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5 channel amp????

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personaltrainer

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Just wondering if i could go with a 5 channel amp to run my separates up front, my mids in teh side panels and 1 JL 12" sub? I would rather wire and hide one amp in the truck than 2. Right now i have two 1 channel amps and 2 2 channel amps - I'm thinking of just buying a 5channel and making it MUCH MUCH more simple. Disadvantages to 5 channel? Anyone recomend it?
 
A 5 channel amp will work great for what you want to do. I like 5 channel amps because they can run a whole system and make for a very clean looking install because you have only one set of power wires, you don't need a few more feet of cables and remote wires, and you only have 1 thing to mount. I had a JL Audio 500/5 and used it to run 6.5's in my doors, 4x6's in the rear pillars, and two 12's. It had way more power than I could use.
 
Awesome, can you recommend a good 5 channel amp for a decent price? I'm not competing or anything just want some clean sound. I will have 5.25's and 1.5s in the doors, 6.5s in the side panels (all polk audio) and one JL 12 in a sealed box. I was looking to spend $300 TOPS for an amp - thanks.
 
I'm sorry I can't help you find am amp, I haven't done anything with stereos for a couple years and I'm not familiar with what is available. There are a few guys on here that may be able to help though.
 
Get an Audio Art 6 channel amp (hard to find and worth every penny for their capabilities)... buy a dual voice coil subwoofer and run both of the sub channels into it, effectively doubling the power output to your sub... I have their 340.6, which runs RMS 35 watts to each component speaker and 200 to the sub channels combined at 4 ohms. It is 1/2 ohm stable bridged, and 2 ohm stable unbridged... so, it can effectively punch 680+ watts into my stereo system when it feels like it.... rather, when _I_ feel like it. =)

I've always run clarion components and offbrand subwoofers... I have a Legacy 700watt sub right now, but I ripped the foam, so I have to get a new one... best thing about offbrand subs is you get name brand quality for near nothing... I'm going to be changing to pioneer components just to match my deck now, but I'm still sticking with the 340.6 until I blow it up again... (Audio Art rebuilt it for free after the warranty expired last time I blew it up) I figure if it lasted me this long and blows up, it deserves to be retired... I've had it for 8 years, and it's only blown up once because it got wet...


By the way... you should expect to pay about $1.00 per watt for a GOOD amp... if you are paying less than that, you are either going to ruin your speakers, or blow the amp. I payed $700.00 for my amp, and it's 340 watts RMS. Like I said, it's worth every penny for what it can do.

These PoS Kicker, XPlod, Jensen 1000watt amps that you can get for basically pennies on the watt are just asking to blow up... if you are paying less than $0.75 per watt, you are just ruining your whole setup. If you want to spend $300.00 on an amp, then buy a 200-3000 watt RMS total output amp... max power can be more, but the RMS should be no higher than the cost.
 
cool. all good information. So you think the kickers amps are crap? what about MTX? crap too? I just can not spend $600-$700 on am amp right now plus I already have a JL in a box (single vcoil) so I'd have to buy another one to run with your plan so it's looking like $800-$1000ish. This freaking truck project has gotten out of control!!
 
personaltrainer said:
cool. all good information. So you think the kickers amps are crap? what about MTX? crap too? I just can not spend $600-$700 on am amp right now plus I already have a JL in a box (single vcoil) so I'd have to buy another one to run with your plan so it's looking like $800-$1000ish. This freaking truck project has gotten out of control!!
Click to expand...

Multichannel amps are flexible and pretty cool. You can usally bridge channels together for subs, or run it as all discrete channels...or change it up later if you reconfigure the system.

I've said it before, but amps are one of the areas where I'm willing to buy "used" off eBay....no moving parts, so it's pretty low risk. It would be a good way to get a "quality" amp for maybe 1/2-price. There is no doubt that the good stuff is pretty pricey, but with a 50% discount you might feel better about it.

I've been using some "old school" a/d/s PQ20s..... 4 x 80watt (but bridged they are more like 200W x 2). They sold for around $800 each new, but I was picking them up on eBay for around $200.... I ended up with four of them and ran my whole K5 setup with that config.... :thumb:
 
Greg72 said:
Multichannel amps are flexible and pretty cool. You can usally bridge channels together for subs, or run it as all discrete channels...or change it up later if you reconfigure the system.

I've said it before, but amps are one of the areas where I'm willing to buy "used" off eBay....no moving parts, so it's pretty low risk. It would be a good way to get a "quality" amp for maybe 1/2-price. There is no doubt that the good stuff is pretty pricey, but with a 50% discount you might feel better about it.

I've been using some "old school" a/d/s PQ20s..... 4 x 80watt (but bridged they are more like 200W x 2). They sold for around $800 each new, but I was picking them up on eBay for around $200.... I ended up with four of them and ran my whole K5 setup with that config.... :thumb:
Click to expand...

Greg - I was hoping you'd chime in here. I'm really not too sure about what is a "good" amp or if I'd be getting a deal when shopping on ebay. Everytime I go there I end up searching through the new crap like the 50,000watt Prymid stuff etc etc. Would you mind doing a quick ebay search for me to see if anything there looks like it would work? 5 channels is ideal for me. I already have (2) 2 channels and 2 1channels but I'm looking to clean it up and not have all of these freaking wires everywhere. Thanks in advance man. If you don't have the time it's okay - I'll look around and pm you some links if you don't mind.
 
