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Pics of the BIGGEST ZED AMP MADE. . . . . . . . . . .

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I always thought Class D was the way to go as far as sub amps...

That's why I'm interested to see why in the hell he would want 4300 watts at less than 70% efficiency. That's fucktarded.

You do realize that most modern Class-D amplifiers are 85-90% efficient right? Please don't tell me they have too much THD, that's a worthless measurement.

Nope just Don't like the way they sound. As Steve will tell you it took him Many years to figure out how to make them not sound "flat". There is a World of difference. I can take a new Class D that is 1200-1500 watts replace it with a Series VIII Zues ot a Autotek 7600 and it will sound better and hit harder. I can deal with the power consumption. I don't need to anything near 4300 so it wouldn't ever get run that low. Shit the heat that Class D put's out at 1 or 1/2 ohm is more than the Zues at 4ohm's.

My 2 cents I have tried everything over the years I have been doing this since 91-92 and haven't stopped once so believe me I have heard and tried alot of stuff over the years. If there wasn't that much difference the demand wouldn't be so high for Old School Quality Class A/B amps.

Most people can't hear the difference between 1% THD and 2% THD....

So everything below 0.5% THD is good enough, and if you set the gain low enough you get less power and less THD.

Test a class D amp at 4 ohms or test a A or B class amp at 1 ohm, let's see which one will get hotter. :noob:

It's normal if you lower the impedance, the efficiency drops= more heat.

Don't think you could hear a difference between different sub amps, i know that (good) highs souns different with different brands of amps.

But it's a really nice amp really powerfull amp certain at the time it was made.

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Nope just Don't like the way they sound.

You lost the battle to pyschoacoustics. :(

Thata fine I HAVENT BEEN THE FIRST NOR THE LAST! Take them and keep them.

Lol, you CAN'T hear the difference on a sub no way no how.

Whatever you say. I'm just a dumbass with a $15,000 collection of junk. Since I'm full of it I would Love for you to call up Steve Mantz and tell him that and see what his response is. Call us at the factory Monday-Thursday (Yes we work a 4 day week) at (805)-526-5315 PST

Believe me I could give 2 shits whether you believe me or not!

LOL, you do realize that Steve's new amps are class D full range.

And I don't believe you at all. No way in hell you can hear the difference in a sub amp. If you really can go prove Richard Clark wrong and take home some money.

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Nope just Don't like the way they sound.

You lost the battle to pyschoacoustics. :(

Thata fine I HAVENT BEEN THE FIRST NOR THE LAST! Take them and keep them.

Lol, you CAN'T hear the difference on a sub no way no how.

Whatever you say. I'm just a dumbass with a $15,000 collection of junk. Since I'm full of it I would Love for you to call up Steve Mantz and tell him that and see what his response is. Call us at the factory Monday-Thursday (Yes we work a 4 day week) at (805)-526-5315 PST

Believe me I could give 2 shits whether you believe me or not!

LOL, you do realize that Steve's new amps are class D full range.

And I don't believe you at all. No way in hell you can hear the difference in a sub amp. If you really can go prove Richard Clark wrong and take home some money.

Sure do I guess you didn't read my post's then!! Yes they are BUT it took MANY years before he made them class D due to the fact that he couldn't get them to produce the sound he liked. I talk to Steve alot I'm not just some Bullshitter kid.

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Nope just Don't like the way they sound.

You lost the battle to pyschoacoustics. :(

Thata fine I HAVENT BEEN THE FIRST NOR THE LAST! Take them and keep them.

Lol, you CAN'T hear the difference on a sub no way no how.

Whatever you say. I'm just a dumbass with a $15,000 collection of junk. Since I'm full of it I would Love for you to call up Steve Mantz and tell him that and see what his response is. Call us at the factory Monday-Thursday (Yes we work a 4 day week) at (805)-526-5315 PST

Believe me I could give 2 shits whether you believe me or not!

LOL, you do realize that Steve's new amps are class D full range.

And I don't believe you at all. No way in hell you can hear the difference in a sub amp. If you really can go prove Richard Clark wrong and take home some money.

Sure do I guess you didn't read my post's then!! Yes they are BUT it took MANY years before he made them class D due to the fact that he couldn't get them to produce the sound he liked. I talk to Steve alot I'm not just some Bullshitter kid.

