Ahhhhhhhhhhhhrggggggg!

[Skittle]

I hate stripped out allen nuts on the speaker....GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRR.

[integralsgreen]

Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95530)

[Skittle]

Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95530)

ORDERED! REP!

[TJElite]

You know Harbor Freight has local stores...right?

[P057]

You know Harbor Freight has local stores...right?

Yeah, i think i have one next to TWO of my parts stores.

[88RedRex]

i know there is one one Nebraska i believe and i know there is one in St. Pete somewhere

[Skittle]

You know Harbor Freight has local stores...right?


Yea,I know there is one out on Nebraska,But "F it"..:lol: I'm woofered out.

[Notladstyle]

Just solder your leads to the terminals. allen screws FTL.

[Skittle]

Just solder your leads to the terminals. allen screws FTL.


I was thinking about this.Sure would make life easier. :lol:

[Notladstyle]

I'm solder happy. All of my mids/subs are soldered in, I even soldered my speaker leads and power wires to the spade clips that attach to the amps =/ I was thinking of opening the amp up and soldering the supply wires to the board but knowing me ill get bored and want to move the amps in a few months...

[MCOR]

I'm solder happy. All of my mids/subs are soldered in, I even soldered my speaker leads and power wires to the spade clips that attach to the amps =/ I was thinking of opening the amp up and soldering the supply wires to the board but knowing me ill get bored and want to move the amps in a few months...

Solderholic! I hope we never have to swap out a failed component after one of your installs. Your ears will be burning...

[TJElite]

I'm solder happy. All of my mids/subs are soldered in, I even soldered my speaker leads and power wires to the spade clips that attach to the amps =/ I was thinking of opening the amp up and soldering the supply wires to the board but knowing me ill get bored and want to move the amps in a few months...

Back when I used to compete, I used Orion amps. They didn't have screws, they had molex style plugs, with lead wires. I decided to solder to the board, and bring the wires out the back of the amp, through the box. So, you had an amp bolted down, that didn't look hooked up. I just did it for the appearance, but it was amazing how many people asked me where my real amps were, and why I had these extra ones bolted to my box.

For a while, I used a pair of 225HCCA amps for the system. I pulled all the wires out the back, butted the amps up against each other, and had blank end plates made. So all I had was this big, red anodized amp block on the enclosure, with no visable wires.

Toby

[Notladstyle]

Back when I used to compete, I used Orion amps. They didn't have screws, they had molex style plugs, with lead wires. I decided to solder to the board, and bring the wires out the back of the amp, through the box. So, you had an amp bolted down, that didn't look hooked up. I just did it for the appearance, but it was amazing how many people asked me where my real amps were, and why I had these extra ones bolted to my box.

For a while, I used a pair of 225HCCA amps for the system. I pulled all the wires out the back, butted the amps up against each other, and had blank end plates made. So all I had was this big, red anodized amp block on the enclosure, with no visable wires.

Toby

any type of marginal gain in output or reliability?

[TJElite]

any type of marginal gain in output or reliability?

Can't say, for sure, but I do think that I gained a little bit of heat capacity. I ran the sub amp 1/2 ohm stereo, and the mids/highs amp 2 ohm stereo, and I think that having the heat sinks touching might have let the sub amp bleed some of its heat into the other.

Since these amps normally had leads coming out, the connections were usually soldered anyway. But, in a screw terminal type amp, I could see where a properly soldered connection, especially to the board (provided it is a simple single layer board) would be more reliable and possibly offer higher output and less heat. The output issue is probably negligable though, since even 10 or 20% more power wouldn't really be noticed...not that I think you would get anywhere near that.

Oh yeah, for those of you not adept at soldering, don't try this at home. The heat required to flow the solder is real close to the heat that wrecks things like boards, components, and even voice coils. I knew a guy that always soldered his tweeters to the speaker wire. He wasn't that great at it, and insisted on using big wire. He also had about a 20% failure rate on the tweeters, that I blame on too much heat. He blamed it on bad tweeters, even though lots of us used the same ones, and didn't have any problems.

Toby

[MCOR]

That was another point I was thinking about. Have seen many earlyfailures due to excessive heat used while soldering direct by both novices and pros-it's really easy to cross that grey area.

About the amp design though, it has always intrigued me that with all the engineering electronics manufacturers put into the dummy end caps on high end amps to lamely attempt to hide the connections (JL, Alpine just to name a couple of the more "exotic" end caps), it seems that there would be a market in the high end competition amps for a selectable position to hook the inputs/outputs to. Like being able to swap connections from the side to the bottom instead (then wires lead out through a dummy plate from the back side of the speaker box or whatever). Then we wouldn't have to always make flush dummy cover surround plates (their nice, but every comp car has had that forever). Also, it would make it easier also to "pedastool" / "float" mount an amp. Many new possiblities would emerge in my opinion to "wake up" the design side of competition systems. Just a thought...

[Notladstyle]

I'm fond of the Polk Momo covers - traditional wiring with a shroud that converts it to a 90 degree connection angle.

[TJElite]

That was another point I was thinking about. Have seen many earlyfailures due to excessive heat used while soldering direct by both novices and pros-it's really easy to cross that grey area.

About the amp design though, it has always intrigued me that with all the engineering electronics manufacturers put into the dummy end caps on high end amps to lamely attempt to hide the connections (JL, Alpine just to name a couple of the more "exotic" end caps), it seems that there would be a market in the high end competition amps for a selectable position to hook the inputs/outputs to. Like being able to swap connections from the side to the bottom instead (then wires lead out through a dummy plate from the back side of the speaker box or whatever). Then we wouldn't have to always make flush dummy cover surround plates (their nice, but every comp car has had that forever). Also, it would make it easier also to "pedastool" / "float" mount an amp. Many new possiblities would emerge in my opinion to "wake up" the design side of competition systems. Just a thought...


These are great ideas, but I think the issue is with who is installing stuff these days. Back in the late 80's / early 90's, when amps were built more like you describe, car audio was much smaller, lots of people were in to competitions, and there were few diy'ers. So, the amps were primarily designed for professional, custom, installation. Headunit wiring harnesses, dash kits, and amp wiring kits were almost non-existent.

Now, the primary consumer is someone who never competes, at least not in comps that judge installation, and who will probably put the stuff in him or herself.

Toby