WX
10000.1
Technical
Manual
Warhorse: Defi ned as “Horses specially trained for use in battle or individual combat”.
As early as the 19th Century BC the Warhorse was used in chariot warfare. By the fi rst century BC
the Warhorse carried Parthian archers into battle. By the Middle Ages the Warhorse had developed
into a large horse with the strength and stamina to carry a Knight and his heavy armor into battle. The
Warhorse of this era wore its own armor and was a magnifi cent beast. The best were selected for speed
and trainability. It was an expensive feat to train and outfi t these tools of war. It took a lot of time to
overcome the natural aversion to the smell of blood and its natural disinclination to trample people. They
were even trained to kick, strike and bite on command.
In light of all this, Kicker’s newest and largest amplifi er is named Warhorse. Born to do battle and
trained to excel, the Warhorse is like nothing available in the car audio arena. Conventional wisdom and
technology weren’t good enough for Kicker when we designed this 10,000 watt beast. Traditional Class
A/B design was entirely too ineffi cient and even more advanced Class D architecture wasted too much
battery power.
Effi ciency is the “Holy Grail” of car stereo amplifi cation, especially in SPL competition lanes. Warhorse’s
ultra-high effi ciency allows competitors (as well as power hungry consumers) to create the huge
amounts of power they demand without relying on huge banks of amplifi ers and the correspondingly
huge charging systems required with conventional amplifi ers. By approaching the challenge of delivering
massive power from a new direction, Kicker engineers have created a system that lets users concentrate
their investments where they count – in actual sound reproduction equipment, instead of batteries,
alternators, or other charging system components. Signal quality is also critical to the demanding
high-end user, so in addition to the amplifi er’s prodigious output capability, a full complement of built-in
control (crossovers, subsonic fi lter, bass boost, limiter, and more) allow precise tuning of your bass. A
broad assortment of protection and diagnostic circuits are also provided, allowing further performance
optimization.
KICKER’S signal-modulated power supply technology represents the fi rst signifi cant advance in amplifi er
effi ciency since Class D designs overtook Class A/B. Even though Class D was a great improvement
over A/B, Around 30% of available power was still wasted. While earlier technologies use power supplies
combined with gain circuits to amplify the audio signal, the Warhorse amplifi es the audio signal directly
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