glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,107
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Cheap amplifiers on eBay. glenanderson
@glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member 64
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Nov 19, 2020 15:06:59 GMT
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Anyone got any experience of the cheap amps on eBay? Something like this: link
I am after something to boost the output of the basic mechless JVC head unit I have in my Land-Rover. I’m not after audiophile quality sound, just something that will drive some similarly basic speakers at a level they can be heard above the rest of the mechanical cacophony.
Any views/perspectives/experience/warnings welcome.
😃👍
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Nov 19, 2020 15:41:10 GMT
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I looked at these earlier this year and then realised for a around £10 more I could get an Auna branded one from a seller in Germany I think. It arrived quickly, compared to a Chinese one, although it no doubt is the same thing with less spelling mistakes on the writing on it! Its been running 4 speakers in my Golf for a while with no issues, and was handy for me as it had an RCA out so I could then feed the other amp for my Sub too. Here is what I bought: Auna amp specs are probably more realistic than the one you posted which must be the sum of all the channels peak figures. EDIT: Price has gone up since I bought it. Now £20 more! It won't win any competitions but does all I need and would for you too I would think.
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Last Edit: Nov 19, 2020 15:43:03 GMT by miniman31
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Nov 19, 2020 15:44:48 GMT
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See the excellent Chinglish you get on a similar one for £1 less than your link
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Last Edit: Nov 19, 2020 15:45:05 GMT by miniman31
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,107
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Cheap amplifiers on eBay. glenanderson
@glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member 64
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Nov 19, 2020 15:57:17 GMT
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🤣
I had missed the quality translation.
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Nov 19, 2020 16:13:06 GMT
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🤣 I had missed the quality translation. It is a humorous feature tbf, and if it is hidden once installed nobody would even see it. I have just seen the link you posted says it is UK based so could be worth a punt. Hopefully others come forward with experiences as mine hasn't exactly lived a particularly hard or long life yet so hard to comment on reliability.
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,107
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Cheap amplifiers on eBay. glenanderson
@glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member 64
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Nov 19, 2020 17:09:12 GMT
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Yes, when I make a decision on what to get, it’ll be mounted out of sight underneath the driver’s seat. Nobody will ever know what a cheapskate I am. 😃👍
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,194
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Cheap amplifiers on eBay. ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Nov 19, 2020 17:34:17 GMT
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It should do the job.
However, bear in mind a decent wiring kit will be around £15 with a fused power wire.
If it were me, I'd get a set of speakers with a higher sensitivity. Most aftermarket speakers are designed to run with an Amp.
Something like the Alpine Type-Es work very well off headunit power, as they have light cones, which helps with the output and sound.
However, I can guarantee you the pic of the Chinese amp above won't put out 5000W in a million years. With 100V DC, it may be possible for a while. The RMS figure is what you need to look at.
Most headunits are around 10W RMS Alot of the cheaper amps are not much more than this. Maybe 30-50W RMS per channel on a good day. This would be around 100+W per channel when bridged.
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Last Edit: Nov 19, 2020 17:37:30 GMT by ChasR
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,107
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Cheap amplifiers on eBay. glenanderson
@glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member 64
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Nov 19, 2020 18:18:25 GMT
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Thanks Chas.
I’ve got a JVC head unit, and four Sony speakers. The Land-Rover is just a huge tin box. I am planning on some sound deadening, but it’s a trade off between damping the noise and holding the condensation in the vehicle. I just want to be able to hear the speakers without having to have the head unit cranked up to the point it sounds awful.
I’ve also got plenty of cable in various sizes, but if I’m better buying something audio specific then I’ll get some. 😃
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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shin2chin
Part of things
Making curse word cars slightly better
Posts: 820
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Nov 19, 2020 19:12:47 GMT
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My old 110 benefitted from a few rolls of flash band on the inside of the doors, roof and side panels. Like you said it's just a tin box so resonates like a female dog. It made it a lot quieter and I could almost hold a conversation with passengers.
