Message out to all PG employees...

[whitenoise]

John is a good guy. Back about 4-5 years ago employees where told not to get involved in the Phourm leaking info and what not but that was then and just what my people told me. The Zen 9 will be a game changer for sure nothing else like it.

[dvnt88]

This is great. Thanks John. Look forward to new updates. And I hope to hear more from you/PG once in awhile as Morgan once did.

^^^^ What Derek said ...glad to see PG isn't ignoring us and that they're keeping us Phanatics in the loop as much as they can ...

[caraudiotech]

DSP is in the pipeline!! Very very soon

[Chiapet]

Well dammit ive already PAID in full for it...back in april, hope i dont owe more

[ttocs]

your pissed they took your money, I am pissed I can't find anyone to take mine. Remember when if you wanted them to make the amp pink with purple polka dots all they would want to know was if you wanted metallic or standard base? I miss those days... Hell even oakley and rayban are making custom sunglasses now you would think a custom amp here/there would be no big deal.

[vwdude]

This is great news. I was concerned about the future of PG as well. Thank you John for posting. I'm excited to see what the DSP situation will be. Any chance they can do a run with retro logos? I know it sounds funny but I only want to use Pg products with the squiggly logo. Maybe that would be a way to customize the amps? You guys have had some awesome logos over the years, it would be a nice way to tie all generations together. Imagine an elite amp with the squiggly logo etched into it somewhere.

A little unsolicited advise, it would be cool to have the DSP available to match the older lines, like a Ti version 1, Zeropoint style, maybe xenon, MS/MPS, M series. Another way to tie all generations together since all lines would sound incredible with a great DSP.

[hot9dog]

I too am very curious how the DSP will be. A cover over the enclosure that has no markings, with several different revisions of lettering or fonts available. ... 4 different vinyl sticker packs with the unit..... to accommodate the different generations of PG fans. A real forward forecast question is this, do you plan on having a separate volume control for digital input into the DSP?? This would really bring a big market share to this DSP..... the ability to control menus or functions would not really be too important, thats what the laptop is for, BUT volume control would be VERY VALUABLE to achieving market placement. Just my 2 cents. Lol

[ttocs]

its been years since I was excited by a dsp since they all seem to come, solve every problem known to man sonically, and then somehow seem to fade away. Its only after they are gone you tend to hear the truth of what they did.

if you really thing pg is going to start making them to match their previous lines I fear you are setting yourselves up for failure. Amp is too big now to worry about the few that would want custom options.

[hot9dog]

You'd be surprised at how many people comment on my phoenix gold sticker that is on the rear window of my car, and they all fall into the same demographic. .... they remember the brand name and the high end shadow that the product casted in the late 80's to early 90's hayday. When i open my trunk and reveal what the current Phoenix Gold has been up to and what it means today, i can see in their eyes a sense of "oh shit... i want this in MY car, im a semi successful middle aged man.... and I DESERVE THIS" only a fool wouldnt want to capitalize on this emerging demographic. The die hard fanatic reaps the reward from this ..... and it reignites the long lost dreams of the customer that left the high end car audio scene during the car audio implosion of the late 90's.
I hope someone is taking notes here.... lol hint hint.....

[caraudiotech]

Fresh off beta testing....needs a few more tweaks before production. Looking at about mid October for production to begin after adjustments and some more testing.

[Weaklink]

Looking good. Any word on the elite 3-ways? May have to replace my hertz hsk.

[caraudiotech]

Those are a bit more of a unknown...but could be as soon as November, but no promises at this point...I will update when I can give a solid date

[ttocs]

any chance you can help find a dealer that will sell me one? I have been to my local dealer 3 times and never got any kind of reply back about it.

[vladthebad]

Board pics... We need board pics!

Also, any pics of power inputs, race, and front panel?

What's the physical size?

Know anyone looking for a kidney?

[ttocs]

race? Ya mean where its born?

[dvnt88]

Mmmmmm ....Elite 3-way comps ...sign me up ...May have to sell the 2 BNIB sets of Hertz HSK163's I have sitting in the stash ...

[vladthebad]

Apparently autocorrect doesn't like me typing rcas. That or I typod it horribly.

But now that the question has been brought up, let's talk about genealogy of the zen9.
Is it another evolution of MS/M/zx/Ti? Triple darlington configuration?

Did Mantz design it? What about the class D sub channel... Is that a Ti2 derivative?
How many power supplies, what channels share supplies?

[trickyricky]

For 3k I would expect gold plated boards like the old school ones with nichicon or Panasonic caps, Toshiba or sanken TO3P outputs, TO3P mosfets and rectifiers, led clip indicator for each ch, same terminal block for the power as the old school, gold plated chassis screws. May be am asking for too much lol.

[ttocs]

the gold plated boards are more then likely long gone fella's. The last time they did that gold was really high around $400/oz and now I think its around $1100/oz. PRetty sure I saw on fb that it has clip indicators for each gain adjustment.

[trickyricky]

It is not expensive to have gold plated pcbs....almost all electronics use them (such as tablets, cell phones, computers, laptops, and exterior electronics for sure). They are not solid gold traces, they are only gold plated, the traces will always be made out of copper then either tin or plated in gold to prevent the copper from corroding. Don't get me wrong it will be a bit more expensive to have a gold plated board than a tin plated board but only about 10-20 dollars more for each board, which is very costly to manufactures especially when they are trying to squeeze every penny out of the product.

[ttocs]

I was not familiar you were so experienced with the costs of gold plating circuit boards and I had no idea such large board would be so cheap. I am simply saying the cost of the materials to do it has tripled since the last time PG did it and it adds exactly ZERO to he SQ on the amp.

What is your experience with gold plated boards exactly?

[Drock]

Pretty sure "the one" amps are gold plated?

[ttocs]

they certainly didn't have 3oz of gold on the board or there would have been +$3k in materials to make the board.

[Drock]

I'm curious now. Have to look it up.

[vladthebad]

Very few boards are good(edit: GOLD) plated. The pins on most ram and pcie cards, the pins on CPUs or sockets, and a few other things, like of of the RF pins in a cellphone, all gold plated. Most of the plated stuff is plated only about 0.05 microns to 2 microns thick. A human hair is like 170 microns thick.... At 0.5 microns thick, a 3 foot by 1 foot 100% plated board would have about $150 in gold on it. That's still pretty think plating. Say we were willing to accept .1 micron thickness, that'd be about $30 a side of a 3foot by 1 foot surfboard. Thats just gold cost. Plating cost would likely be 3-5 times that. I'd rather have an extra $50 spent on caps, better RCA jacks, beefier heat sinking for the fets and outputs, or beefier torroids. Just don't give me cheap brown/tan one sided circuit boards like a pyramid.... Nice black board material with heavy thick copper traces and a clearcoat would be plenty good enough.

Additional edit: plating "PHOENIX GOLD" and "ZEN9" below the window, in gold... Would be cool and likely worth it if the cost wasn't $20+ per amp...