SS Power Amp Build: Icepower 700AS2

[Alex Kenivel]

If you want to skip over the hemming and hawing about devices or decibel woes, you can skip to the actual build here:

Post in thread 'SS Power Amp Build: Icepower 700AS2'

Jan 17, 2026

Look what I bought from @Boudoir Guitar

Now thinking about what to mount it in. Was thinking some old appliance. An old non-functioning Nintendo would be hilarious but probably not the right dimensions and definitely the wrong materials. Need to do more research.

• Alex Kenivel

Or enjoy the conversation!


I have these in my cart but I didn't think it would be this flipping expensive.

Parts express:

Ghent audio:

Would this be worth the hassle or should I just buy a SD PS700?

 

[Chocol8]

Can I vote "neither" and suggest you get a decent class AB solid state amp and avoid the Class D stuff DIY or pre-packaged?

 

[newholland]

whatre you needing 600w of power for? just headroom, or for a bass amp?

man.. for 5 bills you have your share of turnkey used and road tested badassery out there.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Can I vote "neither" and suggest you get a decent class AB solid state amp and avoid the Class D stuff DIY or pre-packaged?

whatre you needing 600w of power for? just headroom, or for a bass amp?

man.. for 5 bills you have your share of turnkey used and road tested badassery out there.

I'm ideally looking for something smaller than my Yamaha P3500s, and has enough power to drive a 16ohm 2x12 cab with an already-cased Axe FX. Something small and class D would fit in my backpack with the FC-6.

With the testing I've done earlier this week I don't think my BAM200 is going to cut it for punk shows with little to no PA support. I need more headroom.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

And that's 600w per side in stereo, 1200w mono

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

And that's 600w per side in stereo, 1200w mono

If you're buying a case, this stuff gets expensive quickly and right smack into "why don't I just go ahead and buy the Seymour Duncan Powerstage (which are these boards fitted into a case with a preamp for volume/eq tweak age).

I've had two of these boards (one stereo, one mono) and...still haven't built them up

 

[newholland]

I'm ideally looking for something smaller than my Yamaha P3500s, and has enough power to drive a 16ohm 2x12 cab with an already-cased Axe FX. Something small and class D would fit in my backpack with the FC-6.

With the testing I've done earlier this week I don't think my BAM200 is going to cut it for punk shows with little to no PA support. I need more headroom.

hm. thats basically exactly the condition ive been negotiating as long as ive been playing, but youre talking about roughly ten times the power ive ever used ever- granted i run amps plug and play. i know it cant be a volume issue :lol: so im gonna assume its exclusively a headroom issue.

didnt crown make a class d 1000 watter that was lke ten pounds?

meantime- what 212 on earth is gonna tolerate that kinda wattage if the yam cant get you there? is it possible dispersion might be a bigger issue? or is the midrange off
?

not really tryna give you a rash- but man thats a shitton of headroom.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

hm. thats basically exactly the condition ive been negotiating as long as ive been playing, but youre talking about roughly ten times the power ive ever used ever- granted i run amps plug and play. i know it cant be a volume issue :lol: so im gonna assume its exclusively a headroom issue.

didnt crown make a class d 1000 watter that was lke ten pounds?

meantime- what 212 on earth is gonna tolerate that kinda wattage if the yam cant get you there? is it possible dispersion might be a bigger issue? or is the midrange off
?

not really tryna give you a rash- but man thats a shitton of headroom.

Once you start shopping for ice power boards, the price difference between like a 50 watt per side board vs a billion watts a side board is not a lot, and the case/etc., is the same regardless, so going absurdly large does start to make sense (though I did stop at the 700AS2 in that arms race).

 

[newholland]

Once you start shopping for ice power boards, the price difference between like a 50 watt per side board vs a billion watts a side board is not a lot, and the case/etc., is the same regardless, so going absurdly large does start to make sense (though I did stop at the 700AS2 in that arms race).

i can see that for sure. i looked at that crown a while ago as i was using a tech21 preamp into a power amp- and that cut some transformer weight for sure from a flyable self sufficient rig. but sonically it wasnt worth it to me for the endless headroom- but like i was sayin...i dont use time based fx- so most guitar amps are pretty capable of scaling.

does anybody make a 1u rackmounter these days thatd fit in a 3u soft bag?

 

[Chocol8]

does anybody make a 1u rackmounter these days

There are a ton of 1U power amps available. ART SLA, Freyette, and others marketed to guitarists, but also a lot of pro-audio amps that will do the job just as well or better. They don’t all have 1/4” jacks but that’s can be fixed or you can use different cables.

