Sorry, the topic may be a little vague. I've recently found myself researching amplifiers as I may be replacing my zapco c2k 9.0xd amp shortly. I have 2 12" dvc subs with 1ohm per coil, and they handle 1800wRMS/ea. they're situated in a 4.2cu/ft box tuned to 30hz.

The zapco puts out around 2200wRMS and I was looking for something a little closer to the subs rated input or over. So I've been working on a spreadsheet to compare different amps to try and discern a value. This task has been pretty difficult, most of the amps I'm looking at seem to be extremely similar or clones of one another? My understanding is that an "OEM" would reach out with a chinese or korean manufacturer and pick from a list of qualities they would like their amps to have, and based on those qualities the build house makes them, chooses various components to make this happen and ships them a lot of 500 or whatever units and the OEM then distributed them.

Basically I'm not familiar with most of the brands, and some of the ones I am familiar with, I have no RECENT experience with them so I'm unsure on if they are still good, or what. Hoping some people can chime in and give me something to help decide. At present from all my research I'm looking at the US Acoustics Big Ben or a Zapco amp as top contender. It seems big ben has alot of value, although its an asian buildhouse amp from what I can tell, I see they specifically offer a 2yr warranty, Mike Nicholls is associated with this brand(a plus to me), and the SNR/THD numbers look good. Not that those would be deal breakers but I'm having trouble finding anything else to differentiate these amps by. If ZED made something closer to the power level I was looking for I would be considering that as well.

So the brands and models I'm looking at are(copying from a spreadsheet I'm building with stats and prices)

Brand Model

Zapco C2k 9.0 XD

US Acoustics Big Ben

Zapco Z-3KD

Arc Audio KS2500.1

Sundown Audio SCV-4000D

Ampere Audio AA-3800.1

Crescendo Audio BC-3500D

Sundown Audio SCV-3000D

DC Audio 35k

Crescendo Audio BC-2000D

Crescendo Audio BC-5500D

Digital Designs M3C

Zapco Z-2KD

Zapco ZX-65k

Ampere Audio AA-5000.1

Icriminator Audio IA40.1

Zed Audio Minotaur

Sound Qubed Q1-4500D.1

Synergy Audio WFO 15.1D

Skar Audio SK-3500.1D

Some of these just won't work out but I've listed them for consideration on things like strapping some smaller amps, but the impedance doesn't seem to work for me as I can only show a mono load of .25/1/4 ohm or a stereo load of .5 or 2. Also I'm trying to keep this simple. The US Acoustics earns more points as well because I can replace my rockford fosgate 800a4 with a barbara ann to run my highs and have matching new amps, and its really inexpensive with great stats on it.

P.S. If you don't feel comfortable bad mouthing a brand or something like this on a public thread I understand, you can PM if you want or hold your tongue. I'm a brand new account on this forum and just signed up with the help of Aaron.

If anyone is interested in the spreadsheet I have it in google docs I can share the link.

current sub amp: https://photos.google.com/u/1/album/AF1QipN04tF_82tE1tcrdolXGSNhwhcgpR3srY3HPdlT/photo/AF1QipObdJkFPljwFH6kWSATKxoNboQMznNrNEkQ52ri

current highs amp: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/GsoTvSufeBtfXjumyGKBSM097TTOHpWBQKYiKo5h6ik=w507-h381-no

Thanks for your time, sorry for the long post

All the amps you listed except for the last one are all great amps. Grab one you like the looks of and can afford and give it a shot. I currently have a bc3500 and love it. Had several soundqubed amps that were awesome.

...or keep what you have as you won't hear a difference

I am having some difficulty with my zapco currently, and if I don't get it sorted out I'll be replacing it, and while I'm at it I'll bump the watts up if I have to purchase something. Researching my options, I'm actually away from home this week so I can't troubleshoot on my car, so this is all I can do for now If I wasn't having problems I think it would be fine for the most part. Also getting support from anyone at zapco seems really difficult atm, I really love their products but the support has me second guessing them.

Well I ordered a big ben, should be in in a few weeks.

 

So what did you guys not like about skar? As far as I can tell its like almost all the other korean amps on that list, I am having a very hard time telling them apart. 

 

Does anyone know what kind of options are presented to an OEM when they select the amps to be built? What can they choose from? I'm very curious

Well I ordered a big ben, should be in in a few weeks.

So what did you guys not like about skar? As far as I can tell its like almost all the other korean amps on that list, I am having a very hard time telling them apart.

Does anyone know what kind of options are presented to an OEM when they select the amps to be built? What can they choose from? I'm very curious

Its not so much the product itself. Its more of the owner behind the company.

I'm not trying to brand bash or anything. Just do a little research and you will see what i mean.

Edited August 4, 201510 yr by ohio45113

Owner is a shady asshat and will screw anyone he can for $$.  Not who I would like to do business with.

 

Bummer your amp was toast.  

Thanks for the replies, I did some looking as suggested. It seems he's a focused business man, I didn't look at any interactions with customers or anything that deep just read about his company, schooling, etc. So my opinion would be he is focused on bottom line and not as much about relationships in the community or customer loyalty. Sounds like a few other people I know, so I can understand the frustration, and no I wouldn't like doing business with this person. So thanks for the tip.

You will love that Big Ben. US Acoustics stand behind their products with great customer service.

All the amps you listed except for the last one are all great amps. Grab one you like the looks of and can afford and give it a shot. I currently have a bc3500 and love it. Had several soundqubed amps that were awesome.

I thought you'd like my results, I just sorted that spreadsheet by fusing current to make it a little easier to read. I have a column with $/watts and the crecendo amps and the SQ did awesome.

 

Here is a snippet https://goo.gl/photos/fp5UgXrB7iQCeSya8

 

Remember, some of these values you may see and ask yourself why the F is he even listing that, but I was having a very hard time deciding between amps and I wanted to list as much as I could.

All the amps you listed except for the last one are all great amps. Grab one you like the looks of and can afford and give it a shot. I currently have a bc3500 and love it. Had several soundqubed amps that were awesome.

I thought you'd like my results, I just sorted that spreadsheet by fusing current to make it a little easier to read. I have a column with $/watts and the crecendo amps and the SQ did awesome.

Here is a snippet https://goo.gl/photos/fp5UgXrB7iQCeSya8

Remember, some of these values you may see and ask yourself why the F is he even listing that, but I was having a very hard time deciding between amps and I wanted to list as much as I could.

I just ordered 2 of these on friday!! :-D