helotaxi

If they can't tell the difference between a high powered competition sub and an SQ oriented driver, I'm not sure I'd trust their opinion...

Try resizing the pics before posting.

I never got around to finishing the system in the last truck but this one will be different, dammit. Anyway... New truck is an F-150 Supercrew. The H/U is already installed, Kenwood DNX-8120. It has some limited processing capability but I doubt that I'll use much of it. I have an Altomobile Drive 30 for processing the front stage, I'll replace it with a MS-8 if I decide that it isn't getting the job done from a noise perspective. Front is going to be 3-way active, HAT Legatia 3s and 1s in the kicks and some midbasses in the doors. I have a pair of CDT ES-06+ woofer that may go there or I might order a pair of Dayton 6s for each door. The rear will have a decent pair of coaxes for use with surround encoded music DVDs but otherwise will be turned off with just me in the truck. Subs are SI BM mkIIIs. I have 2 but may only use 1 for space and power reasons. What I need are some amps. I've got 3 Sundown 100.2s NIB that I will be selling first of the year and I may let my 1500d go as well. They would be great for the system but simply don't fit in the truck. I'd like either a 5-channel and a 4-channel for use with 1 sub or 2 5-channels for use with both subs or a pair of 4-channels and a small mono amp for use with a single sub. On amp processing is not that important. I'm looking for 40-100 watts per channel on the multi-channel amps and 200-400 into 2 ohms for use with a single sub. A little more or less power on the sub is acceptable. I listen to all kinds of music, but usually not very loud. With factory speakers on HU power, 25 out of 35 is about as loud as I go but usually closer to 20. Size matters. The amps must either fit on the rear wall between the seat supports (maybe 20"x30" but that is a guess, probably smaller) or under the rear seat along with the sub. Budget isn't a huge deal but I'm not looking to spend Brax/Helix/Focal money on amps. I'm not competing and I will not do enough listening sitting still with the engine running to make it worth the extra $$$ over a moderately priced amplifier setup. Call it $1.2k max. I've been looking at a few amps and wanted to know if anyone had experience with them. The first is the Vibe Audio (not related to Lanzar) Lite Box amps. This would be a pair of 4-channel and a single mono amp setup. they look ot be built off the same boards as the Arc Mini amps but are a little under half the price. The size and power look promising. The second set is the Infinity Kappa amps, either a pair of Kappa5s or a Kappa5 and a Kappa4. A good bit more money compared to the Vibes. Finally looking at a pair of JL XD 700/5 or a 700/5 and a 400/4. These again are a little more expensive and are probably about as expensive as I'd be willing to go. Looking for opinions and experiences with any of the above amps. If there are any other lines I should be looking at I'm receptive to more ideas as well. I'll be buying most likely in mid to late January.

Reading online reviews of the Infinity amps shows several problems with reliability on the Kappa series, both the 5 channel and the 4 channel. Too bad, they otherwise looked promising.

Sealed and only sealed. Oh, and run it sealed.

Are you using a Russian/English translator or something? English cannot be your first language, and if it is, slap your English/Language Arts teacher for me when you get back from the Christmas break. Wow what an ignorant response. The response was more intelligent and informed than the post...the original post is a garbled bunch of gibberish like the kind that comes from cheap translating software. I'm slightly buzzed and my post has better grammar and actually confers a thought in an understandable manner. English. Look into it.

I would add a second battery before worrying about a HO alt. With an upgraded main battery and an aux battery, you should be fine. A 1500 isn't that much power on music. Under comp conditions its a different story. Not true. Either length will flow the same amount of current without melting. The fuse size would be the same regardless of length. It all has to do with the amount of heat the wire can dissipate per unit length. That is a constant regardless of length. The charts that are available are based on voltage drop and thus usable capacity, not actual capacity. If the wire is too small for the length, you will lose so much voltage over the transmission length that the amps will operate inefficiently and you will lose a lot of your power from the alt in the form of heat in the wire.

And it should sound fantastic. Those were really great sounding subs. Not hardly loud by today's standards but great sounds.

If the gain was set to a point where the amp was not clipping and turning it down "cleaned up the signal" then the input stage of the amp sucks. It's really that simple. Noise floor has zero effect on the output level, so nothing was really improved by the addition of the line driver. The only real explanation was that the gains were not set correctly to begin with.

