# ARE ALL early MTX thunder series amps made by Zed ?



## RYNOMOTO (Oct 3, 2008)

Hello all,

Are all of the thunder pre 'X series made by Zed

In other words, the thunder 2300 is Zed but the 2300x isn't, right?


I have a 2300 and 4320 that I think are Zed made that I might just put to use.

I saw ine of the 2300's on YouTube on the Dwiz amp dyno and it pumped out some impressive numbers.


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## vwdave (Jun 12, 2013)

Hm I never knew ZED did those...I think I read on here (taken with grain of salt) that the gold logo thunders were designed by ex-RF engineers. I think I also read (also taken with grain of salt) that ZED did the old Orion amps.

What isnt ZED given credit for?


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

NOPE! Not even close.... You can pretty much spot a ZED just by looking at the board.



I have three MTX 2300 here that belong to a fellow member....YOU NEED TO PICK THEM UP!!!


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## RYNOMOTO (Oct 3, 2008)

What about this thread? Mtx 2300 is second mentioned.

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...o-discussion/48776-listing-amps-zed-made.html


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## RYNOMOTO (Oct 3, 2008)

TrickyRicky said:


> NOPE! Not even close.... You can pretty much spot a ZED just by looking at the board.
> 
> 
> 
> I have three MTX 2300 here that belong to a fellow member....YOU NEED TO PICK THEM UP!!!



What are ya referring to Ricky?

Sorry, I am lost.


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

RYNOMOTO said:


> What are ya referring to Ricky?
> 
> Sorry, I am lost.


The MTX 2300 is not a ZED design, pretty much all old school ZED amps boards look exactly alike.


As for the "pick up your amps" I was referring to the OWNER of the amps. I found his # in my cell so I just texted him. Sorry for the confusion.


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## vwdave (Jun 12, 2013)

RYNOMOTO said:


> What about this thread? Mtx 2300 is second mentioned.
> 
> http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...o-discussion/48776-listing-amps-zed-made.html


This is what I was talking about with taking info from here with a grain of salt. I've gotten bad info here as well.


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## smgreen20 (Oct 13, 2006)

From what I was informed, ALL amps by or of ZED, will have "........ by ZED" printed on the board somewhere.


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## truckerfte (Jul 30, 2010)

TrickyRicky said:


> The MTX 2300 is not a ZED design, pretty much all old school ZED amps boards look exactly alike.
> 
> 
> As for the "pick up your amps" I was referring to the OWNER of the amps. I found his # in my cell so I just texted him. Sorry for the confusion.



Yeah, sorry about that, been a busy few months...


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## RYNOMOTO (Oct 3, 2008)

Well, I can verify that these don't say zed anywhere on the board and they don't look like the zed amps I have had, so I am going to say they aren't zed designed or manufactured.


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## bigdwiz (Oct 7, 2010)

MTX 2300 is NOT Zed as stated above. I don't want to say this is a fact, because I may not recall the conversation exactly, but I believe the MTX Thunder 2300 was designed by the same designer as the Rockford Fosgate Punch DSM series in 1993...and it shows by the Dyno result of the MTX 2300 vs. RF Punch 200 DSM amps! I'll try to get this confirmed so there isn't more false information on the Internet :thumbsup:

Found it...

"The engineer is John J Pleitz, designer of the RF HD, DSM and MTX Thunder (280,160,2300, etc.)"


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## vwdave (Jun 12, 2013)

So were the X series that followed just a progression of these thunders that you speak of? I would assume so.


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## RYNOMOTO (Oct 3, 2008)

Thanks BigD!


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

The Xs added crossover from what I remember...but they were pretty much the same.

Those were some damn nice amps.


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## truckerfte (Jul 30, 2010)

Hope so, I've got 3 of them, and special thanks to trickyricky for the fine work on em. 

