Help Me Pick An AMP!!!!!

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113KDCX492/Kenwood-Excelon-KDC-X492.html?o=r&tp=5684

so thats the Radio i got in my truck now, no tweeters installed and when i bought the truck it already had some sony speakers installed (4 total apear to be all the same) i will get more info on those tommarrow. so i need an amp and a sub (8 or 10 inches max) but this thread will mostly be about the amp.

How much should i spend?
how do i wire it up??
What?????

Help please, and thank you
Wolfie

 

Wolfie,

It really all depends on your goal of a system. If you're just wanting to improve overall sound and a good clean look, you don't need to invest much. If you're wanting to end up with a couple of 10" and wake up the neighbors, the application will be totally different. You're going to get a lot of different opinions.

Myself, I like a clean, minimalist type system. I like running 5-channel amps. They are really easy to set up and have a clean look to them. Most five channel amps provide 45 to 70 watts per channel on your door speakers. The mono sub channel will provide about 200 to 300 watts. They will work with a multi-sub set up, but you will be asking a lot from that amp. A single sub works well with the 5-channel amps.

As for cost, it is endless. If you go 5-channel, it can start at $100 for a Crunch amp or go to $1000 for a JL amp. It's all up to you on what you want to put into it. I am a firm believer that you get what you pay for, so I try to hit middle ground.

I just installed a low-end Hifonics amp, a 10" Pioneer shallow mount sub, Polk MOMO 6X9 in the front and Polk MOMO 6.5" in the rear of my double cab. I will be upgrading the amp in the next few weeks. My biggest mistake was not going component speakers in the doors.

 

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_500MRPM500/Alpine-MRP-M500.html?search=alpine+amplifier&ssi=0

alpine makes all around good stuff....very good quality

 

i am looking for good bass (i dont need to be waking up the neighboorhood with it though) and clear vocals and sound. i have no idea what you mean by -channels- and -watts- is there a limit to what i should have. i dont know what range i should be looking for.

i dont want to spend more then 250 on the amp.

thanks again
wolfie

 

The number of channels refers to how many speakers you want to feed. A 4-channel amp runs four speakers. A 2-channel amp runs two speakers. We won't even get into the parallel/series thing right now. The 5-channel amp will run 4 speakers in stereo and 1 mono sub.

Are you wanting to put speakers in each door or just in the front?

As for watts, that is the power rating of the amp to each speaker. The amp output needs to closely match the speaker's capacity. Too much amp power will smoke the speakers. Too much speaker consumption will smoke the amp.

I really recommend that you go on CRUTCHFIELD.COM and go to the educational section. It is a great source to learn this stuff.

You can get a good amp for $250, but certainly not Alpine or JL unless you find some used. But if you decide to go with seperate amps for doors and subs, you will be hard-pressed to find two amps for that kind of dough.

 

I'm running an alpine MRP-F300 in my double cab. The front channel powers my front speakers which are Alpine type-s 6.5 inch components and the back channel is bridged to power a 10" infinity reference DVC wired @ 4ohms in a custom sealed box behind the rear passg side backseat. I'm not running any rear speakers. Its not a super powerful but it sounds great, I wanted something that gave me a nice full sound and didn't break the bank and I didn't want an amp that took up a lot of room. I experimented with the polyfill in the box a little bit until I got the sub hitting nice and crisp/clean.

 

Well from what I know, after you extract the bass from your door speakers, they sound so much better. The sub is just to replace the bass the extracted from the door speakers. Since you only want a single 8" or 10", you can use a mono block amp. This means that the amp only has one channel. One channel means that it only has an input for one sub with all the power going to it. Let's say you get an amp with 350 watts rms, you would want to get a sub with 350 watts rms or less. 300 watts rms are good enough to give a good sound. Another thing, in my opinion, brands don't matter for amps although I always recommend Alpine. As for subs, it really matters because of the sound it gives and also the time it lasts. I recommend Kicker for subs. A good sub I used to have is a Kicker Comp VR. It's like $45 from sonicelectronix.com For wiring a mono block amp, purchase an amp wiring kit from walmart that says 380 watts. It costs about $20. It comes with a thick red cable that will go to the "power/battery" part of the amp to your car battery. It also comes with a black thick cable that will go from the "ground" part of the amp to a piece of metal so it can be grounded. Then there's a thin blue cable that goes from the "remote" part of the amp to a blue remote cable on your harness. I don't know if you noticed it had this but if it's already used, just slice into it. The next step is to take the RCA cables that came in the kit, plug them into the subwoofer output on the back of your stereo head unit. If it doesn't have them, you can use the front or rear ones. The other end of the RCA cables will go to your amp and there should only be one set of those so it's easy to find. Then, buy speaker wire and connect the positive cable to the positive input on the amp. Do this again for the negative. You should pretty much be done. By the way, you'll want to run the power cable from the battery through the firewall. The other cables running to the back can be nicely hidden by removing the kick plate and the door sills. Any questions let me know.

 

ok so i need a 5 channel amp then. my plans are to have 4 speakers all the same in the doors and in the back (i might upgrade to some better full range speakers later) and one 8 inch sub.

 

also if i was going to get a shallow sub like this:
http://www.woofersetc.com/c120/ShallowMount-Subwoofers.htm
would it still need a big box? i have an extra cab and like the space back there and dont want it taken up by a sub.

 

I would suggest that you get either two 8" or one 10". A single 8" is not going to offer much.

The box for a 10" is not big. They are a dime a dozen...Mr. Marv, Ebay, Best Buy...and so on. The box for two 8" will probably take up more floor space.

 

I have his big brother for sale

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_500MRPM500/Alpine-MRP-M500.html?search=alpine+amplifier&ssi=0

--->this guy http://www.crutchfield.com/p_500MRP1000/Alpine-MRP-M1000.html?search=mrp-m1000&ssi=0&tp=115

I will let it go for cheap. It was in my old tacoma for 6 months. Looks new.

 

Good deal.

 

Get a hifonics amp. Cheap and actually put out the power that they advertise.

 

ok i will keep that in mind but for now i am really considering just and amp then i fill upgrade to some better full range speakers then a sup. so its last on my list.

whats cheap going to cost me?

that thing seems pretty powerful, wont it blow out my speakers? (still learning here)

--------------------------

if anything i think something like this might be my future sub: http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/audio-video/20413-boss-bass-600-amplified-subwoofer.html

 

I`ve had good luck with the kicker amps , the quailty is like it used to be. I`m upgraded the amps in my f250 to jl audio. You get what you pay for......

 

ok so i will get this: http://www.caraudiodeals.com/boss-bass1200-p-2259.html

so my last question now is. do i still need a 5 channel amp? since this is a powered sub? or can i get a 4 channel now?

 

You can get a four channel.

 

I heard a sound system with two PDX amps. pdx 4-100 and pdx 1-600. but now i am thinking about this amp:

http://www.amazon.com/JL-Audio-Five...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259755829&sr=8-1

Only thing is the sub output is 100 watts less than dual pdx amp setup. I was also told that the real wattage on the pdxs will be much higher than rated. I tailgate in ATX so I need a great sounding system in and out of the truck.

Does anyone have experience with both setups?

 

I have an old kicker 652xi amp I think was driving some subwoofers in a truck years ago.. been sitting in the closet for years .. let me know if you're interested in it.. I'm sure it's not worth much.

 

Thats a nice amp!! I`m going to replace my kicker amps , with 2 of those amps to drive all my mids/highs and subs in my f250. That would be a great choise!! http://cgi.ebay.com/JL-AUDIO-HD900-...ewItemQQptZCar_Amplifiers?hash=item20ae61368d