I wanted to see if someone had real world experience and can rank the top ten amps they have actually tried. For example Brax, Sinfoni, Celestra, Steg, Audison, Arc Audio, Mac, Linear Power, Genesis and TRU Technology...the real high end.
It does not make sense these days to waste your time putting an average system in a car, do it once and do it right.
Also do you prefer regulated vs. non regulated
It does not make sense these days to waste your time putting an average system in a car, do it once and do it right.
Also do you prefer regulated vs. non regulated
My choice of car commercial car amps.
My vote for the best high end car audio amplifier is for the Audison brand. Excellent construction and very well designed for car audio use. Protected against overcurrent conditions. As I recall these are made by and Italian company.
My experiance with this brand ofcourse is about eight years old so perhaps the current versions are somewhat different then those I had experiance with. I still have one of these older amplifiers collecting dust in a closet and have circuit diagrams of the older generation of Audison amplifers somewhere.
My vote for the best high end car audio amplifier is for the Audison brand. Excellent construction and very well designed for car audio use. Protected against overcurrent conditions. As I recall these are made by and Italian company.
My experiance with this brand ofcourse is about eight years old so perhaps the current versions are somewhat different then those I had experiance with. I still have one of these older amplifiers collecting dust in a closet and have circuit diagrams of the older generation of Audison amplifers somewhere.
I use a USamps USA-400 for my sub, which it sounds really good. From what I've heard from other places these are also high end amplifiers. The specs on mine are as follows:
USA-400 and USA-400X
Two Channel Class AB Amplifier
Total Power Output: 400 Watts RMS
THD at Rated Power: <0.006%
Stereo Separation: >98dB
Signal/Noise Ratio: 102dBA
Frequency Response: 5Hz-50KHz
Fuse Rating: 50 Amps
You can check their line at www.USamps.com
USA-400 and USA-400X
Two Channel Class AB Amplifier
Total Power Output: 400 Watts RMS
THD at Rated Power: <0.006%
Stereo Separation: >98dB
Signal/Noise Ratio: 102dBA
Frequency Response: 5Hz-50KHz
Fuse Rating: 50 Amps
You can check their line at www.USamps.com
Wow I am so gld some more people replied I was afraid car audio was going by the way side. Thank you I hope to hear from more of you as I think car audio will to to cheap and/or high end.
My experience so far is as so:
US amps very good for the money, not the best but higher than your average...goo stuff.
Audison are excellent but not as a audiophile amp, good but a little on the gritty side.
Arc no experience so please post on here if you can make the Arc vs. Tru comparison I have heard super super things abnout both of those amps....PLEASE LETS HERE FROM MORE OF YOU...THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
My experience so far is as so:
US amps very good for the money, not the best but higher than your average...goo stuff.
Audison are excellent but not as a audiophile amp, good but a little on the gritty side.
Arc no experience so please post on here if you can make the Arc vs. Tru comparison I have heard super super things abnout both of those amps....PLEASE LETS HERE FROM MORE OF YOU...THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
amps
I am using some soundstream amps now i have a class A 3.0 on the tweets and a D100II for the mids . They are powerfull and clean. I am thinking of trying a different amp for the tweets(I have QSD 216 quarts and i am still trying to dial in the tweets)
I was kicking around the idea of using linear power
Jeff
I am using some soundstream amps now i have a class A 3.0 on the tweets and a D100II for the mids . They are powerfull and clean. I am thinking of trying a different amp for the tweets(I have QSD 216 quarts and i am still trying to dial in the tweets)
I was kicking around the idea of using linear power
Jeff
IMHO the best car amps I have ever heard are far and away the Synopsis Audio DX2X50's I have in my car. I will admit that I have never heard any true "high-end" amps other than an Audison before, most are the cheap Fosgates, Alpines, etc.
Anyway, the Synopsis amps were designed by a good friend of mine. He took the initiative of producing a large quantity of amps for sale, but he has since been "screwed" by the car audio industry and has resigned from the business. I have kind of taken up where he let off, I am selling a few amps here and there. I have the production lot available to sell if anyone here is interested.
Specs are: 2 channels of 50W of very clean musical power into 8 ohms. Can drive as low of load as 2 ohms without problem, meaning 200W or so out. When running in bridged mode it really puts out the power. The amp has no compromises in design to make it cheap, so everything is the best. All op-amps in the crossover and front-end are high-end Analog Devices components, complimentary pairs of lateral mode MOSFET's are used as the output stage, Dale wirewounds, adjustable bias current, all discrete power amp portion, low-impedance supply filtering (Panasonic FC's), regulated power supplies, true over-current protection, thermal overload protection, DC protection and more. Great design that I have in my car right now...it is like a home hi-fi amp with SMPS and crossovers to fit in a car. The case is really nice extruded amuminum with nice endplates labeling all controls, including LP, HP, AP switch, mono-stereo filter switch, HP freq, LP freq, Q factor, boost (+18db), etc.
