I wanna be a dust wiper!!!!
I'm in the wrong business! I watched a HK CA260 go for $75 and 12 shipping, not a bad deal. Looked ok and had some dust on it. Then I see another one (that ebay searched up for me) all cleaned up that looks about the same, for $225 and 18 shipping. I mean the guy would even make money on the shipping...for dust wiping. I would be amazed if anyone bit on that, but once again ebay does not fail to entertain.
Yeah that blade looked nice, anyone see what it went for? (I looked, 176 w/2hrs to go yet)
I'm in the wrong business! I watched a HK CA260 go for $75 and 12 shipping, not a bad deal. Looked ok and had some dust on it. Then I see another one (that ebay searched up for me) all cleaned up that looks about the same, for $225 and 18 shipping. I mean the guy would even make money on the shipping...for dust wiping. I would be amazed if anyone bit on that, but once again ebay does not fail to entertain.
Yeah that blade looked nice, anyone see what it went for? (I looked, 176 w/2hrs to go yet)
Re: I wanna be a dust wiper!!!!
Hey, that's good to know. I've been fond of Polydax since using a set of their 5" HIF13J's in some old Fisher home speakers in the 80's.
It was obviously an Audax HIF13J driver from earlier, so I assumed Polydax was just part of the French Audax line. Maybe they went another direction with Polydax later?
Beautiful CP's. Never got to work with them.
The 260 for $225 has been there for quite some time. It'll sell one day, but lately it's been too much of a buyer's market.
Anyone here ever use one of those small blades? They were extremely interesting when first introduced. The rep showed up at my brother's shop & claimed you could daisy chain them, power would be additive
The fact that they were so small and claimed specs to match most anything left an eternal curiousity over them. Seems like they used a similar power supply philosophy to Carver's "magnetic field" supply.
tomtomjr said:
Hey, that's good to know. I've been fond of Polydax since using a set of their 5" HIF13J's in some old Fisher home speakers in the 80's.
It was obviously an Audax HIF13J driver from earlier, so I assumed Polydax was just part of the French Audax line. Maybe they went another direction with Polydax later?
Beautiful CP's. Never got to work with them.
jol50 said:
The 260 for $225 has been there for quite some time. It'll sell one day, but lately it's been too much of a buyer's market.
Anyone here ever use one of those small blades? They were extremely interesting when first introduced. The rep showed up at my brother's shop & claimed you could daisy chain them, power would be additive
The fact that they were so small and claimed specs to match most anything left an eternal curiousity over them. Seems like they used a similar power supply philosophy to Carver's "magnetic field" supply.
Hey Tim, ever seen one of these? Arrived today. Figured since you wear the Zap crown, you might know more about it. I have several of the faders, AEX crossovers, and a lot of the PX eq's. But have never seen this configuration...
Here is another one. This one I picked up today. Local deal on this one. Here is what I was told about it, but don't know much else. This one's serial number is #6. Yes, #6. I was told that it was made for Kicker. Kicker was going to have US Amps build amps for them, but something happened and it didn't go through. Was told it is a 100HC. Really a neat amp. Very simple. Looks to have some power to it too. The "K" in the heatsink is what identifies it as the Kicker prototype. Don't know how much of this is true, but what I was told. Anyone have any input or info? ...
tomtomjr said:
My beloved crown is but a statement, as you own the kingdom.
Nope, never seen that. Looks like it would be set up for a sub + midbass + front & rear biamped seperates. I can't imagine why the PX would be on the bottom, I suppose the volume control was left preset.
A very nifty rack, indeed. I'm amazed at the variety of factory produced one-off custom work from Zapco. It's nice that they would entertain customers in such fashion. That's what, ~$1400 worth of signal processors new?
The vacant spot is confusing, was there a second fader there?
tsmith1315 said:
No, no fader in the square hole. Unsure of what that is for. Weird setup. 3 AEX crossovers, 1 PX eq, 1 AFI Fader. Still missing one crossover for it. There is a set on Ebay right now, but he is asking way too much for them. How about the US Amps serial #6 ? Any idea Tim? Anyone? Also, does anyone know if Kicker and US Amps have a production deal at one time?
tomtomjr said:
If it were built for Kicker, would it have the US Amps logo?
Any identification on the PCB? It's definitely an early model.
Here is a closeup of the board where it says " OK DE Sept-1990 #6 " . (click on thumbnail for larger view) --- ALSO on the board is a US AMPS logo. Not much else for identification. No model number on the board. Any idea of what year US Amps started building amps? I worked for someone selling them in 92-94.
Actually what you have is a home-grown amp from my state of Florida.
I've sold and used many of these amps.
IT IS CALLED A US AMP KA-250 2 X 125 WATTS @ 4 ohms
At the time of production there was only one other model available that being a KA-50.'
Both amps were stable into one ohm and came hard-wired with STREET-WIRES power and ground wires.
Very good amps even by todays standards.A little inefficient because of the bipolar SMP. Standard TIP 35, TIP 36 outputs.
