I'am in the market to get a base amp and a mobile amp.Witch of these builders would give me the best customer service,best product and best bang for the buck?
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DaveMade,Fatboy or Xforce
- Thread starter ahanway
- Start date
Wow Davemade won? Can you post a link so I can view this "test" or read what exactly it is Davemade "won" ?
I believe I will go with a XFORCE for the price being good,customer service and a good product.I have heard Joe does make good amps the price is quit hi for what I'am looking at and crappy customer service witch I had from that last company I purchased amps from and I will not do that again!
B
BOOTY MONSTER
Guest
i haven't had either . iv'e read the least complaints about fat boy amps .
at least the x-farce amps are B biased .
just for consideration ........
a x-farce 4x2879 base amp is $700 . http://www.xforceamps.com/shop/?shop=1&cat=22
a ameritron AL-811 is $50 more . Ameritron
you will have a few more real on frequency watts with the ameritron as well as filtering , much wider frequency coverage since its a real ham amp and cleaner output . you will need a keying switch for AM use , but thats no biggie .
for $900 you can get a 811H for 800 real watts . Ameritron
at least the x-farce amps are B biased .
just for consideration ........
a x-farce 4x2879 base amp is $700 . http://www.xforceamps.com/shop/?shop=1&cat=22
a ameritron AL-811 is $50 more . Ameritron
you will have a few more real on frequency watts with the ameritron as well as filtering , much wider frequency coverage since its a real ham amp and cleaner output . you will need a keying switch for AM use , but thats no biggie .
for $900 you can get a 811H for 800 real watts . Ameritron
I do like the tube amps but I like to just flick the switch and start talking.A 2x4 is plenty for the price and watts but the radios I have been looking to buy already have the driver in them witch is a RCI 2995dx maybe with a straight 6 pill behind witch is more than enough and still ok on the price and also looking at the Galaxy 98VHP with a Straight 8 pill behind it and loaf it along still pretty spendy but I was told a straight 6 pill might get driven to hard from the 98vhp.
I really want a screaming radio witch I heard the rci 2995dx is more flat and the 98vhp will swing more into the amp, so I'am leaning more towards the 98vhp and the 8 pill and let it swing and not drive it hard in to the Maco V/58.Is this a good choice for the money?
I really want a screaming radio witch I heard the rci 2995dx is more flat and the 98vhp will swing more into the amp, so I'am leaning more towards the 98vhp and the 8 pill and let it swing and not drive it hard in to the Maco V/58.Is this a good choice for the money?
Have you considered an RCI 2970 and Switching Power Supply??? Good AM audio, good swing, rock solid SSB, dual VFO very fine small increments of adjustment using the carrot under the last digit more then any slide mod and RIT pot could hop to give and both transmit and receive adjust at the same time. Compact well more so then a 2995dx so if you wanted too or needed to go mobile or pack it in to a remote location you could.Plus a 2970 sells faster should you want to unload it.
It has more then enough power to drive a 4-6 pill that has no driver of it's own. If you should get a unit with a driver too easy to turn the RF output down. I only like rack mount base's if all the space inside the chassis is being used up for parts. The 2995dx is like a bag of huge bag of chip's it is mostly air space not chips int hat big huge bag!Plus OEM never put a good power supply in their base units they always cut corners their compromising the unit both it's output potential and it's long term stability.
If you buy from a reputable shop you can get a TX 500 in what ever flavor suite you and have them fix the weak links inside of it. The POA company's products aka Texastar has well known weak spot's that any tech that has sold more then 5 of them has had to repair for people. So it is not hard to upgrade the weak links before you let the customer take it out the door!
The first 600 watt's is the most important do not get anything that is not at least 600 clean rms watts not pep. Second using Speech compression can give you 1 additional S unit. Most people get 2-3 S units by going to 600 watts and only 1 addition when they double it to 1200. So you could get the same effect or darn close to it by combining 600 RMS watts with speech compressor not a modulator a true speech compressor. The speech compressor will only cost you $49-$60 plus install but going from 600watts to 1200 will cost a lot becasue in that power range you need more storage capacity,more alternator output, much heavier power cables, you name it!
