Lightning Audio

[audiobass10]

Alright I guess i forgot to post the review and i have no idea what site it was on but it really doesnt matter. Looks don't matter to me at all. I found some good deals on refurb Lighting Strike series amps..atleast for the power they claim to put out. The review was for the 600.1 and i dont remember the model, but it said that it was tested and put out 716 wrms i believe it was..something in the 700 area.If i find the review i'll post it.

[Justin from Detroit1]

Looks may not matter, but does quality? How about an amplifier lasting more then a year? Doubtful you will get any of these with a Lightning Audio amplifier.

[Ryan from Ohio]

Its cheap for a reason.

Very rarely do you get something good that is cheap.

Amplifiers that are good very rarely come cheap...

[71buickfreak]

as far as MB Quart, RF is not selling them out. the Obrigheim plant has been put into receivership, meaning RF no longer owns the plant. the plant may continue to build MB quart, they may not, its up to the receiver. this plant was in recievership when RF purchased RF. this will not effect MB Quarts qualityin any way. no MB Quart is made in taiwan. most of it is made in the US now. MB Quart is still one of the best in components and will continue to be.
Lightning audio it seems is getting a bad rap, mostly for being in Walmart. Oh well, its only the price leader. the yellow stuff is designed to attract the young consumers in the doors of the retail shop, all manucaturers do this, its called marketing. once you are in the door, you are told why it is cheap and why you should buy the better stuff. Lightning audio makes very high quality amps, the same quality that goes onto the RF amps all RockfordCorp car audio products are CEA2006 certified, that means they do what they say they do. Lightning amps last just as long as anyone else. Every manufacturer has lemons. Don't let other person's biased opinions effect your choices. go listen to some yourself. I never buy the lower end gear in a line, the minimum I buy is the second tier, but I usually own the best. In my show car, I use MB Quart PSD316 components and RF Type RF amps, an X2 and an X6, being driven by a Kenwood Z828 deck. I am using an RF Power HX2 10" for the sub. I had considered running some lightning, but I choce the RF because Lightning doesn't have the same SQ as the Type RF amps do. if you buy lightning, just stick with the upper levels and you will love it. sometimes its nice to buy gear that doesn't have the long standing reputations RF or Alpine has because you get top quality for less price.

[Justin from Detroit1]

Wow, I don't know where to start with that. I don't know how you can call some top quality when it costs the manufacturer under $25 to make an amplifier, and under $15 to make a subwoofer.

[audiobass10]

Well, in case anyone was wondering I'm not considering lightning anymore. I'm probably going to stick to MTX. I hear good things about their amps and I can get them for a fair price. My first to try out is the 311D for my RE8.

[71buickfreak]

well, as far manufacturers cost, most amps are fairly inexpensive to build when it is done overseas, which 75% of all amps are. very few are built in the us, and some that are are only assembled here, and the boards are asian. Any major manuafactuer will have the ability to buy down the price of their manufacturing by volume and the other upper level products they produce. If you build 100,000 cheap amps it will cost less to build the 10,000 upper level amps, lowering your overall overhead. And I wasn't talking about the teir 1 products, I said I don't but those. they are loss leaders, meaning you usually don't make much or anyhting, they are used to get people in the door. you don't want a high cost loss leader thats bad business. is a $25 dollar amp going to be top quality? no, but I never said it was either. the Lightning 2000d is a top quality amp and cost a lot mor to make than $25. as far as subs, most stamped basket subs cost very little to make with off the shelf parts. would I compete with a $100 stamped basket sub? no I wouldn't because I want to win. but would I listen to one in my wife's car, sure, it sounds good. I am not comparing lightning to a zapco or an RF power series, but for a regular user, whose not experienced and is on a budget? sure.

[Ryan from Ohio]

It all a matter of quality- simple.

I work in Manufacturing as an engineer. I know a good chunk of the cost on a product is engineering and R&D. Also the materials used and finally construction.

When you look at a 444W SONY amp or any of the Lightning Audio junkers how much engineering time do you think they put into them? R&D? Now look at high end stuff like Tru and ARC. Im sure these places put excessively mad hours of engineering and R7D time into each product.

Materials used. This is another big area. Again to drive costs down low they use the cheaper materials. 85 degree caps in amps, wider tolerance resistors, cheaper copper (VC's) and the list can go on all day.

Build Quality. This topic can go for anything that is made here in the US vs any 3rd world country trying to take away from our manufacturing power. Also a touchy subject for any of us in the US that works in manufacturing.

The materials used in building the equipment is just as vital as the engineering and the actual componets used. The cheaper products are usually assembled in volume with less attention paid to detail. Also the Quality Control may not be up to par with America.

Lastly here in America we know our manufactured products are the same cost or slightly higher than over seas products. We work dilligently and very lean to maintain this gap- whiule holding quality to a level that these 3rd world countries could only wish to achieve.

Keep in mind that Joe down the street has a family of 5 and works dilligently to produce a proper product at a fair rate of pay.

Mr. Tubisha has a family of 3 and goes to work for a bowl of rice and lives in sub par conditions.

Now which of these two do you think will go to work with better ambitions?

:happy055:

[71buickfreak]

You are absolutely right, except that Lightning isn't junk. how many db Drags do you see boss, crunch or ma audio win? none, Lightning has several champions in competition. I am not saying the bolt stuff is awesome, but you can't say the entire line is crap, because its not. sure arc is great stuff, but you can't compare it to lightning as it is geard for a different side of the market. I can compare Mcintosh to sony all day long, but why? the 2 are in completely different leagues. you can't make blanket statements about an entire line based on the loss leaders. What company do you work for?

[GlassWolf]

SPL event titles never impressed me much, for what it's worth.
I've seen, nd this is no joke, Sony, Audiobahn, and American Bass all lay claim to top SPL event titles with factory sponsored vehicles.
Now, while this does mean the systems get loud, it really says nothing for their sound quality or reliability, and I feel that both of teh latter two points will heavily outweigh the former when it comes to what the average person finds most important in an audio system.
Price is almost always a concern for people, sure, but for whatever amount they spend, they usually want the system to sound it's best, and last them for a long time.
There are of course, those who just want to be louder than everyone else, and at the extreme, these people compete, and generally use thousands of watts of power, and tend to shred subs almost every event. They also don't care how the system sounds as long as they can squeeze every last decibel out of the car. These are the same folks running walls of subs, or 6th order bandpass enclosures tuned to about 65Hz.
Not the sort of system centered around musicality.
Now that being said, you can still build a totally SQ targeted system and should have no problems making it loud enough for any reasonable person. That's how my cars are set up, and they can all reach levels of inflicting pain before I hit any sort of audible distortion. I still may not win any SPL events though.