# Which were the best sounding oldschool series made for Hifonics amplifiers



## coomaster1 (Jul 22, 2010)

Hi,I'm sure there are some die hard fans of old school Hifonics amplifiers on these forums.Which series of the old school Hifonics amps were the best sounding of the bunch.What were the wattages of the amps.I am mostly interested in the larger amps that did no less than 250 Rms watts at 4 ohm. Also if you bridge these old school hifonics amps ,do they heat up quickly,and should they be used solely for midrange and tweeter sound quality because the Sq is so good,or could the bigger amps be used to run 2 subs for sound quality without heating up.,or would it be a waste to use it for a subwoofer amp.Any information would be greatly appreciated Thanks


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## cajunner (Apr 13, 2007)

good question, I think the series 8 was the most reliable, the series 6 was prone to overheating on low impedance, and the series X, or the ones that has the funky looking heatsink with whimsy font, was the most advanced before the ESX stuff. A lot of the improvements probably had to do with the pre-amp section, they complicated that part, after they simplified the power supply when they dropped the Vari-Power circuits.

Versa-Cross, etc. was interesting, even in their high-value line of American Warriors they managed to get some perks thrown in to put them ahead of the big box dreck of their day.

As far as cult following I think the series 7 stuff is pulling the most off auctions, but I couldn't say it's because they were the best examples out there.

From what I remember, they were good all-purpose, subs or highs. It didn't really matter, as long as you were aware they sucked the juice and you gave it to them, they'd drive whatever you put on them. Like the old Rockford in that way, I guess. Some say that Rockford was only good on bass but I didn't find the highs to suffer, I always thought my series of US Amps (USA 150) weren't as clean on highs as some others, but they were just starting out back then. By that time, Autotek had come and gone, it was 1996 and the world of amplification had about reached it's zenith, before the comedown.


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## coomaster1 (Jul 22, 2010)

Thanks for your reply,I was beginning to wonder if it was a bad day to post a question about the oldschool Hifonics amplifiers. Were the VII series Hifonics amplifiers known to be the cleanest sounding of all the series. Also how high of watt amplifiers did the VII series go up to when producing 4 ohm loads for the 2 channel amplifiers without bridging them.


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## cajunner (Apr 13, 2007)

coomaster1 said:


> Thanks for your reply,I was beginning to wonder if it was a bad day to post a question about the oldschool Hifonics amplifiers. Were the VII series Hifonics amplifiers known to be the cleanest sounding of all the series. Also how high of watt amplifiers did the VII series go up to when producing 4 ohm loads for the 2 channel amplifiers without bridging them.


another good question, if the purpose was simply to obtain the best Hifonics variant for an old school build but if I had to guess, I'd say the point where the company went from the old gold high current variety, Eros, etc., to the splitting of the lines- a high and low version was where they cut costs.

it seemed like that was when someone decided to push into marketing, I don't know that there has been an improvement since that point in circuit topology or the use of high-tolerance parts.

I know that Zed is pushing the new Leviathan, so embracing class D as the worthy successor and I'd probably put those in a queue of amps I'd like to hear or use, but that wouldn't be old school either.


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## coomaster1 (Jul 22, 2010)

Hi, Definitely looking to keep it to the old school hifonics amps for an old school build. I'm probably asking a question here that can't be answered, since most people either listen to either one or the other amplifiers.and have not heard both. Are the oldschool Hifonics amps from say the VII series better sounding than the alpine 3543,3544,and 3545 series.


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## miniSQ (Aug 4, 2009)

Series Vii were always my favorites back then, and i still have a soft spot for them today.


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## ou812 (Oct 25, 2008)

Very interesting topic I must say.


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## coomaster1 (Jul 22, 2010)

I forgot to ask. Do the Hifonics sries VII amps have a turn on or turn off thump. Also do they have built in crossovers, or are they a pure power amp. Which of the VII series was the most powerfull 2 channel amp.


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## ATOMICTECH62 (Jan 24, 2009)

HiFonics have always been my favorite amps.I have owned and worked on hundreds of them.In my opinion they reached there peak performance with the series VIII's.
The VII's were pretty damn good but they took those and improved them with 1% film resistors and made the all discrete stage driver boards for every VIII model.
The generation X models are completely different designs.I've owned a few of them but never really cared much for them.For one,they dropped the Varipower design(class G/H) so they were much larger and inefficient compared to other amps.
I still keep a few VII's and VIII's on hand for backups.


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## coomaster1 (Jul 22, 2010)

Hi, If you had to pick between the Hifonics VII amps and the Hifonics VIII amps for sound quality. Do you say the VIII are the better sounding amplifiers,or is the VII amps just as good,but the VIII,s built better. What are the biggest 2 channel amplifiers out of both of them series.I've heard great things about the oldschool hifonics amplifiers. Since you have years of listening experience with these amps.How would you describe the sound quality,and headroom they deliver,and fullness to the sound,and not sounding thin.Does everything sound right with them,and they reproduce everything perfectly,or do they just do some thing good,and fall short overall. I'm used to the oldschool alpine 3544 amps ,and the sound quality they produce,While staying very clean at high volume listening levels ,though they start to heat up pretty quickly.Will the oldschool hifonics amps be any better than what I have.Looking forward to hearing from personal experiece ,,what they can really do. Thanks


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## ATOMICTECH62 (Jan 24, 2009)

The biggest 2 channels they made were the Colossu, 2x600 at 4ohm,2x900 at 2 ohm and the Zeus,300x2 at 4 and 450x2 at 2.
Then its the Boltar,200x2 and 350x2
Thor,125x2 and 200x2
Odin,90x2 and 150x2
Vulcan,50x2 and 90x2
Pluto,35x2 and 60x2.

