Hall of Fame: BIGGEST BADDEST Monster Amps

James Brown amp its super bad.

Gene Cerwinsky (Cerwin-Vega) produced one of the first commercially available high power (then 180-350 watts) in the early seventies. The amplifier an 18" driver and horn cabinet were the bottom behind the film "Earthquake." Theaters premiering the film were required to bolster their sound systems with the Ceriwn-Vega low frequency equipment and theaters never looked back.

The driver found its way into the legendary 200 watt acoustic 360/361 folded horn Bass Amplifier which throws a twenty-five foot low E wavelength.

Cerwin-Vega amplifiers were quickly followed by Ampzilla, Phase Linear, and Crown which were quit different in design from one another. For all those who complain about class D, in those days of early solid state the incredibly edgy presentation was easily overlooked for the high power output. Within months the controversy between tube watts vs solid state began and life as we know it was born.

Personally, I bypassed the volume pots, replaced the capacitors, a few resistors, and most of the hook up wire in a Cerwin-Vega A1800 and the results were quite dramatic and used the amp well into the 80's to power the ever less efficient speakers being offered.

Only three are notable, the Phase Linear 700, the Ampzilla, and the Sanders Magtech.

I can't speak to the Sanders Magtech amplifier since I haven't had the opportunity to audition it at home. It does have some unique design features most notably it's power supply well worth reading about.

Generally and subjectively, I dislike the presentation of panel speakers especially if they,re curved. I also question my own impressions of demonstrations at audio shows. Life is too short not to mention the very few consistent stand outs that spoke to me.

The full Sanders Sound system with and LP source has consistently, show after show, impressed me. I can't say if the system is simply environment friendly, a synergy matched success, or both.

Most recently the Ayre amplified 9ft tall Soundlab Ultimates in what had to be the worst room for audio, a perfect cube, made side two of "Kind Of Blue" sound spectacular. In hindsight I was fortunate to have the room at the recent San Francisco (Millbrae) Audio Show very early Saturday morning all to myself. I revisited later in the afternoon and the demonstration was more about the speakers bass and SPL performance which, reportedly annoyed many but never the less proved their abilities.

There is only one - the Opera Only. Max output of 160,000W.

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