Cool new Buttkicker Digital amp (1 Viewer)

[Jack Gilvey]

This looks cool.

2100 watts @ 2 ohms for $500, no fan, nice form factor/ergonomics. Any reason this wouldn't work for subs?

 

[Kyle Richardson]

Wow, that looks to be a nice amplifier, especially for the price/watt ratio. The only thing I wonder about is how clean it is. Designed to power a Buttkicker, it wouldnt need to be very clean and since we dont have THD figures I would be a bit cautious about powering a subwoofer. If the specs are reasonable I wouldnt see any reason why it couldnt be a good sub amp.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

Yeah, no idea how clean it might sound. Only $399 at Musician's Friend. Jerry McNutt mentioned this one over at the IB Cult, he's going to try one with his IB and let us know.

 

[Martice]

That's hot! I may have to jump on it and take advantage of the 45 day money back guarantee. Darn it, I just bought me a QSC RMX 850 to power the AV15 I have coming from Stryke.

I hope that this amp is good for subwoofers as well. I will definitely pay the price of admission for this one and sell the QSC.

 

[Martice]

Well one good thing I've noticed is that it has a selectable crossover and since we know that buttkickers are not used for the upper frequencies, this may indicate that this amp was designed to NOT ONLY work with the Butt Kickers but for subs in general therefore providing good quality at a low price. Ok I'm reaching. There's only one thing to do.....

I'm ordering it tonight and will return it if I don't like it. Heck I have 45 days to play with it.

 

[Robert_Gaither]

wow, I was wondering when a company will come out with one like this. I guess I might have to get my feet wet also.

 

[Marv]

Damn that amp at that price is to good to be true. I hope someone gets one before 3/30.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

Yeah, it really looks nice for the price. Kyle makes the best point, though, there's no THD tolerance listed for the power ratings. I e-mailed the company, I'll let you know what I hear back.

 

[Martice]

If it sounds really good and you can get it at $399.00, I guess we may need to revisit THIS thread from not too long ago for some tweaked out suggestions.

 

[Rusty Boudreaux]

Several folks from AVSForum have ordered from this guy: [email protected]

He's doing powerbuys at these prices:
The buttkickers are 220 each
The amp is 275 and the
Isolators are 8 bucks each...

 

[Martice]

I looked in the Power Buy and Sales sections and didn't see a word of it. Can you please supply a link to the page?


Thanks

 

[Martice]

Well it seems that the power buy may be over. Oh well, even at $399.00 it's a steal if it performs well.

 

[Robert_Gaither]

I hope to hear some reviews on it soon, I can see a high demand for this amp from all the AV forums members with either Diy ambitions, passive subs (a pair Ultras, B4, power 15.4, or Everests being pushed by something under $500 is just unreal to me), and maybe even some of the car audio people who'd like to try their go at it with some of their subs. I can't wait to see what some of the Diy suppliers will come out with to compete with it.

 

[Martice]

I got in touch with the guy who organized the Group Buy on AVs and he had the Butt Kicker amp going for $275 plus shipping. He has one left but he said that if he could get about 20 people to order at once, he could get that price again.

I'll keep you posted.

One thing though, $275 for 1000watts into 4ohms? This is either the deal of the century or a cheaply built amp that has little regard for sound quality.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

One thing though, $275 for 1000watts into 4ohms? This is either the deal of the century or a cheaply built amp that has little regard for sound quality.

Yeah, that's been brought up in this thread and others. I think the digital amps will provide lots of power for much less money than we're used to. Remains to be seen how this one will fare in a subwoofer role, though. Haven't heard back from the company yet.

 

[Martice]

Remains to be seen how this one will fare in a subwoofer role, though. Haven't heard back from the company yet.

Well I spoke to Mark of Butt Kicker and we talked about the concerns of others on this forum about the "quality" aspect of this amp. Although he would'nt be specific he did say that "there were some short cuts taken to keep the price down" and when I asked him how it would handle as a subwoofer amp he said "he wouldn't want say things about the amp that he couldn't backup although he's impressed with the sound quality of the amp".

He also said "before he makes a claim about the amp, he wants to make sure that the amp has been evaluated by the company so that the only claims made about the product are true and accurate."

I'll keep you posted.

 

[TimForman]

Personally I'm using a PylePro 2800 to power my Tempest sub. This amp is rated at 1000W with a peak output of 2000W. THD is .1%. They sell for much less than $399. I think using pro amps for subs is a good way to go.

 

[Mark gas]

400 bux for 2000 watts does not seem out of wack if you compare it to car audio amps. You can pick up a good quality 1000 watt plus car amp for around 200 bux easy.

 

[Martice]

I don't know. When I spoke to Mark at Butt Kicker he was very careful as to what he said and for the type of question being asked "would the BK Amp work well for subwoofers?" he really didn't want to answer that one. You'd think that the question would have been easy to answer and I'm surprised that they didn't have any information that would have supported the units flexibility. The fact that the BK was designed for a oversized vibrator is enough to go about this in a cautious manner.

Then again, if you have $399.00 to spare give it a shot. I was emotional at first and almost pulled the trigger but I've decided not too just yet. Besides, I think I have a wonderful line on a K1 from Crown and my QSC RMX850 just went up for sale.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

Here's what I heard back from [email protected]:

While it would technically power a subwoofer, we're analyzing its performance to see if it has any value in that function. Our first priorities with this project were BK power quality, time to market, and price. I'll let you know as things progress.

Sounds reasonable, professional, and honest.