And you are saying you don't like the way they sound and I say you can't hear the difference on a sub. I did read your comment, but you completely blanketed that you don't like the way class D sounds.

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Emailed Mantz....He did not make this amp.

That's what puzzled me when I first read the topic and then saw the pic. That's not a Zed amp. If I'm not mistaken the biggest amp Zed made was the HiFonics Colossus. Two Zeus amps in one body. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. I have 2 of them at the moment. One is pushing two 18" Cerwin Vega Strokers and the other I'm taking to Zed next week to have a few things replaced. :)

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Nice space heater.

I like running big amps at low impedance in the car, that way I don't have to have the heater fan blowing and making all that noise! :suicide-santa:

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I used to have a Colossus, that thing was pretty large!! I used to always get people pas by it and say damn that thing is HUGE!!! I would love to have a 4500D and see what they say now!!

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This is probably a little more in line with the demographics of this forum.

v9CzS8sV72doOOKyL9bE6dRmn8aV.jpg

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This is probably a little more in line with the demographics of this forum.

v9CzS8sV72doOOKyL9bE6dRmn8aV.jpg

So much for people posting pix in this thread huh?

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This is probably a little more in line with the demographics of this forum.

v9CzS8sV72doOOKyL9bE6dRmn8aV.jpg

So much for people posting pix in this thread huh?

One could conclude that.

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You do realize that most modern Class-D amplifiers are 85-90% efficient right? Please don't tell me they have too much THD, that's a worthless measurement.

If you believe that'll happen real world I've got a bridge for sale....

That being said I noticed a difference running old school A/B amps at 4 ohms and running new class D at 1 ohm, but I suspect more of that is the impedence than the class of the amp.

Personally I'll do class D because the technology has come a long way and although the efficiency difference isn't as extreme as some would have us believe, it's still substantial and worth the tradeoff.

I was also thinking at the start that this didn't look like a Zed board....still an old school beast.

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wow you guys are a bunch of idiots. OK so whats the deal with the PA4300. NO it was not made by ZED first off. It was made by hohmann. He made all the orginal series earthquake. The pa 4300 was not release until the very end of the first series and the second series. Same heat sinks just differnt anodising and labeling. After this earthquakes amps took a noise dive if you ask me. The 1st and 2nd series were pretty much knock offs of the series vii hifonics. I had both of them over my life. PILES of hifonics V, VII, VIII and series 1 and 2 earthquake. Anyways the pa4300 was basically 2 pa2300 in 1 case with a electronic x over and o gauge power inputs. I also used to run just the pa2300 which were basically a cheaper version of a zues. Only cheaper in price not quality. They were also easier to get through distribution. I still have a pa4300 against my wall in my bedroom.

So Whats the hype on the amp. Ok here is my best way to explain it to all of you new school class D heads. This amp was 380 watts by 4 @ 4 ohm. It was one of the largest class A/B amplifiers ever built. There were not many made either. Only about 4 or 5 turn up a year on e bay and they still sell for 1000 bucks. Just like a series vII colossis. To the guy who was trying to argue about hearing distortion in a sub. Guess what you sure as hell can idiot. the earthquakes run at .05 total harmonic distortion. Thats 1/2 of 100 percent THD you understand this right??? your clas d's run at 1 percent thd!!!! Now if your saying you cant here it on a sub your f-ennn nuts.

