Any good amp makers left out there?

Wow. I got GREAT subs, Eclipse SW9122 Ti's. I been lookins for an amp. I hear these subs are underated and can handle CRAZY power, but, what do I go with? A name used to mean something. Old Soundstream used to be very good, old Hifonics used to be very good, Orion, etc. Now they all suck basically - as cheap manufactures buy them out who care more about sales volume than quality. I was looking at either the Hifonics XX Hercules OR the Soundstream PCA2000D but after hearing some stuff about these companies being bought I'm reconsidering. If I can't get a good recomendation here between these 2 amps - someone please tell me I can still trust good ole Rockford and their Power Series T20001bd amp. Hell it has a 250A fuse at least. Help I need a BIG mono amp BADLY!

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Greg Ryan
2002 Spyder GT

i've never really put hifonics and quality in the same sentence, but i've had good luck in the past with orion and soundstream. as for rockford, the power series is ok i suppose, but an amps fuse size shouldn't be a good sign of it's quality. IMO, i'd recommend an eclipse amp to compliment those subs. those things love lots of power and a good high powered eclipse should do fine. remember though, make sure your vehicles charging system is up for the demands.

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Whatever you do, DO NOT let the white smoke leak out of the wires.....

US Amps.

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'85 Toy

Audisson, Brax, Helix, McIntosh, Sinfoni, Genesis, Bryston, Zapco... Eclipse, Nakamichi, JBL, Alpine, JL Audio, Diamond, DHD... all amps I consider excellent quality.

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supradude wrote:

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US Amps.

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x2....plus Zapco

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'89 Mercedes-Benz 300E
Pioneer DEH-5900UB
(2)RE Audio SX 10"s
(1)US Amps MD3D
3ft^3 @ 37Hz

Blowing up in a car accident doesnt worry me, as long as I'm putting out some major dB's when I die...

i had a customer in the shop the other day that said she used to work for US Amps not too long ago and she said that she left the company because they sold out to some foreign company and werent made in the US anymore....anyone know how much truth is in this statement. i have always heard that US Amps was an insane amp company that not many have heard of. but if they are foreign made now....hmmmm makes you wonder on the name of the company (US).

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2007 Acura TSX
SQ setup in the works

US Amps is connected to Resonant Engineering, Hollywood and Kove somehow.  I do know that US Amps are no longer hand-made in Kentucky or Florida or wherever they originated but are now being manufactured off shore like most car audio electronics.  I am not sure of the complete nature of the business relationship between US Amps and RE.

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Good suggestions. I know ideally you shouldn't base an amp on the fuse, however it actually could be a decent guideline. For example you could say a company could put a bigger fuse in the amp for marketing reasons, or to make the amp look more powerful, but no smart company would do that because most companies WILL replace their amps if they are faulty and if an amp has a fuse that's too large then it could easily damage the amp, causing the amp company more problems than the marketing is worth. A typical 2,000W rms amp should run about 200amps therefore having a fuse rating of about 200A. The Soundstream PCA2000D recommends a 180A fuse - which basically says it won't push the stated 2,000W RMS. The Hifonics XX Hercules recommends a 200A fuse which is a little more assuring. And better yet the Rockford Power T20001bd says to use a 250A fuse. Plus Rockford has always been known to underate their specs. Their prices are a little higher than most but I'm thinking they would be worth it.

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Greg Ryan
2002 Spyder GT

Eclipse, Zapco, Audisson, McIntosh, JL. (Not necessarily in that order...)

Bryston makes 12v stuff, DYohn?!?! Damn, and I settled for Eclipse!

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

What ever happened to Kove Audio??? I know they are old school but I can't find crap on them now...only some subs on ebay but thats it...like they disappeared from the face of the earth.

My friend has Kove coax's in his Tacoma and they sound damn good...can handle some power too

Extant

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D

MECP First Class Certified Installer.

Nothing is impossable, it's just more expensive.

