Phoenix Gold Ti800.4 Amplifier

I would like to first thank Morgan and Kevin with AAMP for setting me up with this amp to review.  There are pretty much no PG dealers in my whole state, so I have a better chance of seeing aliens in a cornfield than I do seeing one of these amplifiers in a store display.  Getting a product out to someone like me for a review of it says a lot about commitment to their fans, and I really appreciate the opportunity to pick this product apart.  I am a big fan of "old school" PG products, and have had mixed feelings of the company and its products during the turmoil of the past several years.  Since AAMP acquired PG last year they have put a lot of effort into getting the company back on track, and hopefully by the time you finish reading this review you can form your own opinion of how far they have come, or if they have succeeded.

Packaging:

The packaging on this amp is very good.  Normally I don't focus much on this aspect of a product, but PG really did an excellent job here.  The double boxing makes for a durable and protective layer to keep the amp safe.  The box is covered with graphics and information.

When you open the top lid of the box you are greeted with a vivid full color photo of the amplifier's "guts".  I love seeing details like this.  It proves to me the company is not afraid to show off their design, and is probably quite proud of it.  As with the S mono amp I reviewed previously, the box is sealed with the details of the final quality check.

PG really went all out with this, and they even put the amplifier inside a nice soft bag which has a zipper on it.  Once the amp is installed, the bag does not do a whole lot for it, but it will probably come to good use when you go to store that non-PG amp you just upgraded from!  A set of wrenches for the amplifier's terminals are also included.

Like the S1000.1, this amp is made in Korea.  I would have loved to have seen "Made in the USA" somewhere on it, but these days that simply is not the case, nor will it likely ever be.  So long as quality is high, performance is high, and price is low, we as consumers don't have a whole lot to complain about.  Included with the amp is a warranty card which offers up to 3 years coverage, depending on how or with what it is installed.  Three years shows me the company is willing to stand behind the quality of this product.

Cosmetics:

Cosmetics are so much about opinions, I don't know how useful any of my comments can even be.  Outwardly this amp is very clean looking.  It is simple, too the point, and very large.  It is also heavy.  Large and heavy generally mean one thing on an amp, it probably won't overheat.  The finish on the amp is very classy looking, and has just the right amount of "depth" to it.  The logo is metal and looks good, although I think it could be molded a bit better with sharper bottom edges.

The connections and controls are well done.  The text describing them is sharp, and the color used is unique.  When you focus on the connections the text is easy to read.  If you move back away from the amp and look at it overall, the text for the most part blends in and disappears.  This makes for a very clean look from a distance.  I would prefer if the terminals had a matte finish instead of a shiny one, but this detail is really pretty trivial.  While mentioning the terminals, they are way too big.  The power and ground are 0ga, and that means anything smaller looks out of place when in the terminal.  There is no way this amp needs 0ga, 4ga terminals would be plenty.

Each end of the amp is capped off with a very nice aluminum casting.  It is coated with a durable finish (probably powder coat), which has a nice texture, solid mounting tabs, and incorporates some small vents as well.  The top portion of the heatsink has fins for additional cooling, although my photo is pretty blurry and does not do this justice.

So, cosmetically the amp looks a cut above, and can easily compete with a lot of other high end amps on the market these days.  It will most likely look at home in any installation, from the extreme to the very conservative.

Build:

Build quality is top notch.  It is clear this design is a minimalist approach, which is optimal for great SQ.  Only what is needed to get the job done is there with no extra clutter.  The power supply is solid and is a dual design, likely one for the front, and another for the rear.  Each supply uses four high current MOSFETs.  There are also nice large buss bars used in critical areas of the supply. 

Four rectifiers (two per supply) round out the power supply section.

The output section consist of a pair of large MT-100 (TO3P) sized bi-polar transistors per channel.  They are the excellent Sanken A1303, and C3284.  Rated for 125W each, they pack quite a punch.  Not too many amplifiers on the market use these highly quality devices in them.

One crossover for the front section of the amp is integrated into the main board of the amplifier, and the second crossover for the rear is on a separate daughter card.

When you crack the amp open you are greeted with a really cool little detail below the PG logo on the board...

As far as the build of the amp is concerned, that detail could not be more accurate.  A great way to think of this amp is as a modern day M44, with a similar output section, but over twice the power supply.  This amp is slightly larger physically than a M44.  The old M amps are excellent amps, but they ran very hot which lowered their reliability, and every amp in the line had a very weak power supply.  Additionally, this amp has a more advanced crossover, and stronger, easier to use terminals than the old M44. 

