Discussion about where today's amps.......

[69CamaroSS396]

are built, assembled, handcrafted, whatever word is put on it, and most of all IF they are well constructed with good, reliable circuitry.

I thought this would be an interesting thread(others may disagree) with the level of knowledge that is apparent on this forum, what with all the amazing techs and users. It is a subject that is touched on from time to time, and often I believe certain "brands" are flamed while others are overrated without good cause.

If someone knows exactly what amps, or lines of amps are "build house", or build house quality, please share that info. And which ones aren't. Regardless of where they are made. Also, let's point out that not all "Asian made" equipment is of poor quality. Quite the opposite is true IF the amp company is willing to use a quality contractor. Look at Parasound home gear, for example. Ultra high end, made in Taiwan.

[sdoom]

I´d assume that most asian products are "ordered", meaning that they only deliver the quality most people want ! Otherwise Wal-Mart wouldn´t be able to sell a 4x40W amp for 25$ ....

you guys ever heard of Signat ? Used to be a Swiss company. They advertised their amps with "German technique and American design"... they really were damn good and reliable amplifiers. (Also assembled in Korea I belive). The same amps were sold under the label of "ALTAI" and some series were sold by "CALIBER Audio" (Netherlands) as well. The ALTAI and Calibers never got that reputation , I guess because they were much cheaper to get. All three labels ran out off business. Still keep my small 2x75W Altai amp , never know what it will be good for

Did some repair jobs on larger and smaller Hifonics amps throughout all series. While fixinf and testing I really have to say that the old Hifonics amps are worth every cent. Although the older designs tend to have some noise during idle I never got a "better" Hifonics amplifier than my Gen X Zeus. That amp generated unbeliveable amounts of output power while runnign stable. Actually it was the first amplifier I owned that burned fuses without going up in smoke.

Also had a Gen XX amplifier , had lots of output power but didn´t satisfy my needs. That time I ran two 15" custom made subs from a very small , local German company. I started with my old Audio Art 800x2 , best sounding amp I ´ve heard so far but after 30 min. of hard usage the AudioArt went into heat-protection. The gen XX was loud but it was very audible that the amp design couldn´t control the subs at very low frequencies. (like jol50 said, subs sound great when they don´t have to work hard), so I ended up with my Gen X Zeus for the subs. Great control, very clear low bass.

[jol50]

I looked at the new alpine mrp and pretty sure it has a 4 layer board in it, and says made in China. I have some used cheap amps made in China with piles of hand laid solder on the 1 layer boards/etc and nothing like this machine made alpine full of SMD.