Are all Zapco amps good?

[powderfinger]

Are all of Zapco's amps great amps? There is a pawn shop/second hand store near my house that has two Zapco amps for sale. I am not familiar with Zapco's amps at all and I can't remember the model number but one of them looked just like the 360.4 reference amp that I just saw on Zapco's site.

It was all black with RCA and balanced inputs on both sides. Although I could swear it had a 600 or something on the front of it. The other amp was a two channel amp. They wanted $120 for one of them and $170 for the other one.

Can someone give me some feedback on Zapco. I know they make great amps but are they all great. I'm a little worried about buying them since I am not familiar with them.

[///M5]

I don't think they have any sour ones, but knowing exactly the model numbers would really help. Call them and ask.

[powderfinger]

Yeah, I'm going to call them in the morning. When I saw the Zapcos I mentioned some older car audio stuff that I bought 10 years ago that I will never use again and the guy seemed like he might be interested in it so I might try to work out a trade with him.

I wouldn't mind having the four channel amp if it's a real nice amp.

[i960]

Zapco's are awesome. Never heard anything bad said about them. Obviously you'll have no warranty with those amps, but for that price, who cares? I would just make sure that the pawn shop will let you return them if they don't work. He might only sell them as-is, and they could be dead for all he knows.

[powderfinger]

He has a setup where he can power them up and hook some speakers to them so I will know they work before I get them.

After thinking about it, I think they may have been a little older than the amps I saw on Zapco's site but I can't remember. I'll find out tomorrow I guess.

[i960]

Definitely find out. But for that price, if they work, I'd snag them anyway. I went with Zapco for my latest install. I have a DC1000.4.

[powderfinger]

I called and the lady looked at them and said one is a Reference 360 and the other one just said 350 so I am guessing that is the 3 channel Reference 350.

She said the reference 360 had 600 Watts written across the front which seems odd but I'm going to check them out in an hour or two.

[lowryder99]

blah screw pawnshops unless you want to be running stolen gear.

[BigBody90]

I would assume the inexpensive i force amps are crappy. I have never heard them or known anyone to have one, the price is just too low.

[Hugh Jass]

blah screw pawnshops unless you want to be running stolen gear.

Contrary to popular belief, pawn shops do not sell stolen merchandise. Every item that is pawned has its serial number recorded and ran through the local police dept. database. If it comes back stolen, it is turned over to the police and they handle it from there.
I have scored some amazing deals at pawn shops. Also, remember that they put HUGE markups on everything that they sell and there is usually a lot of room to haggle. They love cash, too.
Make them an offer and see what happens.

[lowryder99]

Please...

Pawn shops are sleazy as they get,

I am guessing more than half (easily) of the people who get their amps/decks stolen don't know the serial numbers on them, heck ive got a wack of amps and I couldn't tell you the serial on any of them and I bought them all new.

A lot of subs and speakers don't even have serial numbers on them....

Second, I am sure some of the better high end pawn shops (not so sleazy) have a better system where they don't thrive off of stolen goods and don't buy much of it. Unfortunately I am guessing most pawn shops fall into the category of don't ask don't tell, just sell ;)

By the way, one of my best friend in high school was the assitant manager at a pawn shop, he bought his own stolen stereo back from some theives just because it wasn't worth the hassle of arguing over a couple bucks and losing his job for making a scene with "good customers" according to the owner of the store.

[Parke10]

I would assume the inexpensive i force amps are crappy. I have never heard them or known anyone to have one, the price is just too low.

even the iforce series is great

[20"silverado]

ummm from what i've read zapco= some of the best amps made. Do a search on caraudio.com

[///M5]

Ha, don't expect to learn anything useful on chitaudio.com. There are some that know what they are doing, but the general masses there do not. Don't read this as me saying anything bad about the Zapco's, Robert Zeff knows how to design amps and you may see me run some here in the not so distant future. :)

[jntar]

Blah...Sean, you know caraudio.com is the greatness LOL! I own that site :p

[20"silverado]

its a good search reference imo

[///M5]

Only if you know the posters so you know who to ignore. There is more mis-information on that site than anywhere that I have ever been on the web.

[20"silverado]

i've been a member since '03 so I know who's bs'in me, lol.....but you are right about the losers on there.

[///M5]

I know your okay as well, but just sending people there who don't know is spooky.

[20"silverado]

I know your okay as well, but just sending people there who don't know is spooky.

lol, true....