have given up on trying to get my Hifonics brutus 1606...and dont want to spend over 300..what do you guys recommend....it will be pushin a 15" Kicker L7 dual 2 ohm VC !!!!!!

 

What kind of wattage are you looking for? I'm assuming the max the hifonics is raited for.

Hit up ikesound.com and ebay. You're going to be hard pressed to find an amp that puts out an honest 1500+ watts for that price tag unless you're going b-stock or used. I would suggest looking for a NINe.1 on ebay or the like.

Here are two options from about 30 seonds on ikesound

Car Audio wholesale distributor Alpine Pioneer Kicker Clarion Hifonics Kenwood Boss - Ikesound.com - Directed Audio D2400 ,Class D Mono AMplifier
Car Audio wholesale distributor Alpine Pioneer Kicker Clarion Hifonics Kenwood Boss - Ikesound.com - Precision Power D1000/1, PPI 1000 Watts CLASS D MONO AMPLIFIER

 

lookin for over 1000 and under 1600 ish that directed audio amp doesnt sound too bad..

 

Kenwood KAC-9152D

 

thats not even close to what i need....thats max power..not rms..and its lowest impedance is 2 ohms...i need 1...thanks for the help tho

 

Actually that amp is 1 ohm stable. Also if you are running it at 1 ohm, The wattage will be about 1100-1300W RMS

 

kenwood is a lower quality brand, i wouldnt go with that, i would go with a jl audio 1000/1, you can get them on ebay for cheap, also, you could get a kicker Kx1200.1 from ebay to, those are both very good amps.

 

I would not consider $400 plus for a 1000/1 cheap. Also, I would not consider Kenwood a lower quality brand. They make some really good SQ decks that make use of Burr-Brown DACs. I will agree that the Kicker is a good amp.

 

That Kenwood is going to be tight on the budget unless you go refurb. And just a little low on the power at 900W into 1 ohm. It's really going to be more like 800, but NO ONE doesn't push the numbers a little. Kenwood get a bad name mainly for there HUs. The Mask units in particular. The ribbon cables in these are always going bad. I could get the ribbon cable for $15.00 and change it in under 10 min and I still would by one of the Mask units. You also have to keep in mind that Kenwood is #2 in sales in the country. You going to find more bad ones with those sales numbers. But the amps are well thought out designs and well built. The 9152 is a really reliable amp. The 9152 (and it's brother the 8102) are for the most part beefed up version the the prior years 8101. They just made some small improvements and beefed up the parts people where killing, mainly by running them at full tilt for a long time. 1 ohms is hard on any amp, but the Kenwood should hold up nicely. It's a better built amp then the other ones that were linked, but they would hit you're power goes. And the price looking at refurb'd units balances it all out. You'll have to consider you're power goals and the price, then keep in mind that even with a less reliably amp you're more likely to get an amp that works then one that doesn't.

Now with all that said about those amps, my vote goes for the one I didn't mention yet. I would go for the NINe.1 and be vary happy.

 

I can think of a few companies that sell underrated amps. Kicker, Rockford, and Elemental Designs just to name a few. In general, most companies that provide birth sheets (ED doesn’t) tend to underrate their amps. As for the Kenwood being a better amp all I was trying to do was match price and output with what the original poster wanted. I will wager to say that you shouldn't have any problems with either amp I linked to unless you really beat the **** out of them.

I didn't NINe.1 mention one because they're $350 new and somewhat hard to find used because people like them (and thus keep them) and because they’re not that common yet. I actually checked e-bay for one before my links to see if one was up for grabs so I could link to it. I'm personally running one of these and I can vouch for build quality as well as output. 1 ohm stable and 1200 watts @ 12.5 volts is a great bargain for $350 brand new. People have claimed 1600+ watts from their NINe.1’s at 14.4v. The thing pumps out amazing power and stays ice cold. If you bumped your price range up $50 I would recommend one as my top pick. You really can't beat the performance or the 3 year warrantee. Here’s a link: Elemental Designs

Nice to see that you're still around NEEDAZ

 

of course you wouldn't but any real car audio person would tell you that 400 for the jl audio 1000/1 is a very CHEAP price. especially because it puts out clean wattage and is underrated, and yes, kenwood is a "lower quality" brand, for amps anyway. yes they make O-K head units, but thats about it. they are overrated on their amps, maybe 1 or 2 good ones, other than that, they are not that good, plus they are expensive.

 

another thing, a couple places that are better than ikesound and ebay, are,
Welcome to HiFi Sound Connection

Onlinecarstereo.Com - Wholesale Car Audio/Stereo Deals At Bargain Prices

and

Name Brand Car Audio and Video at an affordable price! Savings on Car CD Players, MP3 Players, Car Amplifiers, Car Subwoofers, Car Speakers, and Car Video at Sonic Electronix! Car Audio, CD Players, MP3 Players, Subwoofers, Speakers, Car Alarms and more at Sonic Electronix!