-Matt
Anyway, the Synopsis amps were designed by a good friend of mine. He took the initiative of producing a large quantity of amps for sale, but he has since been "screwed" by the car audio industry and has resigned from the business. I have kind of taken up where he let off, I am selling a few amps here and there. I have the production lot available to sell if anyone here is interested.
Specs are: 2 channels of 50W of very clean musical power into 8 ohms. Can drive as low of load as 2 ohms without problem, meaning 200W or so out. When running in bridged mode it really puts out the power. The amp has no compromises in design to make it cheap, so everything is the best. All op-amps in the crossover and front-end are high-end Analog Devices components, complimentary pairs of lateral mode MOSFET's are used as the output stage, Dale wirewounds, adjustable bias current, all discrete power amp portion, low-impedance supply filtering (Panasonic FC's), regulated power supplies, true over-current protection, thermal overload protection, DC protection and more. Great design that I have in my car right now...it is like a home hi-fi amp with SMPS and crossovers to fit in a car. The case is really nice extruded amuminum with nice endplates labeling all controls, including LP, HP, AP switch, mono-stereo filter switch, HP freq, LP freq, Q factor, boost (+18db), etc.
-Matt
My experience is 10 years out of date. At that time, the Zapco System 151/200A was the cleanest, quietest, most natural sounding amp I had heard. And it should have been at $4 per watt.
Other notable models were Linear Power 2002, Soundstream D200II and ClassA 50, and a couple of the Autotek 7xxx BTS amps.
A very notable exception was Alphasonik's (yep) PMA 2100. Not the best of the best, but sounded so nice your install would likely mask the difference between it and other that would cost 2-3x the price. I used one myself for a couple of years that *sounded* better than RF's legendary Power 650's and Power 300's that a couple other guys in the same shop used. Their installations just didn't showcase SQ.
Which brings up an ambiguous point...
It's difficult to compare amps without swapping one for another in a given installation. Speaker installation has a profound affect on a car system. System/gain/crossover tuning has a very profound effect on a car system. You really can't A/B anything very well in a sound room, and you can't do it at all from one car to another without knowing a lot about how the systems are set up and adjusted.
It's also difficult to compare brands, as performance changes from one model to another within any given line. Performance can change from one year to the next within a given model with evolution of design. The really top-notch companies do tend to be more consistent with top-notch products, but often a single model really stands out.
The only way to figure out which models stand out is to install lots of amplifiers on a regular basis, and use consistent methods to install, tune, and judge them.
And of course, this post is bordering on off-topic because I haven't used any of what's made now.
Tim
Other notable models were Linear Power 2002, Soundstream D200II and ClassA 50, and a couple of the Autotek 7xxx BTS amps.
A very notable exception was Alphasonik's (yep) PMA 2100. Not the best of the best, but sounded so nice your install would likely mask the difference between it and other that would cost 2-3x the price. I used one myself for a couple of years that *sounded* better than RF's legendary Power 650's and Power 300's that a couple other guys in the same shop used. Their installations just didn't showcase SQ.
Which brings up an ambiguous point...
It's difficult to compare amps without swapping one for another in a given installation. Speaker installation has a profound affect on a car system. System/gain/crossover tuning has a very profound effect on a car system. You really can't A/B anything very well in a sound room, and you can't do it at all from one car to another without knowing a lot about how the systems are set up and adjusted.
It's also difficult to compare brands, as performance changes from one model to another within any given line. Performance can change from one year to the next within a given model with evolution of design. The really top-notch companies do tend to be more consistent with top-notch products, but often a single model really stands out.
The only way to figure out which models stand out is to install lots of amplifiers on a regular basis, and use consistent methods to install, tune, and judge them.
And of course, this post is bordering on off-topic because I haven't used any of what's made now.
Tim
i use audison at my car for drive the custom Seas excel woofer + scanspeak R2904/7000 tweeter.nice audiophile amp.but need little modification for get the best amp.
audison VRX is use class A driver module,Sanken transistor.I change the capacitor use panasonic FC at amp supply and preamp supply.and little bias the transistor into class A/B.
this way improve more open sound,solid midrange and very deep bass.I think now only genesis,tru technology and audison.still make car audiophile amplifier.
Brax is flat and too much high,very germany sound.
happy listening.
audison VRX is use class A driver module,Sanken transistor.I change the capacitor use panasonic FC at amp supply and preamp supply.and little bias the transistor into class A/B.
this way improve more open sound,solid midrange and very deep bass.I think now only genesis,tru technology and audison.still make car audiophile amplifier.
Brax is flat and too much high,very germany sound.
happy listening.
Out of the amps (probably between 2000 and 3000) that I've tested, the best one is definitely the McIntosh MC4000M. It's rated to make less than .005% THD+N from .5w to full power, 20Hz - 20kHz; it met those specs easily. After that, my next favorite amp was a McIntosh MC427, followed by the Zapco Studio Series, and after that the old Alpine V12 line (MRV-352, MRV-1505, etc). Great stuff.
