From a repairman's standpoint they may not be exactly the same but they're
damn similar. ferinstance-take a great american amp-the series VIII Hifonics
Zeus. Power supply fets are IRFZ44N, has the same type transformer almost
everybody uses, and uses a TL494C PWM control IC for the regulated power
supply. The cheap ol Lanzar Vibe 250 uses the SAME components, down to the
exact same number of drivers, but has lower quality solder and a lower
quality PCB. The Vibe has a lower rail voltage, so produces 50 less watts
per channel than the hifonics, but it did bench test a good 250W per channel
into a 4 ohm load. It doesn't clip as gracefully as the Hifonics, but it
does use the SAME PARTS in the power supply. 90% of amps made use a TL494
regulator and the same power supply topology, with some minor differences
just so they can market it as being different. As to all amps sounding the
same WHEN OPERATED WITHIN THEIR DESIGN LIMITS, I agree. I've been in the
audio business for 14 Yrs both as a repairman and an installer and I've seen
cheap outdo expensive and the other way around. A lot is in how the operator
uses it, and the quality of the install.

--
Jammy Harbin
J & J Electronics, Inc
227 S. 4Th St.
Selmer, TN 38375
731-645-3311
"Pug Fugley" wrote in message
hlink.net...
That's mainly a product of the power supply. But Zarella seems to think
that
ALL amps have the same exact power supplies in them for some reason.



"Captain Howdy" wrote in message
...
I don't understand how this could be a wattage issue, since this is an
auditable difference at low volume levels. A few years ago I was
running
a
1200 watt 4 channel Pyramid bridged in to a pair of 4ohm 12's and it
powered
them nice and loud, but there just wasn't any low bass at low volume
levels.
Then I replaced it with a Kicker IX704 amp which had loads of grindage
at
low
volume levels. But oddly enough it did not hit as hard at high volume
levels.
It's not just the Pyramid, I have a pair of Profile amps here that act
the
same way.


In article , "Mark Zarella"
wrote:
What I have found with so called cheap amps such as Profile, Jensen
and
Pyramid is that you have to crank the hell out of them to get deep
bass.
Where
more costly amps such as Orion, Kicker, PPI and MTX seem to produce
deeper
bass at lower volume levels. I also found that these cheaper amps
seem
to
run
a lot hotter. The only reason for this that I can think of is an
inadequate
power supply.

No, that's not a problem. Every "cheap" amp I've ever tested has a
flat
frequency response down to 20 Hz (lower in fact). This is well
documented
actually. What you're undoubtedly experiencing is a lack of power.
Use
a
bigger "cheap" amp and you won't run into this.