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1977 PORSCHE 2.0na 924 1974 VW Beetle 1600
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mk2cossie
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,953
Club RR Member Number: 77
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Cheap amplifiers on eBay. mk2cossie
@mk2cossie
Club Retro Rides Member 77
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Nov 19, 2020 19:16:39 GMT
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If you can justify the extra cost, Vibe make a powerbox micro amp. Theres a mono one for subwoofers (which i have) and a 4 channel one that is a tad bigger. You could mount that behind the headunit, and not have speaker cables going back and forth in the cab And the single 6.5inch sub behind my glovebox appears to have more kick than the 10inch SPL humongous great thing in the boot!
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,107
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Cheap amplifiers on eBay. glenanderson
@glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member 64
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Nov 19, 2020 19:31:12 GMT
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I’ve no space whatsoever behind or around the unit. My plan was to run the phono cables from the head unit to the amp under the seat, and the speaker cables from there up to the roof.
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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ferny
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 984
Club RR Member Number: 13
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Cheap amplifiers on eBay. ferny
@ferny
Club Retro Rides Member 13
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Nov 19, 2020 19:53:23 GMT
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For that price I'd be looking at second hand on eBay. I've bought amps with subwoofers for less locally and they've been "proper" brands.
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Nov 19, 2020 20:38:22 GMT
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Have a look to see if you have a High Pass Filter on the head unit, saves a lot of the low bass going to the speakers (most of which you won't even be able to hear from little speakers)
I did this before the good system went in to my old MR2. I had the OEM speakers and an aftermarket head unit, set the HPF to 80hz and you couldn't notice the loss of bass but the speakers did stand up better to turning the volume up
Remember, a lot of OEM head units do this anyway, usually quite gradually as you raise the volume the head unit will be rolling off the bass.
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thomfr
Part of things
Trying to assemble the Duett again..
Posts: 640
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Nov 19, 2020 21:28:45 GMT
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Some Physics: 5800 watt / 13,8 volts (at its best) = 420Ampere !!! Bulsh@t!
Thom
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73' Alfa Giulia Super 64' Volvo Duett 65' Volvo Duett 67' Volvo Amazon 123GT 09' Ford Focus 1.8 06' Citroen C4 Exclusive
71' Benelli Motorella 65' Cyrus Speciaal
The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys
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Cheap amplifiers on eBay. fr€$h&m1nt¥
@freshandminty
Club Retro Rides Member 99
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Nov 19, 2020 21:53:30 GMT
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I was going to suggest the vibe microbox too although it is more than double the generic one you’ve looked at so all depends on what you want to spend really.
In the past I’ve tended to buy second hand branded audio rather than brand new unbranded but that was in the days of talkaudio forum so you could usually trust the sellers rather than ebay lottery.
Another option is a little but powerful Anker Bluetooth speaker that you can sit on your dash or passenger seat and pairs with your phone easy enough. That’s what I’ve used for shows this year before I’ve got around to an audio setup in the Acty. It also helps in that it changes from music to phone sat nav instructions and phone calls automatically.
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,107
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Cheap amplifiers on eBay. glenanderson
@glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member 64
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Nov 19, 2020 22:11:09 GMT
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Currently the radio is out while I carry out some jobs. I had it in a roof mounted box I’d made, which was fine except for the slight problem I couldn’t read the display without craning my neck, because of the twin issues of viewing angle and needing to look through the bottom bifocal bit of my glasses. It won’t be going back in until I have swapped the roof, side panels and windscreen; I just wanted to make a plan to get it useable when it does go back. The head unit, being mechless, is very shallow, which should allow me to fit it in front of me in the dash. I’m not 100% sure it will go yet, but it should. The replacement roof I have has a headlining, and the sides will have windows, both of which should help with the drumming. I’m planning on replacing the door bottoms too, and any replacements will get some flashband or dynamat and a canvas door panel to further civilise it. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for a secondhand branded unit, but I really don’t want to be spending loads of money. I’m not expecting 5800W from one of those cheapy amps, just hoping that they’d be adequate, or better than nothing. It' has just occurred to me that I should measure the available space under the driver's seat before I get too carried away...
