What was your favorite amplifier?

[sandt38 448]

What was your favorite amplifier you have ever owned, and why was it your favorite?

Just a fun topic that involves some retrospect. I was listening to my system, just taking it in today on the way home from work. I had to do too much thinking about my favorite comp set ever and still haven't really nailed down my fave, my favorite sub was simple, but the amp took a little thought. I had to weigh out a few, but the top few were definitely easy to recall.

So give it up... The favorite you ever owned and why.

Edited July 8, 2010 by sandt38

[nem 2,019]

RF Power 650

Spent 2 summers saving the money to buy it. Sadly I sold it a few years back and the guy defaced it with a shitty paint job.

[Sir-Lancelot 216]

Favorites were the punch 45 and 150 amps that were in my first system. Hard to beat that very first moment of WOW! I have much louder now, but hard to beat that first time. lol

If I could go back in time, it would be the soundstream reference amps that I wish I had kept. Kick my own ass now for giving those up.

[icy_chris 18]

mine was my first it was a kenwood kdc from 2001/02 line and that thing would not blow tryed to kill it many times and wouldn't die. had it for four years sold it for a bigger amp

[Impious 1,476]

Honestly, I would have to say the old crappy Lanzar Vibe. Can't remember the model # anymore, just remember it was a 4-channel that I used to power a pair of 12" Kicker Comps (back when all of Kicker's subs were circular).

Why? Nostalgia mainly. I was a n00b, it was a much simpler time. Lanzar was "higher end" to me. It was the first time I felt I was buying a "real" amplifier (ha!). No worrying about all of the physics and acoustics involved; you just tossed a sub in whatever prefab enclosure you had, set the gain and bass boost as high as it would go without kicking the amplifier into protect, sat in your driveway watching your rearview mirror vibrate, then drove as fast as you could across town to your buddy's house to hit the strip and cruise town showing off. That amplifier was completely wrong for my setup, but I had no idea.

Believe it or not, I beat the shit out of that amp and it never once gave up the ghost. I even ran it for a few weeks with two channels bridged into a 2ohm load.....it would only play for a couple minutes before going into protect (and I was too ignorant to know why), but man did that thing beat when it played. First time I turned it on wired like that, it knocked a speaker and some tools off the wall in my dad's garage about 15' away. I about jizzed myself. It was magical to me at the time.

[aimone 4]

it was about 10 yrs ago my cousin bought a pair of old school lanzar 12's in a bandpass from my dad and he hooked to a chrome rf punch 75i (without endcaps lol) i remember that thing beat the hell outta them lanzars especially after he got a line driver. then one day walked down the street he opened the trunk and said watch this then he turned it on and it was shooting about a 6" flame out of it. then he said i can have it i gutted it and still couldnt get rid of that burnt stank i had the chrome case in my closet until it disappeared a few yrs ago

[Kanaworm$ 292]

Going to date myself here but I had a Pyle A200 on 2 pair of 10" MTX Cranker series subwoofers. This is Pyle Industries and was based out of Indiana and a part of the Harman International Group not the current whored out Pyle name that everybody knows now.

It was the only thing available in my area at the time. And it seemed to hang with RF and HiFonics at the time and I wanted to stray away from the norm. I actually still have the amp and a matching A404 4 channel.

[Randal Johnson 544]

My 2 favorite amplifiers ever : The Linear Power 5002iq and the Linear Power 2.2hv. Plum Crazy.

...

[jlftn 11]

ive had Goliaths, Memphis 4kws, Hercules, to name a few, and so far my favorite is my MTX 4kW. I havnt clamped it yet to get the numbers on it but the technology in it is amazing! Its the size of a 2kw amp because it doesnt use typical "through hole" solder techniques, it prints the circuits saving a lot of space, the cooling on it is incredible, (the color changing lights are pretty neat too) and the easy access controls on the front and great.

check out the video at the bottom of the page

http://www.mtx.com/caraudio/products/amplifiers/indexTE.cfm

[1200 bandit 2]

Favorites were the punch 45 and 150 amps that were in my first system. Hard to beat that very first moment of WOW! I have much louder now, but hard to beat that first time. lol

If I could go back in time, it would be the soundstream reference amps that I wish I had kept. Kick my own ass now for giving those up.

I have two punch 150's one 45 and one 75 I don't play them, I just look at them and think back to the past when 150 watts was a lot. Damn I'm old. lol

[Randal Johnson 544]

Favorites were the punch 45 and 150 amps that were in my first system. Hard to beat that very first moment of WOW! I have much louder now, but hard to beat that first time. lol

If I could go back in time, it would be the soundstream reference amps that I wish I had kept. Kick my own ass now for giving those up.

I have two punch 150's one 45 and one 75 I don't play them, I just look at them and think back to the past when 150 watts was a lot. Damn I'm old. lol

Its not that your old, That was just great clean music with raw power. I'd rather use those amps today in SQ verses the class D stuff used for spl. just my opinion.

[altoncustomtech 773]

I'd have to say my favorite amp was the first one I ever had, US Amps A50HC. A guy traded it to me for doing some repair work in my high school electronics class for him. I never did know it at the time, but that was one hell of a competition amp stable down to something like .25 ohms stereo. I did know that I could barely use the thing, installed in my 1970 chevy truck it could run the battery down even when I was flyin' down the highway (factory size 60 amp alt), used (what seemed at the time) way too much current. Burnt up 3 alternators and a few batteries as well while it was installed. The other funny thing about it was that it has the 4awg power wires soldered directly onto the circuit board which I still find odd. It drove anything I ever hooked up to it with authority, though not without getting hot enough at almost ANY ohm load to easily fry bacon on. I could still kick myself for trading it to a guy for 2 Profile A200XL amps. At the time I thought it was a hell of a deal cuz I was getting two for the one AND they didn't drain my electrical like the A50HC did, but you live and you learn. I put that amp through 9 kinds of hell, even had 10 house speakers hooked up to it at one time goofing off and it wouldn't slow down, just got hotter, lol.