You have to be careful with power ratings. A lot of the newer class D stuff will have absurd ratings like 1000w, but they don’t have a power supply that can actually deliver anything close. A different amp rated for 100w with a robust power supply might be louder and punchier for guitar use.

For example, I have a 1U MosValve 982 that is rated 80w per side. It is way more potent than a PS170 or similar small class D amp. Then I have the massive MacIntosh 210 which is rated for 105 watts per side. That thing has the power to deliver all the punch and dynamics of a big tube amp and then some, more so than a 1000+ watt modern class D. It can do so because it has capacitors the size of soup cans feeding the power so all the transients get amplified not squashed.

 

[newholland]

There are a ton of 1U power amps available. ART SLA, Freyette, and others marketed to guitarists, but also a lot of pro-audio amps that will do the job just as well or better. They don’t all have 1/4” jacks but that’s can be fixed or you can use different cables.

You have to be careful with power ratings. A lot of the newer class D stuff will have absurd ratings like 1000w, but they don’t have a power supply that can actually deliver anything close. A different amp rated for 100w with a robust power supply might be louder and punchier for guitar use.

For example, I have a 1U MosValve 982 that is rated 80w per side. It is way more potent than a PS170 or similar small class D amp. Then I have the massive MacIntosh 210 which is rated for 105 watts per side. That thing has the power to deliver all the punch and dynamics of a big tube amp and then some, more so than a 1000+ watt modern class D. It can do so because it has capacitors the size of soup cans feeding the power so all the transients get amplified not squashed.

oh for sure. i think the order of biz is portability more or less with the op- that was why i asked about a lil peester 1U! id always prefer an amp made of amp.
but sounds like small and liftable is the mission. i havent really met a class d amp cause i havent needed it, really, and mebbe they have a way to go before theyre ready for primetime.. that said.. man, theres fender solid state amps pushing 160w for nuttin that weigh 10# with proper power supplies!

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

this is one area where Behringturd makes sense. A800 gives 220 watts a side into 8 ohms (so - comparable to 440 watts aside by Seymour Duncan ratings since all of their quoted specs are for 4 ohm). 7 pounds. 8.5” deep. Under $250.

The 1u stuff that has enough headroom that I’m familiar with is all super heavy and typically full depth which - honestly I’d take an extra U of height over an extra 3”+ of depth and 10+ pounds of weight.

Getting the ultimate chug through a 16 ohm 4x12 at loud volumes might require care and consideration on dynamics. Playing a telecaster through a model of a tweed amp or an AC-30 even at realistic volumes doesn’t take rocket science or a boat load of cash to pull off very VERY well. And if lightweight stuff isn’t good enough in that context - it’s getting to the point that just using an actual tweed amp or AC30 makes more sense than carrying whatever power amp + cab you think you need.

IMO

 

[newholland]

sure seems like portable rock rigs arent quite there yet, especially minus PAs.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Im still holding out on a fire sale ToneBlock 202.

 

[newholland]

Im still holding out on a fire sale ToneBlock 202.

that was more or less where i ended up for backpackable!

 

[JiveTurkey]

that was more or less where i ended up for backpackable!

Its the latest one they have and the only one of theirs I haven't tried because they are too expensive. LOUD AF. Great for modeling but the weird eq on some of them makes it a bit different as far as pedal platform goes; if thats your jam.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

sure seems like portable rock rigs arent quite there yet, especially minus PAs.

I don’t get why the PA is fine as class D but it’s somehow lacking magic current reserves and dynamics when driving a simple guitar cab?

 

[BFRaid]

You have to be careful with power ratings. A lot of the newer class D stuff will have absurd ratings like 1000w, but they don’t have a power supply that can actually deliver anything close. A different amp rated for 100w with a robust power supply might be louder and punchier for guitar use.

We fell into that trap. We bought a 1000w per side MIC poweramp for our PA. It had nowhere near the power of our old 300w JBL amp, and it sounded horrible.

 

[Chocol8]

I don’t get why the PA is fine as class D but it’s somehow lacking magic current reserves and dynamics when driving a simple guitar cab?

Most cheap PA’s are severely lacking at the PA job as well, but if it’s loud people don’t care.

 

[Chocol8]

power to drive a 16ohm 2x12 cab

I glossed over this part but…

For most SS amps, the power is voltage limited, so every time you double the ohms of the load, you halve the power output (give or take). So, assuming the 2x12 is a pair of 8 ohm speakers in series, rewiring them to a parallel 4 ohm load will get you 4 times the power out of your existing SS amps.

The BAM 200 is effectively a BAM 50 into 16 ohms, but s simple flip of the speaker wires could get it back to 200w and add 6db of headroom.