You might want to think about a 6-channel amp or possibly a 4 channel and a monoblock (or 2 channel)

The 5-channel is a logical idea, but in reality your sub is going to be a lot more power-hungry than the other speakers, if you are looking at a 50W x 5 amp (for example) then the sub only gets a single 50W channel, and that's not much for bass.....I generally like to use twice the power for the sub that I'm feeding the seperates.... (unless every speaker is getting massive power)

SO:

A 6-channel amp would allow you to "bridge" two 50W channels for a 100W mono channel for the sub and everything else could run at 50W/channel (again using our theoretical 50W/channel amp)

OR

Buy a conventional 50W x 4 amp, and a seperate 50W x 2 amp (or even 100W x 2) for the sub and bridge it for a single high-powered channel. I know it's not as "clean" of an install, but you might find that you have more options since 2 and 4 channel amps are everywhere....

I used to use an a/d/s PH15 for the 6-channel configuration just as it was described above....(50W x 4 for seperates, and a 100W channel for sub) I'm not sure if you can find one of those online, but my guess is that it would be cheap and the old a/d/s stuff is built like a tank. They were also one of the early companies doing 6-channel stuff when everyone else was just stuffing more and more amps into a single vehicle to get that many channels.....


If you find some links, send them along and I'll be happy to take a look. I'm doing some "freelance" work this week (and next) so I won't be online that much to do the searching for you.
 
greg.
I was thinking about this last night and you might be right - more options with a monoblock for the sub - also if i want to change the sub/amp out later it will not be a big deal. I have 3 amps right now. So in theory - I have enough to power my system. I have an old mosfet sony amp - 45x2 (like 12 years old! - it kicks ass), a JL monoblock e1200 - it's 200w RMS x 1 at 2ohms or 130w at 4ohms, and an alpine 2 channel - 50w RMS x 2 at 4 ohms and 65w x 2 at 2 ohms.
Should i attempt to install all of these amps? or buy a 50w x 4 amp and then use the JL for the sub? I've got a basic understanding of wiring these things but I'm not sure about wiring 3 of them at once! What would you do? Seems like I could get the 4 channel amp pretty resonably.
Thanks greg.
 
Might be nice to simplify and get a 4-channel amp vs wiring up two 2-channels ones. Also might be easier on you when it comes time for level-setting and trying to balance everything and get the right frequencies to the right speakers.

I'm not sure what sort of crossover features those amps have, but most newer amps have pretty good high-pass/low-pass crossover stuff built in to simplify the wiring and allow you to send full-range signals to each amp and strip off what you don't need at the amplifier level.

I'd maybe look for a 4-channel you like and then offer up the existing two 2-channel amps for sale here or eBay or wherever and see if you can get into something different for little to no money out-of-pocket.....

:deal:
 
terrier72 said:
Why not try one of these
3 way crossover
Click to expand...


A lot more wiring.

Also that particular crossover is junky...only 12dB/octave slopes. Even the lower end amps now do at least 18dB with their crossovers. Ideally a sub crossover should be 24dB/octave for tightest control.


Greg's Hypothesis:

Adding more components (especially low-end stuff) just encourages more noise issues, and throws away fidelity. Think of stereo components as "sheets of glass"....each sheet stands between you and the pure music. The cleaner the glass, the clearer the music. BUT.....all it takes is one dirty piece of glass (component) in the system to mess up everything. No matter how clean everything else is....that ONE part will always keep you from hearing (seeing) clearly.

That's the best analogy I've seen to describe it. :thumb:
 
I didn't say you needed to spend 600-800 on an amp... I just said that when I bought mine, that's what it was for only 340 watts of 4 ohm power.

You can get a really good amp for $1.00 per watt... and unless you are running a competition setup, you don't need more than 300-400 watts of total power. if you go with the 6 channel, most of them are arranged for a 35watt rms to around 50-60 peak, which is perfect for most 5 1/4 through 6 1/2 inch speaker pairs. The last 2 channels are usually double or quadruple the power of the other 4 channels. For instance, my amp is 35x4 and 100x2, for a total of 340 watts in 6 channels. Audio Art also makes 4 channel and Mono Block amps that are designed specifically for competition... I'd check them out if you can find them.

Figures, the best amp company I've found doesn't have a website that I can find right now...
 
AHhhHhHhhhhhhhHrrrrgggg...

Someone please find me a link to an Audio Art site... I think they may have gone out of business... i can't even find any dealers...
 
looks like my best plan is to go with a 4channel x 50w RMS. that should be plenty to power the seps up front and the mids - them I'll put the JL mono amp on the sub.

Anyone got any suggestions on a good name (besides audio art)? Is MTX crap? Is soundstream overpriced? how about kenwood? I really like the xplode line from sony as well - real quality stuff - NOT. --- that last one was a joke!
 
I've been rescearching multi channel amps lately. The one that look the best to me are the Orion 8004. I will be running that Orion 4 channel class A/B amp for the 4 main speakers, and a MMATS D200hc class D amp for the subs. $339.00 for that Orion 8004 is not a bad price at all in my honest opinion. Orion 8004
 
upon further inspection of my JL amp - I've found that it has RCA in and out so I'll just buy a 4 channel to go with that and wiring it should nbot be that tough.
Thanks for the input.
 
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