Hey All,
I'm working out how I want to setup my system in my new P5. I recently upgraded from a Ford Focus and most of my stuff is carrying over.

I'm currently running a Pioneer Premier 920R head unit connected to an Alpine MRV-T407 amp (rated 2x52.5@4ohm) to the fronts (pioneer 5x7 w/ horn tweets) and a Rockford Fosgate 250a2 (rated 1x360@4ohm) to an Infinity Perfect 10 in the rear.

I'm thinking of getting rid of the RF and getting another alpine or dumping both of them. I'm curious if anyone has had any experience with the Orion XTR line of amps? I really like the stats on the Orion and its my first choice right now. I'm looking for a high SQ 4 channel amps to replace both amps.

4ch Amps I'm looking at:

Orion XTR 8004 (4x100@4ohm)
Kicker KX800.4 (4x100@4ohm)
Precision Power PCX-480 (4x80) or PCX-4125 (4x125)
RF Punch 700x (4x87.5)

2ch amp to replace the RF:
Alpine MRV-T707 (2x70@4ohm) to match the T407

Any suggestions would be much appreciated =)


BTW: do the visonik and autotek amps and other non main stream amps really stack up to the big names when it comes to SQ?

 

as far as i know, there are really no "sq" amps, but rather amps that actually push clean power. rockford makes good amps, as do alpine, kicker and ppi. i cannot comment on orion's amps as i have only sampled their xtr subs (really good). i wouldn't necessarily recommend visonik to push an sq system, but they are still good amps for what you pay for (quality is about the same as kicker impulse). autotek on the other hand is a solid amp, definitely gets my vote.

if you are going for "daily sq" (not audiophile sq) then any amp you listed should do you just fine. but if it was me and my resonably priced sq system...

-autotek stealth amps
OR
-fusion jonah lomu amps

 

I'll check the autotek stealth amps onehawaiian (the fusion amp is a tad much for my system...), anyways while my post is up...

Has anyone used the new Blaupunkt amps?

The things are so tiny and run cool (they say). Let me know if anyone has the new "Class T" Blaupunkts and what their opion is of them...

Thanks..

 

Going on my experience, the Phoenix Gold Titaniums are very nice SQ amps and so are Audison VRx (I use one currently).
The Audison justs chews up and spits out the Alpine V12 I used previously for SQ, and a buddy's PG Ti is similar. Would recommend either highly.

As for Class D for SQ, well, they are sub amps only, but very efficient. I am using a JL Audio 500/1 and for SQ in the bottom end it simply is in another world to the Kicker ZR (ClassA/B) that it replaced, MUCH better control and it doesn't tax the electrical system nearly as badly ie previously on Big Bass Hits at night the lights would dim and now they don't.

Hope that helps.

 

Watts are Watts

hawaiin is correct- there really is no such thing as a 'SQ' amp. It's all about the power - does it push true and "clean" (undistorted) watts.

All amps will distort at some level. The better amps are underrated, so that if it says it pushes 500 watts, it does so before any audible distortion kicks in, meaning it's MAX output is considerably higher that 500 watts.

That's really the only issue, other than singal-to-noise ratio, and nearly 100% of the amps on the market have excellent s/n ratios, and there will be no audible difference from one to the next.

Class D is definitely sub amp stuff though. It's designed to push a maximum of power with a minimum of input, at the sacrifice of higher s/n ratios. Not something that will be detected in subs, but something that might be audible in mids and tweeters. I doubt you'd even find any multi-channel class D amps - the only ones I know of are class A/B, with a separate class D sub section.

~HH

 

there are a few non-blau lover's who have run the class t amps and liked them. yes they run cool and all, but honestly, there are so many amps on the market that really won't heat up to cut off point. and i'm talking about daily's here, not competition...

yeah, jonah amps are a bit pricey. autotek is by far a solid buy for being not so mainstream. audison? wow, we're talking about upper end quality here. not many places sell audison, even online (only 2 sites i think). but as far as quality, can you say macintosh range?

altho class d amps are not really recommended for "daily" subs, as some would say you'd be wasting the amps capabilities, you would still be pushing clean and efficient power to a driver that can utilize it to it's fullest. f'real tho, unless this sorta thing is your bag, it's not that big of a deal to run a class d... at least for the majority of us anyways.

haven't heard the pg titanium's, but i like the tantrum amps a lot. too bad retail here is a b!tch.

autotek. if you cruise the main car audio boards, you'll see autotek is not a lightweight brand. not mainstream, but not unheard of in the car audio ranks.

