Clarion APA1200 200W Amplifier Amplifiers

Clarion APA1200 200W Amplifier Amplifiers 

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-10 of 11  
[May 30, 2003]
Darren Bortel
Model Reviewed: APA1200

Strength:

Good power and affordable.

Weakness:

Circuitry problems.

I am amazed to read the review by Rob from Oregon. I had the exact same thing happen to me and I would have thought it to have been a fluke if I hadn't read his review. The LF response was good for a while after I first installed the amp, and slowly the punch seem to trail off. Eventually, the amp went out and on inspection, I found the fuses were blown. After replacing the fuses and powering up, I got smoke from out the fan port and heard the snap of failing circuitry. $80 later from the local repair shop (they described similar melted traces and componnents), I found the sound now bettter than it was from the beginning. A very strange turn of events, or so I thought until I read the review which seemed almost exactly the same. My only question now is how long will it last going forward from now.

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
4
[Jul 10, 2001]
Rob

Strength:

Lots of nice features (crossover, bass boost, etc.) Looks good.

Weakness:

Big footprint. Gets pretty warm.
Blew up :P

Well I'm going to disagree with most of what everyone else has said here.

I got the same deal at Crutchfield more than a year back as was very happy with the way the amp was pushing my two MTX 10"'s. Unfortunately, after a few months, I noticed that the quality of the bass had dropped. Lots of bad clipping and low output.

I swapped components around with a friend. Put my box on his Pioneer Premier amp. Sounded great. Put his subs on my amp...sounded like crap. Figured the amp was going bad.

Problem took care of itself though. One day, I noticed I had no bass. Found out both fuses had blown. After replacing the fuses, I got a really great response from the amp: smoke and fire. Don't know why the fuses didn't burn, but smoke was pouring out like no tomorrow.

After opening the amp up, I noticed the power MOSFET's had totally melted, cracked, burned, etc. I'm actually quite familiar with these parts as I did some development work them a few months back. Those babies should be able to handle 45amps max each.

Still don't know what went wrong with it. I'm thinking about replacing the MOSFET's and seeing if that takes care of the problem. At this point, it looks like I need a new amp.

Similar Products Used:

None

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
5
[Dec 20, 2000]
Eliseo Pabon
Model Reviewed: APA1200

Strength:

Versatile, lots of power, 2ohm stable, low profile, sleek

Weakness:

none yet

Got this deal as most others did at Crutchfield. I have it pushing an 8" JL W3 dual 4ohm vc in a Jeep Cherokee. Very musical, accurate and depending on the program being listened to, can really boom.....really. It is installed in the smallest box that Crutchfiled had to offer which yields about a .35 to .50 cf. This amp can easily handle another sub. Great sound quality. I am very happy with it.

Similar Products Used:

Got this deal as most others did at Crutchfield. I have it pushing an 8"

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Dec 05, 2000]
Adam McGilton

Strength:

Great deal with Crutchfield's sale. Strong amp, seems reliable, runs cool, lots of adjustments, good sound.

Weakness:

None that I can see so far.

Not sure how the one reviewer claims to be driving mids and highs with a mono amp that has a constant lowpass crossover, but all well.

Very good deal at Crutchfields price, which unfortunaly is done with now.
This amp definitely puts out it's rated power, and stays cool even at a 2 ohm load. All the different adjustments are nice, like being able to center the bass boost frequency and the amount of boost. Helped out the lack of the really low bass from the subs. Not sure if it was the subs or the transfer function of the car that caused it.

Installed this amp running 2 MTX6000 12's in a Mustang. Recently removed the system and threw it in a Cavalier. This amp does a very good job of pushing the subs, although they can take 100rms more a piece. Gets pretty loud, but clipping becomes a factor before the physical limits of the subs are reached.

If you can get a new one for under $200 its a really good deal. Nice amp, nice feature, great value.

Similar Products Used:

Crunch V-200, Pioneer (almost all amps), Lanzar

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Aug 01, 2000]
mike

Strength:

Price is now discounted from original list price of $600 (sold for $369). Crutchfield has this subwoofer amp for $179--and what a steal!!! Clarity exceptional, easy to use, incredible internal cooling fan and low profile. Versatile, with extremely advanced bass boost, circuitry and gains. Nice to have(2) 30-amp fuses.

Weakness:

I bit large (flat and low profile, yet wide)Heavier than it looks, but it is a monoblock amp. Not negative though..

paid $179 from crutchfield. totally worth it, and blows away all competition, even x-tent amps.

