Thread: Speaker/Amp setup suggestions for Explorer

Set up number 2.

Cool, thanks for the reply.

Just another thought. Would it at all be beneficial to get the NINe.4 for the front speakers instead or should I just stick with the NINe.2 from setup #2 above?

Thanks again.

ED's Quality has gone down over the years, more so recently.

I myself drive a 97 Mountaineer and can honestly say that I noticed absolutely no difference in having four speakers or two speakers. im sure if you are an SQ competitor that there is a difference, but most SQ competitors have speakers in the doors, the kick panels and a center channel as well as tweeters.

if you are willing to drop the change, look into the Alpine Type X 6.5's....great sound for the money. and sound awesome with about 50 watts to each.

Hey Mike, thanks for the info. Honestly has the quality of the ED's gone down that much that I should be avoiding them? Again, I'm not looking for competition quality just something better than my factory setup. Will I find much difference from the Profile versus the ED's or should I avoid both of those all together? But really in the end as long as I am looking at RMS does the brand name matter that much?

I'm definitely going to go with the two higher quality speaker setup for the front and if it just isn't sounding right (which I doubt will be the case) I could then throw in some rear speakers. Anyone else happy with their two speaker setup?

Thanks.

Would it be better to just go away from the eD NINe.2 and go with a JL Audio 300/4. This way I could power my two front speakers and bridge the rear channels to my 8" sub (JL Audio 8W0)? Or would it be better to have a separate amp for the sub because bridging the rear channels would not give it enough power? Just a thought.

- Todd

i am not a fan of JL at all (which we wont get into) but I do feel the JL amp will last longer and produce higher quality sound than the ED amp will. you could also look into ppi amps, there sub amps arent that great but there component amps are awesome. Diamond and even an infinity amp would do well also.

Alright, so you think the following setup would work out good:

Front speakers: Infinity Kappa 680.7cs
Amp: Infinity Reference 7541a
Sub: Infinity Reference 850w (any other brand suggestions would be great)

I will use the 4-channel amp to power the front speakers and sub. So it looks like the amp will do 111 RMS to each of the front speakers and then 278 RMS bridged to the sub. Let me know if that will work out? Hopefully this system will be a nice step up from my factory setup =)

Thanks for the help!

I love the single amp setups, like the last you have lsited. I have a huge PPI amp in my truck that drives 3 JL 8s and and MB Quart three-way component setup. That's 9 speakers off that amp, and it doesn't even break a sweat. I also agree with the rear speaker thing, especially in that vehicle. You should check into some of the enclosures that are designed for that vehicle that replace the factory sub. I've heard some 10s back there that sound pretty good.

I've actually heard the opposite about the ED amps. There quality was supposedly questionable back in the day, but Avionixx makes their amps now and they put out solid products. The older ED amps actually had problems, whereas the newer ones have been perfected.

On the JL amp....you can't bridge one channel and run the speakers off the other two channels. The JL has a shared internal power supply that will put out equal power across all channels.

I had the JL 300/4....sold it and got the ED Nine.2X to match the 9.1. IMO, im getting excellent sound quality right now and im very happy with both amps. The plus about ED is that they have transferable 3 year warranties and their amps are competitively priced.

The Nine.4 would be a better choice only because you can use it as a two channel amp and send 150 watts to two high quality component sets. You can also add rear fill and then use it as a 4 channel amp and send 65 watts to each speaker. It's what you want...imo.