hifonics VII and or VIII Zed models quality??

The plugs weren't my favorite design, and there is no built in fuse, but I am still running the Thor that I bought in 1995.

It has been in pretty much every vehicle I have ever owned, and I will not get rid of it.

That's my reference, and I am sticking to it.

newtitan said:

I always wanted to try some of these, so I have been on the look out as of late

anyone have any opinions on them, any trick or tidbits I need to know about them...

which models are the best, overall quality, ground noise issues etc

whatever info you can throw out there would be cool

Im kinda going backwards trying all the amps I couldnt afford when I was a kid, and are super cheap now

since Im not a fan of too much of the newer gear for some reason


and this may be hard, but does anyone have a VII or VIII colossus they want to get rid of ??

thanks

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Good luck, I have been looking for one for awhile...

Actually there is a rumor of a bnib series viii but its a little too rich for my blood.

Many people actually like the viis better, and I favor the direct connections offered on the viis but I like the looks of the viiis better. As far as performance, i would have to say they are pretty similar which is just good old fashioned power without bells and whistles. I would say its tough to go wrong with them.

I worked with Series 7 a LOT. Good power, stiffly regulated, no headroom.What I thought was a little harshness and grain in the highs at first turned out to be running out of power on lower-powered amps due to the lack of headroom.

Used to drive them hard. Putting a few spacers under for airflow improvement really helped them run cooler.

The slide-in nameplates rattle - put cardboard under it.

VII

Heatsink surface is more on the VII's. Many regard the VII's as the best of the series.

Got a VII Boltar mint condition running strong since '91. Built on my birthday so it's special to me <3

I don't have a VII Series to compare to, but I have a VIII Gemini that's been pounding since 1995.
Just pulled it to use for my front stage in a new vehicle. Best $330 I ever spent.

Do NOT attempt to load down below reccomended impedence. 98% of Zed amps are not designed for low impedence and will be very unhappy with you if you try.

I think Gen VII HiFonics are my favorite model and I actually like the plugs over the terminals for speaker connections. I am running my whole system from a Gen VII Aphrodite 6 channel. You cant go wrong with old HiFonics.

Early Series VII had over-touchy low-impedance protection (we were told this by Hifonics at the time). We often got around this on the bass channel by adding a series inductor and its accompanying DCR. (Hey, it worked).

Remember that those amps are stiffly regulated. the good news is that you make constant power anywhere between 11 and 16V. The bad news is that you have zero dynamic headroom, so don't expect "peak power" - no trabajo.

Amps worked great, reliable, etc. Did not like the top end sound as much as Zapco Z-series, but that's just my opinion. Could have been the difference in headroom.

I liked the 8 Series better than the 7 series

I also like the 8 series better, due to the plug-n-play connectors mentioned above. One thing to watch out for is after serveral installs/uninstalls, the RCA jack's connections to the circuit board tend to come loose and break off on some of the amps. I have had this happen to me on 2 amps.
I've owned 2 Plutos, 1 Vulcan, 2 Thors, 2 Boltars, and 1 Aphrodite and at one time was using 5 of these amps in my car. All are gone now except the Aphrodite...I am torn between sending it to Steve for a checkup and selling it or keep and use it somehow (I don't have anything else that is white in color in my install).

I guess the reason I like the VII is because its easily removed. I dont have garage space for all of my cars and the car with the Aphrodite stays outside. I can remove it in literally 1 minute, unplug the speaker connections and disconnect the power and ground the remote stays on the speaker plug. I like the quick disconnect idea. I recently had to add a fan as I hit thermal protection once on a hot day after about an hour and a half of hard playing. After the fan install its been awesome.
You dont see many Gen VII and VIII Aphrodites anymore they never come up for sale as well as Colossus. You can usually find the others of the series but not these two models.

Hi guys. i have a VIII odin and VIII cupid I bought back in highschool...(16years ago!)

so i'm going to finally get around to using them again. i was under the impression that these are class D amps, which makes me wonder if I should be using them for subs only? Is this correct?

djkmeasurement said:

Hi guys. i have a VIII odin and VIII cupid I bought back in highschool...(16years ago!)

so i'm going to finally get around to using them again. i was under the impression that these are class D amps, which makes me wonder if I should be using them for subs only? Is this correct?

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Those amps are absolutely NOT class D. Class A/B, plus neither of those are mono amps.

OK thanks for the response!

Doing more reading and some homework....sounds like perhaps HiFonics amps changed to class D AFTER ZED stopped building them?

I designed, simulated and built a classAB FET amp when I was in college.

Just for fun, i'm going to put these on the bench to have a look at the output while i get my system together (geeky I know).

-*warning* dead thread re-life in process-

00poop6x said:

VII

Heatsink surface is more on the VII's. Many regard the VII's as the best of the series.

Got a VII Boltar mint condition running strong since '91. Built on my birthday so it's special to me <3

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If I had known how badass the amps I had back then were, I never would have gotten rid of them. Had the VII Pluto, Odin, and Boltar that ran everything I did back from 1991. I sold them to a friend that ran them for another 10 years, well into late 2005 before they started having trouble. I bet they could have been repaired nicely. He tossed them :-(

the white viii is a sexy beast...but the vii's are what i grew up with.

i ran odin and vulcan vii back in the 90's and i currently am running a minty fresh odin vii I love them more than the soundstreams and PPI's for some reason. Maybe cuz they are so underappreciated.

Hispls said:

Do NOT attempt to load down below reccomended impedence. 98% of Zed amps are not designed for low impedence and will be very unhappy with you if you try.

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thats why they call it "recommended" pretty much true of any amplifier.


I had a couple systems on the series VII and series VIII. performance wise I couldnt tell a difference. I liked that look of the series VIII better. they were good quality amps. lots of power and ran cool. never had one shut down due to thermal overload.

tough finding them in good condition these days.