Similar Products Used:

x-tent amps or high end audio equipment. remember this is not just a clarion amp, it is from their 1997-1999 "pro audio line" which was big $$$ orignally.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jul 27, 2000]
Kevin Hottle

Strength:

Price price price, you can't find a better deal on mono amp like ya can on this one. It's only $180 from crutchfield and putts out 200 watts rms at 4 ohms and 300 into 2ohms. Also has seperate speaker wire hookups so ya don't have to run two speaker wires to the same terminal when ya run it parallel.

Weakness:

It's made by clarion which doesn't have the greatest reputation in the amp industry. Still a quality piece for the money

A good amp at a great price. My friend has this pushin 2 10" MTX 6000 series subs and it pounds them pretty good. I'm sure if he spent more money he'd get a better thump but for the money he deffinitly didn't go wrong.

Similar Products Used:

Audio-bahn 1800E, MTX 250D , JBL 300.1, JBL 150.1 all of these all more expensive and prolly a little better amp.

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
5
[May 03, 2000]
Moustafa

Strength:

This amp is impeccable. My highs are screaming because of it.

Weakness:

Not a thing

Got lucky and paid 120. Best buy of an amp i ever made. Powers my highs and mids perfectly and never even warms up. Perfect

Similar Products Used:

None

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Apr 14, 2000]
Peter

Strength:

Powerful. Looks good. Better than average cooling. Handles 2ohm load just fine.

Weakness:

Won't accept power cable larger than 8 Gauge without connectors. Other than that, it's flawless.

Paid $179 at Crutchfield.com. I would recommend it to anyone who wants solid bass at a good price. I have it hooked up to 2 Infinity Perfect 10's and it rocks!

Similar Products Used:

None

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Feb 16, 2000]
Sean Walsh
Model Reviewed: 1999

Strength:

Clean, powerful, versitile.

Weakness:

None

This makes nice musical base of my 2 Eclipse 4 ohm 10" subs. I think I'm getting 300 watts because the amp is mono and my subs are a 2ohm load. For 300$ this is a great sub amp.

Similar Products Used:

None

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[May 13, 2001]
Derick
Model Reviewed: 199

Strength:

For the money you won't find a finer amp to drive a 2 ohm load be it one sub or two or whatever. (2) 30A fuses are nicer to replace than (1) 60. Also, if you blow one the amp will still play, just half as loud. Looks cool, fan cools it well and it plays loooow. Frequency response is dead flat down below 10hz with it. Most amps costing 3x this much can't do that. 2 ohm stable? Hah. It will push anything but a dead short all day as long as you don't have a blanket over it. Will get really hot though. Advanced bass boost comes in very handy.

Weakness:

Only takes 8AWG power and ground without adapters. The amp will pull a lot of juice running a 2 or 1 ohm load so I suggest an adapter for 4AWG. Although I like the low and wide footprint, it is large and won't fit a whole lotta places. Won't run with the new gen class D amps (MTX, JBL Power) on raw power (but will kill em on SQ any day).

My amp bench tested 290wrms at 12 volts at 4 ohms and 380 at 2 ohms. Thats way more than the Clarion 200/300 specs. It will make even more if you only drive subs with it since the power is rated 20hz-20khz (full bandwidth). The guy who says he's driving highs with it, well he could do that but you'd need one for each channel and I know very few mid/high components that will take this kinda power. Anyway, amp plays WAY low with my Perfect 12.1. With 2 (Friend has one too) it is painful. You get directivity and noticible pressure all the way down to 10 hz. For only "300" watts and 2 12's thats amazing.

Finally a little story about build quality. 2 Ohm stable they say huh?.. Well my amp pushed a dead short for over 6 hours at high power levels when a pair of sub wires melted together. Didn't shut off, didn't complain, just got nice and toasty. Thats it. Don't try this at home kids.

If you want a savage sub amp for a great price, grab one...or two for that matter. If you wanted to you could run one to each voice coil on a dvc sub. If you want raw, non-musical power that hits but sounds like crap, grab the biggest p.o.s. pyramid or boss amp you can find and have fun. This amp is pure audiophile quality if you have the gain set right.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity Beta Digital 100: Beta is more versitile being a 2 channel but for pure bass it can't compete. Especially when asked to push 2 ohms.

Alpine F301 Four Channel with 2 channels bridged to the sub: Um....NO. From the specs it makes more power than the Clarion but yeah right. Destroyed in every way.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
Showing 1-10 of 11  

(C) Copyright 1996-2018. All Rights Reserved.

carreview.com and the ConsumerReview Network are business units of Invenda Corporation

Other Web Sites in the ConsumerReview Network:

mtbr.com | roadbikereview.com | carreview.com | photographyreview.com | audioreview.com