Vibe Black Box Stereo 4

Very similar to the two channel version of BlackBox of course, this amplifier has a cunning system to illuminate logos on what are end caps. A bright LED illuminates a plastic prism that protrudes underneath the piece, so the logo glows within the plastic housing above it. Giving the impression that electronics reach all the way to the end of what looks like the end of the case. So you could find it hard to imagine just where the connections are. As well as these cunning end caps, you also get a sticky-covered slabby bit that is meant to be used if you install more than one BlackBox amplifier. This makes the two look like one heatsink and again will offer some striking visual appeal.
For all this smarts, the design is a classic one with connectors up one end and the gubbins up the other. The mass of small status switches, multiplier switches, input level switches and crossover function switches is frankly confusing before you even get to set the levels or frequency knobs. You’ll need to understand your stuff to find using this amplifier easy. Perhaps best left to your professional installer?
Presentation is Uber-posh with the cloth bag and polishing cloth and that laser-cut badge on the top of all the shiny-ness is dead sexy. At 4 x 110 watts and with a signal to noise ratio declared at a whopping 110dB, this is specified as by far the most powerful and highest-of-fidelity on the group.
Lets go find out if that translates to obvious sonic superiority then
– Class AB
– 4 x 110w RMS @ 4 Ohms (CEA 2006 Compliant)
– 4 x 175w RMS @ 2 Ohms
– 2 x 350w RMS @ 4 Ohms bridged
– Aluminium heatsink with elaborate end caps with logo illuminated by side-protruding illuminated plastic piece and applied metallic badge for brand and printed with model
– 8Ga. (micrometer measured @ < 6mm) Power Terminals with gold plated cross headed grub screw bare wire socket connection
– Gold Plated 4Ch RCA input
– 0 to +15dB Bass Boost @ 45Hz
– Adjustable input sensitivity: 200mV to 8V in three switched stages; 02V to 0.6V & 0.6V to 2V & 2V to 8V
– Stereo Mono & Trimode operation
– Frequency response 10Hz to 50kHz
– Signal to Noise Ratio 110dB
– Channel separation 72dB
– High Pass Filter 24dB per Octave 55Hz to 550Hz or by 10x multiplier switch, 550Hz to 5.5kHz
– Low Pass Filter 24dB per Octave 55Hz to 550Hz or by 10x multiplier switch, 550Hz to 5.5kHz
– Fuse Rating 25A x 2
– HxWxD(mm) 57 x 579 x 224mm
– Instructional diagrams printed on underside of product
– Complete with printed black cloth bag, polishing cloth, fixing screws and high level input loom, sticker and link piece for use with two amps and spare fuse
Review by Adam Rayner
What a pretty package! If you like shiny, this is definitely a contender already. The crossovers are a bit fiddly but are very effective in function. Having given them a good tweaking, I fired up the music and found the sound was a tiny bit hard but nevertheless very powerful and with a serious slice of rapidity to those all too crucial leading wave fronts of drum beats and percussive happenings. The big biff at the start of a drum hit hits you most pleasantly in the chest.
It was very clean and really allowed the recording to come through, with certain details becoming apparent for the first time. So much so, I was even able to check out the different levels of analogue tape hiss on some of the older recordings on my disc. The track started, and you could hear the hiss start up and then fade away again between tracks. This went away with another daft full DDD CD recording and turned out to be solely an artefact within the recordings as the deck I was using does not have Zero Bit Mute. (Zero Bit Mute being a convenient way of preventing your end user from hearing all sorts of transport ‘Squish!’ and ‘Zizz!’ noises between tracks.) That meant I was getting more detail and accuracy from this amp than just about any other in the group bar perhaps the biggest surprise to me, which was the MTX. It turns out that some Sound Off competitors are in SQ with MTX, not just boom, so my point is borne out.
My notes get all excitable about this amp being incredible value for the money as it is right on the edge of that almost indefinable high end. And I’m not talking about slightly posher amplifiers but ones that are costing up to three times the price. I seriously believe that what ever Vibe have done with the design of the guts of this amplifier, it is a darn clever thing as that specification is just nutty at the price.
I gave it some serious effort with the power supply running into the Odyssey PC925 super-duty battery and again had to up the measuring range on the SPL side of the AudioControl SA-3055 RTA device. It read a really rather loud 127.7dB. I have very good neighbours this is all done in my house! (Which was quivering a bit under the onslaught.)
I have just come back from a weekend where I listened to a system with amplifiers that exceed the specs here by a whopping eight dB on stuff like channel separation but this still represents a totally brilliant piece of engineering. A Bentley performs as it should by dint of big money. The original Mini was famed for its quality and yet keen price.
This then, is another of those Sir Alec jobs, as the bloke who designed this should get a mobile electronics knighthood for services to impecunious automotive audiophiles.
Bling-struck enough to maybe even put some of the more serious-minded right off the product, it is nevertheless a heavy enough scorer for good sound, good features and big power to cash ratio to get the only Best Buy flag in the two groups of Affordable and Mainstream tested so far.
Overall 9.2
Sound Quality 9
Power Output 10
Features 8
Build Quality 9
Value For Money 10