Great Budget Amplifier
Written: Mar 30 '04 (Updated Jan 01 '05)
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Pros: Affordable, powerful, top notch quality.
Cons: This is a BIG amplifier, it may be hard to fit into some applications.
The Bottom Line: If you need a solid 5 channel amp, here it is. Nothing can touch the quality for near this price!
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| adam728's Full Review: Soundstream EGA5700 Car Amp |
First off, a few of the specifications for this amplifier are wrong every place I look on the internet, including Soundstream's webpage. I emailed them and was told it would be corrected, but I have net seen a change yet.
Overall length is actually 21.8 inches, as measured by me and also listed in the owner's manual that came with the amp. Every where else it is said to be 18 inches, and that is wrong! Also, bridged power is 200 x 2 rms, NOT 440 x 2. I just though I should bring these up, as someone buying the amp may be getting something they don't need or can't fit without knowing it.
First Impressions:
This amp is BIG. At a foot and three quarters long and around 20 pounds it is no tiny amplifier. The amp was very well packaged, and included all the mounting screws and also the allen wrenches for tightening all wire connections on it. The finish and quality of the unit all seemed top notch. The row of switches, dials, and connectors across the bottom may seem intimidating to some, but the manual explained very well what everything does.
Installation:
Installing the amp was no more difficult than any other amplifier install I have done. Setting it up is another thing. Most people just throw a sub amp in, set the gain, and they are done with it. Since this is running ALL my speakers and a sub I had quite a bit of tweaking to do to get the gains and crossover's set for the best sound. Initial setup was easy, but I am picky and therefor spent a lot of time playing with everything till I felt it was perfect.
Performance:
I can't stress enough how happy I am to get this amount of power, flexibility, and clean sound from an amp for such little money. I have not bench tested the unit, but I would be willing to bet that it does every bit of the 50 x 4 and 150 x 1 which it is rated. I am running a pair of Memphis 4x6's in the dash off the front channels, a pair of Cadence 6.5 components in the doors off the rear channels, and a single JL Audio W-0 subwoofer off the sub channel. All channels are seeing a 4 ohm load, so really I am not stressing this amp at all. After much playing around I actually turned the gain all the way down on the dash speakers, as the components give good imaging and more volume than you can stand to listen to for more than a few seconds.
The crossover's work very well and are easily adjustable. The power is there and plentiful, and clean. There is no background hum, static, or anything. This is a top-notch amplifier. My one gripe is the bass boost feature. From the specs you'd think you can adjust the level of boost and the frequency of which it occurs. This isn't true! It is simply and on/off switch that boosts bass 18 dB's from 40 to 120 hz. There is no tweaking it, it's all there at once. This may be great for kids that want to make a lot of noise, but for those more concerned with sound quality it causes a sharp drop off below 40 hz. I ended up tweaking my deck more and leaving the bass boost off so that I can have strong output from around 28 hz up to 80 hz (where then the components begin to take over).
This amp is also a cool runner. Granted, I am not running it hard at all, but most amps will get pretty warm even at "idle" with no load hooked up. I own a regular cab S-10 pickup and the amp is mounted behind the passenger seat with only about 1/4" of clearance for cooling. Past setups have gotten me some pretty toasty amps, but this thing stays cool as can be. Even on an 8 hour trip for spring break this thing stayed almost totally cold, warming up only a few degrees above the rest of the truck cabin.
So, to round things up. This is the best amp for the buck I have ever used. I ran a Precision Power 6 channel amp a while back, and I would say that this Soundstream has all the quality, for a fraction the price. Many people worry since Power Acoustic's parent company bought out Soundstream, but I assure you, this is a GREAT product.
Update, January 1st, 2005
I have been running a pair of Dayton Audio Quatro 8 inch subs for a few weeks now. The sub channel is now running at 2 ohms and the amp still runs very cool, even at high levels. There are a few pictures of it installed in my truck at www.sounddomain.com/id/adam7728
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 182
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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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