 

The new Bazooka Nos8 sub is very good, I heard one powered by an alpine V power amp and it had tremendous sound quality for the sub, lol and it also gives you that nos bottle look.
Or you can always go with the good old bazooka tubes.
Happy hunting

 

Also, if you can find one, I would go with a Rockford Fosgate Symmetry Epx system with the 28 eq card. You can change almost any setting to any component you have in your system, you can find any flaws in your components with that too. My bro had one of those with two of the older 15" punch dvc's and a 250m amp and an 800a2 amp with the fanatic q fronts and rears with custom q forms. he could choose to have the bass poundin, or the highs screamin' either way it's a good addition to a great SQ system. Also another good way to make sure you have good sq is to have high preamp output voltage. the higher the voltage, the easier it is for the amp to pick up the signal and the less chance for signal loss in the transfer. Most headunits come stock with 4v preamps now.

 

My bro with that setup, won a sq contest here in maine. It's not the damn brand, it's how you set it up. That person with the tens probably had a shitty setup, my hx2 outdid a JL and another with a autotek 12. and I only have a 360a2 runnin it.
You make a nicely matched system, and you can make just about any damn stuff sound good. It just depends on the "QUALITY" of the equipment.

 

I have to agree - as many serious cometitors would (not that I claim to be one in any way):

IT'S ALL IN THE INSTALL.

An all Jensen setup CAN sound better than a frigging JL W7, if the Jensens are set up perfectly, and the W7 is a slap-it-together job.

I have a 10" Punch HX2 - I think it is definitely a solid sub for the price. I'm sure there are better (and I'm not one to defend "my" stuff just cuz it's mine) for the money. Mine actualy has not-so-hot output right now, because my enclosure kinda sux. But I can tell what is there, and that it'll slam pretty damn good once I give it the proper airspace.

Truth is, install is everything - no matter how "good" or "bad" the equipment is.

~HH

 

I ditto- a good deal is the install. Middle of the road hardware can produce the best sound in the world when installed well. I have heard really nice hardware suck hind due to a bad install or bad tuning. Really sad
While I whole heartidly agree, clean watts are clean watts, I do have preferences for SQ compared to SPL. Signal to noise, seperation, slew rate, TID, design topology, all should be a good as possible for SQ.
I have heard SQ that was miserable due to amps that and transient noise or distortion, or little channel seperation.
Products that are focused on SQ performance will cost more than standard fare out there, first a perceived market issue (Those SQ snobs have more money to spend) and second more expensive to produce designs and componets.
My favs for SQ amping are McIntosh, Brax, Helix, Genesis, Audison, Phoenix, and JL Audio, which is a great bargin compared to the rest of the list.
While true for all audio setups, it is most noticeable in SQ systems- you are as good as your weakest link. Which leads back to how important the install is. What ever way you go, take a lot of time on the install. The install in the Sentra I have as a sound car took almost two months of off and on work from start to finish when I installed it. A massive amout of that was sound deadening and testing of speaker locations. So if you are into SQ install, slow down and test out all possibilites before you drill anywhere.
As a plug, there is a very nice Velodyne for sale on E-Bay right now, probably the nicest SQ sub I have ever heard, very tight and less than .5% distortion, amazing when most subs have 25% distorion.

 

See there are people who know what they are talking about. I have heard the Jensen KS series subs in the 4 chamber bandpass box, run by a California Jam amp. The subs are 10's and I'll tell you, those things slam hard, and most people say that Jensen blows.

I had a Jensen XS sub, and it pounded like hell and I only had a 200w pioneer amp hooked to it. And it wasn't distortion either. You just gotta set it up correctly.

I agree JL does have some good ****, but it also has a **** price.



"I heard a guy drive by with his system blarin', I just had to laugh. I never knew blown road gears could sound so much like ****"

 

I just read a good review of a Jensen amp the other day actually...

 

i'm not disputing you in any way, but there are a lot of subs that sound pretty loud in a bandpass. i wonder how they would sound in a sealed box?

jensen has pretty decent stuff (in the old days they were the ****) but yeah, install is pretty important...

 

There are a lot of products you can buy out there. Audiobahn is over rated..I think, they pound but they are damn expensive. JL is over rated, damn expensive and made of cheap ****. But they sound good when set up right. Eclipse, are pretty good....expensive also.
MTX is alright, expensive, but lower than alot of others and their RFL 15's kick *** with the right amp.