Looking for some advice on a new speaker amp please!

[HKYStormFront]

little background for ya, i've got an AVIC-D3 head unit with pioneer 6x9 coaxials in my front doors and 6.5's in the rear doors (remember i'm in a truck lol), running straight off the headunit through the factory wiring harness. i also have a 400peak/200rms amp powering an 8" polk momo sub in a custom box in the backseat area.

having said all that, i've been really happy with my setup for a couple years now. is it perfect? no but for as little money as i have in it, i've been satisfied. now up to date, i happened across a set of polk components, 2 sets of 6.5's with crossovers and tweets, that i've been eying for a while for a song from a fellow clubfrontier member. i'm picking them up this weekend. so now onto the question: what would be a good four channel amp for mid level speakers and tweeters? they are rated at 100rms but i really don't need that much power. i'm looking for somewhere around 50rms @ 4 ohms per channel. i'm using a kenwood amp for my sub right now but i'm not limited to that. i'm looking for good clean sound with good bang-for-buck. i'm not afraid to spend a little more for a lot better sound but i'm also not looking to spend a lot of money on it either. i've seen some that are upwards of $400-500 (alpine digitals for instance). i'm probably thinking something in the $100-200 range if there's anything worth buying in that group.

so, lay it on me! what should i look at?

oh, forgot to ask, should i wire the amp separately? or should i scrap my wiring set that i have now (8 ga) and get a larger lead wire going to a dist block then go to each amp from there?

[90 ST]

I would look at a matching 4ch. but thats me i like everything to match. As for the power wire...yes go up to a 4g and then distro off to each amp. The other thing i would look at, and not sure if you'd be interested but selling the amp you have now on the sub and buying a 5ch. amp it would make for a nice clean install and for how much power you want it would work out great! MTX has one A RFL805, JL has one, can't remeber the model number, but it's in their HD line. And i'm sure a few other companies have them, Ayduison does also i think.

[HKYStormFront]

yea i thought about doing a 5 channel amp but i didn't notice any that had the power outputs i was looking for. they either had too much going to the doors and too little going to the sub or the opposite. i'll look a little closer when i get to work sunday

[Juleous]

Originally Posted by HKYStormFront

yea i thought about doing a 5 channel amp but i didn't notice any that had the power outputs i was looking for. they either had too much going to the doors and too little going to the sub or the opposite. i'll look a little closer when i get to work sunday

The Alpine PDX 5 has good output. You could run a 3 ohm component set to get a little more juice to the front if you don't bridge the 4 channels. Run a single 12" sub with two 4ohm voice coils to get your 2 ohm load on the 5th channel.

[FuszNissan]

JL 900/5 is pretty sweet. Or the Alpine PDX5 as mentioned above.

[HKYStormFront]

Originally Posted by Juleous

The Alpine PDX 5 has good output. You could run a 3 ohm component set to get a little more juice to the front if you don't bridge the 4 channels. Run a single 12" sub with two 4ohm voice coils to get your 2 ohm load on the 5th channel.

the speakers are 4 ohm tho? and i already have a sub and am happy with it, i don't need a larger one

[Unclemeaty]

If you are only running front speakers then check out the Micro amp manufactored by Elf Audio for about $199. I know its an off brand, but its a secret in the Harley Davidson community. You can mount this tiny A/B class amp almost anywhere and its got about 75w per channel. Also, it may be ELF Audio brand but in fact ARC designed and developed it at a much higher cost. Get the Elf unit for about half of what ARC wants.

The amp is just a tick larger than 5x7x2 inches.
2 Ohm stable

Elf Audio page:
elfAudio

ARC Audio page: NOTE ARC actually sells a 4 channel version.
Arc Audio

ACR vs ELF Audio comparison:
Mini Amp Debate..... Elf-Arc guts pics - DIYMA.com

[bigaudiofanat]

If you are going to go that small I would got to a alpine ktp-445, just hard wore it to your harness and it will work with any head unit. Much more power than the elp which I have never heard of.

[HKYStormFront]

i'm gonna amp all four doors/speaker sets. so i need a 4 channel, thanks for the info tho

[bigaudiofanat]

It is a 4 channel, it produces 45 watts rms X 4 but is underrated and really puts out around 60.

[HKYStormFront]

damn that's cool as hell! it'd be a bitch to wire into my harness and there really isn't any room behind my double din (avic d3) to put it. also, i checked a couple sites and it's out of stock. i would have to cut the harnesses up and splice all the wires for my pioneer harness wouldn't i?

[bigaudiofanat]

It is pretty simple, color coat the wires from your pioneer harness to the one side of the alpine amp the other side foes to your vehicle harness. It will fit in a small opening under where the head unit pocket is. Might be some work but if you do not want a lot of weight or run wires this would be what I would do. What I did for trooper is cut the four speaker wires that go to the front and run new wires from there to the crossover and from there to the new speakers,

[HKYStormFront]

there is no room at all under my stereo, it's practically touching the A/C controls (remember, i'm in a frontier, not a Z). and the HU is backed up against the dash support as it is. this would have to go somewhere else behind the dash

[90 ST]

There should be lots of room under the dash on the drivers side. I do think you'd be better of with a stand alone amp...cleaner power.

[bigaudiofanat]

These are stand alone amps just powered threw the stock wiring. I have used them before very clean and loud power.