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Honic Corporation have been manufacturing their own brand of audio products for 25 years. The new MAR6 series is Phonic's flagship amp, rated at 600w into four ohms. Honic's previous amps have been perceived as belonging in the budget end of the market.
Honic Corporation have been manufacturing their own brand of audio products for 25 years. The new MAR6 series is Phonic's flagship amp, rated at 600w into four ohms. Honic's previous amps have been perceived as belonging in the budget end of the market.
Honic Corporation have been manufacturing their own brand of audio products for 25 years. The new MAR6 series is Phonic's flagship amp, rated at 600w into four ohms. Honic's previous amps have been perceived as belonging in the budget end of the market.
Trevor Cronin looks at the flagship of a new line of power amplifiers from Phonic.
honic Corporation have been manufacturing their
own brand of audio products for the last 25 years. Throughout this time, they have also been making numerous products on behalf of other major manufacturers. Based in Irvine, California, with their manufacturing plant in Taiwan, Phonics product range includes mixing consoles, graphic equalisers, power amplifiers and associated equipment, mostly aimed at the small PA and disco market. Phonics previous amps have been perceived as belonging in the budget end of the market, though with the new MAR6 series, Phonic aims to change that situation. There are three amps in the new series, starting with the MAR2, offering 200W into four ohms. The one I have to put through its paces is the top of the range MAR6, rated at 600W into four ohms. The amplifier comes in a professional looking steel housing and is finished in black powder coat. At 3RU high, its about one rack unit larger than most similarly powered amplifiers, which could be an important consideration if youre putting together a touring amp rack. The casing features carrying handles front and rear, which also offer protection for the controls and connections. The front panel features two large attenuation knobs, with status LED indicators for Signal present (green), Limiter (red), and Protection (amber). Theres also a power on switch with associated LED (red), and a large central air cooling intake. Dual-speed fans positioned front and rear are used for the cooling system. The rear has the central air cooling exhaust, a fixed 240V power cable, and the signal input and output connections. For signal input there are a lot of options. The main input connectors are the handy Swiss-made Neutrik connectors which can accept either 6.5mm jack (stereo or mono) or XLR connections. Theres also a barrier strip for hard wired connection. Output is via binding posts for use with banana plugs or hard wiring. Also on the rear panel is a row of three recessed switches, being a ground lift for the input, a limiter on/off switch, and a mode switch which selects between stereo, bridged mono and parallel operation. The MAR6 weighs 17.5kg, with much of this weight attributed to the power supply, as with most power amplifiers. The power supply transformer is mounted on the right hand side, with the heat sink in the middle for optimum cooling. This causes the minor problem that the amp is much heavier on the right side. While this isnt really a problem for fixed installations, it will unbalance the flightcase in a touring situation. The
metal housing is not as robust as some power amplifiers,
rating about average. The large dual speed fans front and rear supply air to the tunnel heatsink, though as with all fan-cooled systems, noise may be a problem in critical listening situations such as studio control rooms and other low noise environments. This design of cooling system can also cause problems because one end of the heat sink (the end that the air exits from) is always substantially hotter than the other end. The 240V power cable felt quite warm to the touch, as did the transformer, after only a few minutes of running within its suggested range. As a test, I reduced the air flow to the unit and ran it for many hours without any problems. I doubt this amp would have any trouble operating in the hot environment of many installations, even in a heatwave. (I guess it gets pretty warm in Taiwan, as well.) It seems that a lot of new electronic products require serious air flow to operate reliably, so the cooling fan manufacturers must be doing quite well! The MAR6s specifications quote a frequency response within 1dB from 20Hz to 20kHz, harmonic distortion of 0.1%, a signal to noise ratio of 105dB, and crosstalk of 80dB. On the test bench, we measured output powers of 450W/channel into eight ohms, 700W/channel into four ohms, and 1000W/channel into two ohms, all with both channels driven. In bridged mono mode, the unit delivers 2000W into two ohms. When pushed beyond its limits, the protection circuitry stepped in and did its job as expected. The MAR6 comes with a fairly informative 17 page owners manual, which describes various hook up scenarios and operating practices. In use, the amp delivered a clean, clear sound and performed well within its specifications. It is competitively priced and is ideally suited to fixed installation contractors for use in discos, nightclubs and live music venues. It could also be used in live touring applications, AT provided it was fitted in a good flight case.