Cheap, bang for the buck amp
Written: Mar 16 '04
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Pros: price, features
Cons: large size, one speaker output
The Bottom Line: If you are looking for a cheap, efficient class D amp with lots of features, and don't care about its "name status", this could be the amp for you.
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| dipitydoo's Full Review: Visonik V800XD Car Amp |
I bought a pair of these amps just to try out because of their cheap pricing (I paid $160 each a few years ago). I sent in one of them to be bench tested at Autosound 2000 (they used to review amps for Carsound magazine). Here are the test results, all of them at 14V.
4 ohm - 360w
2 ohm - 580w
1 ohm - 840w
Efficiency was 64% at full power and 63% at 1/3 power. Total current draw was 93 amps.
The power results fall a bit short of its ratings (500w, 750w, 1000w at 4, 2 and 1 ohm respectively, although they list at 14.4v, and the amp was tested at 14v). But they are relatively close for the price of the amp. The efficiency was about average compared to other class D amps I've seen tested at their lowest impedance rating. Its efficiency held up pretty well at lower power levels, which is a good sign.
Visonik claims this to be a "class X" amp, although this is just a marketing term cooked up by a few manufacturers. Its really just a standard class D amp, which is a good thing. It is designed to drive subwoofers efficiently, and does so well. Due to high frequency switching noise inherent in class D amps, its limited to around 350hz by a full time lowpass crossover. Its listed dimensions are (W x H x L) 10.5 x 3.11 x 17.91, so it is somewhat large in size, but not that bad for a 1000w amp. The amp has two plastic "shrouds" that cover the wiring, and it adds to the overall size of the amp. It can be removed if one wants to save space. At the top of the amp, there are multiple holes drilled through the chassis to move hot hair out of the amp. This is done via a fan mounted directly beneath the holes. I am a fan of cooling fans on large amps, so this is a nice feature. At one end of the amp is the power and speaker connections. The power and ground connections are the insert terminal type (which I prefer) and appear to accomodate 1/0 gauge wire. The speaker and remote connections accomate about 10 or 12 gauge. There is only one set of speaker outputs. Most mono sub amps I've seen use 2 sets, and this would be preferred when wiring multiple subwoofers. Also on this end are (4) 30 amp fuses. At the other end are the signal processing and low level connections. From left to right, we have a single rca connector for connecting 2 amps together for double the power into a single load. Next to it is the master/slave switch to determine which of the two amps will serve as the master amp for controlling the settings. Next, we have the gain control and the bass boost, which is centered at 45hz and is variable up to 18db. The manual did not state if this is a wide or narrow band slope. In the center is the connector for the remote level control, which Visonik nicely includes. Also included is a subsonic filter, variable from 10hz to 50hz, and has a 24db/oct. slope. The full time lowpass crossover is variable from 50hz to 350hz, and is also of the 4th order variety. And finally, there are a set of inputs and outputs, the outputs which can be used to connect additional amps.
All in all, the amp has lots of useful features, especially for the money. The subsonic filter is nice for protecting subs in ported enclosures, the remote level control module is very convenient, and the cooling fan is a nice added bonus.
I wired one of these amps up to my 95 Nissan Maxima. Power and ground wiring was done with 4 gauge wires. Speakers were 10 gauge. I wired the remote level control in the dash for easy bass level adjustment. I wired a single Adire Brahma dual 2 ohm subs in parallel for a 1 ohm load. This was where I wished the amp came with an extra set of speaker outputs. While the single output is sufficient, having another set just simplifies the install that uses multiple subwoofers or voice coils. Other than that, the install was straight forward. Running the amp through its paces with a variety of music and test tones at various levels, I found it to perform excellently. I found very little difference in loudness between my Crossfire CFA1000d and this amp. The power difference between these two amps is about 300w, which may seem like a lot, but it takes double the power to increase output by 3db. In this case, the difference was probably around 1db, which may be huge in spl comps, but not audibly. After having the amp in the car for a few weeks, I was very satisfied. It performed flawlessly, didn't shut down, didn't get too hot or had any other problems. I did not hook up the 2nd amp in bridged mode, but you can do this very easily and double the power avaiable, although max power would be achieved at 2 ohm rather than 1 ohm. The remote level control was great for adjusting bass level for various types of music (and turning down the bass when passing the police). I didn't use the bass boost (my system has a decent eq already) and the subsonic filter was set to its lowest setting (10hz) since my sub was in a sealed box.
Overall, I would give this amp a very high recommendation, if anything for its reasonable price and its many useful features. It gets negatives for being perhaps overly larger than it has to be, and its use of only a single set of speaker outputs, but beyond that, I had no other complaints. I can't say anything about its reliability, since I've only had it for about 3 months before I sold both amps. My selling them, however, has nothing to do with its quality or anything wrong with the amp. Its just that I get bored easy and like to try different configurations in my system very often.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 160
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Epinions.com ID:
dipitydoo
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Member: Jay Yoon
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 4 members
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