally, did some SQ competitions in IASCA and SLAP), and am wondering what the respected brands are these days. Mainly I'm looking for reliable class D amplification that doesn't sound like ass (relatively speaking). Keeping weight down and small size are the priorities right now.

Sundown, Fi, Deaf Bonce, Crescendo, DC, DD, Crossfire, JP amps, Incriminator Audio, US Acoustics amps, SSA, Hertz, Morel, Audison, JL Audio, and Taram0s just to name a few.

 

[PasFet]

Are Zapco and Xtant still around? Alpine, Audio Control, Soundstream any good?

 

[Bobbytwonames 5,000+ posts]

Are Zapco and Xtant still around? Alpine, Audio Control, Soundstream any good?

Zapco and Xtant are a little difficult to find. Alpine is still decent for sound quality setups. Soundstream has dropped to basically entry level stuff. I'm an old school basshead. I built my first "real" system when I was 20 years old in 1989 in a new Ford Probe.

 

[PasFet]

Zapco and Xtant are a little difficult to find. Alpine is still decent for sound quality setups. Soundstream has dropped to basically entry level stuff. I'm an old school basshead. I built my first "real" system when I was 20 years old in 1989 in a new Ford Probe.

I'm guessing RF and Kicker have become entry level as well? Don't see Orion anywhere...out of business?

 

[Bobbytwonames 5,000+ posts]

I'm guessing RF and Kicker have become entry level as well? Don't see Orion anywhere...out of business?

The upper end Fosgate is still legit. The upper level Kicker subs are still respectable. Not World beaters or competition level stuff by any stretch. I would say tier three.

 

[deez283 10+ year member]

I'm guessing RF and Kicker have become entry level as well? Don't see Orion anywhere...out of business?

The Orion Hcca and XTR. amps are beasts, Not sure about their other stuff..

 

[technobass 10+ year member]

JL VX

 

[SlugButter]

Are Zapco and Xtant still around? Alpine, Audio Control, Soundstream any good?

Man I wish xtant was still around. I used to have a bunch of xtant stuff. My best sounding system was an xtant a4004 and xtant 1000.1 doing the amplifying. The little single channel 1.1 mono full range class d amps were cool too. Soundstream ***** now unfortunately

 

[Bobbytwonames 5,000+ posts]

Man I wish xtant was still around. I used to have a bunch of xtant stuff. My best sounding system was an xtant a4004 and xtant 1000.1 doing the amplifying. The little single channel 1.1 mono full range class d amps were cool too. Soundstream ***** now unfortunately

The original Soundstream reference series amps were awesome. The Old School Nakamichi amps were incredible. The pa-400m mono amp and the ec-200h electronic crossover were the state of the art at the time. I bet that they would still perform today. Circa 1989. I know I'm old.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Clickbait title I know. Been out of the car audio world for over a decade (used to install professionally, did some SQ competitions in IASCA and SLAP), and am wondering what the respected brands are these days. Mainly I'm looking for reliable class D amplification that doesn't sound like ass (relatively speaking). Keeping weight down and small size are the priorities right now.

DD still pretty well dominates the dB Drag leaderboard and Incriminator usually makes a showing. Deaf Bounce is an up and comer that sells some competition worthy equipment but it looks to be pretty much all catalog stuff from the Far East and since the company is European I think we pay a premium to get the stuff here in USA (see also: B2).

Sundown has made big gains in market share all around and consistently sells a good product with solid customer service/warranty support.

Full range class D has been a thing for many decades now and it is almost entirely past the point where you'd take Richard Clark's money.... even the flea-market brands can buy full range class D out of a catalog from a Chinese buildhouse that'll sound fine. The exception being the recent line of "full bridge" amps coming out of China that everyone is selling (they're knockoffs of more established Brazilian designs). Some of those are still noisy but they're very inexpensive and sold under half a dozen brand names that will get a warranty sorted out without having to ship the thing to Brazil..... That all said if you're middle age and have been into loud music since your first pair of Jensen 6x9s on your Pyramid boosted EQ back when cute girls wore leg warmers and had huge hair you may or may not even hear the difference there.

I'd say the latest and greatest for full range class D would be the Zed designed Hertz and Audisson ones with built in DSP, though you could get to the same place with a lot of mid-priced offerings and outboard DSP from half a dozen different manufacturers.

 

[PasFet]

The original Soundstream reference series amps were awesome. The Old School Nakamichi amps were incredible. The pa-400m mono amp and the ec-200h electronic crossover were the state of the art at the time. I bet that they would still perform today. Circa 1989. I know I'm old.

Well if we're going back in time, the a/d/s stuff was amazing.

 

[PasFet]

That all said if you're middle age and have been into loud music since your first pair of Jensen 6x9s on your Pyramid boosted EQ back when cute girls wore leg warmers and had huge hair you may or may not even hear the difference there.

I am indeed middle aged. But somehow can still hear up to 15.5K. No idea how that happened, plenty of loud concerts and SPL cars back in the day.

 

[PasFet]

Looking around, it seems that the majority of class D comes out of the same build house in China.

What's the landscape for A/B amps?

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I am indeed middle aged. But somehow can still hear up to 15.5K. No idea how that happened, plenty of loud concerts and SPL cars back in the day.

I couldn't hear quite that high back when I had all my hair and Mark Wahlberg was a boy band.

What's the landscape for A/B amps?

100% Obsolete. Most offerings on the market are cookie cutter copies of the same 20+ year old designs made in the Far East. Apart from those, there's a couple boutique (read over-priced over-hyped) brands that are selling some unique and modern designs but the only thing you get out of them will be huge size and terrible efficiency.

This isn't beef or maple syrup where you're looking for grade A and other letters = **** quality. It's just a description of the circuit design and advances in semiconductors over the last 40 years have made it possible to do some amazing things by way of extremely small and efficient amplifiers.

So long as you stay out of the absolute bottom of the trash bin amps you're not going to take Richard Clark's 10 grand, and even many of the budget brand offerings will still have fine sound when used within their limits.

For the most part the USA was priced out (read taxed and regulated) out of the electronics manufacturing market around 20 years ago. If you're dead set on buying American made check out MMatts out of Florida, those are reasonably priced amps for what they are, are their own designs, and generally bullet proof and competition worthy quality. Their mono amps have been class D full-bridge for ages and I suspect their multichannels are going to be as well.