What's up old school fans? Sorry, it's been too long since my last post. I have acquired a few more "cheater" amps from the 90's I'll be testing soon. I've decided to stick with the "50 watt" (25x2) cheater amps as these are more affordable and easier to come by.
Here's a 1992'ish US-Amps US-50HCA, high-current, competition 25x2 amp:
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| US Amps US-50HCA - 1992 Model in 9.5/10 Condition |
Another popular 25x2 cheater amp from the 90's was the HiFonics Ulysses. This mode is the Ulysses VIII, which has the Utilink connectors for speaker and power. Unfortunately, my amp was missing these connectors and since Zed stated these connectors are no longer made (the power connectors were specifically tooled for these amps and no longer manufactured). The speaker connectors are easier to come by. You can either spend $15-20US on eBay or search the Digi-Key catalog for a suitable replacement. I chose the latter.
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| Fully Polished 1996 HiFonics Ulysses VIII |
More details on these cheater amps and maybe I'll be able to come across a few more to include in my shootout. I'm looking for 1) MTX 225HO 2) MTX MTA 225 (clone to the PPI Pro Mos 25) 3) Autotek 9050BTS and a few more I can't think of right now.
Here is the list of 90's cheater amps thus far for my shootout:
1) Rockford Fosgate Punch 45HD
2) Precision Power Pro Mos 25
3) Phoenix Gold MPS-2240
4) Orion 225HCCA (Gen2 and Gen3)
Here is the list of 90's cheater amps thus far for my shootout:
1) Rockford Fosgate Punch 45HD
2) Precision Power Pro Mos 25
3) Phoenix Gold MPS-2240
4) Orion 225HCCA (Gen2 and Gen3)
5) US Amps US-50HCA
6) HiFonics Ulysses VIII
So, how will I perform the shootout? Well, I'm thinking a true power output test using my dummy loads and oscilloscope as the first test. I plan to have the means of testing loads from 4ohms down to 1/2 ohm. Obviously, I'm not going to load amps, such as the Punch 45HD lower than 1ohm as it was not intended to handle extremely low impedance loads as some of the others were. Many people may argue the Punch 45HD should not even be considered as a cheater amp, but those people can do their own shootouts!
In addition to the power output tests, I'll also demo each amp powering one or more subwoofers. It will be interesting to see if the most powerful amp also controls the subwoofer(s) best. We'll find out soon enough...
-BigD
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Update: 6/27/11
Many of you have contacted me asking why am I taking so long to post the shootout between the cheater amps I have listed above. Honestly, I was hoping to get the HiFonics Ulysses VIII amps repaired as they were both dead. My repair tech said it would be about $100/ea to have them fixed and since I needed some other amps repaired, I decided to trade in the Ulysses amps. That said, I won't be getting them back, so I'll have to remove them from the test. I've seen a few Autotek 9050BTS's lately, so maybe I'll be able to pick up one of those for the shootout.
In addition, the Phoenix Gold MPS-2240 is experiencing the same issue as many 90's Phoenix Gold amps....leaky output capacitors. These capacitors will need to be swapped prior to any further testing with this amp. Too bad as it may be several months before I'm able to get around to having it repaired.
Stay tuned for updates....
So, how will I perform the shootout? Well, I'm thinking a true power output test using my dummy loads and oscilloscope as the first test. I plan to have the means of testing loads from 4ohms down to 1/2 ohm. Obviously, I'm not going to load amps, such as the Punch 45HD lower than 1ohm as it was not intended to handle extremely low impedance loads as some of the others were. Many people may argue the Punch 45HD should not even be considered as a cheater amp, but those people can do their own shootouts!
In addition to the power output tests, I'll also demo each amp powering one or more subwoofers. It will be interesting to see if the most powerful amp also controls the subwoofer(s) best. We'll find out soon enough...
-BigD
------
Update: 6/27/11
Many of you have contacted me asking why am I taking so long to post the shootout between the cheater amps I have listed above. Honestly, I was hoping to get the HiFonics Ulysses VIII amps repaired as they were both dead. My repair tech said it would be about $100/ea to have them fixed and since I needed some other amps repaired, I decided to trade in the Ulysses amps. That said, I won't be getting them back, so I'll have to remove them from the test. I've seen a few Autotek 9050BTS's lately, so maybe I'll be able to pick up one of those for the shootout.
In addition, the Phoenix Gold MPS-2240 is experiencing the same issue as many 90's Phoenix Gold amps....leaky output capacitors. These capacitors will need to be swapped prior to any further testing with this amp. Too bad as it may be several months before I'm able to get around to having it repaired.
Stay tuned for updates....
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