TermN8er

I'm planning on changing from the hex to image dynamics chameleons, the 2 ohm version so they will get 160 watts a side and my sub about 320 watts. I think an IDQ10 or ID12 would be happy with that power and overall I would have a decent sounding system. Am I on the right track with this? If I really want my system to really hit with authority and still maintain SQ, I can always use the Arc for the fronts and bridge the D7 to power an IDmax 12. Oh yeah, forgot, there's my car's electrical system to deal with. Man, this stuff can really get expensive. Peace!

Hello again. I'm thinking of getting a single 4 channel amp to power my front stage plus one sub. The amps I'm considering are the Diamond Audio D6600.4, or the Arc Audio 4150XXK. Fronts would be getting on average 75 to 80 watts rms per side and the sub 300+ watts @ 4ohms. My question is; are there any disadvantage or issues when going with a setup like this...one amp for the entire system? I really like the idea of a simple install, but, I'm more concerned with drawing too much power from my car's electrical system and I want to avoid that. I'm afraid that by adding a sub amp to my current D7 amp it would force me to add additional items such as caps, yellow tops and what not, and, I really want to avoid all that. I'm not really into SPL but I do want to feel those low bass notes when they hit. SQ is really what I'm after. My front stage speakers are the HEX S600s and the sub I'll be getting would be the Image Dynamics IDQ10 or ID10. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

Origianlly I'm from S. California, but, I work for the US Army and am stationed in the Netherlands. At the time I purchased my car, they didn't have US specs available and had to settle for the euro specs which is why it's all in Kilometers and celcius.

Funny you should mention that...that's exactly what I did the first time around, but, decided I didn't want the amp laying flat because I still wanted a usable trunk and wanted the amp safe from falling or rolling objects...you know, grocery shopping and such, so I went for the overkill. I also wanted to challenge myself to try and come up with something clean and as stock looking as possible. No, I didn't have someone helping me, just some good tools I got for Christmas of 04. To be honest, a lot of it was trial and error and as Bob Ross always said on his boring painting show, "happy mistakes".

Thanks for the encouraging comments...I appreciate that and it means a lot to me. But seriously, this is my first ever install. I read many forums and do it yourself articles before going through with this. You should have seen the amount of MDF I went through before I got it right Once again, I appreciate the comments

good luck, cant wait to see some pix <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Don't mean to bring up an old thread, but with all that I have going, it took me a little longer than expected. thanks to you guys, here are some pics of my installation so far. All comments welcomed! Please be kind...this is my first ever intsall and the first time ever working with a wood project. I know it's not as elaborate as some of the installs I've seen but it works for me. The sound is fantastic with no noise issues whatsoever. Eventually I'll be putting in a 12 inch sub, but, that's later down the line. Once again, thank you all for your kind assistance. S.

You guys just made my weekend. I'm off to finish this installation Thanks!

Sup good people, I'm almost done with my installation...maybe another week or two, depending on my schedule. I've routed the power cable on the passenger side, the audio connects down the middle and all the speaker wiring along the driver's side. Now, I've built an amp rack to hold a DA D152 with the crossovers just to the left and right of it. The speaker wires going to the crossover that sits to the right of the amp will have to cross the power and ground cables. I can't believe I've gotten this far and totally forgot the rule about about keeping speaker wires away from power cables. My question is, will I definitely have audible interference? I heard/read somewhere that if you must cross these wires, cross them at 90 degrees...true/not true? In case anyone needs to know, I have diamond hex front stage with hex midbass for rear fill via RAF (Rear Acoustic Fill). Power cable is 4 guage as is the ground cable. Please advise! Thanx

Hello, I just purchased a Diamond Audio D7152 two channel amp. I plan to use it for my front stage which would be the Hex S600s components. The rear fills will be raw midbase drivers from DA's D661 series and they'll be hooked up via Diamond's RAF feature. I'm not sure I want to keep this amp because after getting myself more acquainted with it, it's way too high end for me. It' got more tweaking features than my home theater. I really should have gotten something simpler especially since I only listening to music to and from work. Anyway, lets say I do keep this amp, am I going to need a capacitor or anything else to keep this beauty powered. Am I going to experience any dimming of my lights when playing my music hard? Reason I ask is because this amp looks pretty serious, probably an amp used for competions and I'm afraid it might overtax my car's stock electrical system. what do you guys think? Thanks.

I just found their site and the headquarters is in a city called Bad Rappenau which is about 4 hours driving from where I'm at. I'll start looking in the Dutch and German sites to find out who carries those bad boys. By the way, I read a while back that old school Diamond use to be assembled in Germany...any truth to that? Also, I noticed slight similarities between diamond and some of the rainbow models, hmmmm! They do look like serious contenders though and I'm definately going to check them out. I'll give you guys an update on my ventures. Thanks.

Thanks for the tip on Rainbow. I'll do a local search on them. By the way, is that the name of the company or the model? Maybe I can use them up front since I already placed an order on ebay for the Hex speakers...from Dimension Audio. I hope they come through and don't stiff me. This is the most helpful forum I've been in. You guys rock!

Yeah...bummer!

I've been reading reviews and searching in forums such as this one to find out what speakers in this price range fared really well with users. They all had their advantages and disadvantages, but, what steered me towards the Hex comps was that quite a few users compared them to Focal Utopias. Now I know the Utopias are probably a much better speaker, but at half the price, I don't think I can go wrong with the Hex. I read stuff like, "The best cheap speaker" or "For the monies, you really can't beat them" and "I just listened to Diamond Hex and WOW!"...things like that. Another factor was their shallow mounting depth making them less work to put them in the door panels and the fact that they also come with silk tweeters which I would assume are not as bright, forward or metallic sounding as maybe alluminum. I'm actually taking my chances with what others had to say about them. Since I work for the Department of Defense, stationed in Europe, I really don't have the luxury of going to a local car audio shop to listen to these bad boys. I'm sure they have them somewhere here in the Netherlands or perhaps a shop in Germany, but I still haven't been able to find one that carries them. My other choices were Dynaudio, Image Dynamics, Boston, and MB Quart.

Just what I needed to hear. You just made my selection process a lot easier. Thanks

I'm really not getting into this for competition nor do I have any desire to do so in the future. Maybe what I need to know is if I would limit the capabilities of the Hex components by feeding them only 75 watts as opposed to 150 watts. Is 75 watts sufficient enough for these speakers? Thank you.