[sefugi 166]

This goes back to the mid 90's, but my favorites were the Phoenix Gold M Series. Turned a lot of heads and did well in USAC for a while. Sorry for the not so good pic.

By sefugi at 2010-07-13

[sandt38 448]

Honestly, I would have to say the old crappy Lanzar Vibe. Can't remember the model # anymore, just remember it was a 4-channel that I used to power a pair of 12" Kicker Comps (back when all of Kicker's subs were circular).Why? Nostalgia mainly. I was a n00b, it was a much simpler time. Lanzar was "higher end" to me. It was the first time I felt I was buying a "real" amplifier (ha!). No worrying about all of the physics and acoustics involved; you just tossed a sub in whatever prefab enclosure you had, set the gain and bass boost as high as it would go without kicking the amplifier into protect, sat in your driveway watching your rearview mirror vibrate, then drove as fast as you could across town to your buddy's house to hit the strip and cruise town showing off. That amplifier was completely wrong for my setup, but I had no idea. Believe it or not, I beat the shit out of that amp and it never once gave up the ghost. I even ran it for a few weeks with two channels bridged into a 2ohm load.....it would only play for a couple minutes before going into protect (and I was too ignorant to know why), but man did that thing beat when it played. First time I turned it on wired like that, it knocked a speaker and some tools off the wall in my dad's garage about 15' away. I about jizzed myself. It was magical to me at the time.

I remember the old Vibes, when they were decent.

I know what you mean about losing the fun and falling into the perfection. I remember way back when we tossed home audio speakers in our backseats and thought we were bad as hell. They were fun times. It is amazing to me I never burned down a car way back when.

This goes back to the mid 90's, but my favorites were the Phoenix Gold M Series. Turned a lot of heads and did well in USAC for a while. Sorry for the not so good pic.

By sefugi at 2010-07-13

HA! A buddy of mine still uses those. Damn fine amps

[audiophyle_247 2]

I would have to say my favorite amp was a Soundstream Lil'Wonder I picked up way back in the day.

Worked & saved for a long time to buy that amp in highschool, I think it was one of the first amps I ever bought brand new and that little thing would rock whatever I hooked up to it. I ran 4 10" MTX Road thunders off it once, pushed a good amount of bass, and would get so f**king hot in the process. lol

Was stolen right out of the school parking lot in the middle of the day as I was in class. Its been a loooong time since, & it still kinda hurts.

[KU40 173]

Hmm, this is hard. Either my old Rockford 250a2, because you could hook up anything to it and it would play, and was quite underrated, a Memphis ST-1000D back when they were chrome, because it was my first big, class D, 1000 watt amp, or else my new Sundown SAE1200D v.2, just because it seems so solid and outperforms the amp it replaced so well.

I also had one of those old Kenwood KDC amps, it was my first amp 10 years ago. I think it was only like 150 watts RMS, and I smoked my bandpassed Alpine sub with it. Sold it to a friend and he hooked it up and set it inside his center console. Never gave up despite the abuse.

[Tirefryr 1,742]

I've had quite a few "high end" amps that I liked, but I would have to say my favorite was an old Pyramid from the early 90s. I was 12 when I got it, so that would put it right around 90-91. I knew nothing about car audio, but I got this for free from my old man's wrecking yard. I remember my first car I had 3 sub boxes in it with 6 woofers wired all in parallel, since the only thing I knew was + to +, - to -, and it lasted forever. I gave it away to an ex in 2000 and it was still going strong. You could fry a turkey on it it got so hot, but it never blew a fuse, never broke, and never shut off. It was a noisy bitch though.

[sandt38 448]

Interesting to see so many old school amps listed. I had a hard time boiling it down to 1, but I got to my top 2.

I can't say enough about my Butler TDB. I love tubes, and it allowed me to put good power into the car with a very natural tube sound. I know it is a hybrid, but it sounds so sweet.

The other one is the exact opposite of an SQ comp amp, it was my Cadence Z7000HC. 1500+ watts thumping out of a monstrous bright ass orange class AB amp. I ran 2 Brahma 12MKIIs to it at 1/2 ohm load for about a month and it kept pounding. For the majority of it's life, though, it just powered a single B12... Nothing is sexier then 1500 AB watts through one of the most linear, perfectly designed car audio subwoofers ever.

[6APPEAL 7]

No one favorite amp, but Linear Power for me. I do have a soft spot for 5002's.

[NB50 206]

I'd say my USAcoustics 2200f for nostalgic purposes but my Zed Leviathan is running really close.

[jblcamry 103]

Best sounding amp i have owned so far.

[KU40 173]

Oh man, I forgot about the old Orion G4 amps. 225, 250, 275, 2100, etc. One of the first few amps stable at .5 ohm stereo/1 ohm mono, and severely underrated. Nearly twice listed power at each impedance was normal, and rock solid reliability.

[sandt38 448]

Oh man, I forgot about the old Orion G4 amps. 225, 250, 275, 2100, etc. One of the first few amps stable at .5 ohm stereo/1 ohm mono, and severely underrated. Nearly twice listed power at each impedance was normal, and rock solid reliability.

That was the funny thing about my Z7000HC. It was rated at 50WRMS@4 ohms, 100WRMS@2 and 1500@1.