First, Thank you for serving. Hope you get home safely and quickly.
Second, let me clarify my feelings on brands like Kicker. They were the big dog at one time, practically the only game in town. JL and MTX also come to mind. Rockford Fosgate, man I remember when that was the stuff to own. US Amps came along shortly thereafter. Then Memphis entered the scene in a big way with the ol' Belle.
Out of all of them... JL remains pretty damn impressive.
I know some guys who collect the old US Amps stuff religiously. US Amps now introduced a Korean(?) made line called Xterminator. Thats been the common trend for most, making it cheaper, yet these names come at a premium.
Phoenix Gold moved so far away from their core values that a bunch of the guys left to form Exile audio... now thats some impressive looking gear. However, the current PG stuff is still not that shabby, internally, but for the prices???
Rockford and MTX are now quite expensive for what you get.
Kicker, they fall in there someplace... here's the guts to the 2500's little brother, the KX1200.1
http://ampguts.realmofexcursion.com/Kicker_KX1200.1/
You can see it's not chintzy, but is the ZX2500.1 the best way to spend $700 some odd dollars? Not in my
honest opinion.
I know a guy, who I respect quite a bit, thats an amp tech at kicker.... he designs and repairs stuff. His level of intelligence is quite high, and I believe he really knows what he's doing. That gives me faith in the Kicker brand, it really does. But do you think Kicker allows this guy to run wild and create the best amp he could? Not when you consider quality component costs. You can be sure he's working under very tight budget constraints.
So perhaps you're getting a $400 amp for $700. Could be worse, could be better, I'm not sure... but the corporation needs their hefty profit.
