Alpine PDX-5

Anyone have this amp installed on their Taco? I am thinking of buying one to power my 6x9 Boston SR95's in the front and my 6.5 Boston SR65's in the back. Then the 5th channel to a sub behind the rear D/C seats.

 

Go for it. A lot of guys have these. They're a nice amp for sure. The audiophile guys think they are a bit noisy (high noise floor) but most people will think they're awesome. I'm one of "those" guys so I have a JL HD 900/5 but I think the PDX5 is a great piece.

 

Wow that is an expensive one. How about the Boston Acoustic 5750? Or Kenwood has a new one. Not sure of the number though. Thanks for your time.

 

I will agree with everything said above. After auditioning both, the JL HD 900/5 was louder, clearer, but pricier, so its what I got... though its not installed yet. Alpine did not update the PDX-5 like they did with the rest of their PDX amps this year.

For me to choose the JL over the Alpine I would have to HEAR a difference to pay the extra coin. You CAN clearly hear the difference in sound quality. The dealer cost on a HD 900/5 is around $650 so you should be able to find them around $700-750. Thats quite a bit more than a PDX-5... about double the price.

Either works great. I have a buddy with the PDX-5 in his Miata and it works great for a basic amp.

 

I have the PDX-5...I have had it for about 1.5 years and it's a great amp, no complaints. The primary reason I chose it over other amps was because of the size. It worked perfect for where I wanted to put my amp. I got it on Ebay for $375 new which was also a smokin' deal I couldn't pass up.

I needed a 4-5 Channel amp that would fit on this board.

 

Heh, just posted this in another thread. I love my little PDX-5. I didn't want to run 2 separate amps, and I only wanted a single sub to bring out the low end, not power 4 12" monsters that can be heard 3 blocks away.

For what it does, it does it well, and for a very reasonable price.

 

Tell me where you're gonna put that boston and then I'll tell you if it's a good amp.


Now that Kenwood. XR-5S looks like a BAD ASS amp! I'd never even seen it before you said one existed. I went and looked it up and I think it's a really great piece! The new Kenwood digital amps (the others) are said to be DEAD quiet so I'd expect this one to be no different.

Now we have 3 different 5chanel amps with super small footprints to play with

 

Just ordered one the other day. should be here this week. Will report back once its installed. Selected because i wanted a single amp that will fit under the seat

 

Do the SR65s fit well in the back? How do they sound.. I love bostons... my '84 firebird was a rolling stereo project car.. and all of it was Boston.

 

Just put it in and went for a drive. Sub makes a nice difference. still need to tune the amp.

 

I can whole heartedly agree!

I installed the PDX-5 in the family car. I was never satisfied with it and decided to spend the extra $$ for the JL Audio and I couldn't was blown away at the difference. Heck, even my WIFE noticed the difference (and she didn't know I had changed the amps beforehand...she just thought I was fiddling with the settings). lol That is the first time my wife has noticed a difference...so yeah, it's definitely worth the extra money (unless you are already satisfied with the PDX-5 of course).

As for the new Kenwoods...they look interesting. They seem to fit nicely between the PDX's and the HD's. I'd probably consider those also since I've had good experience with eXcelon products in the past.

In order to make your decision harder, another great company with small amps is Arc Audio. If you can afford the KS series amps, I'd highly recommend them. If not, you can still check out their XXD amps too.






As for me, I WAS leaning toward the HD's for my new Taco...but feel compelled to check out the eXcelon's. No sense on spending more than I need to, and if these sound almost as good as the HD's for a cheaper price, then I might go that route instead.

 

The kenwoods are better than the pdx5 and older pdx amps, but the new pdx amps are just as good as the Kenwoods IMO.

 

someone wanna hook me up with one? please?

 

I went with the JL also. It has a lot of sack and holy cow is it small. You pay for it but in this instance JL > Alpine by a mile.

 

Just a quick little update. Hooked the PDX 5 up last friday night and tuned it over the weekend.

Speakers are Polk DB6501 front and rear (no tweeters in the rear) doors of my access cab, the sub is a JL 10w3v3-4 in a sealed box. the HU is an Alpine single din (cda 9886 i think, memory is getting bad)

all the gains are at about 70% of max, i forget the crossover points.

it sounds pretty damn good. Even at 25% volume, it fills the cab up nicely with sound waves. take the volume up to 50% and it really comes alive. It's tough to take the volume up any higher, as it becomes to loud.

The only negative that i've found is the subwoofer control on the HU has to be maxed out and the bass setting turned up to really bring out the low end. I think i could play with the amp settings to help this out a little, but it's not a major issue.

Overall, i've very satisfied with the set up. Just need to carpet the sub box, or build a new one to make it look better. My first box is a bit ugly. :lol:

 

Definitely going with the new Kenwood Excelon 5 channel amp. And either the Kenwood DDX 516 or DDX 616 head unit. Anyone have either of these head units?

 

I found the same thing with my sub. Because of my small sealed box I have my sub gain almost at max.

 

^Probably has more to do with the efficiency of your sub.

 

I have a PDX-5 under the driver's seat in my Tacoma. It is powering 3 sets of MB Quart Separates and JL StealthBox. The PDX-5 is getting its signal from a Pioneer DVD-3200BT (I think that is the model #).

My sub is crossed over at 80 hz in reverse polarity and my mids are crossed over at 100 hz. This made a really good graph.

No eq boost and all gains are almost in the middle. The music blends together nicely and the bass will get loud enough.

This is what I liked about the amp: Small Size, 5 channels, efficient (I am still running the factory 70 amp alternator), runs cool and sounds good.

 

IMO, the Alpine looks better, but since it's under a seat, it doesn't really matter.

From a performance perspective, the Kenwood stacks up nicely. It'd be curious to hear them side by side. only being able to hear my alpine, i'm not complaining. it sounds pretty darn good.

price is very comparable. on ebay, teh kenwood is going for $330 which is only $10 less than what i paid for the pdx on ebay.