Car amplifiers thanks to class D technology are getting smaller and smaller, but this doesn’t always mean for the better. From my experience, class D is more efficient and because subwoofers take so much rms to get them booming, class D is often used in bass amplifiers because of mounting limitations and also you’re not able to tell sound quality imperfections as much from an subwoofer. If there was a modern 1000 watt rms Class A/B car amplifier it would be the size of a skateboard. Now, class A/B car amplifier designs are geared towards sound quality, they produce lots of heat and eat up your electrical system but they provide the best sound. This is why most car amplifiers that are 4 channel to power front car speakers and rear car speakers are usually class A/B, they provide the best sound quality and the clearness from class A/B amps can only be heard from car speakers. Class A/B amps are fairly large for what rms they produce, hence why you find 1000 rms Class D car amplifiers smaller than 100 rms X4 4 channel car amplifier that consists of Class A/B technology.
Now, space sometimes can be a factor in car audio and push chairs don't really get along, but I had come across this Vibe 65.4 car amplifier that has the ability to plug into your factory system and add 65 rms to each four speakers in your vehicle. Stock car speakers won’t handle this of course, so you would need to add aftermarket car speakers from brands such as kenwood or pioneer. This sounds appealing 65 rms from a pocket sized amp and you don't have to run an car amplifier wiring kit, simply plug and play and fit inside your glove box?
Well that’s what I though, so I went out an ordered one from ebay that was listed as an vibe authorised seller. It arrived and it was very compact and small no bigger than a usual £20 note in the UK. Fitment just by looking at it was not an issue, I already had many places were I could visually see this car amplifier being mounted practically anywhere. (Not the bin of course)
It consists of two separate gain controls and two separate high pass filter switches one for the front channel and one for the rear. It also has two lots of separate RCA input connections so you can also use it with an aftermarket headunit. RCAs are always the way to go because they provide an none amplified signal to your car amplifier to amply. You are not double amping the amp by sending the amplifier car stereo output to the amplifier to then get amplified again to power your door speakers. This is how the vibe 65.4 micro amplifier operates when using a plug and play wiring harness, the worst way to improve a car audio system, simply poor. The wiring harness I ordered looked plug and play but some of the pinouts were incorrect for my vehicle and radio wiring harness. So, I had to adjust the wiring anyway to make the car amplifier operate, as the car amplifier would not power on, simply by just plugging in the vibe 65.4 car amp to the factory radio, using the plug and play wiring thing supplied. Defeats the purpose of there marketing slogan for the product.
Now putting this thing to the test. I am going to be honest, the Vibe 65.4 optisound micro 4 channel car amplifier performed ok but not the best. In fact, the signal started clipping and distorting not even past the half of the gain when adding rear and front door speakers on. When using just two front car speakers connected to the front channel on the car amplifier there was less clipping and distortion. As soon as you add on another two speakers to the rear channel boom! the car amplifiers performance starts to degrade even further. Each speaker had a 4 ohm load per channel what this amp is rated at stated in the specification on the user manual found online. No paper user manual provided, they are trying to cut costs, not good. This little paper weight can't handle a good proper load. In fact, when you beat hard on it, after an few hours the car amplifier will go into protect mode. You then have to shut down your car stereo, so the blue remote wire turns off the car amplifier and then wait for it too cool down. This can get annoying if your living in a hot climate not an issue in the UK though as its always raining down here, hence why it’s made in the UK lol. There are no cooling fans inside it and it doesn’t have a proper mental heatsink on the top of it. It seems to be made out of plastic and feels and performs like junk. I not sure who designed this amplifier, but it should have a micro small cooling fan inside it to extract out the hot air to at least make it perform better. Its small as it is and the mosfet transistors are already suffocated inside in such a small space. No thought has been designed into this amp, simply just to bring revenue to the company. They don’t make them they way they used to that’s for sure.
Yes, it does perform better than your factory stereo. But it doesn't even come close to a quality real size 4 channel car amplifier that you mount on the back of a rear seat. I don’t think it even does 65 rms x4 the most I would say is 40 and thats with lots of poor quality when turning up the gain too. It feels and looks like a toy for a reason. Now I love vibe and edge car audio stuff, there preactive enclosure range is good for people that don't want to buy separate car amplifiers and want a simply easy to install first car audio system. But this vibe 65.4 optisound micro 4 channel car amplifier had disappointed me. I even hardware it directly to my car battery to give it the best change of getting 12 volts and also used RCA cables to clean up the sound, made no difference.
Another concerning this is that Vibe approve that you can use your stock wiring to provide 65 rms to each car speaker. Factory speaker wire is really thin and so are there supplied wiring looms, if 65 rms was actually given to each speaker via the vibe micro amp, I would be certain the wire would melt. And because it doesn’t it is evident to me that this amp doesn’t to 65 rms at all.
Furthermore, I found that every 10 seconds or so it cuts out during music playback, you can't really notice it but it does and it can get annoying If gain is up to the highest level just before distortion and clipping. Poor transistors inside struggling to keep up with music demands and also I even ordered an second Vibe 65.4 from trusty good old halfords an UK version of Walmart for cars and also experienced the same and poor sounding experience. This was to rule out the one I purchased from ebay was not a fake version or a copy.
The vibe 65.4 is an ok amp, you can get a proper amplifier that is four channel for the same price if you got the space to mount it onto the back seat. It’s not really plug and play as they say and still sometimes requires splicing in wires and cutting some to make it work. Overall, I would give the product a rating of 5/10 simply because it provides false expectations when ordering it. Its ok for new entry level car audio people that are just getting into the hobby I suppose. Not happy with its sound quality performance. Its shiny and looks like an attractive amplifier but that’s about it.
The Vibe 65.4 optisound micro 4 channel car amplifier is consider an kids toy. Please avoid buying as you won't be getting what you think. Alpine actually make a similar type of car amplifier it’s an 4x45 rms model alpine KTP-445A this is a better amplifier and it is also more expensive for a reason, it contains better electrical components. Least alpine don't overate their products. If you want a small compact and reliable amplifier avoid the Vibe and get the Alpine KTP-455A ,us old school car audio people know alpine has been around for decades compared to this shady Vibe UK brand. I am from the UK and I am saying this.
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