Lets discuss some Old School ...

[flakko 5,000+ posts]

One would think that with the increase in technology there would be better amps being made. Instead, it seems like amps are being mass produced with slightly above average quality for a cheaper price. No one is making use of the technology to actually improve the sound - or at least not many. If they were we would be seeing fiber optics intergrated fully into cars, but I only think a handful of amps do that.
J

also i would say around 80-90% of the amps out there are bought from and stuffed from a cookie cutter design from an overseas factory.

"heck we'll just change up the heat sink a little, and stick this generic board in there, those stoopid kids wont know the difference!"

 

[flakko 5,000+ posts]

i think one of the companies definately taking advantage of the new technology is zapco. zapco this year is coming out with amps that have a built in DSP. basically can do everything. time alignment, 3 way crossover, peq. which can obviously make up for any flaws in their design with just the amp alone.

jeez dude! but wait... how can you tweak your frontstage if the amp is in the trunk?

 

[alphakenny1 10+ year member]

jeez dude! but wait... how can you tweak your frontstage if the amp is in the trunk?

hmm i think zapco came out with its own controller type thing. you know like a RUX-701. Of course you gotta pay extra //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif .

 

[alphakenny1 10+ year member]

nice... I'll have to get one //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif... once they are well used and get cheap //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif or I finally get out of college and get a real job

then you gotta wait a while. lol i betcha those things are crazy expensive. I think the kicker sx line has built in dsp as well.

 

[flakko 5,000+ posts]

hmm i think zapco came out with its own controller type thing. you know like a RUX-701. Of course you gotta pay extra //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif .

hahaha even high end companies need crazy marketing schemes.

just get a nice head unit and use an old school amp with no xovers or wire terminals.... less filtering and resistance //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[AcidicDreams 10+ year member]

then you gotta wait a while. lol i betcha those things are crazy expensive. I think the kicker sx line has built in dsp as well.

Kicker is to bling bling for me... if it's not clean and simple I can't stand it...

 

[flakko 5,000+ posts]

Kicker is to bling bling for me... if it's not clean and simple I can't stand it...

seriously..... kickers are nice and all, but it looks like thier amps are gonna eat your or something.

 

[alphakenny1 10+ year member]

oh yea i remember where there was talk about the zapco built in dsp, they had a demo of their software. i dl'ed and looked at the interface. pretty neat.

 

[flakko 5,000+ posts]

its all crazy LCD and colorful pictures?

that would be crazy on an amp haha

i also messed with the kicker DSP... too confusing for me.

 

[alphakenny1 10+ year member]

yea at first look its really confusing but i'm sure after a while its not bad. i was the same with my eclipse, confused all over the place but as you get used to it its not so bad. probably the same with their software. but yea i rather get everything in an HU and tune through there.

 

[AcidicDreams 10+ year member]

true... I wouldn't know how to take advantage of all that stuff...

 

[thylantyr 10+ year member]

Old School

How far back are you going ? If you go way back {1983-1991}, then this is my opinion

using the 5 star rating, 5 star being best.

Linear Power;

Cosmetics - 3 star {not the prettiest amp due to heatsink design}

Build quality - 1 star {subpar PCB design, point to point wiring on 1 layer pcb}

Price/Performance - 3 star {pretty good for the money}

Misc - Great functional heatsink design, robust output stage, weak power supply

that failed often.

Soundstream;

Cosmetics - 3 star

Build quality - 3 star {Not amp repair friendly}

Price/Performance - 2 star

Misc; Class A over-hyped.

Rockford Fosgate;

Cosmetics - 5 star {Pretty amps}

Build quality - 5 star

Price/Performance - 2 star {too expensive per watt}

Misc; Over-hyped.

Precision Power;

Cosmetics - 5 star

Build quality - 5 star

Price/Performance - 4 star

Misc; Good bang for buck, Cosmetics vary, some are ugly.

Orion;

Cosmetics - 5 star

Build quality - 5 star

Price/Performance - 4 star

Misc; Good bang for buck. Cosmetics vary, some are ugly.

Zapco; {Model 150/200 only}

Cosmetics - 2 star

Build quality - 5 star

Price/Performance - 2 star

Misc; Very expensive low powered amplifier, but performance is excellent for

said watts. Seperated amp/PS chassis was a bad idea. Despite it's drawbacks,

it still outperformed the competition in it's time for it's power class.

Zapco; {Model Z220}

Cosmetics - 5 star

Build quality - 5 star

Price/Performance - 2.5 star

Misc; Model 200 amplifier in it's own single chassis, yay! Finally they got it

right!. But, not the most powerful amp compared to the competition, but

a solid amplifier overal. Zapco is still behind the competion by using a bipolar

power supply as competition was using mosfet.

Hifonics series V

Cosmetics - 2 star

Build quality - 2 star

Price/Performance - 2 star

Misc; IIRC, ambitious design to offer high power but it was a mess of an

amplifier. I called it 'sloppy bass power'.

Hifonics series VI

Cosmetics - 2 star

Build quality - 4 star

Price/Performance - 5 star

Misc; IIRC, new design.

Hifonics series VII

Cosmetics - 4 star

Build quality - 5 star

Price/Performance - 5 star

Misc; My favorite. Best dollar per wattage ratio, highest power per real-estate,

looks better than series VI or series VIII.

Hifonics series VIII

Cosmetics - 3 star

Build quality - 5 star

Price/Performance - 5 star

Misc; IIRC, same as series VII, different look.

Hifonics Gen X only {not Gen XI or beyond}

Cosmetics - 2 star

Build quality - 5 star

Price/Performance - 5 star

Misc; IIRC, no vari-power power supply like previous series, instead,

more real estate is used to dissipate heat and give it a lower impedance rating.

Very robust, probably the beefiest old school amp in it's time for the money spent.

Even today, it's a monster of a design.

I used Zapco model 200's in the day, may of them to split the load. Worked great

in bridged mode, but you needed alot of them. Later, I started to really like Hifonics

series VII and Gen X. Zed Audio wins the old school war if you ask me if you analyze all variables.

I used to do amplifier repair so guess what happened? I never got a Hifonics or Zapco for repair,

only Rockford Fosgate, Soundstream, PPI, Orion, Alphasonik {junk}, flea market amps.

 

[NewToTheGrounds 10+ year member]

love zapco my buddy got one of there older 250watt amps he had three JL's made them pouund like hell when i higher amps wouldnt

 

[DemonBoy 10+ year member]

I think the older Zapcos were phenomenal. I ran two Zapcos ( a Z100C2 and a Z50C2) for close to 8 years in three different vehicles.

You could beat the amps to death and they still sounded great. I ran the Z100 at a 1 ohm load for my subs and the only problem was it very occasionally overheated and had to rest for a few.

You could probably find some decent used older Zapcos for a good price if you search around. I loved them but had to finally get rid of them when the trunk flooded and they sat in 4 inches of water for a week.

 

[Slaugh 10+ year member]

yeah i also think old skool amplifiers are more worth what you pay for them... i have a couple of old Alpine V12 amplifiers, but im researching about some older amps aswell, such as Crossfire, Fosgates, etc...

new stuff are overpriced imo... you get more for less with old skool... if you can find one in good shape //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif