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Car stereo help - need an amplifier reccomendation

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if you want all 4 speakers amped look at the USX-4085 or the USB-2085. you'll have to be careful on the gain on the rear speakers but besides that it should sound great
 
Are Coustic amps any good? I bought a coustic 4ohm 300 x 1 RMS amp on ebay for $70 and I bought a infinitky perfect 12.1 sub to go with it on ebay.
 
Originally posted by: Red
Are Coustic amps any good? I bought a coustic 4ohm 300 x 1 RMS amp on ebay for $70 and I bought a infinitky perfect 12.1 sub to go with it on ebay.
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to you mean US Acoustic's or is it another brand like Power Acoutics. US Acoustic's are very good for the money but if its Power Acoustics thier pretty hit or miss.

if you got a 300x1 US acoutics for 70 bucks damn good deal.
 
Originally posted by: Falloutboy
Originally posted by: geno
Originally posted by: Operandi
Zapco is the #&$! if you have the money but make sure you have the rest of equip to back it up, those Infinity?s are good. Your head unit should have atleast 3 volt pre outs, anything less upgrade the head unit 1st. And yeah it should be 4ohms.
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It's a Pioneer DEH-P5500MP with 2V outputs... At the moment I just don't have the money to upgrade the head unit, I'd like to get a matching amp for the speakers first. What will the 3V outputs do for me? Louder output?

ThisIsMatt, I've toyed with the idea of running 2 separate amps for the speakers, but I've already got one amp for speakers and one for my subs... running 3 is a little much I think and I'd rather have 2 amps handling my whole system...
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more volts means a cleaner input.
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Thats an understatement, the difference between 2 volt and 3+ is simply amazing, much more of a difference then any amp could provide, assuming the rest of the gear is up to the job of course. All the 2volt decks (all Pioneers) sounded dull and flat, we went through a few different JVC's, Sony's and Kenwoods all of them had at least 3v pre-outs and they all sounded several times better then the pioneer. The rest of the system consisted of MB Quart components up front, 2 Polk subs and phoenix gold amps.
 
stay away from audiobahn, directed is very good.

i forget/dont want to read everything again.

but if your lookin for component power check out some tru amps, but they will break the bank a little but will put out SO much CLEAANNN power. and then look at like brax. im not sure how much money you are lookin at.

other good amps are like ppg, us acoustics, us amps.

i cant think of every one of them though.

and i forget what power it puts out, but the Rockford T8004 will give you everything you want and then some. VERY highly reccomended everywhere.

MIKE
 
Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
stay away from audiobahn, directed is very good.

i forget/dont want to read everything again.

but if your lookin for component power check out some tru amps, but they will break the bank a little but will put out SO much CLEAANNN power. and then look at like brax. im not sure how much money you are lookin at.

other good amps are like ppg, us acoustics, us amps.

i cant think of every one of them though.

MIKE
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I guess I'm repeating myself, oh well......

high-end amps are nice but it dosn't mean anything if your source is junk aka 2.2 volt pre amp outs.
 
Well, I have to say, if Directed makes good amps, and from the link that I was given in this thread, it looks like a steal for the money! I'm leaning towards trying Directed if they're the goods considering the low prices

nourdmrolNMT1, you mentioned a few names I checked around for, I came across a US Amps amp that looks like it'd be good for my application, This doesn't look bad
 
Originally posted by: Operandi
Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
stay away from audiobahn, directed is very good.

i forget/dont want to read everything again.

but if your lookin for component power check out some tru amps, but they will break the bank a little but will put out SO much CLEAANNN power. and then look at like brax. im not sure how much money you are lookin at.

other good amps are like ppg, us acoustics, us amps.

i cant think of every one of them though.

MIKE
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I guess I'm repeating myself, oh well......

high-end amps are nice but it dosn't mean anything if your source is junk aka 2.2 volt pre amp outs.
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but high end amps will also take longer to distort which means they will put up with a lower preamp does it not?