So if it where me and I was limited to solid state bipolar type transistors that worked at 12 volts only I would look for a 6 transistor AB class amp with 2SC2879 transistors. I would remove the swamping circuit so I did not need to drive 100 watt's into the unit and I would match that to something like a 2970 with a an SP1-A speech compressor. I would run the 2970 with the dial at 9 O'Clock most of the time and let it swing. If i wanted more I would turn it to 12 O'Clock and again let it swing. If I was needing to break through a pile up or just really wanted to be heard I would then switch on the speech processor.
I would keep plenty of common failure prone parts on hand so that if and when I let the smoke out I could replace the parts at my leisure.I have never blown an amp before in my life because I never over drive them. I compromise the output power of the radio so that if I am an idiot and forget to rotate the RF knob I can not over drive my amp!It also prevents temptation from taking hold and pushing it just a little harder just a little more and poof......Blue smoke!
I have to admit though that I like Booty Monster's advice. Even though Ameritron is not know for their fantastic build quality or customer service in recent years I prefer tubes over solid state for non-mobil use.
To be honest though a nice auto tune circuit board and a more tightly regulated power supply then they had in the 1970's and earlier and a tube mobil would not be bad at all. It would just be a more power hungry beast is all. I think that today you could do a nice clean 350-400 watts rms in a ceramic to metal triode and single tube set up would probably be fantastic sounding. I think the trick would be to go with indirect heated triode. I think it would behave better under iffy power conditions causing voltage fluctuations like running it with the engine turned off. Control Grids and direct heating do not like to see power fluctuations at all. I might have to explore that at some point it would be fun to play around with a tube mobil so long as you did not have to do the tun and load every time you switched freq. !!!!I bet if we made it single band aka mono band we could eliminate the expensive and tricky auto tune circuitry and still get away with a lot like say mono band 6m tube linear. If we made it fixed bias and just ran ssb it would be even easier to pull off.
You know I do not know if you have thought about this but if you did get a tube amp with 811A's you could always upgrade to 813's I think and get even more power out latter on if you wanted to. You can not really jump up much better in a Bipolar HF transistor then the 2SC2879 it is about as good as it gets until you step up to 24VDC or 50VDC and then you are not looking at Bipolar transistors either so the entire amp would not be right for the new transistors.
Just something to think about? Also you know you can buy an auto-tune board for the input side of any tube amp. The 2008 ARRL Hand Book has an amp project that features one and they give the name and adress I think of the company. They sell the board separately for those that want to work it into their amp or as black box. Might look into that if the only thing you hate about tube amps is the constant tune and load tune and load etc....
It has more then enough power to drive a 4-6 pill that has no driver of it's own. If you should get a unit with a driver too easy to turn the RF output down. I only like rack mount base's if all the space inside the chassis is being used up for parts. The 2995dx is like a bag of huge bag of chip's it is mostly air space not chips int hat big huge bag!Plus OEM never put a good power supply in their base units they always cut corners their compromising the unit both it's output potential and it's long term stability.
If you buy from a reputable shop you can get a TX 500 in what ever flavor suite you and have them fix the weak links inside of it. The POA company's products aka Texastar has well known weak spot's that any tech that has sold more then 5 of them has had to repair for people. So it is not hard to upgrade the weak links before you let the customer take it out the door!
The first 600 watt's is the most important do not get anything that is not at least 600 clean rms watts not pep. Second using Speech compression can give you 1 additional S unit. Most people get 2-3 S units by going to 600 watts and only 1 addition when they double it to 1200. So you could get the same effect or darn close to it by combining 600 RMS watts with speech compressor not a modulator a true speech compressor. The speech compressor will only cost you $49-$60 plus install but going from 600watts to 1200 will cost a lot becasue in that power range you need more storage capacity,more alternator output, much heavier power cables, you name it!
So if it where me and I was limited to solid state bipolar type transistors that worked at 12 volts only I would look for a 6 transistor AB class amp with 2SC2879 transistors. I would remove the swamping circuit so I did not need to drive 100 watt's into the unit and I would match that to something like a 2970 with a an SP1-A speech compressor. I would run the 2970 with the dial at 9 O'Clock most of the time and let it swing. If i wanted more I would turn it to 12 O'Clock and again let it swing. If I was needing to break through a pile up or just really wanted to be heard I would then switch on the speech processor.
