Dsmart

Depends on what you want and how much you want to spend. It isn't fair to judge a $2K amp with a $500 amp that puts out the same power. I am more into the best buy for the money and I say JL

sc300ccret

I voted for the JL amps as well.

I used to be the biggest Rockford fan. They quit making good amps after the punch 45HD. (About 1992).

Then,
I used to be the biggest Orion fan. HCCA series were phenominal. Then they were bought by Directed and quickly they went to crap. Cheaper components and so on. Death of a great company.

Then,
I used to be a HUGE PPI fan. Then they got bought by Directed. Turned into worthless crap. Death of a great company.

Ugh.

So aside from Directed DESTROYING EVERY good company they buy I think there are about 4-5 good amp brands left.

1. JL Audio
2. Xtant
3. Zapco
4.Soundstream
5.Phoenix Gold


Mike

Percy

Directed never got their hands on McIntosh. Never will either since Mc is owned by Clarion. Doesn't mean that whenever you drop in a Mc amp, it's a clarion...far from it. Mc owns the patents on their amps and still remains an American company, and their designs are still 100% McIntosh.

A shame that the Orion HCCA amps got bought out. Fantastic stuff when they were in their prime.

Soundstream...just has to use better labor practices and not "cheapen" everything from assembly line up. Soundstream still has one of the HIGHEST FAILURE RATES while IN the factory. Once when they got them working, they worked great.

JL...still have to listen to one of these. Would still love to do a shootout among the top amps. I'll even bring my modded Mc.

Percy

LEXUS_KID

iTrader: (4)

I have had quite a few systems in my car's and by far price power and overall you can't go wrong with all the new JL AUDIO amps they have some serious power

88supramki

JL amps are awesome, so are the new Focal power amps. i'm pretty impressed with the new alpine PDX amps as well. trying to copy JL's RIP system and doing a pretty decent job at it.


xtant is crap now because MTX owns it and just used the name to push their stuff out more. their service has gone down the tubes and their product is pretty down there now as well.

VinnyQH

iTrader: (2)

1. sinfoni
2. mcintosh
3. diamond audio
4. old ppi (pre directed)
5. old xtant (pre mtx)

that's about my list, wouldn't run anything other then those in my car.

bens sc

iTrader: (2)

im running with a/d/s/ pre directed! i LOVE the a/d/s equipment before they were bought out!!!! clearest sounding stuff i have heard in quite a while.

my system has a a/d/s pq20 for fronts bridged with a/d/s 346cs's in front with a/d/s al5's in the rear and a ppi amp running mono bridged to a a/d/s rs12" sub.


im thinking about using a alpine 7909 head unit but not sure yet

danger4o5

I have two 1000/1 JL amp and it is SICK

88supramki

I'll add Steg to my list of top notch amplifiers

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

Your Clarion Mc is now a HItachi, from what I understand. Apparently Hitachi bought Clarion.

Also add Focal to the list of high-end amps. Awesome stuff.

88supramki

we redesigned the install for the president of Focal's FX35 last week. We amplified his 3 way Utopia Be's with two dual monitors and ran one of the FP1.800 to two 21WX subwoofers. He had two Steg amplifiers running that setup before, and they sounded awesome. His new setup was redamndiculous though.

Percy

Hopefully the japanese will leave the Mc work ethic alone. I know that big blue sold to Hitachi due to hard drive failures.

Percy

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

I think if anyone breathes on McIntosh with any kind of outside influence it will be the death of that company. Hopefully everyone knows better. It's really one of the last of its kind.

12volt

Heres my vote.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uPTbUbbbAXM

David1969

I voted for Zapco. Very clean power and very efficient amps. I'm hoping to clean up the sound via my factory speakers by connecting a Zapco i-4500 to all speakers and dedicating one i-2100 to the sub. All gains will be turned down to ensure i don't pop anything.