LISTENING
Okay, letās get real hereā¦ the main purpose of this amplifier is not really to listen to music at the normal 90-110db listening volumes us reviewer types use. This amp is designed to play extremely loud, and it makes no excuses for that. But sonically, itās still a very listenable amplifier, providing you have enough woofers to dissipate the huge amounts of power that can be generated by simply turning up the volume. Or, you can just be very, very careful, which was my approach. In terms of living with this amplifier as a daily driver, while itās certainly possible, you are going to need a beefed up electrical system to handle the current demands that this type of amp simply must have. Iād suggest a high output alternator, and a matched pair of high current batteries at minimum. While normal musical signals certainly do not draw the huge current test tones do, it is still possible for this amp to look for 500-600 amp bursts of current if youāre working it at all.
 |
 |
 |
 |
PERFORMANCE/BENCH MEASUREMENTS
Without final specs available, I simply connected the amp to my test bench and ran the numbers. To be fair to the design, in addition to the usual 12.6V and 14.4V tests, I also measured power at 16.0V since that is a big part of the design. And man, this thing has power to spare, at any impedance! It makes more power into a 4 ohm load than most amplifiers do at 1 ohm, and itās because of amplifiers like this that I had to spend 20 grand on an 900 ampere power supply and 16 kilowatt load bank. Maximum power at 1 ohm at 16 volts was a ridiculous 9419 watts! If you do the math, that means the amps output to the speaker load was over 90 amperes, and over 90 volts. Be careful kids, this thing can hurt you if youāre not careful! And, if you havenāt figured it out yet, wiring your woofers with 16 gauge cable isnāt gonna cut it this time!
All of the controls and functions performed as intended, and the crossovers and subsonic filters worked as advertised. The bass boost is a little unusual, with a low āQā curve that allows a significant amount of boost across a fairly wide band of frequencies. As I expected, signal to noise wasnāt exactly spectacular, but really, with an amp like this, who cares?
CONCLUSION
āThe Oneā is made for those of us who simply want enormous amounts of power, whether you are a serious SPL competitor or you simply want to be the loudest guy in your town. This level of performance doesnāt come cheap however, as this amp will set you back a cool $5999.99, and thatās before you buy the charging system upgrades and heavy duty cables. But, if this prototype is any indication of where the new Phoenix Gold is heading, car audio enthusiasts could be in for some very interesting times. With promises of several āsurprise productsā coming from Phoenix Gold in early 2010, Iām definitely going to be keeping my eye on whatās going on over there!
Related Articles
RAYS Debuts New Matte Translucent Black Finish for the VMF C-01
James Deane Clinches FD PRO Atlanta Victory in Wet Weather Showdown, Talaska Tops PROSPEC
LF Audio Expands U.S. R&D and Manufacturing Operations
Slammedenuff NC 2025
Tuner Battlegrounds Season 12 Champion Crowned
TBG Season 12 - THE TOP 2
