I needed a new 4-channel. Decided to take a chance.

[tRidiot]

In an effort to get rid of a whine that has bothered me for years, the only item I haven't replaced is my Zapco 6-channel Z150.6.

I need plenty of power, at least 250 watts at 2 ohms for my midbasses. Now, I'm running HLCDs, so those don't need much, but... I don't want to do with 2 amps, say a large 2-channel and a small 2-channel.

So I decided after much looking around to try something that looks interesting. I've looked at some of the newer, more inexpensive large 4-channels from Sundown, Skar, Wolfram and more. I realize they're not the build quality of the Zapco (probably), but like I said, I've been living with this whine for years and I'm finally just... over it. It's fine when I have it turned up, it gets drowned out, but at low volumes, it's inescapable. It varies with RPM but has never gone away, in spite of changing - quite literally - almost every single piece of equipment in the system and even going to digital from HU to processor. Even batteries. Even alternators. The ONLY pieces that have remained unchanged are my 2 Zapco amps and my Stinger 5Farad capacitor. RCAs have been changed and re-routed, although I guess power and ground wires are still the same. Although playing with multiple new ground points and ground loop isolators, etc., has been done.

So I saw a review done by Big D Wiz on YouTube on the Down4Sound JP234 4-channel amplifier. This amp is rated at 234w x 4 @ 4 ohms and sells from the D4S website at $340. Sounds like it could be a Boss or Pyramid style rating, right? Expect 80-100 watts per channel?

Well, Big D did a dyno test on it which was actually pretty impressive, to say the least. Here are the output numbers - note he only tested 2 channels at a time. Frequently in his videos he will say if he hooked up channels 3 & 4 to a dummy load or something, but this time he did not.

Certified 1%THD @ 4 ohms/40Hz
334W & 338W

Uncertified to clipping @ 4 ohms/40Hz
338W & 340W

Dynamic power @ 4 ohms/40Hz
282W & 291W

Certified @ 2 ohms
425W & 433W

Uncertified @ 2 ohms
350W & 449W

Dynamic @ 2 ohms
490W & 481W

Bridged 2 channel mode

Certified @ 4 ohms
678W & 683W

Uncertified @ 4 ohms
758W & 821W

Dynamic (burst) @ 4 ohms
860W & 909W

Here's Big D Wiz's video review, which I've watched a couple of times now.




So I went ahead and ordered the amp. I thought, I need something to get me through while I have my Zapco out for repair (assuming that's my problem) and this looks like quite a powerhouse. It would make a nice 3-channel for someone running just components in front with a passive crossover and a sub. But as a 4-channel, 300W+ at 4 ohms at a sub-$350 price point sounds almost too good to be true. And maybe it is. Maybe it's a one-hit wonder that will only run for 90 days and then crater, but I thought it was worth a try.

No cooling fan, that's about the only downside I can see to it, honestly. I'm kind of excited to see how it performs, and even more to get rid of this GD'd whine... I'll be honest, I've been embarrassed to attend any meets or anything because of it. In a field of SQ oriented guys, and with as much as I've put into my system over the years - I was frustrated as hell to have ongoing whine and I didn't want to get rid of my Zapcos, which have been my pride and joy for many years. I've gone through a number of super power amps in the past, from the RF Titaniums to PG Xenons and eventually when I got my Zapcos I figured I was finally set for the "life" of my truck. But somewhere along the way, when I was messing with stuff I got the polarity reversed on the Z150.6 and got a spark, that's the only place I can figure it might have gotten damaged. So if this solves my problem, I'll probably send it off for diagnostics and repair. Probably.

When it comes in and I get it installed, we'll see how things sound then.

<edit> And for those who are wondering why the hell I need so much power for my midbasses, this is why. I gotta have plenty of output to keep up with 6.5kW of Zapco power to my low end.

[jrwalte]

No worries at meets. Just never start the car

Hope this solves your problem, just to have finally solved the noise issue!

[Notloudenuf]

In an effort to get rid of a whine that has bothered me for years,

All you had to do was kick Al out of the car.

[tRidiot]

Amp came in last night - packed VERY poorly, sliding around inside a USPS Priority Mail box.

At least 5" of room for it to slide back and forth. <sigh>

I haven't opened it yet. It feels lighter than I expected it would.

Tomorrow I will install it, hopefully it will work fine.



Really happy with the fast shipping. Really disappointed with the poor packing.

[tRidiot]

Ok, so I got the amp installed. Decent first impressions, seems powerful enough, but I haven't done anything with it, really. It works, it plays, no noise (f***ing YEAH).

Ran into some bumps initially. I think I'll do an actual review of the amp in the appropriate section once I get my system tuned back up and such. For now....

Really poor packaging, as I mentioned above. Here's what I found when I opened it up:



As I mentioned, about 5" of free space (helluva guess, eh?) around the internal box. Not good, in my opinion.



I'm sorry, man, just a really poor job in the shipping dept, if you ask me.



I get a pink lanyard and a sucker. Well... ok. Whatevs.




So this is the entirety of what was packed around that internal box:




And once I've completely removed the internal box from the USPS shipping box. Looks nice enough, I guess.




It's smaller than I expected:





Now, here's where it get's interesting... I decided to do a video of this part to sort of CYA... in case of need for return or something.

More to come...

[tRidiot]

Comparison to the Zapco.








I'm trying to get my video uploaded and formatted properly for hosting.... it'll be up in a few, I hope.

[tRidiot]

In the meantime, I decided to put some better labels on some of my wiring... the masking tape from... I dunno, 10 years ago? Prolly not quite that long, but at least 7 or 8 years ago, doesn't look like it's gonna last, and it had gotta ultra sticky and gooey.




The new labels. I just grabbed some bright ass rigger's tape I found in a drawer.

[tRidiot]

See if this video will work here....

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n9M...ew?usp=sharing

[89grand]

I'm a Process Engineer for a circuit board assembly house, main expertise in SMT, but I've been in this business for about 30 years. That solder looks like it fell off maybe a soldering iron from someone tinning their iron or something, and stuck to the solder mask on the board, although it won't adhere very well to the solder mask, and it probably came loose during shipping.

Granted, that should have been seen during inspection of the circuit board, before it was even installed in the chassis, as something like that floating around in the amp could have easily shorted any number of components out. It doesn't look like a damaged solder joint, so you should be good. Luckily you heard it and found it before you installed it, before it went somewhere that could have caused a failure. It would have been difficult to figure out what caused the failure had it done so.

[tRidiot]

I agree, that sounds about right. Haven't gotten to do full tuning on this thing yet, I've just set some levels and crossovers through my C-DSP 6x8. Sadly, I do think I'm going to need to get back behind the panel and turn the gains up on the mids just a hair, I have them at about 1/4 now. I can get plenty of volume out of them but the HLCDs are so sensitive I can barely turn them down enough to match, and either they're way to quiet at low volume or they scale so much higher than the mid too quickly it becomes painful.

And lots of tuning to do.

But overall I'm pretty happy, it does seem to have really helped - I did notice a TINY bit of whine last night when driving across town, but don't hear anything when sitting in the driveway. It is really hard to hear, but it is still there. <sigh>