I would keep plenty of common failure prone parts on hand so that if and when I let the smoke out I could replace the parts at my leisure.I have never blown an amp before in my life because I never over drive them. I compromise the output power of the radio so that if I am an idiot and forget to rotate the RF knob I can not over drive my amp!It also prevents temptation from taking hold and pushing it just a little harder just a little more and poof......Blue smoke!
I have to admit though that I like Booty Monster's advice. Even though Ameritron is not know for their fantastic build quality or customer service in recent years I prefer tubes over solid state for non-mobil use.
To be honest though a nice auto tune circuit board and a more tightly regulated power supply then they had in the 1970's and earlier and a tube mobil would not be bad at all. It would just be a more power hungry beast is all. I think that today you could do a nice clean 350-400 watts rms in a ceramic to metal triode and single tube set up would probably be fantastic sounding. I think the trick would be to go with indirect heated triode. I think it would behave better under iffy power conditions causing voltage fluctuations like running it with the engine turned off. Control Grids and direct heating do not like to see power fluctuations at all. I might have to explore that at some point it would be fun to play around with a tube mobil so long as you did not have to do the tun and load every time you switched freq. !!!!I bet if we made it single band aka mono band we could eliminate the expensive and tricky auto tune circuitry and still get away with a lot like say mono band 6m tube linear. If we made it fixed bias and just ran ssb it would be even easier to pull off.
You know I do not know if you have thought about this but if you did get a tube amp with 811A's you could always upgrade to 813's I think and get even more power out latter on if you wanted to. You can not really jump up much better in a Bipolar HF transistor then the 2SC2879 it is about as good as it gets until you step up to 24VDC or 50VDC and then you are not looking at Bipolar transistors either so the entire amp would not be right for the new transistors.
Just something to think about? Also you know you can buy an auto-tune board for the input side of any tube amp. The 2008 ARRL Hand Book has an amp project that features one and they give the name and adress I think of the company. They sell the board separately for those that want to work it into their amp or as black box. Might look into that if the only thing you hate about tube amps is the constant tune and load tune and load etc....
The upgrade for the 811A's are 572B's. Drop in replacements except the IMD is a little worse due to the tubes not running at optimal plate voltage. The 813 is a different animal altogether.
Also if you mean the AT-100AMP auto tuner from LDG Electronics, it was discontinued a few years ago much to the dismay of many homebrewers.
a davemade will have a higher resell value down the line and will sell faster than any of the other amps mentioned .
but if ssb operation is a must for you then xforce be the way to go .
but if ssb operation is a must for you then xforce be the way to go .
The Fatboys are the most neatly assembled amps of the 3 mentioned. Performance wise they are all the same. Customer service wise....1) Fatboy 2) X Force 3) Davemade.
If you run the amps properly and don't run them on more than 15 volts, they should all live a long life.
Xforce amp quality has been hit or miss over the last couple of years. If you can find a older one then they were quite good amps.
Maybe you should define your operating style..ssb? AM? Cb? HAMRADIO? I will assume this amp is for CB and for AM since thats what most of the amp questions come from is AM CBers and w that said, Dave Made all the way. If your into SSB then stay away from Dave Made. If for SSB maybe you would consider a Texas Star amp. I own one specificly for SSB on the chicken band and nothing but bells and whistles.
Do your homework.. as someone stated above this topic has been beat to death. There are 20or so forums out there to join and read up on this topic..
Do your homework.. as someone stated above this topic has been beat to death. There are 20or so forums out there to join and read up on this topic..
The Davemade amps only have better resale is because most Davemade users suffer from a mild dose of brainwashing. "Davemade amps produce louder audio" "Davemade amps do more watts than the others" are among the more interesting misconceptions.
I have owned Davemade, fatboy, Magnaforce (X Force), and Worldwide amps....they all perform the same on AM. When Worldwide was in full swing with their amp building their customer service was by far the best.