Old One Eye's CES Report
Pg. 4 of 23
Kicker
Well, kicker had an interesting booth although not as good as last year with Frank Reaugeou’s Civic and a magician in the booth. First, some new Impulse amps. They look like the older impulse amps, but they added what looks like a chrome-plated grille over the center of the amp. Makes them look very nice in my opinion, very industrial look. They also have some optional plastic looking endcaps that don’t look that great, they stick out way to far for my liking, but for the most part the impulse line looks improved. They have a 230 x 2, 130 x 2, 70 x 2, 40 x 2, 25 x 2, 40 x 6., 70 x 4, 40 x 4, and 25 x 4 models in the impulse line. They also added some outboard signal processors, including a 2 way and 3 way xover (that happen to look like the old MTX stuff) and a 5 band indash preamp/EQ. This thing has 7 volts output, fader control and all 5 bands are adjustable as far as frequency is concerned. The latest addition to the signal processing module line is a multi module docking port that allows you to use two plug in cards on one amp. If you ask me, it’s a Band-Aid solution. On the higher end amps, two ports should be built in. But, they have finally released this thing so some people might be happy. Here is a picture of the Impulse line with the spacer set up between them.
In the area of speakers, they have updated some of the lines. The competition line becomes
the Competition VR line. This line now has a new cone and Inverted structural dome, a
beefed up suspension and now it works in an even smaller box than before, as an example a
12 will go into a 1 cubic foot box. The Impulse line of subs has been improved as well,
new cone, increased throw, and more. For the most part, this thing has all the new
features of the other subs built in except for the perimeter cooling. The Impulse line
also has some new coaxials and separates. The separates can be mounted with the mids and
tweeters separately or they have included a bracket and extra grille with a hole cut out
of the middle that allow you to mount them coaxially. The coaxials have a lens that lets
you aim the high-end sound. Since lots of the subs were new, the loaded enclosures are
pretty much all new this year (most are smaller). Last but not least, they have an Impulse
marine line with coaxials and subwoofers. You can check out their page if you need more
info. www.kicker.com
Here is a picture of the Kicker Impulse Marine line.
Axiom
Flashy looking stuff. Made in Italy I guess (or the company anyway). Stuff looks pretty, like some high quality home speaker drivers. Exotic looking cone materials, heavy duty looking terminals. Looks kind like Focal stuff or the Diamond stuff. Not sure what to make of it. www.axiomtechnology.com
US Amps
Well, I would like to thank the person that I spoke to in the booth. The guy gave me a full tour of everything in the booth and treated me like a potential customer, unlike some of the other people at the show. The one thing that really caught my eye in the booth was a laptop hooked up to a US Amps amplifier. Turns out they have a new technology that I think they should license to every other amp manufacturer out there. Although I have never used US amps, I think this feature can easily close the deal for some people. Anyway, the feature is called SAT (smart amp technology). It uses a small on board computer to store the serial number, model number and born on date. It can also track over and under voltage, thermal protection, over current, short circuit conditions for each individual channel. The computer detects faults and then stores them in the computer and can automatically roll back the amp to protect it. The guy I talked to mentioned that about half of all amps returned are no problem found. Imagine all the shipping, handling and lost hours spent on 50% of all returned amps? Well, for $90, a dealer can get the kit that allows a PC to access the computer built into the amp and tell you exactly what’s going on with the amp. It can also sense problems in real time, so if its intermittent problem, you can have the customer drive around with the laptop on the passenger seat until the problem occurs again. A mini balanced connector on some of the amps can access all this. In addition, I would imagine they will be able to come up with an in dash display that can monitor everything going on with the SAT.
I liked the look of the new amps as well. They had one amp with a laser-etched logo and a blue anodized finish that I thought was the coolest thing. He mentioned that the guy has to spend quite a bit of time buffing these things out on a buffer using jewelers rouge and a 4’ scotch brite pad (4 feet?!?!?). Having worked in plastics and buffed stuff, that is a big fucking wheel and a tedious job. I’m not too familiar with the US amp line, so I’ll just give a brief rundown. 6 Terminator 2 ohm stable amps 50 x 2, 100 x 2, 150 x 2, 300 x 2, 400 x 2, and 75 x 4 + 250 x 1. In the USA 1 ohm line, 25 x 2, 50 x 2, 75 x 2, 150 x 2, 200 x 2, and 400 x 2. Last but not least the competition stuff. 25 x 2, 50 x 2, and 200 x 2. All are ½ stable and pump out lots of power (one is over 3 feet long). You can check out their page at www.usamps.com.
Cerwin Vega
Well, nobody would have guessed but CV has released amps (WHY?!?!). The things look plain Jane if you ask me. Oh, CV had the same truck as last year, with the woofers aimed at your head. The biggest "feature" on these amps is the "Vega Bass" button. It supposed to double power according to the brochure (why can’t they just make it twice as powerful to begin with?). One cool feature is a dash mounted gain control. 5 models in all, with a 2 x 40, 2 x 80, 2 x 175, 2 x 300 and a 4 x 60. Also interesting was a double surround on the woofers. I’m not sure how that is going to work (I would guess that where the two surrounds meet will be a weak spot). www.cerwin-vega.com