Above is a board diagram to further describe the parts of the amplifier.

Performance:

To produce 125W a channel into 4 ohms, this amp would have to output at least 22.4V RMS prior to clipping.  I hooked the amp up and using my oscilloscope I came up with 22V of output prior to clipping.  The 125W rating is specified at 14.4V input, and my power supply is only 13.8V, so it is pretty clear the amp will make its rated power.

A really nice feature of this amp is it includes clipping or "peak" lights, one for the front and one for the rear.  These are great tools for system tuning, as you can easily determine if you are driving the amplifier too far or not.  I found them to activate at 20.5V, so seeing them flash occasionally while playing music means things are doing fine, and seeing them on constantly means the amplifier is being overdriven.

I did not get too elaborate with my testing, as this amp is a full range Class A/B design, and its primary goal is to sound good, not to blow up subwoofers.  To see how it sounds I hooked it up to my DIY home speakers I use as a reference for everything I listen to.

I am one of the last people who would ever claim to have "golden ears".  I can fairly easily hear when something is wrong or sounds bad, but I can't describe how great something sounds.  Nothing about this amp sounded bad to me in any way.  Very clean, very clear, and with plenty of force to back it up.  Every PG amp I have ever worked with over the years has sounded great, and this amp is no exception.

Suggestions for PG:

It is hard to come up with any really practical improvements which could be made to this amplifier.  I suppose I would like to see the amp be a lot smaller, and if that required the use of a fan, I have no complaints there.  However, if doing this made the amp less reliable over the long haul, then that would not be a worth while change.  Fans get plugged up and fail, a big heavy heatsink does not.

One feature PG really needs to consider is "stereo bridging".  Since the Ti line does not include any 2-channel amps, PG has asserted the point you can just bridge the 4-channel down to 2-channels for that need.  Well, doing this and getting it to still be a stereo output when done is something 75% of car audio customers will never get right.  What PG needs to do is invert the phase of the rear channels by 180 deg, then change the labels on the rear section from (+) (-) (+) (-), to (-) (+) (-) (+).  This would be as simple as moving two pins on two op-amps internally, and changing what ever is used to print the text on the side of the amp.  If this feature was implemented, then users can run a single set of RCAs in the front inputs.  Then then take a lead from the front right and rear right to form the right bridged channel, and take a lead from the front left, and rear left to form the left bridged channel.  No more silly "Y" cables, and no more confusion.

Final Thoughts:

I have to be honest.  When I first started testing on this amplifier I was really not all that impressed.  However, at that point I was still thinking with an "old school" mindset about some of my favorite amps such as the ZX450.  Well, the game has changed.  Back then companies could produce an amp rated at 25W which actually did 100W, and people would buy it all day long.  Today an amplifier had better do what it is rated to do, and rating it any lower than what it does is marketing suicide.  This amp is rated at 125Wx4, and if they rated it at 75Wx4, a potential customer would just buy an amp from another company which is rated at 100Wx4.  So now they rate amplifiers at what they do, nothing more, nothing less.  My thinking also kept telling me how nice my much smaller ZX450 would fit into an installation.  Well that same ZX450 might fit in a tight space, but if you are beating on it in the middle of the summer, chances are it will thermally shut down.  When an amp shuts down the customer typically does not think of this as a good thing.

All of this as far as I can tell pretty much stems from the loss of highly trained and specialized dealers.  In the 80's or 90's, you trusted your dealer.  They would sell you a 25W amp which does 100w, but you would drive away happy and easily beat your buddy with a 75W amp.  If you bought an amp like the ZX450 for example, your dealer would install it where it can get some air, or if air was limited, the gains could be reduced to keep the amp running more stable.  This is all gone today.  Now people walk into a store, buy and amp based on how big the numbers are on the box, install it and turn everything up all the way.  The amp needs competitive power ratings, and needs to be able to survive the worst installation conditions if the company is to build a reputation, or keep one.

So the bottom line is this, the Ti800.4 does what it is supposed to do, looks good and sounds good doing it, and will probably keep doing it for many years to come.  What more can you ask from a car audio amplifier?  If you are an old school car audio guy contemplating getting one of these, there is an easy way to think about this.  The Ti800.4 is a modern day M44 with over twice the performance in about the same space.  As much as I personally love the M44, this Ti800.4 has it "spanked", and it does all this at a MSRP of $649.

As always, if you have any thoughts, complaints, or suggestions, please feel free to email dr.fosgate@gmail.com and I will take them into consideration.

EMD (2010)