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My test: HiFonics Colossus PRO 5k


TaylorFade

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This thing caught my eye because huge A/B power isn't very common. Not this sort of power anyway. Or size. It's enormous. And because this is as good as it gets for HiFonics. The Mt. Olympus stuff is their "premium" line. So when a buddy of mine went looking for big A/B power on a budget, I blindly suggested this thing because... I wanted to test it. Lol. Well, that... and the fact that there aren't any "budget" 2,000w class A/B amps.

I called HiFonics to ask them if I could open it up without voiding the warranty and they flat out said, "No." Lol. But when I called, I got a human on the phone that spoke English and that lead to a very nice conversation. That impressed me. He was very forthcoming and helpful and was just a regular ol' basshead like us. We talked for like, half an hour.

HiFonics Colossus PRO 5,000.
Rated...
600x2 @ 4
950x2 @ 2
1,250x2 @ 1
1,900x1 bridged @ 4
2,400 bridged @ 2

I assume these are at 14.4v

Anyway... this thing is hyoooooj. As evidenced by the rather stretched out tape measure. I shit you not... it's longer than the TFE. It's also pretty clean looking and the logo lights up if you're into that kinda thing. Seems like a waste of voltage to me.

A7F7ACA1-D95D-44A9-B9A0-72FF8A041FE9_zps

This is a rather impressive input section. Lots of control here. Bandpass crossover, x10 switch and something you don't see every day, an adjustable 'Q' parametric EQ. Nice. You'll also notice a rather busy "bass" knob with diagnostics as well as a 3 stage clip light. I didn't bother testing it's accuracy, but I assume it's as accurate as or tied into the onboard one and that one was pretty dead on.

7B0C9529-5EA2-4DB2-8766-43924A2A33C2_zps

Here's something else you won't see everyday... dual 1/0 power and grounds on an A/B. AND they're grouped into + and -. I like that. Solid 8awg output terminals. Set screws are hex. Thank you.

3D537557-2E06-4609-BB09-CB02B4288A1A_zps

Here's where the guts were supposed to be :( Oh well. They have a couple shots of some of the components online, but no overviews. Side note here... the tech I spoke with said that they can actually tell if the backplate comes off even without the sticker. They can ALSO see the last (10) faults the amp had. Sneaky sneaky. Bish has onboard memory.

91D07424-A45B-44FE-859B-894572AEB7F3_zps

Testing...

Unloaded. I don't know why, but I expected to see more voltage than this- even though that's a lot of f'n voltage from a "2k".

b122c894-d631-4e4a-b529-44d09fccb7db_zps

10 ohms bridged (5 ohms per channel, obviously). I kinda took a little concession on the voltage here. Whoops.

6559C6F1-0F6A-40E0-A00C-A2C9E44D52AD_zps

That's 750w @ 10ohms bridged & 14.9v with 63% efficiency.

Bridged at 5 ohms.

B4134345-3DAE-49AB-81FD-65335EBDA260_zps

1,350w bridged @ 5ohms 14.4v. Still maintaining 63% efficiency.

Bridged @ 2.5ohms.

42DB8803-DCC3-4F92-9F71-FB918C4CBF54_zps

2,350w bridged @ 2.5ohms & 14.7v. Efficiency drops to 59% here. Not too shabby.

Little bit of voltage drop in case y'all are wondering. Still bridged at 2.5 ohms here.

00F087E1-89FD-4E35-B186-E654E262CB77_zps

Still doing 2,000w @ 13.5v and still holding ~ 60% efficiency. You can see it just starting to square off. We're still ok here and probably more of a real world type of voltage. You'll see some flickering on the clip light, but it won't be dead red.

One last test... I was actually recording a video here so I couldn't keep an eye on voltage, but I assume it was near the 13.5v result. It was beat up pretty good by this point.

9D353CC7-327D-406B-AC15-7728CC9CD7B2_zps


So... HiFonics Mt. Olympus Colossus PRO
Rated - 600x2 @ 4 ohm... did 375x2 @ 5 ohm
Rated - 950x2 @ 2 ohm... did 675x2 @ 2.5 ohm
Rated - 1,250x2 @ 1 ohm... did 1,175x2 @ 1.25 ohm

Rated - 1,900 bridged @ 4... did 1,350 bridged @ 5
Rated - 2,400 bridged @ 2... did 2,350 bridged @ 2.5

Ugh. I really need to get some even number value resistors. It's weird comparing 5 ohm to 4 ohm or whatever. But you can see the closer the tested load got to the rated load, the closer the results got to the ratings. Especially down low at 1 ohm vs. 1.25 ohm.

Although it fell short of ratings higher up, it seemed like it woke up when wired down. The 10 ohm and 5 ohm results were the first power the amp had seen. Do amps need burn in? I dunno. Either way... the amp got close enough bridged at 2.5 ohms for me to give it a pass.

The amp sells for ~ $500 but you can find them for less if you shop around. You might miss out on your warranty if you look for the best deal (unauthorized dealers). It's actually more expensive than it's more powerful mono class D namesake, but that's the price you pay for class A/B.

There are a couple other A/B offerings of this size. And they would probably whoop it. But you will likely pay double for those. It's a $500 "budget" class A/B surfboard. It's comparably priced with Korean class D 2k monos if you're shopping for a sub amp. And it could certainly run subs. But knowing you guys, this thing would probably run an array of super tweeters. Oh, my ears!!




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Nice results. Did not expect those at all. Thanks for posting all of your tests up on here.

By the way, do you prefer clamping or the AMM-1? Really looking into getting one for the amp dyno feature.

For a quick test... I MUCH prefer the AMM-1. But for a review/write up like this... I like to see and show what's going on with the amp. The AMM-1 is just a snapshot. But it's really easy when you don't have enough hands or eyes. And sometimes an install makes it impossible to watch the meters and run the test at the same time. So the peak/hold nature of the dyno mode comes in SUPER handy.

"Clamping" for volt*amps is easy since you don't have to unhook the speaker lead to feed it through. Some quick tests dictate the use of a traditional clamp and it's "close enough" for most of us.

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Excellent write up! Thank you for taking the time to do this!

I totally need an AMM-1.

"Nothing prevents people from knowing the truth more than the belief they already know it."
"Making bass is easy, making music is the hard part."

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hifonics isnt all that bad. i dont even care what people say.

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hifonics isnt all that bad. i dont even care what people say.

Fu34p9s.jpg

That being said a lot of people's definition of "music" is a clipped 30 hz sine wave with some 80 IQ knuckle head grunting about committing crimes and his genitals.

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Nice results. awesome. thanks for taking the time to do this! =)

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whats the best big 2ch u tested? and what u think about the DD2b?

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