What AMPS do you recommend?

**Squadfer** · 04-26-2009, 04:25 PM

No matter what brand you get for 4X6 it will sound like crap. My first car was a jeep wrangler and they have 4X6's in the front..... I went through 20 different sets of those before I made a plate to change the 4X6's hole to 5 1/4's. Its been a a couple of years now and those 5 1/4's I put in there haven't died on me.

**Sponge** · 04-26-2009, 09:10 PM

If you're on a budget and space are a concern, the Soundstream Stealth series has a smaller footprint than the Alpine PDX and is considerably less expensive. They even have a 6 channel version coming out.

For the record, yes, the PDX is underrated by about ~10%

Output numbers on the Stealth are not out yet, but follow this thread if you're curious.

Not bashing on the PDX at all, its all around an awesome amp.
Anyways heres a link: http://www.soundstream.com/AudioProd...rs/stealth.htm

Also, if its in your budget and you're not much of a basshead, the PDX-5 is neat package of a 4x75w and 1x300w.

**HiJackZX1** · 04-26-2009, 09:35 PM

Originally Posted by nalav

There's other amps that would do fine for what you want, like I said earlier, that amp might be too good for those speakers. A quality amp IMO isn't really worth it if you're not spending $200 - $300 at least on a set of speakers for it to drive. Could you post the model numbers for the collection of amps you have now? You could already have a working combination.

Well I have decided to open my budget to unlimited, lol. Today we had a Florida meet and Kimota was able to show me his ride, which is super uber professional. I was going to put component speakers for every row, but he says me having them only in the front will be fine since I drive a big gaint square, lol. Ive decided to go ahead and go component and overkill my setup. He went with Alphine PDX, and they are nice and small. They are stackable and not large. I will need three of them. Two 4-channel and one Monoblock. I also went with these amps because they can run off of 4 guage wire (the wire I have) Others I would have to upgrade to 2 or 0 gauge. Only this left is speaker hunting.

Originally Posted by Squadfer

No matter what brand you get for 4X6 it will sound like crap. My first car was a jeep wrangler and they have 4X6's in the front..... I went through 20 different sets of those before I made a plate to change the 4X6's hole to 5 1/4's. Its been a a couple of years now and those 5 1/4's I put in there haven't died on me.

I agree, I have researched everything, and all are $h!+. I have decided to upgrade to 6 1/2, but I dont like the idea of making bigger holes.

**nalav** · 04-26-2009, 11:00 PM

I personally tend to stay away from the bigger names as they're usually over priced, over hyped, and over rated (I'm not talking about power here). But the PDX is still a nice amp, I've not heard the Stealth, but Soundstream has a good reputation. In smaller cars components in the rear are often not needed, but in larger vehicles with so much space to fill, and especially with some decently powered subs in the back, components in the rear do a whole lot.

I won't give advice on components, since they all sound different and everyone has unique listening preferences. I will say though that the more you spend on a set, the happier you'll be. I've found that the $200-$300 price range for components tends to have a pretty good happiness to price ratio

**Yota** · 04-26-2009, 11:13 PM

Originally Posted by HiJackZX1

He went with Alphine PDX, and they are nice and small. They are stackable and not large. I will need three of them. Two 4-channel and one Monoblock. I also went with these amps because they can run off of 4 guage wire (the wire I have)

If you are going to run 3 Alpine PDX amps, you need thicker wire than a single 4ga from your battery. Best would be to run 0 ga to a distribution block, then 4ga to each of the amps.

**Sponge** · 04-27-2009, 12:14 AM

Originally Posted by Yota

If you are going to run 3 Alpine PDX amps, you need thicker wire than a single 4ga from your battery. Best would be to run 0 ga to a distribution block, then 4ga to each of the amps.

Eh, 0ga wouldn't hurt, but you can get away with 2ga or 4ga just fine (assuming you buy copper and not copper clad alu). The PDX are some mighty efficient amps, two of the six speaker channels are going to low power devices (phone/center) and he only wants to run a single sub.