Anyone know anything about the Powerbass mini 5-channel?

You might not gain anything from removing the SSF. It's a Class D amp and the modulator might by limited to 10hz. The filter may just be there to keep the amp stable.

The FMODs and PFMODs have always been for car audio. You don't need a SSF just because you have a ported box. First, you're not running that much power. Second you're not tuned all that high like with a SPL leaning box that unloads hard under tuning. I've yet to use one and never had a problem. If you're concerned, model the sub and box up in WinISD and look at the excursion plot with the amount of power that you will be running. If you're grossly exceeding Xmax, add the filter in the program and figure out how low you can go with the filter and keep the cone under some semblance of control.

I saw the Massive amps. Only two problems with them. One is finding an authorized dealer. I live in a little shit town in southern New Mexico. The other is price. I guess that they're within my stated budget if I bought gray market but that kind of defeats the point of getting amps new. Nothing in the Stetsom line that fits my need and their full range amps don't appear to be all that small. SounDigital also does not fit my needs.

I don't know how much better you're going to do than the Hertz that you already have for the budget you have.

The level of effort has zero to do with the ease of perception. The scale is already weighted for the way that sound is perceived. 0.1dB whether the reference is 80dB or 150dB is the same level of increase to the ear and equally imperceptible. That's like saying that its easier to tell the difference between driving at 45 and 50 or 145 and 150. because it takes a larger increase in HP to drive 150.

If there is no more power then there is no additional headroom. Headroom is power available beyond what is needed for normal sound production. If the amp is capable of producing 200W and the normal power used on music is 50W you have 6dB of headroom in the system. Gain setting is not related to headroom. Gain setting is not related to how "hard" the amp works. Setting it correctly allows you to get full power from the amp regardless of source voltage. Having it set incorrectly does one of two things. If it is set too high, you have a very limited range of usable source volume control before the amp is driven into clipping. If it is set too low, you simply will never get full power from the amp. It is really that simple. The only benefit that you might see from higher signal voltage is the reduction in gain can keep noise out of the system. Every signal cable has a noise level present in it. The voltage of that noise stays constant. With an extremely low signal voltage, the gain on the amp has to be turned up and that amplifies not only the signal, but also the noise. Higher signal voltage essentially increases the s/n ratio of the signal cabling. 2V is way more than enough to completely overcome the line noise in most any system. Beyond that its all about marketing. Sounds like my kind of gig.

I think that the main reason that older people are more likely to notice the subtle differences it that we have actually heard good recordings of real musicians that were well mastered. The younger generations have only ever had shit from performance to recording to mastering. Rap, the current garbage that is passed off as R&B, top 40, basically all of what passes for mainstream music these days is so generally atrocious that listening from a CD or a low bit-rate mp3 is no different. The master recording is flat, utterly lacking in dynamic range. The "music" is electronically produced, the vocals get a lot of "engineering" work done to them as well. The overall result is that there is almost no emotion in music because there is so little actual human element left. While a fantastic recording of a great performance by a true artist is the dream, I'd rather have a mediocre reproduction of an OK recording of a great performance by a true artist. I'll listen to good musicians on satellite radio or my iPod on cheap speakers over what my wife listens to regardless of medium or reproduction equipment.

Stop the car when it starts doing it, park and check the amp. See if it's going into protect.

He knew what you were talking about. The best answer that can be given is the one you have given yourself. Take some measurements on the driver and get a ruler and a straightedge and draw it out. That's the way to know for sure. Don't forget the thickness of the bottom baffle.

Best solution is to connect the negative of the front and rear batteries directly and then ground amps to the rear battery.

A DMM won't tell you anything about the phase of the coils. Which part of the RCA plug did you wrap the wire around?

Probably never heard a set that someone took the time to actually tune. They're not a simple "drop-in" proposition. You actually have to work with the EQ to get them to sound right. Once they are tuned right, though, the relatively effortless output and dynamics are truly impressive.

Double check the wiring to your sub itself. Entirely possible that you got a connection crossed when you changed subs and have the coils out of phase. Also, have you tried a different amp to make sure that it isn't the problem?

Those are fine as long as you have the room for them to thread into. Don't work as well on the margin. Nice thing about the hurricane nuts is that you are still trying to compress the wood when you tighten them down. You'll break the bolt before they pull through.

I would say that the simple answer is to get a HU that doesn't have a detachable face.