2) I got this amp to replace yet another sub amp. Lets see the list of sub amps i have owned. Rockford 600a4, ESX 275-1, Cadence A7HC, and a Earthquake D2. The Arc rivals all of them in SQ hands down. This amp is super clean and super powerful. It is rated at 1100 watts, but makes much more than that. It also doesn't pull alot of power. I was getting alittle concerned with the 120 amp fuse inside, but i have only a 100 amp circit breaker under my hood, and i have yet to trip that. Even under full blast hooked up to my diamond Audio Mac Daddy 12". Also for the price, this amp is really hard to beat. IMO its among the same ranks as a ZR-1000 or Zapco Competition 1000 watt amp, but cost less. I plan on having this amp for a while, because i don't know why i would ever want to upgrade it. -Greg 01-03-01

3) First of all I'd like to share a little information I learned about this beast. This amp is the 2nd newest of the cxl line-it came out last summer. It is rated at 250x2 at 4 ohm stereo and 500x2 at 2 ohm stereo and of course 1,050x1 at 4 ohm sum mono. The crossover is very nice on the 2500 allowing an 12 or 24db rolloff in stereo. This amp is 18 inches long (and 8 inches wide like all the other Arc series amps). Now for the fun part. I had an 99 Orion Extreme 800 (which is basicly an HCCA250R that puts out an rated max power at 4 ohm mono instead of 1) on my 3 ported Oz Matrix 10's and it was pretty darn nice. It was giving them 800 plus watts-Orion is known as powerhouse amps to many and it was nice imo. I had that amp in for about 2 1/2 weeks and recently swapped it out with the Arc and I could tell a very noticeable diffrence soundwise and output wise from my subs. This amp is the "shizzy nizzy" guyz I don't crap you a bit. Ask around Elite and you will find nothing but praise on them. On all the Arc Amps I've had, I have never even had to touch the gain much or bass boost. The Orion I had it all over the place from the q boost-to the gain and such. The Orions are good amps but if I were you I'd mow a few more lawns this summer and put 1 or 2 of these in-YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED OR BLAME ME haha BTW Chix dig Arc amps hehe Now I know boyz the gain is not a volume control and a big reason why Arc Amps usually don't need much is because they can be capable of full power with just a little over 2 rms volt of signal. I'm saying when I usually put Arc amps in I have it so damn loud I don't need anymore and gains down is a plus anywayz if you can because less chance of nasty noise and I don't worry if I'm being cruel to my voice coils. This amp on my subs annoyed the landlord much more than the Orion. She says it bounced her around in her office. My 0z's don't do your 1 note wonder bass-they smack you and others around with constant notes. This took my mirror to the grave right off and now is making my roof cry out "Am I SUPPOSED to be MOVING GOOBER!" Lastly, I moved the 2500 to my 2-way Rainbow 6.5 component set and the same thing. It was warmer and noticebly more powerful than the orion. I love headroom-I like hearing the smaller background notes too with detail and volume. This amp can very easily bottom my midbass drivers. But this amp could drive your 2-way with your gains set correctly. I decided to get 2 rainbow pro 6.5 per door for dedicated midbass and 2 4's for midrange so I'm putting this 2500 on the midbasses ummmm yummi... This is one powerful amp that you better know how to set gains on or say bye bye to Mr. Coil. But anyways I wanted to let everyone know this Beast is for real, I see why Matt aka ID Tech uses it for testing woofers and his installs. -Jason 04-17-01

4) The first thing that came to my mind when I pulled my Arc2500 CXL out of the box, was that it was overbuilt. They say that you get what you pay for, and in this case you get a lot! I am still surprised that in a bench test the amp actually proved to be 70% efficient in bridged mode. Ofcourse, efficiency changes with different factors, but 70% is very nice for a class A/B design. The Arc2500 is a 1,000-plus watt amp that can be used in a variety of applications, from competition 3-way components, to pushing 2 or 3 serious subwoofers. One very nice feature of the amp is the 12dB/24dB crossover slope switch. SQ Competitors should find this very useful. The RCA pass through connections eliminate having to externally split the signal from the head unit, another great feature if you require more amps than the head unit has RCA outputs. The only trouble I can see anyone running into with the Arc2500, would have to be when setting gains with a head unit that has a high voltage preout(4 volts), due to the amp's maximum input voltage of 2.5 volts. It's almost as if there's too much of a signal in this case! This isn't that big of a problem though, since there are ways around it. Currently I have my ARC 2500 CXL pushing a single MASS 2012, in a 6.5 cubic foot enclosure, tuned to 19 hertz. The amp is running bridged at 8 ohms, and is pushing the MASS to it's excursion limits without distortion. I have yet to get it metered, but with the passenger window down I would say the one subwoofer is playing around 145dB in the driver's seat, at 28 hertz! I'm willing to bet that this amp pushing two 12s could be enough to injure someone internally! In summary, if you have the money to spend, and you're looking for a very powerful amp full of usable features, the Arc2500 CXL should fit the bill perfectly! Everything about this amp, from it's great paint job, to it's overdone qualities , shows that more and more serious audio enthusiasts are picking these babies up. -Nate 05-12-01

5) I have never had a such a musical and powerful sub amp before owning an ARC Audio 2500-CXL. I had a McIntosh MC431M for awhile, it was fairly high powered and sounded great. I tried a couple of different Class D amps, I just do not understand using them in an SQ system, sure lots of power but they sounded terrible! (The 1500DR is not in the same class as the rest!) With the 431, 800 watts RMS at 1 ohm mono, and two Eclipse 88100s in .58 sealed boxes facing each other, it was hard to make loud bass with the windows up, could only hit 117db. As soon as I installed the 2500 I went from having real decent subbass to outstanding clarity and definition, incredibly smooth, deep and loud. I hit 130dB the very first time, a13dB gain with just an amp change is remarkable. I will get the IDMAX subs soon and rebuild the sub enclosures to better optimize the output, I expect at least a 10dB increase even if I just decide to use one IDMAX. Fun to have great SQ and get loud at will, may do some SPL comps, I sure know the 2500 can handle it well! I was going to try the 1500DR which I know is a killer amp but just cannot bring myself to even think about removing the 2500, it is all the amp I could ever need, love it! -Rick 05-15-01