Now, all I have to do is find something to put them in. Before someone decides they want them worse than I do, lol


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## Team Bassick - Kimo (Sep 15, 2009)

truckerfte said:


> Hope so, I've got 3 of them, and special thanks to trickyricky for the fine work on em.
> 
> Now, all I have to do is find something to put them in. Before someone decides they want them worse than I do, lol


If these are the black ones and they work I would love to have one more. I currently have 2 4320's and 1 2300. I sold off a bunch of working and non working amps 4160 2160 and a broken 2300. 

I currently running two 4300xw and two 2300xw. Still run strong and clean.


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## omnibus (Feb 20, 2015)

So is this Zed like the best amp designer in the world or just a famous one? What makes him or his designs better than anyone else in his field?


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## 1styearsi (Aug 13, 2012)

TrickyRicky said:


> NOPE! Not even close.... You can pretty much spot a ZED just by looking at the board.
> 
> 
> 
> I have three MTX 2300 here that belong to a fellow member....YOU NEED TO PICK THEM UP!!!


don't get them they are only good for boat anchors.
i was a total MTX guy back in the late 90's early 2000's i had 2-280's 2-2160's a 2300 and a 4320. i worked for a authorized dealer as a installer.my 2300 burnt up in 10 min with 2 optima battery's on it running 4 ohm mono WTF. i sent it back they fixed it under warranty (new board) i sold it when i got it back and what do ya know it burned up again in 5 min i sent it back again and they put in another new board. i was installed correctly both times!!! my 280 had a channel blow out when it was in my closet...WTF never had a problem from the 2160's but i dumped them and i'll tell the story. i then had a the first year MTX 500D and a 302 i had a few problems with it. my doors were locked and the car was off when i heard bass and not music i opened the door asap yanked the wires off it but it was too late all you could smell in the car was burnt voice coil's. i called mtx the next day from work the tech guy told me they knew they had problems with the 500D and they were fixing them as they came in under warranty. i said how does that help me and my woofers he said aren't they new get them replaced under warranty. i don't know about you guy's but i have never had a woofer replaced because of a burnt v-coil the dude said well if they are MTX we will replace them...well they were RF POWER dvc 12's over 800 bux at the time and i was screwed. i sold all my mtx JUNK and got new woofers and a RF POWER BD1000 and a 500a2 hooked them to the very same wires in the same car and what do ya know i never had another problem. i still run the BD1000 today 15 years later still rocking.i think it was ****ty that they knew they were selling faulty amps and keep selling them. 
but all that was off topic i just hate to see a guy screw himself.
a little history of MTX as i know it-the early amp's like the terminator and blue thunder were for them made buy PPI. when they did the first "thunder series" MTX built a factory in Tempe az. they were based on the RF PUNCH HD's. the engineers that designed them were ex fosgate employees.the point is the thunder's were made buy MTX NOT ZED. i talked to the MTX rep and the fosgate rep. the fosgate rep said they let MTX have that design because Rockford was never happy with the HD's and MTX could have it because it sucked LOL. later on at some point MTX bought Xtant out and coustic.
the first series
MTX 4 Channelthunder 4320 | eBay
second series
Used MTX 250x Amplifier Powers Up Tested Seal Is Intact at Bottom | eBay
the third thunder series
MTX Audio Thunder 102 Car Amplifier | eBay
the fourth post xtant buyout amp here they used xtant's pure n channel whatever that is.
MTX THUNDER81000D Mono Amplifier Huge USA Made Monster Amp with Bass Boost 015442240532 | eBay
and here
2 MTX Thunder 4202 Car Amplifier 015442240464 | eBay
and the circuit city line
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Old-school-...865?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19fc7effd9
they all make great anchors LOL


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

When you have problems with more than one amp and it blows up repeatedly...especially within in a few minutes then CHANCES are you may have a problem with your install or just bad luck.


BTW I did test those 2300's with a 60hz sine wave and dummy loads, pretty stressful test. If they can play 30sec sine wave tracks multiple of times without issues I don't see why it would have problems with music.


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

If you were in Charlotte back then, sounds like you could have been an installer at the same local chain that I worked for in the early 2000s...Freemans.