I think they are very dynamic due to being under rated with a class g/h PS.Plus they are fully regulated down to about 11volts so they dont sag when the sub amp is pulling down the voltage.
I cant really tell you if there is any difference in sound quality between VII's and VIII's but the VIII's were built better.
They will run hot if they are loaded down and driven hard but the only one I remember shutting down was an Olympus I used to run a set of old JBL GTi 15's bridged into 4ohms 2 ch mode.But it was pushing them very hard for some periods of time before it would happen.
I would run the HiFonics over the Alpines.Old school American made amps rule.


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## coomaster1 (Jul 22, 2010)

Hi, Thanks for explaining about the hifonics amps. I was looking for a quality sound quality old school amp.,and I always heard great things about hifonics. My oldschool subwoofers are pretty power hungry ,and the rms wattage on them calls for 300-350 per sub at 4 ohms.It sounds like the colossus or the zeus amp would be the ones to choose from to run the subwoofers. Could I get away with the smaller zeus amp that is 300 watts per channel to run them, or should I go with the colossus amp.I know with my alpine amps, when I try to bridge them,I get the power out of them,but they heat up quickly.When you say 300x2 and 600x2., is that 4 ohm unbridged,won't heat up very quickly power. Also are the amps I,m thinking about made for sound quality, if I wanted to run tweeters,midrange,and midbass with them. If they can make those sound good at high levels,then it should be able to make subwoofers sound great. Thanks for all the help so far


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## CRUNK (May 9, 2013)

any of the old U.S.A made stuff


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## ATOMICTECH62 (Jan 24, 2009)

I would avoid the Colossus if possible.Those were the most problematic of them all.I dont know if was just from people abusing them or the very high internal voltages and all the paralleled output transistors but I've rebuilt more of them then any other.It was also the only one that was a bit over rated power wise.They normally only do about 550x2 at 4 ohms.
The Zeus on the other hand was a very reliable amp and under rated.They will do about 350x2 in reality.They also have an internal adjustment for rail voltage and I've got close to 400x2 out of them before.When run at 4 ohm stereo they are very stable thermally.
All the Hifonics from this era are high end sound quality amps and if you bought one new you paid for it.I remember we sold the Zeus VIII for $999 and my cost was $640 IIRC.
A friend of mine was was having some problems with amps and SQ issues on his front components so I put a Thor in there as a loaner amp.He is so happy with it I cant get him to return it.I guess he likes the amp better then me because he doesn't come around and wont answer his phone.


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## coomaster1 (Jul 22, 2010)

I think after hearing about the old school Hifonics amps. The zeus amp should have enough power, since it is under rated,Plus being able to dial up the rail voltage would definitely give me some headroom for the subs. Is the Zeus amp you were talking about for the sound quality and reliability ,the version VII or version VIII. Is there a built in crossover in it,or is it just solely a good sounding power amp with nothing needed to be adjusted to make it sound good. Also some old school amps have a turn on and off thump.Does the zeus amp you describe have any of that.,or is it silent when coming on and off.and last but not least.Is the 350 rms x2 at 4ohm at 12 volt, or do you half to have 14.4 volts to get the maximum power out of it,and if it is 12 volt,and I put 14.4 volts to it, am I going to get more power out of the amp ,or damage it in any way.These are pretty much my final questions,other than what a person should pay for a, in good shape used one. Thanks again


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## Black Rain (Feb 27, 2011)

I personally like Hifonics even though they have changed some over the years, like many other companies. But to me, they lost the SQ factor they used to have. Todays SQ type amps are all AB and they tend to get hot when you push them. Their D-classes to me are still great in performance and efficiency.

I would like to see them go to something like Zedd is doing with his. I still back Hifonics but think they need to work on there product line again and improve their 4-ch and their 2-ch.


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## coomaster1 (Jul 22, 2010)

Hi, I still have a few questions about the Hifonics Zeus VII amplifier that have not been answered,right above the black rain thread.Can someone please chime in on those questions. Thanks


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## ATOMICTECH62 (Jan 24, 2009)

I would go with the VIII's vs the VII's because they use better parts and the heat sink design is supposed to shed heat better.Plus they come in 3 different colors.IIRC none of the 2 channels had a built in crossover.The multi channel amps had a crossover but it was separate from the amp input section.You would have to run the RCA's into the crossover section and then run a RCA from the crossover output to the amp input.

The amps are fully regulated to 11 volts so they do their rated power at 11 volts and any voltage increase will not result in any increased output power.

They shouldn't have any turn on/off thumps since they have soft start circuits but with any older amps sometimes if the caps are going bad this can happen.I haven't noticed this with these amps though.

The last 2 Zeus's I sold went for $350 and $300 in very good shape but those were friend prices and about 5 years ago.I've seen them on Ebay for $350 up to around $600 depending on the shape.

There were 2 versions of the Zeus.The early VIII's had a power plug but they changed it to a hard wired version later due to the plug melting from people not having the screws tight enough.So I have seen a few of the earlier models that were modified to hard wired versions by the consumer after they melted the plug.


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## coomaster1 (Jul 22, 2010)

Hi, Thanks for answering the last of my questions. I'm sure I'll soon be a Hifonics amp guy after talking with you, sooner than later. Your help was greatly appreciated. Carey


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