# Which of these Rockford amps are the better ones?



## Car_Audionut (Jun 9, 2010)

Been wanting to try some of the mid 90's to early 2000's RF amps as I see them all the time on Craigslist fairly cheap. All of my current Rockfords are pre-1993. While I still lean towards the early RF amps finding an early Punch 150 locally is not easy.

Opinions on the ix series, a series, the DSMs, etc... are some problematic? which are the sturdiest?... and sound quality? in the mentioned era...


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## Chaos (Oct 27, 2005)

Like anything else from that era (pre-95), if they have been taken care of they are still great amps from a sheer power perspective provided that you have a very robust charging system to run 'em with.


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## sjr033 (Dec 30, 2011)

IIRC the only difference between the DSM and the ix is that the ix had a crossover. These and the a2 were very good amps IMO. All these amps had a none regulated power supply and were rated at 12v. So they all did better than rated power AT 14.4V. The Punch 100DSM was rated at 50x2 @ 4ohms or 200x1 @ 4ohms but was often tested at 400+ These amps were only rated at 2ohms but it was not uncommon for them to run lower.


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## BrianAbington (Jul 27, 2012)

When I competed I used all DSM series amps (100x4 and 2 100x2's and what ever the 500 watt mono amp was) and they were all lucky pawn shop finds. I think I paid $50 total for the 4 amps. 

Only thing I didn't like was the crossover cards. I had my tweeter amp redone to be 1.5k up and the others I just used the stock high pas low pass cards, the full range side is nice for when you have an active x/o but I didn't and I was told that redoing the rest of the cards or going active x/o would have made a world of difference. 

If you can find the DSM's or the mid to late 90's power amps they are all good. 

I did an install for a friend with a pair of later 800a2's one running his components stereo and the other bridged to a pair of square solos. Best non competition system I've ever done.


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