MIKE
 
Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
Originally posted by: Operandi
Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
stay away from audiobahn, directed is very good.

i forget/dont want to read everything again.

but if your lookin for component power check out some tru amps, but they will break the bank a little but will put out SO much CLEAANNN power. and then look at like brax. im not sure how much money you are lookin at.

other good amps are like ppg, us acoustics, us amps.

i cant think of every one of them though.

MIKE
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I guess I'm repeating myself, oh well......

high-end amps are nice but it dosn't mean anything if your source is junk aka 2.2 volt pre amp outs.
Click to expand...

but high end amps will also take longer to distort which means they will put up with a lower preamp does it not?

MIKE
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Your right the better the amp the more it can out-put without distorting, but thats completely un-related to the voltage of the pre-amp outputs. Think of it as comparing a really weak FM radio signal to strong one, the stronger station doesn?t sound louder it sounds more full and clear, same thing with pre-out voltages. Remember all an amplifier is doing is "amplifying" whatever signal it is feed (essentially just making it louder). If the source is bad then the out-put will be no better, crap in/crap out. That?s why it?s important to have a good source in this case the head unit, the best amp in world won't make a 2 volt output sound as good as a 3 or 4 volt one.
 
Originally posted by: geno
Out of curiosity, who makes a good 3 volt pre-out head unit?
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The ones that I used and liked were Kenwood and JVC, Sony used to be good but they haven't made anything I'd use in awhile.
 
Don't forget the different between RMS and Peak power when choosing amps. What most companies advertise is peak power. Only the more reputable (expensive) companies (Alpine, Eclipse and JL Audio level stuff) advertises RMS power.

I went mostly Alpine on my system and I love it.
 
Originally posted by: qaa541
Don't forget the different between RMS and Peak power when choosing amps. What most companies advertise is peak power. Only the more reputable (expensive) companies (Alpine, Eclipse and JL Audio level stuff) advertises RMS power.

I went mostly Alpine on my system and I love it.
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not true. not everyone puts out peak there are the few lower end amps, and the good rockfords. also, not all amps are rated at the same voltage so thats another issue.

MIKE
 
Alpine head units are some of the best. Personally i'm happy with my pioneer premier. For amps I have only bought mtx, and they have worked great with no problems.
 
That Alpine looks nice, but expensive. I?m pretty sure this is the Kenwood I ended up putting in my friends car, it seems to have similar features to the Alpine while undercutting it in price(built in crossover, EQ ect. It also has 5v pre-outs and an uber sweet display.
 
Originally posted by: Operandi
That Alpine looks nice, but expensive. I?m pretty sure this is the Kenwood I ended up putting in my friends car, it seems to have similar features to the Alpine while undercutting it in price(built in crossover, EQ ect. It also has 5v pre-outs and an uber sweet display.
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it is similar but doesnt seem to have time correction, 6 band eq (only 3 band) and there are a few other things.

Alpine headunits are 2nd to only eclipse head units.

MIKE
 
Originally posted by: Operandi
That Alpine looks nice, but expensive. I?m pretty sure this is the Kenwood I ended up putting in my friends car, it seems to have similar features to the Alpine while undercutting it in price(built in crossover, EQ ect. It also has 5v pre-outs and an uber sweet display.
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Ehhh as nice as it is, I can't ever buy a Kenwood deck again. I bought a NICE Excelon one time, and not only did it skip ALL the time over the slightest bumps, it randomly turned off, and of course, one day it flat out died on me. I can't say I'd trust a Kenwood deck 🙁
 
Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
Originally posted by: Operandi
That Alpine looks nice, but expensive. I?m pretty sure this is the Kenwood I ended up putting in my friends car, it seems to have similar features to the Alpine while undercutting it in price(built in crossover, EQ ect. It also has 5v pre-outs and an uber sweet display.
Click to expand...

it is similar but doesnt seem to have time correction, 6 band eq (only 3 band) and there are a few other things.

Alpine headunits are 2nd to only eclipse head units.

MIKE
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Yeah how do they stack up pricewise? I'm going to go take a look at what's comparible now...
 
...Ouch, Eclipse is expensive stuff, but it looks really nice... I'm trying to find more detailed info on the features, like how detailed the EQ settings are, but I'm having trouble getting specifics.
 
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