its been a long time since i went to a car audio competition. i was wondering, what are really good amps, not necessarily expensive, but just good clean sounding amps.

i run a jl 500/5 in my s2k and the econo 6 channel jl in my truck. i have had great success with them so thats why i did them.

anywho, what are some really good amps out there today? last time i went to a competition, one car that sounded really good had zapco amps.

just looking for info, thanks again guys!

 

Sundown amps are some of the cleanest, best sounding amps on the market.

I've run JL/Eclipse (PA/DA series)/Audison/Sundown and a few other brands. I love my Sundowns the most out of all those (in fact, working on replacing the JL 500/1 and Audison LRx in my S with Sundown amps).

 

I've found the same thing from recent research--Sundown offers great performance for the price--so I just bought one. Their 100WRMSx4@4 Ohm amp has <0.1% THD and is only about $365 new. www.sundownaudio.com is their home page, but the prices are retail, not street.

Zapco is one of the standard names, but many argue the Sundowns are as good and for a lot less coin. TRU is pricier, and a lot of folks are willing to pay the extra money, and there are always Macintosh, Nakamichi's high end, and others, but at the price they want, they ought to give you more than just aural pleasure... I haven't looked much into them because I won't spend that much right now.

DIYMA is a great source for this kind of info though.

 

I agree about Macintosh, et al. And if I were building a home audio system (or building a system in, I dunno, a high end luxury car such as a Rolls, et al.) I would be more inclined to recommend their amps. But, for most of us, it would be expensive overkill - esp when Sundown is nearly as good for a fraction of the cost.

 

glad to hear that...i turned down a great deal on a macintosh amp last week!

 

Don't get me wrong, Macintosh has a place - and they're probably the best car audio on the market.

But who cares if you have a Macintosh amp and Alpine speakers? You won't hear the difference between that amp and an Alpine amp.

The easiest/best way to improve sound quality is to upgrade your door speakers. The difference between the stock speakers and Diamond Hexes was huge, as was the difference between the Diamonds running passive and active. Ultimately, my current setup (Audison LRx, SEAS tweets, ScanSpeak Revs) is miles ahead of anything that Diamond setup could offer - all on the same amp (well, close - I had a 2-chan LRx running passive, moved to the current 4-chan LRx when I switched to active).

Bottom line is that there's no use spending $3k on a single amp when you're spending only $150 on a cheap set of components (or even a $500 set of components). Keep in mind that I'm referring to the pre-packaged sets, not separates. Separates don't cost nearly as much as car audio component sets (ScanSpeak Revs + SEAS tweets = $500ish, but sound better/more full than most $1000+ sets of components).

 

Macintosh is a great amp supplier. However, at the same time i heard it i then listened to a Hertz amp along with speakers and a single ten and i fell in love with the cleanness of it.

And last but not least ive always had success with JL audio =]. I ran a single 10" w7 with a 500/1 and it couldn't even compare to my Hifonics Brutus and Kicker 15" L7.

 

Sputniks, played with any Arc amps ?

 

No I haven't. My understanding from reliable sources (DIYMA along with other web sites and a few personal anecdotes with people who are more picky than I) is that ARC old stuff is excellent but their newer stuff has gone down a few notches (similar to what happened with Eclipse amps).

On a different note, I don't trust any company that tries to sell people multi-channel Class-D amps as sound quality capable amps. I don't know that ARC does this, but I know Eclipse, Alpine, and JL all do.

 

There newest line (XXD) is full range class D

There middle line KAR series amps are class H