 

I have used that kenwood amp on many occasions and will be using it to power my 3 12" Alpine Type-R's. It is NOT a cheap amp. It puts out well over 1000W RMS, and runs very cool and stable. Also you can find a new one on ebay for about $150 shipped

 

ok whatever, theres no need to freak out and blow a head gasket. all i was saying is that its a lower quality amp. which it is, ask any pro car audio person. they are a cheaper quality, and yes, they are overrated a bit.

 

it says they can only go 900w??...still not enough for an L7 there isnt any place where i could find a NINe.1 cheaper????

 

Easy tiger – don’t start accusing me of things before you know how much knowledge I may or may not have. I understand that $415 for a used 1000/1 is a good price all things considered however it's well outside the posted price range. That’s why I didn’t post a NINe.1 initially even though it’s only $50 outside the price range. If I had all the money in the world I might buy a 1000/1 one but it's hard to justify spending so much money on something that's only going to be reproducing a couple of octaves of sound that are generally not reproduced entirely accurately due to subwoofer limitations anyway. IMO the money is much better spent on a good frontstage amp where it can be easier heard and more appreciated. Keep in mind that JL isn’t the only company to underrate their amps

I'm not pushing Kenwood; I’m just saying that they make a decent deck and that all their stuff isn’t garbage. It’s certainty better than a lot of the crap that’s out there. I happened to link to that amp after spending 30 seconds on Ike Sound. Yes, there’s better out there but for that price it’s hard to beat the value.

It can do 1,200 @ 1 ohm. As for the NINe.1 watch icixsound.com’s for sale section. One will pop up every other week. You can usually get them for less than $300 shipped. Even if you buy new it's $350 shipped.

 

that NINe.1 would be really nice....but i might go with the directed audio that you recommended....has anyone had any experience with them??

 

You are absolutely right. They are some, but for this budget and power goals... And Rockford is is bouncing on the line. They are pushing the Peek#s In advertisements and just tripling the RMS#s to get then. I would keep my finger crossed that they don't continue down that path. If they ever drop there "birth certificates" that be spell the end.

I agree. Like I said, more likely to have a working amp there one that doesn't. But there are those out there that you could F' up, and they'd just melt the emitter off the outputs and the other channels would keep on rolling. Thats the power supply I want. But I'm in a somewhat unique position to see what really goes wrong.

Always question the people that claim some power # they get. I have YET to see someone that's doing more then reading average voltage (not real RMS) or P-P voltage and running the number with ohms law. This never works out right. It's just not that simple.

I stop in from time to time. I just get tiered of the Internet ***** and pissing matches with people that just don't get it.

Kenwood, and that amp in particular, is far from 'lower quality'. There Mask HUs in the other hand, I wouldn't own.

 

Only been in a couple Directed units. Not overly impressed but nothing really bad that jumps out at me. Should be fine with that one.

 

I was just trying to point out that some companies don’t bump their numbers up still even though the number is shrinking. It's not as bleak (yet) as you made it out to be in your first post IMO. That’s the only reason why I brought kicker, etc up.

In case you don't know, NEEDAZ fixes this kind of stuff (decks, amps, etc) for a living so take his word very seriously. He's got more real world experience than anyone else on this board.

 

i agree, your right on that. im just trying to give him an idea for one of the best amps, i know alot of dumb people who buy a boss amp for 100 bucks who claim its 3000 watts, and 1200 RMS at 4 ohms. it aint possible, you get what you pay for, thats pretty much the bottom line. but yea, i see what your saying.

 

Completely true. Those people are pretty annoying especially because they honestly believe their puts out all 3,000 of those watts. They're always amazed what I manage to accomplish with around 1200.

 

1200 true rms watts is actually quite a bit.

 

Don't bet your lifes savings on that

Great to know there are qualified people around willing to offer advice tho.

I too am an electronics technician with 20+ years of experience, specializing in Audio/Video, Access Control and RF.

I put my time in on the workbench doing consumer audio for several years. I mostly do commerical stuff now.

Keep it up NEEDAZ, troubleshooting is an artform, some people have it and some do not.

 

It's fun.
I dislike more of the pro-audio stuff. I really hate doing big mixers. WHY IN THE H3LL DO THEY MAKE YOU TAKE ALL THOSE G.. D.. ***** and nuts off 500000 POTS TO CHANGE AN $0.79 OP-AMP.!.!.!.!. Can't beat an old Crown amp though.
I've found more of a mix in the consumer level stuff. I only have a little time in RF stuff. You have you ham ticket? N3NXL here. I'm getting a lot of time playing with high current, hight voltage gear lately. Nothing like 10,000 A or 170KV to keep you on your toes. Got smacked with a 2KV from a megger last week, good thing the small ones load down. I liked my time on the amusement games the most. Testing a pin ball is just fun, especially the old electromechanical ones. Nothing like 10000 contacts to get dirty.

 

A used D2