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What amp to get


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oxygen65 
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Posted: October 10, 2006 at 12:44 AM / IP Logged  
im looking at gettin a whole new set up in my car and right now im looking at 3 13w6v2's and either a massive audio p3000.1 amp or a earthquake PHD5000. the question i have is what amp is going to be better. the system is going to run at 3 ohms so im not gonna need all the power from either one of the amp. i havent really heard of massive audio so i dont really kno if it is a good product. i kno earthquake is a preaty good name in car audio. im also wondering is are they really gonna put out as much power as they say they are. i looked on both websites and they both say they are cea compliant but im still not sure if they will put out the actual numbers they say they will. can anyone help me out here?
master5 
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Posted: October 10, 2006 at 1:45 AM / IP Logged  
I will answer as best I can without being partial or basing anything on my personal opinion of products. If the amps are CEA compliant the specs are supposed to be true. You state you are running at 3 ohms. Regardless of what brand equipment you are using what you need to know is how much RMS power the amp will be delivering at 3 ohms. Divide that power by 3 since thats how many subs you are using. If it is within the power handling of the sub it should work fine. As a good rule of thumb it is better to overpower then underpower, within reason of course. Too little power will cause distortion and burn out the voice coils. Overpower within reason will produce "clean" power and leave some "headroom". You can always lower the gain in the worst case if you notice the cone is ready to jump out of the basket but can never compensate for underpowering by cranking the gains. However, if you go way overboard with power expect physical damage to the speaker. Good Luck.
oxygen65 
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Posted: October 10, 2006 at 9:57 AM / IP Logged  
ok well i kno preaty much everything you just said but anyways, i was more or less asking about the two companies and how good they are. that really all i wanted to know. so if anyone could tell me a little bit about massive audio and earthquake amps.
supradude 
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Posted: October 10, 2006 at 10:04 AM / IP Logged  
I can tell you that neither of these are true power RMS. They might claim they are but they're not. Same with Hifonics. I've got Hifonics and like their amps (for the price they cost) but if you ask them they will say their 2000 watt amp does 2000 watts, when it will actually do around 1400 RMS. To get a amp that really does you'll need to look at US Amps and companies that charge a LOT more for their amps. Earthquake and MA Audio won't do it.
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DYohn 
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Posted: October 10, 2006 at 10:38 AM / IP Logged  
Of the two companies you mention, IMO Earthquake is the better brand.
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kicker guy 
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Posted: October 10, 2006 at 12:09 PM / IP Logged  
Yea out of those 2 id have to agree with DYohn and say earthquake
master5 
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Posted: October 10, 2006 at 10:07 PM / IP Logged  

Supradude, I thought "CEA compliant" meant they had to give honest power ratings, at least thats what I was told. But personally I never believe power ratings anyhow, especially on low-mid level products. In all actuality an amplifier is not supposed to alter the sound, just amplify it so besides reliability I don't think there is a major difference between one amp and another, power output being equal or close to it. Basically the "best" amp to use in this case would be the most powerful one you can afford at the flea market. Don't run it below it's ohm rating and expect weeks of nice bass before it needs replacment. Kidding aside, I have been installing for many ,many years and have seen some lower end amps pound and last forever but as with any electronics it's a gamble so try to get a good warranty, thats your only defense. Good Luck

coppellstereo 
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Posted: October 10, 2006 at 10:29 PM / IP Logged  
These are great woofers - what type of music do you listen to? What type of box?
Maybe you could go with 2 woofers and save money and buy a different amp?
aznboi3644 
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Posted: October 10, 2006 at 11:25 PM / IP Logged  
master5 wrote:
Too little power will cause distortion and burn out the voice coils.
I thought the ruling was that it is impossible to damage a woofer by underpowering it??
master5 
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Posted: October 10, 2006 at 11:43 PM / IP Logged  
Nope. Most woofers are damaged by underpowering, I see it all the time, everyday. If you don't believe me ask ANY experienced installer and they will verify. Without getting too lengthy or technical I will explain this in a nut shell. Lets say your woofer as an average power rating of 500watts. You go on ebay and win a 20 dollar bid for a "Kenpine" amp which says "1000 watts" on it. However its average output is more realistically 100watts, if your lucky. Now as the sub wants alot more power and you want to hear boom and disturb the neighbors and intimidate the 80 year old lady in the car next to you the logical thing is to crank the volume. Since the amp does not have enough power to do what you want it is being overdriven into ungodly distortion levels, which you may not even notice since the bandpass box is hiding some and it is in the trunk. That distortion wreaks HAVOC on the voice coil, I don't care if its a W7 or a pyle, it will stop playing one day and you will blame everything and everyone but no matter how many times you replace the woofer... it blows. Good advice in that case...get an amp that can supply gobs of CLEAN power to the woofer and all is well. Keep in mind that slight overpowering is usually not an issue but go overboard and thats when you see things like the voice coil come out of its home and tears the spider assembly, or ripped cones etc. Like my mom always told me...."anything is ok in moderation"
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