# looking at crossfire/ jensen OS amps



## CK1991 (Jul 13, 2013)

I walked into a local pawnshop yesterday and they had 2 amps that caught my eye. One is a crossfire cfa-302 (american made). Overall it is in ok shape. Has 2 or 3 nicks in the heatsink and some wear on the silkscreening but otherwise looks ok. The other is a monster jensen (approx 18-20 inches x 12-14 inches). I didn't get a model number off it, but it was grey with jensen written on it in dark gold letters. Looked to be Esmark jensen (87 or older), not international jensen. It was very heavy. It might be a rebrand of a better amp. The heatsink had fins that went up on the top and out on the sides. Does anyone here have any knowledge on the old jensen amps? 
The guy has had these for a LONG time so he'll probably be willing to sell them at a decent price. I know, I know, everyone says jensen is crap, but I will say in my experience, they are not as bad sounding as everyone makes them out to be, and are very reliable and take a punishing (granted my jensen amps (the 2 of them that I ran) were Esmark jensen, not international jensen). I have a 15x2 rms jensen amp that fit in my hand that had sat in storage for 20 years, and I (being an idiot) ran it at a 2 ohm stereo load suspended upside down from my steering column in a beater van, feeding is a distorted/ clipping signal, and it did not die. You could fry an egg on it (I burned my leg on it more than once), but it would not die. And yes, I can afford better then jensen (and have better.) 
IIRC, he was asking 45 or 55 for the crossfire, and 60 for the jensen, but he will come down on price.


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## ATOMICTECH62 (Jan 24, 2009)

I have never seen a crossfire made in the USA.It might say Designed and engineered in the USA but on the back there is Made in Korea sticker.Crossfire and Fultron were the same company.Fultron changed their name to Memphis a long time ago.They are all made by the Directed line of amps.The model # should be CFA-402.Rated at 100x2 or [email protected]
The Jensen,from your description,Sounds like the KA line.Dark gray with chrome strips running end to end with Allen bolts and Jensen written in gold between them.These were some of the best 2 channels Jensen's made.I believe the 2 channels were made by Pioneer or the same factory.They are a full mosfet design and I think they state that on the front.However,the 4 channels in the KA series (at least the ones Ive seen) appear to be made by Crossfire.Yes,The same series as the Crossfire he has.Both of these amps would have been made in the early to mid 90's.

They are both worth about $50 if in good shape,but you can get a Rockford or Mtx with the same power,from the same era for few $ more.Much better amps.


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## CK1991 (Jul 13, 2013)

You are correct about the crossfire being designed and engineered in the US. I figured that meant it was made in the US too (guess not). I talked to a friend of mine and he said he has heard good things about the old crossfires (decently made, underrated power wise).
I looked up the KA series of jensen amps, but this one is a different heatsink (if memory serves). It is similar size and color, but IIRC, jensen is written on one of the corners of the heatsink and it does not have the screws and strips down the middle (heatsink design/ layout reminded me of the mid/ late 80s jensens, but they were a very dark blue, not grey). Granted, when I looked through their amps, I ignored the large jensen (since it was on the bottom of the stack) until I got home and started looking up variousj amps online for specs. (he had a couple alpine V12s, but they were shelf rashed to death, and some formerly decent pioneers from the late 90s that were nice until some idiot painted part of the covers red). He also had a profile that looked old school but probably wasn't (had either 125+125 watt, or 150+150 watt on it) and a late 80s/ early 90s JVC with spring clips that was a 25+25 and 100+100 watt (max?) 4 channel amp. Had a couple 1999/2000 RF amps too...a 200S and a 150S, but he was asking more than what they were worth. 
Also, he had an alpine 7893 HU, rockford fosgate 8350 HU(busted flip mech and missing second harness with inputs and outputs) and a cool sony cdx-m800 flip face HU, but all were overpriced. I found it a shame that the gear was improperly stored, as quite a few of the amps were nearly worthless due to being gouged/ scraped to death.