First off you have to understand audio as a whole and the time frames when this gear was running and on what? Thats why you dont understand what this amp is or how to use it. See we didnt have huge magnet multi voice coil subs back then. We had lower wattage subs that were very accurate. More like high end home audio gear. Car gear as a whole was very much a new thing and these where some of the first BIG amps ever being made. A car with 3000 watts was a rare thing back then and sounded very different then things do now. I ran home gear in my cars out of super expensive 10,000 dollar towers. this is in 1990. I used to build MOREL's tower speakers in boston mass. We used , SEAS, Morel, perless, BA, on and on in our cars I still run Morel MDT33 tweeters in all my cars. SICK. So we would stack these subs to create our ohm loads. NO DVC. I personally would run 4 boston acoustic 12.4 lf pro's on each pa4300 bridged at 2 ohms in 2.25 cubic feet ported. The 12.4lf is not like any of the new boston gear. It was their first pro driver and was a monster back then. Cast basket and a very light and super fast paper cone. Paper subwoofer sound very very musical and natural. There still is no other cone material as good except for maybe bamboo which is still a natural material.. LITE AND FAST. If you wanted you could put these drivers in 1 cubic foot sealed braced and stuffed and they would snap your neck off. The PPI guys used to do that a lot. Re cone was 100 bucks at the old BA factory on route one in boston. LOL Now they are on centenial drive in peabody mass. Im not talking about a fart machine. Im talking accurate SNAP. If done right it would feel like you were getting hit with a 2x4 with very little to NO distortion. that is something that can not be said by someone with a huge class d on a subwoofer that has no ability to be delicate powerful and fast. We are not talking about audio pistons like modern spl subs. and thats why you dont get it. If you just chuck this amp on a new spl drive it does not shine but will still sound good. Have you ever seen any new car drivers now in home audio. NOPE because home audio guys ant having a fart piston in their rig. Its got to be accurate. And trust me go meet a serious 2 channel guy with 20k dollar krell mono blocks, he ant running car drivers.. and is popping the 200 amp mains on his house if you want to talk about raw current.

So why are these amps gone???? why does class D exist????

OK the death of car audio. I guess you have to understand the whole story. what happened and why. Well it all boils down to consumers and who your target market is. When car audio came out at first it was very much a hobby to most. The people that where pushing the industry and making the industry exist as a whole where home audio guys. They did things the way home audio did them. They built the best they could build reguardless of price. They built accurate gear. The USA was the KING of well built hand made amplifiers. No one was touching american made hands down, Series 5,6,7,8 hifonics,earthquake, ads, soundstream, ppi, phoenix gold, hafler, lanzar so many classic designed amps. So in comes compititions and IASCA . People are building sound systems very different because the rules were different. You competed in watt classes and it was very much ALL about sound quality back then and anal install, So what happened then right. Well three things. First amp companies started to build amps that were stable to very low ohm ratings and thats the days of cheater amps. 100 watt amps doing 1800 watts at 1ohm bridged on very crazy hand made passive crossovers and stacked multi sub systems. But you only had 200 watts and you were smashing fools. Well so now here you are trying to go toe to toe with some dude who has 10 times the money in gear as you but is claiming the same wattage. Their were also people hidding amps in their cars and cheating. See you could have as many drivers as you wanted back then it didnt matter. So a insaine amp construction battle started with the manufactures. See ever company wanted to be the best every year. They wanted to be number one and hold the trophies of the year. This is where it gets kind of funny. The companys started to LIE, they would put fake wattage numbers on their amps and claim things that simply where never true. Orion called bullshit on it all with the concept amps. LOL What they did was take a xtr2250 beast and put it in a concept 97.3. But all it is is a chrome case. same amp. then they said it would run to a dead short and only was a 2 watt amplifier. LOL LOL its funny some people still think the specs on these amps where true, but it was all fake. Its just a xtr2250. They did it to prove a point that a company could say anything and cheat. Well this made things change.. and this is how