But lets say he is running 600w x1 to a sub and 100w x6 for all of the speakers when his system is cranked to 11. So 1200w @ 85% efficiency along a 15ft 4ga wire yields a ~.35vdc drop (source: http://www.bcae1.com/). And thats going to be LOUD.

But hey, I've always been a fan of running a ton more wire than you need because its such a PITA to do it again.

**Crinos** · 04-27-2009, 06:11 AM

Just as a note regarding amps... Check the fuse(s) on the amp itself.

Lets say that the voltage from the regulater is 14V and you've got a 80A fuse in the amp..
The max wattage the amp can pull is 1120Watt. This is what the amp itself can deliver befor the fuse blows.

40A = 560 Watt
20A = 280 Watt

Now.. there's ALOT more factors regarding amps.
Most linear amps can only run at about 60% efficient. (there are some amps in Class D range that can run up to about 95%, but that's a complete different story)..

So if a manufacture state that "this amp" can deliver 500W Peak Power Output, but the amp have a 5A fuse....
5A x 14V x 60% = 42Watt (and this is the TOTAL load, not per channel).

The Pioneer amps recomended are of a switching kinda type, or class-D and here the output is completely different on the "old school" type.

(Class-D amps is offten called PWM amps).

I big NOTE with Class-D is that when it's on.. it's ON.. I draw max load at all times!

Class A, AB, and C work the same way, but they are analoge and cannot produce an efficiency as high as 95% in any configuration.

**HiJackZX1** · 04-27-2009, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by Sponge

Eh, 0ga wouldn't hurt, but you can get away with 2ga or 4ga just fine (assuming you buy copper and not copper clad alu). The PDX are some mighty efficient amps, two of the six speaker channels are going to low power devices (phone/center) and he only wants to run a single sub.

But lets say he is running 600w x1 to a sub and 100w x6 for all of the speakers when his system is cranked to 11. So 1200w @ 85% efficiency along a 15ft 4ga wire yields a ~.35vdc drop (source: http://www.bcae1.com/). And thats going to be LOUD.

But hey, I've always been a fan of running a ton more wire than you need because its such a PITA to do it again.

In the beginning I didnt care about loud, but hearing Kimota's system has turned me to the loud side. He's speakers support 150 watts RMS per speaker and I think his subs were 500 RMS each, powered by a Alphine PDX 1000. Now I dont want to go that loud. Im happy with 100 RMS since im times 6. That should equal out to about the same loudness. I did research and decided to just stay all alphine. They have very good speakers and maybe I can get Apphine to sponsor me

. The 4x6 will be ugrades to a 5x9. The 5x9 are closer to the same power that the 6 1/2, with a 10watt difference. The 5x9 are at 100 watts and the 6 1/2 are at 110 watts. Good thing is the speakers are a good price, $180.00 for the 5x9, and I think $280 for the 6 1/2. The price of the AMPS is whats the killer. They are $550.00 a piece and I need 3, lol. I am really dreading it if I have to rerun wire because it was very hard to do. So you guys dont think that a 4 gauge will work? So 4 gauge to the back, then to a disrto that branches out 4 gauge also?

**HiJackZX1** · 04-27-2009, 09:33 AM

Also, I am using the stock wiring from the harness to the speakers, should I go ahead and rip all that out? I see that apphine reccommends 12 gauge wire, and I think the stock is 16 or 22 gauge.

**Yota** · 04-27-2009, 09:45 AM

General rule when using distribution blocks is the output cables are smaller than the input, ie 0 or 2ga in, 4 ga out. I am running a Kicker 0 ga to a distibution block, then 4 ga out to my amps. It just doesn't make sense in my head to put a 4 ga cable into a block and then have 3 4ga cables coming out. Cable quality plays a big part in all of this, and as mentioned before the Alpine amps are EXTREMELY efficient, but regardless I would just rerun a bigger power cable. I mean, do it right the first time and you wont have problems. Anyways, you will be pulling the vehicle apart anyway to install the speakers and sub, might as well go all out.