A powerful beast with convenient features
Written: Mar 14 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound Quality: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
|
|
|
Pros: Tons of power, convenience, remote level control, subsonic filter
Cons: two smaller gauge power/ground input terminals
The Bottom Line: If you need 2000 watts at 2 ohm, this is the amp for you.
|
|
|
| dipitydoo's Full Review: Crossfire VR2000D Car Amp |
This amp is the most powerful amp I have used to date. Its basically a pair of Crossfire's own VR1000d bridged into a single chassis. Its capable of 1000w rms at 4 ohm and 2000w rms at 2 ohm. (The 1000d does 250w at 4 ohm, 500w at 2 ohm and 1000w at 1 ohm). Your can basically do the same thing that a VR2000d does by taking a pair of 1000d's and wiring it up using a bridging module, but the single chassis 2000d makes for a cleaner install.
At one end of the amp is the power and speaker connections. All of these are the insert terminal types, which I prefer over the screw terminals. I feel these to be sturdier and more resistant to accidental shorts from bad installs. There are 2 sets of speaker outputs, each of which appear to accomodate about 10 gauge wires. This is pretty sufficient for this amp. On the power/ground/remote side, there are 2 sets, each able to hold 4 gauge (10 gauge for remote turn on). I would have preferred a single set that accomadates 1/0 gauge wires to simplify installation without using a distribution block. An amp of this caliber would need more than a single 4 gauge wire for most installs.
On the other end of the amp are the low level inputs and signal processing. There is a single set of rca inputs, and they seem to be of solid quality, and appear to be mounted tightly to the frame of the amp. There is also a set of line level outputs for connecting additional amps. This feature is convient for reducing the amount of rca cables from the signal source when connecting multiple amps. The outputs can be configured for highpass, lowpass or passthrough, with the crossover frequency continuously variable from 50hz to 250hz. This can be handy if the other amps do not come with a crossover. The crossover frequencies of the subs being powered by the 2000d can also be separately adjusted from 50hz to 250hz. In addition, there is a built in subsonic filter, variable from 20hz to 50hz. It can be defeated as well. This feature can be useful for ported sub enclosures to protect them from overexcursion below the tuning frequency. Finally, the amp comes with a remote level control, which is basically a gain control built in to be controlled remotely. This is a great feature for on-the-fly adjustment of bass level right from the driver's seat.
The overall look of the amp appears to be pretty nice. The heatsink is lined with pretty good sized fins and the chassis seems to be pretty solid, so it appears to have good mass and surface area for proper heat dissapation. Due to its class D design, the amp should be very efficient with music. Note - this amp will work with subs only, as frequency response goes up to only 250hz before dropping, due to its full time lowpass crossover which maxes at 250hz.
This amp uses a "non-regulated" power supply, which means power output varies with input voltage. As the electrical system gets taxed, voltage drops, which reduces power. So, to get the full 2000w, an upgrade may be necessary. However, with music, the typical drop in power from reduced voltage would not likely be very audible unless the voltage drops to such a low level that the power output would be reduced to close to 1/2. If this is the case, then you would probably be looking at bigger issues than just a reduced volume, such as a dead battery very soon.
I installed this amp in my 95 Nissan Maxima. I used a pair of 4 gauge power/ground wires, connected closely to a distribution block to 1/0 gauge wire to the battery (and ground in the trunk). I connected the low level inputs, the remote level control, and wired a pair of Adire Brahma dual 2 ohm 15's in series/parallel for a 2 ohm net load to the amp. I set the crossover frequency at its highest setting (250hz), since I would be using my CD Units built-in crossover. The gain was set to a little over 1/2, and I would be adjusting it via the remote control from the driver's seat. The subsonic filter was set to off, since the Brahma's were in a sealed enclosure. With the adjustments made, I hit the road.
I won't comment on the "sound" of the amp, since the subs would be the ones that make the difference in this department. This amp produced lots of clean power. I also have the Crossfire CFA1000d, which is the first generation 1000w class D amp from Crossfire. And in comparision, this amp obviously had much more power (twice as much). With the combination of this amp and the brahma's, I was able to overload my electrical system in my car considerably (it is essentially stock) when using bass heavy test materials at very high levels. While this is a class D amp, producing 2000w still takes lots of current, so while I wouldn't necessarily say that one would "need" an upgrade, it probably wouldn't hurt. I think normal daily driving with regular music will be fine, but if one listens to lots of bass heavy materials or test music at very high levels frequently, perhaps some upgrades would be in order. At night, there are some dimming at high levels, but normally, this isn't a big issue with me because I don't listen to too much bass at too high levels that often. The amp doesn't heat up that much either, and its attributed to several factors. One, because of its class D efficiency. Two, I didn't play test tones all day. And three, the weather is relatively cool these days. And finally, the heat sink appears to be doing a good job.
To sum up, this is a great amp from Crossfire. Its conveniently puts two 1000d's into one shell for easy install. Performance is great, and so are the features. My only gripe is its use of two separate power/ground terminals instead of one.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 500
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
dipitydoo
|
|
Member: Jay Yoon
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 4 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.