Zapco Z-series B User Manual

Owner's manual
Z-series
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Class A/B Sound Quality Amplifier
Before operating the unit, please read this manual throughly
and retain it for future reference.
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Protect your Investment
Note your information below for reference:
Model # Serial #
Date Purchased
And: Register your Zapco product now
At: www.zapco.com
Mission Statement
Committed to excellence Zapco is dedicated to the pursuit of audio fidelity. Our prime objectives are to
design and produce audio products of unsurpassed quality, to provide unparalleled support and service for these products, and to conduct business in a manner that will enhance the quality of life for all involved.
Experience: Knowledge from doing There is absolutely no substitute for experience; that is a simple fact of life. Another simple fact is that Zapco has, for over forty years, been the leader in defining quality standards for the car audio industry. These years of experience have led to a thorough understanding of the challenges that are unique to the world of car audio. Zapco's relentless quest for sonic purity consistently yields imaginative designs that utilize the most innovative technologies. The resulting products set the criteria by which all others in the industry are judged.
The Zapco Z-Series The Z-Series of Zapco amplifiers is the result of our experience over the last 40 years with the technology of sound reproduction, combined with what we have learned in consultations with the home and car audiophile communities over the last few years about human perception of sound. We have also used a number of studies of the human physiology to examine what an amplifier should do to make reproduced music sound more like live music.
What did we discover? The proper combination of output devices, op-amps, capacitors and other internal components makes a huge difference in the quality of the sound an amplifier produces.
What we did: We set our standards for specifications and assured that all amps would meet them. Then we used the best combination of tantalum capacitors, NJM5532L and/or OPA2134 op-amps, and KEC and Sanken high speed output devices to produce what we believe are the best sounding amplifiers we have
ever offered.
Read, Use, and Enjoy
Yes, please read this manual thoroughly. We wrote it to help ensure that you get the most from your investment in your Zapco amplifier. If you find, after reading the manual, that you still have questions please feel free to give us a call at 1(800)47-FORCE, or, drop us a note at www.zapco.com
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Power and Wire Gauge
The wire you use for the power and ground connections of your amplifier is absolutely critical. The plain simple fact is that it takes power to deliver power. If you do not provide the proper amount of 12V power to your amplifier, you will never reach the full power potential of the amp. Take a look at the chart below. If you want to have any respectable amount of power for your amp, you need a 4-gauge wire to the trunk as a bare minimum. If you are running any Zapco Z-series amp in you trunk you need at least a 2 gauge wire. If you want enough power to drive woofers, you’re certainly going to need at least a 2-gauge wire to the rear and zero gauge is better.
Recommended Wire Gauge
Up to 20 A 35 A 50 A 60 A 85 A 105 A 125 A 150 A
You can certainly save money by buying cheap small gauge wire, but remember...It will cost you in power and may even damage your car by passing too much current and causing shorts or even fires. Protect your investment in Zapco amplifiers by using high quality, proper gauge wire.
And remember... Current in the amplifier runs in a complete circuit from the battery to the amp and back to the battery through the chassis and frame. The ground wire us just as important as the power input wire. Positive and Negative
connections must always use the same gauge wire.
Installation Guidelines Mounting your Z-Series Amplifier is easy. Keep in mind the following guidelines: The amplifier may be mounted in any direction, on wood, metal or carpet. The metal case of the amplifier may be grounded or left isolated. The amplifier requires adequate ventilation. Position the amplifier with sufficient surrounding area for proper cooling. Keep fan and vent endplates clear for proper internal cooling. Keep the amplifier out of the engine compartment and other locations that may cause excessive heat or moisture. Make sure your ground point is at the frame or a chassis point with direct frame contact. Note: the "quiet metal" on many new cars make body panels very bad ground points, so always try to use the frame. Do not mount the amplifier to a subwoofer enclosure or any other place that may have excessive vibration!
4 Ft
14 12 10
8 4 4 4 2
7 Ft
12 10
8 8 4 4 4 2
10 Ft
12
8 8 4 4 4 4 2
13 Ft
10
8 4 4 4 2 2 2
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16 Ft
10
4 4 4 2 2 2 0
19 Ft
8 4 4 4 2 2 0 0
22 Ft
8 4 4 4 2 2 0 0
28 Ft
8 4 4 2 0 0 0 0
Gain Setting
Matching Your Components for Best Sound
Proper gain setting is one of the most important factors in setting up a stereo
system. Unfortunately, gain setting is quite often done wrong. Turning up the
gain of an amp is the very last thing you should ever do to a system.
An amplifier is a step up transformer. Period. Any signal you put in is boosted by a
fixed factor, whether it's music, hiss, or any other noise. A large number of
noise problems are simply a matter of improper gain settings. The goal of gain
setting is to achieve the maximum amount of musical output from the amplifier
while getting the least amount of hiss or noise from the system. Your Z-Series
amplifier accepts an extremely wide range of input levels. As little as .5 volts
on the RCAs to as much as 8 volts. The basic gain setting is very simple and
requires no special tools. Whether you have a simple system with a deck and an
amp, or a system with a deck, line driver, equalizer, crossover, and amp, the
procedure is always the same. First, hook up the system with all gain controls at
minimum (turn the gain pot fully counter-clockwise with a small screwdriver).
Then turn on the head unit and turn up the volume. If you achieve clean sound,
and, more volume than you want, you don’t need to make any adjustments.
However, if you turn up the volume and begin to hear distorted sound before it
becomes loud, you are clipping (distorting) the deck (probably a little over ¾
volume). Turn the deck down just enough to hear clean sound again, and then
move to the next component in your system. With the deck playing at “maximum
clean volume” adjust the gain of the next component to its “maximum clean
volume”. If you adjust your gains this way, always starting at the head unit and
working down the line to the amplifier, you will get the most performance out of
your amplifier(s) with the least amount of unwanted distortion and noise.
Presenting
The Zapco Z-Series Amplifiers
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FEATURES
Z-150.2
Class-AB bridgeable 12V amplifier
2/1 channel bridgeable 12V amplifier
Stable into 4 ohms bridged or 2 ohms stereo load
PWM MOSFET power supply
Variable input sensitivity
18dB octave crossover slope
Variable FULL / LP / HP Electronic Crossover
0dB, 6dB, 12dB selectable bass boost
RCA Signal input and output connectors
4-way protection circuitry
(thermal / over current / speaker short / DC)
Tested voltage & THD: 14.4V & less than 0.05% THD at rated power
Operating voltage : DC10V~15.5V power input
Wired remote control (optional)
Z-400.2
Class-AB bridgeable 12V amplifier
2/1 channel bridgeable 12V amplifier
Stable into 4 ohms bridged or 2 ohms stereo load
PWM MOSFET power supply
Variable input sensitivity
18dB octave crossover slope
Variable FULL / LP / HP crossover
Variable bass boost
Signal input and output RCA connectors
Multi-way protection circuitry
(thermal / over current / speaker short / speaker DC protection)
Tested voltage & THD: 14.4V & less than 0.05% THD at rated power
Operating voltage : DC10V~15.5V power input
Wired remote control (optional)
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