My new amps again..


Early Xmas to me... Bravo to Arc Audio for the build quality feel, fit and finish on these!
No offence, as I have owned them- but comparing the feel of these to the Zaps-the c2k feel like a beat up old Chevy in comparison with their loose cosmetic panels . Down to the thick bottom plate, a nice solid tap and these amps it feels very solid all around. Nice and heavy, clean look and layout of the connections.





In their condom glory...

 

4200SE


These 2300's ARe BEASTS!@! This is as close to a matched pair as it gets




I'll post some pics of the top mounted controls later . Maybe some of their bellies although Don posted some long ago.

 

Oh my god lol. Beautiful!! Nice pickups!

 

thats a sick way to package amps its like the old Jordans I used to have. I had a small hunch these were in the future for ya once I saw the old amps being sold. Let us know how these beats sound!

 

hawtness

 

manny that is pure sexiness!!!!

 

Sexcellent !

Oh wait..saw em already.

 

goddammit. those things are ridiculous

 

OMG. I think I need to change my pantaloons.

 

Don, thanks for the great prices! Doing business with you just seems to get better and better, you sure know to to take care of your customers. Again thank you.

 

You need a new avatar pic with teh new sexy's

 

Thank you gents...

OK...here they go..

This is where these puppies breathe...

The heatsink through both end plates have access to the exterior, you can see the windows below the connections...


Vented casing running down both sides, the length of the amplifier.


The bottom plate ,essentially the base of this heatsink.

 

4200SE Power and signal side.(40 amp fuses)



2300SE Power signal side.(40 amp fuses)


For the top panel cover-Used a size #1 Stanley precision phyllips screwdriver and the screws came out with ease. With a #0, I was initially have a very hard time as they torque in tight.





Giving the xover potentiometers a twirl they felt very smooth, tight and in place- doesnt move sideways at all, no jiggle to it- felt solid(these are metal, not plastic). The switches themselves appear/feel same as the sliders used on the XXK's, nothing much to them.
Layout is pretty self explanatory.

 

just gorgeous amps!

 

tons of controls FTW!!!!

 

Very nice pickup there Manny.

 

Sweet Manny. Thought you were done

 

Orale Esse...donchu kno I loco

 

Agreed.

Can't wait to get mine, should be anyday now

I've been meaning to give Don a call when I get a moment to see what's up.

 

Ohhhhh you belong to CarAudio also??

 

Nice amps Manny! Hurry and hook them up so we can drool over the pics. Damn I got to drive down to Don in NJ and check out all these new toys! Might be time to trade up the ARC amp too.

 

nice amps buddy. should sound decent. Let's just hope there is no more alt. whine......

 

So Manny where did you get the idea to do SE's?!?!

 

IbyouneedanewHUtohandlethefiberoptics

 

It was of his own idea, although we both knew hed be back to the dArc side. Since we both had plenty play time with mine and a bit hands on experience as a good friend I suggested he use the same ones I have. Worked out quite well.

 

For me, the Only way to reap the benefits of high end....


Analog baby!

Now if only i could get a DXE modded for Cat5 outputs...

 

 

Then you could STREAM music from a PC!

 

^^ HA! But no more RCAS! Hmnnn...several hundred spent on rcas or about $20 worth of Cat5 for the whole car?

Besides, running balanced means isolating the signal from the ground of the vehicle..wooot!

 

So get to paintin', it looks SExy

 

^^^Nice!

What did you use to sand it down?

 

Straight razor. SEM Landau Black paint.

 

Very Nice Manny!

How do they compare to the XXK's? How much better are they? Is the difference very noticable (SQ wise)?

 

Sonically I cant say they are better, very simlar characteristics but anything different can be attributed by more headroom. In my application they are indeed dynamic and really give you a well rounded detailed kick from my midbass. The DLS setup was indeed warmer presentation.

I cant say I bought these for their sound, rather their footprint/power ratio and features. The xover on these amps are sweet and I plan on running analog from here on out. Just not a fan of the processed sound of the digital equipment I've used, its a tradeoff I'm not willing to accept with the quality of the drivers I'm using. I'll concentrate on maximizing my install instead.

 

Why would an analog processor/x-over network sound better than a nice digital processor? BTW, I use the p9 combo for all of my processing. I'm curious because I don't have too much experieince with anolog sound processors. I've used some audiocontrol stuff but, I think audiocontrol is garbage...

 

Not so much digital processing, as it is time alignment. You are delaying a whole speakers range to achieve a center image. When a simple shift in the midrange can accomplish this.
You sacrifice overall dynamics to get a 'hologaphic' sounding center image...since when is all music supposed to be holographic? Thats what i mean by 'processed sound'.I've achieved a good center image simply by positioning my midranges to a center focus in the dash. To deal with side bias, your ears will follow the stage towards its strongest sense of sibilance.
Which all it leaves me to deal with is tuning down via eq the sources of sibilance on the drivers side and level match the best possible by ear. What is not perfect(same as using a digi unit), can only be shown using an RTA.
Of course one needs L/R EQ.

TA overall is a trade off and still a bandaid for poor speaker placement. The benefits of individual ch gain, ideal xover points, L&R eq and phase are far greater.
In other words I prefer that in 5% of the music I listen to for the center image to wonder a few inches from center than suffering the loss of dynamics of using T/A. I place greater importance to the tonal aspects of the sound reproduction to get the glory of the my speakers.

I'm not objectively saying one is 'better' than the other but from a fidelity standpoint I know many high end caraudio speaker manufacturer will tell you analog yields the best sonic and tonal results-as in home audio its no different. Big difference between tuning your speakers individually to the signal vs tuning the original signal itself digitally before it reaches your speakers.

 

Interesting...I also have my mids positioned in a similar direction (They're in the kicks of course). I have my tweets in the pillers (sort of on the dash). and of course my midbass drivers are in the doors.

I basically time aligned all of speakers to a point that is directly in between the passenger and the driver so it's not just a one seat experience. I use time alignment to make the sound more precise and less muddy (since my mids are pretty far away from my tweets), I don't use time alignment as any sort of band-aid for poor speaker placement and/or a poor soundstage. Although, I can relate and see where you're coming from as far as it being used as a band-aid. The placement of my mids a tweets gave me a nice focused sound stage (time aligned or not).

I would like to pick up an Arc DXE to play with and compare to my P9. I also would like to switch most all of my amps to Arc XXK's or SE's.