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Which Amp to Get


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specialblendj 
Copper - Posts: 118
Copper spacespace
Joined: September 03, 2003
Location: United States
Posted: November 12, 2003 at 10:01 AM / IP Logged  

I am planning on buying two amplifiers, one Rockford Fosgate 851X to send 100w RMS to the four speakers in my car, or maybe its 110 WATTS i forget, and another rockford fosgate amp to send 500 Watts RMS to two Eclipse 12 inch aluminum subs.  I wanted to get some amp suggestions, because I'm not completely set on the fosgate amps but they seem to have a good power to price ratio.  I want both amps to be the same brand, and my four speakers are fosgates, which can handle 100Watts rms each. fosgate components up front and 6x9's in the back.  Performance is my main concern, I don't care about looks much.  Also, does anyone have any comments about the fosgate amps.  Some guy said he heard they shut off due to overheating a lot.  Is this true?  Also with suggestions please be as detailed as possible as to why you are suggesting the amp that you are.

thanks

Ketel22 
Silver - Posts: 976
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Joined: August 23, 2003
Location: United States
Posted: November 12, 2003 at 1:29 PM / IP Logged  
i have never had my rockford amp shut off on me due to anything. if you mount it like reccomended by rockford it should not have problems cooling.
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Platinum - Posts: 5,352
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Joined: November 01, 2003
Location: Alberta, Canada
Posted: November 12, 2003 at 1:49 PM / IP Logged  
Any amplifier can shut off due to overheating or any other multitude of problems, no one brand is more immune than the other. An amplifier is designed to get hot. The ones that are immune to what you mentioned above are generally the ones that are installed, wired and matched together properly  and used properly for their dedicated tasks. If you are planning on having your front and rear speakers SCREAM at you, go with this big 4 channel amplifier, to properly power two aluminum 12" subs (SW8122.4 for a rockford amp) the amp to purchase is the 1001bd. As a multiple line dealer, the Rockford's are great price vs power, however if you are into sq, then consider something like the Eclipse, Xtant, Audison or Orion amplifiers, it is amazing how an amplifier can change the "flavour" of your sound. Post up some more info for people to give replies to, you will get some opinons tht are the same and some that are different, and for the die hard Rockford fan, there is nothing better.
Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.
specialblendj 
Copper - Posts: 118
Copper spacespace
Joined: September 03, 2003
Location: United States
Posted: November 12, 2003 at 3:38 PM / IP Logged  

SQ is my main concern, how can you tell if an amp has good SQ or not without hearing it in person?  And are there any good online places to go read comparisons and/or specs on a wide range of amps? 

I do want a lot of power going to the four speakers, basically cause the more power you have going to the speakers the harder the bass will hit from them, and that's one thing my speakers lack right now.  I know I'll get all the bass I need from the 12's, but I would like to have bass coming from all parts of my sound stage.  I'm amazed at how much more bass my friend gets from his speakers that me, and he only has 50 watts rms going to each, where I have about 27 with my alpine deck. 

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Posted: November 12, 2003 at 4:05 PM / IP Logged  

Glad to hear that you want to power things properly. Amplifiers make amps, a high current amplifier is your best choice to play something loud. Specs if you put the sheet to your ear, will never tell you how loud or how good a stereo will sound. Your friends 50w rms amp may have a whole pile more current to back it up as compared to the power from your alpine cd player. What you can ask for is opinions os a site like this and you'll get a pile of them (and some pissing contests as well lol, even they can be a learning experience though). Personally I would choose an amp built in the USA instead of a made in singakoreatiawanapore brand, my experience here is sound quality and overall power capabilities. Just because brand a and brand b have the same specs and are made in different places does not mean that they will sound or perform the same. I myself run Xtant amplifiers, another choice if they would have fit would be Diamond, then Eclipse. I am also a dealer for many other manufacturers, their product is great but the capabilities and performance that I wanted for my own system could not be offered.

A good bet is to pop into the local specialty car audio store and not the big box store. The big box guys have good product, some good knowledge and installers, but they are usually limited to this or that brand, they may not be able to offer you what you need, instead they will sell you what you want, the specialty guru may be able to offer a wider range of equipment, maybe even the same as the big box and generally is armed with much more info on what you need, not what you want. Trust this person to do it right, he has your best interests at heart.

Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.
specialblendj 
Copper - Posts: 118
Copper spacespace
Joined: September 03, 2003
Location: United States
Posted: November 12, 2003 at 6:50 PM / IP Logged  
OK so I checked out some Orion and Xtant amps online.  My only complaints so far are that the xtant amps are rated at 2% THD, so doesn't this mean that at .5% THD, which most fosgate amps are rated at, the xtant amp would really be putting out less power than it claims?  Also the largest xtant 4-channel amp that I saw was a 75watt RMS x 4.  I would really like to get a 100 watts rms to each speaker, since they can all handle that.   
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Joined: November 01, 2003
Location: Alberta, Canada
Posted: November 12, 2003 at 7:34 PM / IP Logged  
If you think that you'll ever hear a difference in this spec, well you'd probably be the first, I've seen bottom of the line gear over the years that had better specs and let me tell you they sounded like a$$. No the Xtant does not make less power than it claims, it actually probably makes more, just like everyone else. In general in order to get a difference off 3db (a noticable difference to you) you usually need to double the amplifier power. To go from 75w rms to 100w rms is usually not that drastic of a difference. The sound quality however between these two amplifiers and their capabilities are drastically different. Just because your speedometer reads up to 150mph does not mean you must do it. Yes you can have a big nasty amp, but your amplifier does not put out at 100% power all of the time. Ask for some more opinions on amplifiers and also have a look at Eclipse PA5422 and the big Diamond Audio amplifiers. All these companies are very well respected American amplifier manufacturers, they all have different capabilities and all sound different, these differences are something that the spec's can't tell you.
Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.

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