This is when the bass trucks and bass vans started to turn up to. example the orion hcca trucks. INSAINE even today. Well the big sound vans would get all the attention at the shows and this is when spl started. Guys like shaker were from boston and they kept building bigger and didnt care what things sounded like. it was just about loud. Then the compition seen started to change because of all the cheating and they went to cone size. you can count the speakers in a car and there size very easy. Well when this happend it all changed everything. this is the start of monster drivers you see now. compete with 1 12 and put 10k watts into great idea NOT. But there where other things going on to. Kids just wanted cheap bass. What they could afford. Remember I said target market. These big class a/b amps kids couldnt buy. You couldnt run them without the big three. Find a alternator shop in 1990 and have them hand wind you your shit was a bit out of most kids reach. 20k dollar car stereos. It wasnt what people wanted. Kids wanted to spend 500 bucks and sound cool with some bass. Back in the day there was a reason why all the drug dealers cars slapped hard. Its becasue they were the only ones with huge cash. Well this all spelled out DOOM for all the high end companys, orion ppi ads hifonics and so on. and they all went bankrupt. These are the dark days of car audio. All the big players folded, except for mtx and fosgate who made crap gear that was cheap. I know Im going to hear it from fosgate guys but the punch 1000 and 650 where there only good amps and they where out of the reach of most. So they all got snapped up by south east asian companys that only knew how to make crap. Not real audio gear. They bought the names and parted out the companys and the designers. DEI who made billions on viper car alarms in the 80's and 90's bought most of them up and then tried to invent directed audio FAIL. Then they tried to slap the old names on thier junk, FAILED, Then they realised they had to make better gear and started to try and re invent the brands they bought. By now if your a pimp you have to have bass in your car right. Its like a god given right if you think your cool. So every kid on the planet wants a system. Well the average 19 year old doesn't care what it sound like, he just wants to be noticed and the companys know this. So they start building simply for loud. Class d amps come into play because they are cheap to build and will run on 1/2 current of a class a/b. So now a kid can put 1500 watts wink wink in his trunk for 300 bucks and not have to put in a charging system. who cares what it sounds like. Better yet we just will not post the thd spec LOL LOL its only 2 percent they wont notice LOL Its cheap and it works. Spl trucks take hold of the comps and everyone wants to be loud. Shit I dont even see door speakers half the timeany more LOL LOL the custom shops start to fail. No one wants to pay 3 k for a install. They want a 50 dollar box slapped in at best buy by a 18 year old kid who knows nothing and a amp from south east asia. Add some monster subwoofer and here we are today. Now class d's are getting better, and this is mostly because of new american companys. Subs are big huge monsters that sound like shit but push massive spl and the world turns as I roll my eyes and laugh at every sound sytem that is so miss designed all I can do is laugh. But thats what car audio turned into.

Good luck even trying to keep up with the sq of one of my system designs. dont even get me started about hiphop

oh and ps why do you think they are still making big ass A/B amps. ???? Its because they blow the doors off your class D's I dont car what your stereo sounds like 20 feet in front of your car. I dont car about a number flashing on a meter while no one is in the car. Its the stupidest thing ever. I car about what it sounds like in the car. A clas a/b will sound twice as loud as a class d watt for watt. There is a reason to where all that amprage/ current is going. A A/b will simply out class any d set up out there

a example of a new school a/b the american bass vlf 4000 fr and the earthquake is still bigger

http://www.americanb.../product_id/177

Edited by puffah

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Nice first post. goyou.gif Glad you informed us all. We are all idiots of course. cookiemonster.gif

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Lol you're so smart. The technology has obviously moved backwards in the last 20 years.

I'll stick to my "Audio Pistons" and you stick to your paper coned, 12 ounce motored pieces of sh!t.

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dude your so stoned right now.

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puffah, come at us, seriously.

I'm not on the tech team but you just put yourself in a position that implies that you have seen history in the making to it's present day in all fact.

Well, let me school you here on some things.

#1 - THD Levels. For one, you want to sit there and compare RATED specs of power output..

Stupidest thing you could have said in your intelligent post.

So if i had a 3000w AB amp and a 3000w D amp, AB - 0.01% and D - 1% D just gonna suck?

Full of shit.

I don't normally call someone out so extensively but if anyone else reads what you posted, you will destroy car audio even more.

The reason why it is full of shit is because you are implying the THD levels are set in stone.

FALSE.

IF you start clipping the shit out of the AB amp, guess what, THD increase...

IF you turn the Class D amp down a HAIR, guess what, THD decrease...

It's the SAME thing as comparing a well known company vs a cheaper quality company who BOTH makes and can compare Class D Amps.

Some companies rate at different THD levels but ALL amps can attain levels far below 0.1%.

#2 - THD Audibility- This is taken straight from Wikipedia-

THD is an average of a number of harmonics equally weighted, even though research performed decades ago identifies that lower order harmonics are harder to hear at the same level, compared with higher order ones. In addition, even order harmonics are said to be generally harder to hear than odd order. A number of formulas that attempt to correlate THD with actual audibility have been published, however none have gained mainstream use.

Decades ago, like when you first started the setting in your post. This is the same time era you are talking about in your first post.

#3- Everything today is shit and everything back then was so much better in terms of sound quality.

Yea.. If that were true, then why is any company still in business?

If car audio equipment as a whole was so pathetic, then why is it such a large hobby?

You honestly think NONE of us today in the ENTIRE WORLD have a single clue that one speaker maydoes sound different from another in different installs and environments?

