Your opinions please

[weshole 10+ year member]

I'm in the market for a 4 channel amp and I've narrowed it down to 2 choices. I'm really torn between the Hifonics Zeus Xi6406 and the U.S. Amps Merlin Md.42. I will be running two channels to my front stage and the other two will be bridged for a sub. The sub will have either a 4 ohm or a 1 ohm load. I'm leaning towards wiring 4 ohm. Any info or opinions are greatly appreciated.

Click to read more...

 

[iceteebone 5,000+ posts]

no way in hell you can bridge the rear channels to 1 ohm. when you bridge an amp, basically you are running each channel at 0.5 ohms to run it at 1 ohm bridged, which the amp is stable to. so when running it 4 ohm bridged, each channel is seeing a 2 ohm load. with that said get the 4 ohm sub and i don't care for hifonics so i'd take the us amps

 

[weshole 10+ year member]

I better specify a little more. I already have a sub. It is a dual 2 ohm sub. I do realize that I don't dare try and bridge the rear channels to 1 ohm. That's why I stated that I was leaning towards wiring it 4 ohms. I also know that if I were to try and wire it 1 ohm, that I would need a dedicated amp for just that.

So I will be running the sub at a 4 ohm load and will be running the other two channels to the front stage at a 4 ohm load.

Is there a reason in particular why you dont like the Hifonics amps? I haven't used one before but have heard alot more good about them than bad. Thanks for your input.

 

[iceteebone 5,000+ posts]

i haven't used them since the brutus series around 2004 and they were garbage. they overheat and didn't produce rated power. idk if they made any strides since then

 

[dinty01 10+ year member]

but then again i see a lot of threads on here about ppl's new us amps blowin up(not literally) too, why not look for an arc audio cxl series amp or the xxk series? their kar series is nice too, good solid performers that do AT LEAST their rated output, alpine and zapco also make nice amps too, ive used both and they sounded nice(not as nice as my arc's though), and then theres the current forum boner amp---sundownz audio, everyone thinks they are $hit, i dont know myself, havent ever used one, but a lot of people seem to like them. Ive used several memphis amps and will never use them again even if someone gave them to me, id through them in the pond behind my house

 

[weshole 10+ year member]

Anybody else?

 

[dinty01 10+ year member]

well icetee wont be back for a few days, hehe, but Im sure he'd reply when he gets back . . .