Would either the jensen (given it is a KA) or crossfire (after looking online I think it is a cfa302, not a 402) be worth picking up, and if so, for how much? The crossfire was about a 6.5 cosmetically (had 2 noticably chips in the fins and some minor screenprinting damage), and the jensen was about an 8 (didn't notice any rash on it, but it probably had some chips). I'll pop them open and make sure the boards are not burnt prior to buying them.


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## ATOMICTECH62 (Jan 24, 2009)

Hate to say this but,I wouldnt buy anything from there.If they are not in very good condition they arent worth crap.First off,there could be something wrong with them.I have repaired so many of those Crossfires I couldnt count them.The grounds on the RCA's broke(motor noise) and the output transistors always went out.Back in the day kids would bridge these amps and load them down,then crank the gains to max and beat the hell out of them till they died.
Sounds like most of that stuff is junk and he cant get rid of it.I wouldnt offer him $100 for all of it.
I just sold a RF 400.2 for $67 and a PG ZX350 for $76 on Ebay yesterday.Both were in great shape.I cant believe thats all I got for them.I even have a RF Power 750s I cant get $150 for and its in excellent condition.People keep sending me $100 offers for it.
Its a buyers market, so dont waste your time on this guy.


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## Pulse_GTO (Sep 7, 2013)

This thread brought back memories of my old Jensen A220 that was my first amp. I still have that on a shelf in the garage at my parents house.


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## CK1991 (Jul 13, 2013)

Pulse_GTO said:


> This thread brought back memories of my old Jensen A220 that was my first amp. I still have that on a shelf in the garage at my parents house.


werent those rated at 100 watts max (written across the front in large print) and 75 wpc rms or something like that? I dont see how that thing did anywhere close to rated power.


BTW, in case anyone is wondering, I passed on the amps I asked about in the thread. A friend of mine is giving me his old dark blue jensen 75+75 watt amp though (I'm guessing mid/ late 80s because of the dark blue) Its in really good shape for being an old jensen amp.


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## theeaudioboy (Jun 3, 2011)

CK1991 said:


> I walked into a local pawnshop yesterday and they had 2 amps that caught my eye. One is a crossfire cfa-302 (american made). Overall it is in ok shape. Has 2 or 3 nicks in the heatsink and some wear on the silkscreening but otherwise looks ok. The other is a monster jensen (approx 18-20 inches x 12-14 inches). I didn't get a model number off it, but it was grey with jensen written on it in dark gold letters. Looked to be Esmark jensen (87 or older), not international jensen. It was very heavy. It might be a rebrand of a better amp. The heatsink had fins that went up on the top and out on the sides. Does anyone here have any knowledge on the old jensen amps?
> The guy has had these for a LONG time so he'll probably be willing to sell them at a decent price. I know, I know, everyone says jensen is crap, but I will say in my experience, they are not as bad sounding as everyone makes them out to be, and are very reliable and take a punishing (granted my jensen amps (the 2 of them that I ran) were Esmark jensen, not international jensen). I have a 15x2 rms jensen amp that fit in my hand that had sat in storage for 20 years, and I (being an idiot) ran it at a 2 ohm stereo load suspended upside down from my steering column in a beater van, feeding is a distorted/ clipping signal, and it did not die. You could fry an egg on it (I burned my leg on it more than once), but it would not die. And yes, I can afford better then jensen (and have better.)
> IIRC, he was asking 45 or 55 for the crossfire, and 60 for the jensen, but he will come down on price.



it sounds like a Jensen KA5 ! they were the biggest amp board Jensen made ! 
but not wattage wise ! but im 90% sure that's what amp that is ! but they were international all the way back in late 90's ! 
but I would buy it for $50 or less ? if its clean looking ! Jensen is not bad 
regardless of what people say ! they also have been in business since the 1920's !
so they cant be all bad if they been around for almost a hundred yrs ! 
you don't have to have "better brand" names to get good sound !


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