TaylorFade 10+ year member
I fail.
So, I've been wanting to test a Taramps for a bit. I really want the HD8000, but I figured I'd get this little guy first just to see what they're about. And when I say little, I mean that literally. Bish is tiny.
I knew of a guy relatively local to me that is a Taramps "dealer" so I gave him a ring and I pulled the trigger when I heard the price. I quote "dealer" because some people will tell you that there aren't any Taramps dealers in the states. Well... this guy orders amps from Taramps and sells them with warranty. And Taramps knows he does that. So, I dunno what their definition is of "dealer".
Anyway... see what I mean by little?
It comes shrink wrapped. It also comes with a big *** windshield sticker. That's cool if you like big *** stickers. A manual and a single hex key is also included. The Dew is for size reference. I've already tested it.
My first impressions are that it's small, obviously. It's not nearly as beefy as a Korean. It weighs in at just under 7lbs. It has plastic end caps that double as mounting feet. The sink seems rather thin, but I suppose the fan offsets the heat dissipation of a beefier sink. It's super clean looking though and I dig it.
These are conservative 4awg power and ground. How do they do it!? The Cadence wire I used fit in there fine, but you'll play hell getting anything oversized in there. Obviously has a fan too.
Remember when I said it comes with a single hex key? Well... that's all you need. The same wrench fits every terminal and I would like to take this time to personally thank Taramps for that. Is that so hard to do!? Hellloooo, Korea? Are you listening? Same size ****!
8awg speaker terminals. Single pair. Clean. All good. The pots can be adjusted by hand. That's nice sometimes. They were pretty difficult to adjust, but I imagine that's from them being brand new. Subsonic is the "HPF" but it isn't marked that way. I guess you have to figure that out on your own. That "monitor" port is for a remote LED box that's basically a dash mounted version of the status lights on top of the amp. Power, protection and clipping. Apparently that's sold separately because mine didn't come with one. There's no gain knob on the "monitor" and I can't tell you if it's any more accurate than the ones that come with some Korean amps, but still cool to have, I guess.
Here she is in the buff. Bye-bye warranty. I thought I was gonna be all slick and pull the warranty sticker up all stealthy and what not, but it's one of those security sticker thingys. Oh well. Lol. Speaking of warranty... they come with a 1 year.
Anyway... on to the testing!!
94v clean. That's very promising.
Here's the status lights I was talking about. I ran it into clipping just to see when/if the light came on. Pretty nifty for setting the amp. Fuzzy wave... pretty light. And this is handy because you can't set a Brazilian with the square root DMM method because they make a ton of voltage. Something about half bridge vs. full bridge or some ****. If you used the DMM method, you'd wind up at 77v and leaving a ton of power on the table.
Okie dokie. For anyone not wanting to watch the lame *** vids or doesn't care to do the math, here's the Cliff's...
1,429w rising to 5.1 ohms dropping to 12v
2,360w rising to 2.2 ohms and dropping to 10.9v
2.3k dropping to ten point nine f'n volts. It fell short of 12.6v rating at that voltage, but anything that can make good power at half lowest rated impedance and 10.9v is a winner in my book. Taramps says 2k @ 4 at 12.6v and 1.2k at 8 at 12.6v so it's not crazy under rated like some, but still pretty **** solid. I have no doubt that it could make the 3k rating at alternator charging levels. Even though Taramps might be a little optimistic on their end. Well... clean anyway. I bet it gets rowdy as **** with a soft clip.
Interestingly enough, I DC clamped it pulling only 100A but making 1.4k at 13.5v. Now... I couldn't do the DC clamp and output clamps simultaneously because I couldn't watch it all the meters and there is obviously something amiss with my math, but even with a HUGE margin of error, this is one hell of an efficient amp.
So, in conclusion... I'm liking this little bish. Considering the size, the price, the output and the efficiency... I just found my daily for the BMW.
I actually have vids of clamping it on my YT if anyone is interested.
I knew of a guy relatively local to me that is a Taramps "dealer" so I gave him a ring and I pulled the trigger when I heard the price. I quote "dealer" because some people will tell you that there aren't any Taramps dealers in the states. Well... this guy orders amps from Taramps and sells them with warranty. And Taramps knows he does that. So, I dunno what their definition is of "dealer".
Anyway... see what I mean by little?
It comes shrink wrapped. It also comes with a big *** windshield sticker. That's cool if you like big *** stickers. A manual and a single hex key is also included. The Dew is for size reference. I've already tested it.
My first impressions are that it's small, obviously. It's not nearly as beefy as a Korean. It weighs in at just under 7lbs. It has plastic end caps that double as mounting feet. The sink seems rather thin, but I suppose the fan offsets the heat dissipation of a beefier sink. It's super clean looking though and I dig it.
These are conservative 4awg power and ground. How do they do it!? The Cadence wire I used fit in there fine, but you'll play hell getting anything oversized in there. Obviously has a fan too.
Remember when I said it comes with a single hex key? Well... that's all you need. The same wrench fits every terminal and I would like to take this time to personally thank Taramps for that. Is that so hard to do!? Hellloooo, Korea? Are you listening? Same size ****!
8awg speaker terminals. Single pair. Clean. All good. The pots can be adjusted by hand. That's nice sometimes. They were pretty difficult to adjust, but I imagine that's from them being brand new. Subsonic is the "HPF" but it isn't marked that way. I guess you have to figure that out on your own. That "monitor" port is for a remote LED box that's basically a dash mounted version of the status lights on top of the amp. Power, protection and clipping. Apparently that's sold separately because mine didn't come with one. There's no gain knob on the "monitor" and I can't tell you if it's any more accurate than the ones that come with some Korean amps, but still cool to have, I guess.
Here she is in the buff. Bye-bye warranty. I thought I was gonna be all slick and pull the warranty sticker up all stealthy and what not, but it's one of those security sticker thingys. Oh well. Lol. Speaking of warranty... they come with a 1 year.
Anyway... on to the testing!!
94v clean. That's very promising.
Here's the status lights I was talking about. I ran it into clipping just to see when/if the light came on. Pretty nifty for setting the amp. Fuzzy wave... pretty light. And this is handy because you can't set a Brazilian with the square root DMM method because they make a ton of voltage. Something about half bridge vs. full bridge or some ****. If you used the DMM method, you'd wind up at 77v and leaving a ton of power on the table.
Okie dokie. For anyone not wanting to watch the lame *** vids or doesn't care to do the math, here's the Cliff's...
1,429w rising to 5.1 ohms dropping to 12v
2,360w rising to 2.2 ohms and dropping to 10.9v
2.3k dropping to ten point nine f'n volts. It fell short of 12.6v rating at that voltage, but anything that can make good power at half lowest rated impedance and 10.9v is a winner in my book. Taramps says 2k @ 4 at 12.6v and 1.2k at 8 at 12.6v so it's not crazy under rated like some, but still pretty **** solid. I have no doubt that it could make the 3k rating at alternator charging levels. Even though Taramps might be a little optimistic on their end. Well... clean anyway. I bet it gets rowdy as **** with a soft clip.
Interestingly enough, I DC clamped it pulling only 100A but making 1.4k at 13.5v. Now... I couldn't do the DC clamp and output clamps simultaneously because I couldn't watch it all the meters and there is obviously something amiss with my math, but even with a HUGE margin of error, this is one hell of an efficient amp.
So, in conclusion... I'm liking this little bish. Considering the size, the price, the output and the efficiency... I just found my daily for the BMW.
I actually have vids of clamping it on my YT if anyone is interested.