1styearsi said:


> don't get them they are only good for boat anchors.
> i was a total MTX guy back in the late 90's early 2000's i had 2-280's 2-2160's a 2300 and a 4320. i worked for a authorized dealer as a installer.my 2300 burnt up in 10 min with 2 optima battery's on it running 4 ohm mono WTF. i sent it back they fixed it under warranty (new board) i sold it when i got it back and what do ya know it burned up again in 5 min i sent it back again and they put in another new board. i was installed correctly both times!!! my 280 had a channel blow out when it was in my closet...WTF never had a problem from the 2160's but i dumped them and i'll tell the story. i then had a the first year MTX 500D and a 302 i had a few problems with it. my doors were locked and the car was off when i heard bass and not music i opened the door asap yanked the wires off it but it was too late all you could smell in the car was burnt voice coil's. i called mtx the next day from work the tech guy told me they knew they had problems with the 500D and they were fixing them as they came in under warranty. i said how does that help me and my woofers he said aren't they new get them replaced under warranty. i don't know about you guy's but i have never had a woofer replaced because of a burnt v-coil the dude said well if they are MTX we will replace them...well they were RF POWER dvc 12's over 800 bux at the time and i was screwed. i sold all my mtx JUNK and got new woofers and a RF POWER BD1000 and a 500a2 hooked them to the very same wires in the same car and what do ya know i never had another problem. i still run the BD1000 today 15 years later still rocking.i think it was ****ty that they knew they were selling faulty amps and keep selling them.
> but all that was off topic i just hate to see a guy screw himself.
> a little history of MTX as i know it-the early amp's like the terminator and blue thunder were for them made buy PPI. when they did the first "thunder series" MTX built a factory in Tempe az. they were based on the RF PUNCH HD's. the engineers that designed them were ex fosgate employees.the point is the thunder's were made buy MTX NOT ZED. i talked to the MTX rep and the fosgate rep. the fosgate rep said they let MTX have that design because Rockford was never happy with the HD's and MTX could have it because it sucked LOL. later on at some point MTX bought Xtant out and coustic.
> ...


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## 1styearsi (Aug 13, 2012)

it was Savannah ga,but i worked with joe kyser and he worked at freemens b4 he moved to sav. he started in Freemans garage and said he laid bricks on the first store.Freemans sent him to RTTI,he shared most his knowledge and we built some BAD-ASS 6th order bandpass enclosures.he was involved in my MTX build and was excited about it. like TrickyRicky said maybe i just had bad luck with the amp's there was nothing wrong with the install. MTX lost a customer for life....I didn't want to go Fosgate like 90% of the public at the time but i did. they actually nic named me Thunder Carl lol. i kept that name till i quit installing i'm glad they didn't go with Punch Carl it would have sucked if i started getting hit all the time...i will say the first thunder 500D's and the 250D were awesome when they worked i had my 500D on a Soundsteram spl 15 at 1 point,that was the loudest setup i ever had.i did the RF BD1000 on a RF power dvc 15 after i turned my back on mtx. the Fosgate setup was and is pretty good but not as "loud and low" as the MTX set up.but the RF set up was and is bulletproof. however my old skool PPI's sound better than both. keep in mind this was back in the day and class d's were new tech back then and only for bass.now we have full range class d's.my my how time's have changed.


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## RYNOMOTO (Oct 3, 2008)

omnibus said:


> So is this Zed like the best amp designer in the world or just a famous one? What makes him or his designs better than anyone else in his field?




One of the best in my opinion yes....

The amp boards are very cleanly laid out and very OCD

Usually very well assembled and easy to repair if something goes wrong


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## 1styearsi (Aug 13, 2012)

RYNOMOTO said:


> One of the best in my opinion yes....
> 
> The amp boards are very cleanly laid out and very OCD
> 
> Usually very well assembled and easy to repair if something goes wrong


these are zed built and are super basic
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200-Watt-x2...133?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a4d8c2b15

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Boss-CLR60-...444?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c9860f69c

SAME AMP BUT NOT ZED????
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Boss-CLR60-...108?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c9860d9f4


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