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US Amps built where?

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I know the I/S line is built in Korea right? And the AX line is US made. I've heard the Merlin line is built in both places(conflicting info) though. Are the Merlins US built or foreign?

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I know the I/S line is built in Korea right? And the AX line is US made. I've heard the Merlin line is built in both places(conflicting info) though. Are the Merlins US built or foreign?

erm i belive the I/S line is imported from china, but designed by dirk.

your are correct about the AX line. pretty crazy, the toroids are hand wrapped here.

edit: the merlin line is now completely bein made here in the USA

to tell you the truth, i dont think it matters who builds the amplifiers, its the design and the quality of the parts that matters IMO.

I hope that clears things up a little bit

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doesnt really matter were these amps are designed, usamps is still the same old usamps but better.

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Someone on termpro had said that the Merlin series wasnt a Dirk original but I never asked but im sure it is just various parts from korea to save on cost to make it a great bang for the buck.

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Someone on termpro had said that the Merlin series wasnt a Dirk original but I never asked but im sure it is just various parts from korea to save on cost to make it a great bang for the buck.

no no EVERYTHING is a dirk Original Dirk designed ALL of the boards. He just sent the designs overseas for the merlin and is

just wanted to clear that up :)

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erm i belive the I/S line is imported from china,  but designed by dirk.

your are correct about the AX line.  pretty crazy, the toroids are hand wrapped here.

the Merlin, well its kind of both made here and korea.  All of the boards  are stuffed with the little circuitry over in Korea, but the transistors and toroids, the BIG stuff, the stuff that matters are put on over here.

to tell you the truth, i dont think it matters who builds the amplifiers, its the design and the quality of the parts that matters IMO.

I hope that clears things up a little bit

Thanks. This was just something I never heard a definative answer to. I figured they designed all of their own boards and I still haven't heared a single story of a US Amps amp breaking. I'm glad theres a US Amps forum around now.

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who/what exactly is dirk and what companies has he helped design amps for before?

well i think dirk should answer this, but since hes away on a business trip, ill do my best :)

dirk ecker along with some other dude started working at a 12volt shop a good 18-20 years ago, when fosgate was king. He and his partner then decided they wanted to make those fosgate amps better by screwin around with the boards, thus usamps was born. To my understanding, he has only helped design for usamps, they are called "dirk originals" or "dirk designs" hehe. I believe this is true, Jeff coleman told me this stuff but dirk designed the first parallel amp, as well as created a brand new class of amplifiers the "DE" which is i think (dont quote me) a class D with analog something hehe.

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OK.

Lets go through this.

The "other dude" lol is Jack Matheney. Who I have to say is one of the most honourable and generous people I have ever met.

Dirk is their engineer.

As far as the current line go, the IS is designed by dirk and built in china.

The Merlin 2 is NOT a dirk original - its a mod of the US Acoustics USG series amps.

Compare for example - this

13_1_b.JPG

with this

70_1_b.JPG

I was actually at the Gainesville factory talking to dirk about the modifications he did to the USG's which was basically limited to the power toroids.

As far as merlin being made in usa - i am sure what you meant to say was "assembled in the usa from Korean parts", as i am pretty certain that is the situation on these....it makes no difference to me - the koreans make some great boards.

Cheers.

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oooooo thats y they had a bunch of usacoustic amps there.

umm i dunno man.... the sticker on the bottom of the merlin says "made in the USA"

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oooooo thats y they had a bunch of usacoustic amps there.

umm i dunno man.... the sticker on the bottom of the merlin says "made in the USA"

that is correct.

HOWEVER what that means (and you can ask Coleman/JR/Dirk/Mr Kim this) is that they buy the boards and sinks in Korea and assemble them by putting on the hand wound toroids and psu/output devices at the factory.

This way it qualifiys for MADE in the usa as the final product was MADE in the usa from imported components.

This is in no way a bad thing - the Korean amp houses make some of the best amps there are, and you get a product at a more sensible price.

Whether it is the US Amps that got me hooked on the brand is a different thing. :)

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If you build in quantity you source parts from where you get the right parts (read best within reason) for the dollar. Quite frankly it is not surprising that it is Korea or another East Asian country as labor is cheap and frequently much more detail oriented than American. Usually they are assembled here because the one thing that a lot of Asian manufacturing services lack is German like quality control, thus when you hand assemble here you get to check over the parts and use the ones you want. Sourcing a capacitor or PCB or something from an outsourced manufacturer just makes sense, building it all in house doesn't. I am glad that they do enough here to mark it Made in the USA though as it makes me more likely to buy it and feel better about the quality as I am more aware of the final build quality.

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very interesting

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