Well rounded amp for the money
Written: Dec 18 '08
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| adam728's Full Review: MTX TC3001 Car Amp |
I was looking to replace my monsterous Soundstream 5 channel (see other review). It was a good amp, but I only had it powering a single 8" sub in my Jeep, and I really didn't need something that big screaming "steal me!" in the back of my vehicle.
After surfing around a while on Ebay I ran across a refurbished MTX TC3001. It fit my needs (150 x 1 rms @ 4 ohms), and was small, big pluses. When the amp arrived it was in brand new condition. I was hoping to tuck it up in the dash of my Jeep for the ultimate in security, but it just so happened to be around 1/4" too thick to fit as planned. I fabbed some brackets and put it under the driver's seat instead. Install was straight foward, like any amp it needed power, ground, remote, RCA's, and the speaker wires hooked up. Also included was a bass control, which simply plugs in with a headphone-like connector. I drilled a small hole near my airbag control switch (they used to allow those in vehicles) and mounted the dial.
Setup was simple, there's gain, crossover point, bass boost, and an on/off selectable sub-sonic filter. This made a big difference for me. Like I stated earlier I am running a single 8" sub, a Dayton Quatro to be exact. With the sub-sonic filter on I can block out those low low lows that sometimes sent the poor bugger into over excursion. This allowed me to increase the gain a little more and gave me much more output in the usable range without distortion. And in a soft top vehicle on the freeway you need to push that little 8 for all it's worth just to hear it!
I really like this amp. It has a clean look, not covered in gaudy graphics, blinking lights, flickering power meters, or any of that other stuff. I often wonder with amps like that if the manufacturer skimped on quality in order to pack in those useless features. Anyway, back to the TC3001. I've been using it maybe 6 months now, and it's performed flawlessly, staying pretty cool any time I run it (of course I'm not asking much from it at 4 ohms). I like this amp enough that I've been keeping an eye peeled for a twin to put in the old-lady's Passat, where it will run 2 ohms to a Precision Power 10 that I have.
I would recommend this amp for anyone needing a quality, reliable amp. No, it's not a 1200 watt powerhouse that's going to dim your lights and make small childeren run in fear. But you could be surprised what a proper subwoofer / box setup can do with only 300 watts. Oh, which reminds me, the birthsheet for my amp shows 174 rms at 4 ohms and 320 rms at 2 ohms (there's probably some loss to heat, hence the power is not quite double).
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 104
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Epinions.com ID:
adam728
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Location: Tucson, Arizona
Reviews written: 68
Trusted by: 7 members
About Me:
27 yr old engineer at a fuel system company.
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