Kenwood eXcelon XR-5S

Love/Hate relationship

I don't know whether to love this little amp, or hate it. The first one I got, (from another retailer, not Sonic) was DOA. After a battle with the other company to get it made up, I finally had to file a PP claim and get my money back. During this time I bought a Sony GTX-6040 (60wX4) at W*lMart just to have some tunes while I worked the replacement amp out with the crooks at the other place. I ordered the next one from sonic and they have always been 100% good to me. Even matched the lower price of the other place.

For a small amp, it's pretty powerful. If space is a definite concern, then by all means I recommend it. If you have plenty of space, I'd look at other amps. The one I have has a tendency to cut out and go (briefly) into protect mode when I have it cranked up. I don't know if this is a normal characteristic of this amp, or I got another defect. The gains are set less than half way and I'm running a Kenwood X995 HU. Because of this I'm now running it bridged to power my front components so I can turn the gains down even further and still get the volume. It still cuts out every now and then, but I've learned to not cross a certain volume on certain songs. I plan to run the Sony to the rear speakers. I'll have to admit, the little cheap Sony amp with 60wX4 held it's own and then some against the 80wX4 Kenwood (without the 350w sub channel hooked up). I could run the gains a little higher to cover quieter recordings so they'd still rock, and it never cut out. It's depressing when a $90 cheap amp performs as good or better than the amp you just paid over $400 for. I've got 2 JL 10w1v2 subs wired to 2 ohms and the Kenwood pushes them good and hits pretty hard for what it is. I'm considering breaking down and buying another XR-5S running one bridged to the fronts and one sub, and the other running bridged to the backs and the other sub. That way I won't have to push either amp as hard to get the volume I want and eliminate the cutting out problem. Like I said, It's a Love/Hate relationship!

Great Amplifier

I highly recommend this to anyone who's looking for a class D amplifier, decent amount of power, and not worrying about it fitting in your car or not. I had it for 6 months now and it has been doing great. Its powering 4 JBL P660C component speakers and a 10" JL sub. Easy to tune, very small amplifier for what it could do. Also has a built in fan to help keep the amp cool.