Theres no "e" in "xtant"

ive been using the arc se series amps for almost a year now and very happy with them. did an 840ci a couple of weeks ago with 3 way sets of morels elate series f & r along with a arc 10" woofer in a bandpass with 2 arc se amps and it sounded incredible.

Dyohn, I never knew DHD was considered high quality. Did they upgrade from a few years ago or have they been HQ for awhile? I heard several of their amps that weren't impressive at all. 

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'85 Toy

a 2000w rms amp with would only draw the 200a at max power, not at rms. for example, i have a directed audio 1200w rms amp with three 30a fuses, but it only draws around 40-45a contiuously at the rms output.

seems like someone told me RE bought out US Amps but i'm not sure. i know they used to be some great amps but i haven't seen one in a while. zapco also produces great amps along with the others dyohn mentioned.

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Whatever you do, DO NOT let the white smoke leak out of the wires.....

The original owner of RE audio sold his company to US Amps. So US amps now sells and manufacturs all RE products. They also decided to jack up the prices beyond belief. You want an 18" XXX??? Better have around $2,000 in your wallet...Anyway, the old owner of RE started a new company..called "Fi Car Audio"...im sure you've heard of it...So if your looking for bad""" bass at those old RE prices we loved so much...Check out Fi...

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'89 Mercedes-Benz 300E
Pioneer DEH-5900UB
(2)RE Audio SX 10"s
(1)US Amps MD3D
3ft^3 @ 37Hz

Blowing up in a car accident doesnt worry me, as long as I'm putting out some major dB's when I die...

thanks, cloak. i knew it was something to that nature, i just had it bassackwards. yeah, the RE stuff has got rediculous in price.

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Whatever you do, DO NOT let the white smoke leak out of the wires.....

I believe US amps were built in a garage or something like that down here in florida when they first came out. Have no idea about what happened later but those are some beefy monsters (or were at least at one time).

still see them all over the place down here.

Also see alot of MMATS down here for the big stuff, but the amp's seem to blow more often then others. don't know if thats install related or a product defect but they really put out some power when they are working.

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I'm still curious about DHD. Anybody have any opinions on them.

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'85 Toy

DHD is my new favorite low-cost amplifier, like US Acoustics was before they turned to crap.  From what I've seen and heard they are outstanding performers for the price.

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That 8'' sub I used for my "underpower" test was a DHD.

I never used the product before and since it was given to me, I assumed it was low end.

I have to admit I came to the wrong assumption, at least in my case. Aside from the beating it took effortlessly for hours, the sound qualtiy was excellent and the little sucker really put out impressive SPL's in a ported enclosure.

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Where does MTX fall in the amp making category?

Back in the "day" I used to use MTX amps for competition. The red terminators were my amp of choice. The rules for comp change often but back then Iasca rules used the amps 4ohm rating to determine power class.

The MTX terminators I used was either the 50 X 2 which was one ohm stable, or the 25 X  2 which was 1/2 ohm stable.

Generally I would use the 50 X 2 so I would be in the 0-100 watt class. But running this amp at 1 ohm I was actually running 800w RMS. I would build my own passive x-over networks and be able to run every speaker and sub in the vehicle off the one amp. I believe they were known as "cheater" amps but it wasn't cheating. The amp was rated for 50 x 2 @ 4ohms and so was the class.

As far as how the MTX amps are now I have not used them in several years but I did like them at the time, no problem with sound and quite reliable.

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oops, wrong specs it's been a while....The 50 x 2 was 1/2 ohm stable...the 25 x 2 was 1/4 ohm stable.  Hence the 800watts.

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how is Jbl? the old Jbls are Outstanding...

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93' Cutlass

Im really suprised no one has mentioned the JL slash series yet. awesome amps. The focal amps are amazing as well. The new MTX amps have been having some serious reliability issues. My 1501D on the otherhand is a champ! One of those would be great for your subs. There are plenty of great amps out there, it all depends on how much you are willing to spend though.