I can say this though when this amp was in production.Most of your Kicker Dealers sold Linear Power amps. They actual relationship was between Kicker and Linear Power,some of the reps were related to the owners. Jack M. (US Amps owner) came around pushing this little amp that could burn down trees (KA-50 and KA-250) and with the high retail prices of Linear Power,Orion,PPI,Autotek,Rockford,Hifonics, ects
US AMPS found a niche. And so in Florida where Kicker ruled. If anything US AMP was tring to infring on Kicker market share,and Kicker pushed back. I remember being threatened by my Kicker and Linear Power Rep (John Snyde) that if I didnt stop selling US AMPS I would lose Kicker ,Linear Power and VSE (the best car alarm company ever).The KA-250 whoop-*** and took names and the powers that be hated it but could'nt stop it. US AMPS was close very quick shippment,they were friendly,would modify,customize and warranty anything for you.you name it. If you stop by the warehouse you could place a order and get a tour of the factory (from the circiut board design room, to the assembly line) absolutley no part of the process was off limits.So I like other dealers told Kicker and Linear Power to eat-a-dick and they did.Then they came right back. MMats eventually saw the success of all the drama and jump into the ring with their own relationship with SEAS speakers.
I can hear Eidath and Arthie Bunker in my ear right now singing "Those were the good-ole days"
Sb
I've sold and used many of these amps.
IT IS CALLED A US AMP KA-250 2 X 125 WATTS @ 4 ohms
At the time of production there was only one other model available that being a KA-50.'
Both amps were stable into one ohm and came hard-wired with STREET-WIRES power and ground wires.
Very good amps even by todays standards.A little inefficient because of the bipolar SMP. Standard TIP 35, TIP 36 outputs.
I can say this though when this amp was in production.Most of your Kicker Dealers sold Linear Power amps. They actual relationship was between Kicker and Linear Power,some of the reps were related to the owners. Jack M. (US Amps owner) came around pushing this little amp that could burn down trees (KA-50 and KA-250) and with the high retail prices of Linear Power,Orion,PPI,Autotek,Rockford,Hifonics, ects
US AMPS found a niche. And so in Florida where Kicker ruled. If anything US AMP was tring to infring on Kicker market share,and Kicker pushed back. I remember being threatened by my Kicker and Linear Power Rep (John Snyde) that if I didnt stop selling US AMPS I would lose Kicker ,Linear Power and VSE (the best car alarm company ever).The KA-250 whoop-*** and took names and the powers that be hated it but could'nt stop it. US AMPS was close very quick shippment,they were friendly,would modify,customize and warranty anything for you.you name it. If you stop by the warehouse you could place a order and get a tour of the factory (from the circiut board design room, to the assembly line) absolutley no part of the process was off limits.So I like other dealers told Kicker and Linear Power to eat-a-dick and they did.Then they came right back. MMats eventually saw the success of all the drama and jump into the ring with their own relationship with SEAS speakers.
I can hear Eidath and Arthie Bunker in my ear right now singing "Those were the good-ole days"
Sb
There seemed to be a lot of stuff going on at the place I was at back then. They sold a pile of Kenwood, I figured they made more off them. Sold a lot of LP too considering the price, but not as much RF. They had stillwater boxes, only other brands I remember were clarion, pioneer, blaupunkt. They were really weird about what stuff got sold, one time had to force them to put LP crossovers in this huge system because the kenwoods just sucked with that much power...thought the better k-wood HUs seemed to work fine. Must have sold a million of those honeycomb kenwood 8" subs, had to hit them on the head to put RF 10s in a car that would put them to shame.
jol50 said:
You know that was everywhere, jol.
Hey amc32, thanks for the history lesson on US Amps.
I remember my brother telling me about a rep for US Amps stopping by his shop (it would have been around ’90) and really talking up the power and reliability of the US Amps. He was in South GA, and mentioned they were built in FL.
Tomtom’s picture did prompt a nostalgia session of digging through a few old Car Stereo Review, Car Audio & Electronics, Mobile Electronics Specialist, and Installation News issues between ~’87-’90 in an attempt to determine when US Amps hit the market.
Of course, that just digressed into looking at all the old ads and articles. Very cool, it’s been a solid decade since I’ve actually looked at them.
Anyone interested in seeing some old ads or info?
Attachments
Sure that stuff is cool. Funny I never saw a lot of stuff back then we didn't sell. Things like PPI, MTX, HK, Nak, Zed, Zapco, etc., I hardly knew about and did not see much around here unless Mickey Shore sold it.
That place I worked at was indeed hell in many ways.
That place I worked at was indeed hell in many ways.
Guy just offered me a KAC-9020 with the manual for $50, but they were not that great were they? I think I have an 8020, both the old square ones. I remember they worked ok, no bridging, and ran hot. An online manual says 2x100 at 1% but the picture is wrong this one is not angled on sides.
IMHO, no. Not bad, just moderate performers.
Unless of course, you NEED another amp. 😀
I worked with Kenwood dealers from '87-'88, and again from '89-'93 and installed plenty of their product.
and of course 
Thanks for the info AMC32. Can't ever have enough info... Here is another one for you. I finally got in the 5th amp to this setup today to make it complete. Had the 1 PS and 4 Amps, but now I have the 5th. The PS has 5 outputs. Was this the first 5 channel amp? Made in 86 if I remember right. All NOS. The Marantz tags are gone on all of them. Import issue maybe? Model of PS is 750P ... Model of amps are 750A ... Super clear sounding amps. Top of the top IMO. Any info on them would be appreciated. Maybe a brochure from back then? Car audio mag article? (Tim, can you see if you have any info in those old mags of yours?) ...
Question: how does the new US amps compare with the old models? are they still built the same way?
Modern amplifiers are more efficient but have less soul factor, older amplifiers sound better P4P than modern ones made in the China, but China does not care about sound quality as that cost money to produce.