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Laters
Club Retro Rides Member
Head Droid Builder and Bottle Washer
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 115
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Cheap amplifiers on eBay. Laters
@laters
Club Retro Rides Member 115
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Nov 19, 2020 23:25:41 GMT
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A few of my thoughts and findings of cheaper Chinese in car audio equipment. Firstly some of the cheaper Chinese car audio gear is much better than others. Even if it looks the same that doesn't mean it is.
A lot of the internal amps are quite poor. Not only from the prospective of they are nowhere near the output that is claimed but they are also quite poor quality adding quite a bit of noise and distortion. Sadly a lot of the cheaper unbranded headunits also suffer from the same issue.
There is the odd diamond in the rough but some of them are really quite dire.
I did a lot of research into the cheap no mech slimline headunits that are sold all over the place for a silly low price. Currently have couple here. One is fitted to my other halfs 106. Despite good quality speakers it manages to sound very wooly and in my opinion has quite poor sound quality especially at anything above quarter volume. Its a shame about the sound quality issue as it functions really well especially given the price.
I have looked at the cheaper end amps to compare to the now ancient amp I have in my car but haven't done anything as yet given the poor sound quality of some of the units I have helped people with.
I am not going to mention even the slimline headunits have a circuit board that looks tiny in the small case. Some of the Chinese android based headunits are really customizable and offer a lot of features for the money but the internal amps do let a lot of them down. On some of them even the pre outs are not the best audio quality either which is a shame. There are some great sounding ones but they tend to be in the higher price range and are nearly the cost of a branded unit.
I have been involved in the install and repair of car audio electronics since the 80's & yes some of the cheaper stuff is ok but I would much prefer to buy a lower end branded product than a unknown. You could end up buying a diamond in the rough or it could just end up being a total pain & sound poor.
Sorry if some of the above is slightly off topic but I thought some of it was valid.
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Last Edit: Nov 19, 2020 23:26:54 GMT by Laters
Club Retro Rides Gti Member
Garage Queen, 1987 Quantum Saloon
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,107
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Cheap amplifiers on eBay. glenanderson
@glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member 64
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Nov 19, 2020 23:49:40 GMT
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I was going to suggest the vibe microbox too although it is more than double the generic one you’ve looked at so all depends on what you want to spend really. In the past I’ve tended to buy second hand branded audio rather than brand new unbranded but that was in the days of talkaudio forum so you could usually trust the sellers rather than ebay lottery. Another option is a little but powerful Anker Bluetooth speaker that you can sit on your dash or passenger seat and pairs with your phone easy enough. That’s what I’ve used for shows this year before I’ve got around to an audio setup in the Acty. It also helps in that it changes from music to phone sat nav instructions and phone calls automatically. The Vibe looks good, but I don't want to spend that much if I can get away with half that. It is very compact though, and if I don't have room for the cheap one then it's worth considering. I had thought of a decent bluetooth speaker, but that would mean using my phone as the sole input source, and with the whole "hands free" thing I don't want to be interacting with my phone any more than I have to. That, the fact that decent bluetooth speakers really aren't cheap, the unwillingness to be having to put stuff out of sight every time I get out of the motor, and the massively "harsh and unfriendly to expensive tech" environment the filthy grubby inside of my Land-Rover presents means that it's a no.
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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thomfr
Part of things
Trying to assemble the Duett again..
Posts: 640
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Nov 20, 2020 13:50:20 GMT
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73' Alfa Giulia Super 64' Volvo Duett 65' Volvo Duett 67' Volvo Amazon 123GT 09' Ford Focus 1.8 06' Citroen C4 Exclusive
71' Benelli Motorella 65' Cyrus Speciaal
The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys
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