ANY HOBBY is DIY and in ANY HOBBY, you research and gain knowledge then experience.

We all know what can and will sound good and we know what can and will get loud.

Just because car audio competition isn't 99% SQ and 1% SPL doesn't mean it went to shit.

It means it has EVOLVED!

You guys didn't have SPL back then and you clearly answered why.

Well guess what, since it evolved, now we have SPL.

IS SQ gone? No.

So why isn't is such a big thing anymore?

Because SQ competition is SUBJECTIVE.

When people compete, they compete and expect fairness in judging.

You can get that without variables with dB meter.

SQ Competitions are typically done via multiple judges ear. That's not accurate.

2nd, let's say you don't compete but want good stuff.

MANY OF THOSE COMPANIES you named in the past, Seas, Morel, etc.. still exist today and put out great quality equipment.

And 2 companies aren't the pinnacle of audio either. There are many more.

So this is what i get from your mega post-

You are STUCK in the 80s-90s era and refuse to either comprehend or attempt to jump back in the hobby and keep up with research.

And don't tell us people were so much louder back then then they are now with less power, etc..

The Mics back then being used were inaccurate as hell.

Audiocontrol, LinearX, Original Termlabs, etc..

They have all been discarded in competition to the present day.

Audiocontrol and LinearX were used for, get ready for this.. Sound Quality measurements..

They weren't pressure sensors like what we use now to measure high SPL levels and if any of those companies DID use a pressure sensor, it has been proven over the years that they arewere inaccurate.

We have Sound quality measuring devices today in use.. and are still the hardware of choice in Sound Quality competitions over old school hardware.

#3 - Our speakers not used in home audio.

Well, why the Hell would we want to do that IF building a serious SQ setup?

Again, back in the 80s-90s era again.

Although some companies DO in fact have some subs that were equally well in both environments, you should not interchange the two when looking for the best setup.

That's more common sense knowledge then anything.

Many things have happened since the "old school days of competition".

Many changes have been done to shift the way things are marketed.

I do not agree or like some things that have happened but they are solely not because companies decided to start making shit product and winning off it.

The American market wants what they want for the cheapest. So companies make cheap lines off their name while those who know what they need, get the higher grade under the same name or a different name.

Just because some companies make shit product does not mean that's the pinnacle of today's standards, lol.. That's EXACTLY what you are trying to imply and it's bullshit 101.

The OLDSCHOOL brands then are NOT setting standards in today's market. That may be your argument partways because you say they are making shit now and are winning off it...

Well, to those brands.. they aren't making it.. they sold off all their shit to China mostly.

But don't bring Car Audio as a whole down completely because Orion or PPI or Rockford, etc isn't the best anymore...

FORD was the first auto.. Are they the best today? No.

So should all the people in the world stop driving cars now because Ford isn't the best?

Think about that for a minute.

You'd be surprised at what all has evolved from the last 30yrs of audio to what it is now.

Ecstatic would come to mind based on what all you have missed.

And it just keeps getting better.

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holy long posters!

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the earthquakes run at .05 total harmonic distortion.

That entirely depends on the power output.

your clas d's run at 1 percent thd!!!! Now if your saying you cant here it on a sub your f-ennn nuts.

You can't hear that. If you think you can, you are f-ennn nuts.

We are not talking about audio pistons like modern spl subs.

All traditional speakers are pistons...how do you think they make sound?

Have you ever seen any new car drivers now in home audio. NOPE because home audio guys ant having a fart piston in their rig. Its got to be accurate.

Yup. Version of the W7 is in JL's HT Gear. Hybrid Audio has HT OEM's using their speakers. Acoustic Elegance started in the car audio realm and has speakers used in studio's and home audio. Other brands (JBL/etc) share technology across all of their platforms.

So why are these amps gone???? why does class D exist????

This is where I stopped reading. I couldn't make it through the majority of the rest of the post.

A clas a/b will sound twice as loud as a class d watt for watt.

False. If the power applied to the sub was the same ("watt for watt"), the output would be identical.

A A/b will simply out class any d set up out there

False.

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Wow, swing and a miss on a first rude post.

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Wow, swing and a miss on a first rude post.

HE swung and missed, but the ball hit him smack in his dome.

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