MSRP $9,999.99
Working for manufacturers from 1988 to 2000, I've had plenty of experience with competition SPL vehicles. Many of these were equipped with 10,000 watts or more of bone-jarring, bowel-flexing, take-your-breath-away bass. For that much power, you needed multiple amplifiers, plenty of subwoofers, and enough batteries to destroy the vehicle's suspension. By eliminating one stage of the amp's operation, the engineers at Kicker have delivered a single high-efficiency 10,000-watt amp to make your car go "boom."
With dimensions measuring 35 inches by 17 3/4 inches by 3 3/4 inches and a total weight of 66 pounds, the Warhorse is a monster of an amp. On the other hand, it's about the same size as amps with much lower power output, say, around 3,000 watts. That raises the question of whether it's efficient enough to actually make its claimed 10 kilowatts of power.
Before I get into it, let's look at what we're working with. Kicker has rated this beast at 10,000 watts into a 2-ohm load, or 5,000 watts into a 4-ohm load. As far as the class, it's not D, AB, or anything else you might be familiar with. In fact, the operation of this amp is so unique that Kicker has applied for a patent so they can classify it. I'll do my best to explain all that, but in the meantime study up on Class D operation and pulse width modulation as a reference point.
The amp has the usual features you'd expect to find in a big subwoofer amp like 24dB/octave highpass and lowpass crossovers, 0 to 18dB of bass boost at 40Hz, and the absence of fuses. In addition, the Warhorse sports three ought-gauge power and three ought-gauge ground cable connectors, and two pairs of 8-gauge Anderson connectors for the speaker outputs. No, it's not a stereo amp-strictly mono.
Eight indicator lights on the control panel reveal several conditions. PWR illuminates when the amp is on and working properly. NET shows that you're connected to the optional WXRC remote control, which offers expanded crossover slope selections in addition to being able to make adjustments from the driver seat. There are also LED indicators for over-voltage, under-voltage, overheated and short-circuit. The X-BNDW light tells you that you have set the lowpass crossover lower than the highpass crossover, while the Service light lets you know that you probably need to get the amp back to the Kicker service department or at least call the tech support line.
The unit looks like an oversized black briefcase with extruded fins running the length of each side. The top is an engraved black aluminum plate with a molded plastic hood over the entry for the power cables. The cast endcaps house the cooling fans and provide a very structural look to the whole unit. The power and ground-all six ought-gauge cables-come into the amp at almost the center of the top plate. All other connections and controls are hidden halfway along the nearside heat sink under a matching cover plate.
Circuitry
Looking under the cover, the first thing you'll notice is the four planar transformers and the huge buss bars that run across the topside of the main circuit board. The transformers are about the size of your hand and resemble a stack of pancakes. The primary and secondary windings are stacked on top of each other rather than being several strands of wire intertwined. The turn ratio is 19 to 1, meaning there are literally 19 turns of flat wound copper for each secondary and one turn for each primary. The primary looks more like a big horseshoe-shaped PCB trace. Each planar transformer is rated at 5,000 watts for a total capacity of 20,000 watts.
The positive and negative power cables feed the transformers directly by way of the plated copper buss bars. The B+ power supply is stabilized by a total of 50 3,300F/105 C capacitors. That makes for a lot of instant juice on tap.