100% quality sound wanted
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New member Username: MetrathonPost Number: 1 Registered: Aug-06 | Hi guys. I want to get an amp, in maximum $250. Of course I want some power, but my heart goes to sound quality. 4x25 it will be enough, if the quality is there. I know what good sound means at home, I have no clue in the car. So the questions is: what amp in $250 do you recommend for the best sound quality? Thank you in advance |
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Gold Member Username: Alias747MN Post Number: 1184 Registered: Apr-05 | What speakers are you going to be hooking up to this amp? You can have the best amp in the world but hook it up to stock speakers you are not going to hear much of a difference. Give us your price range on speakers and we can help you out. |
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New member Username: MetrathonPost Number: 2 Registered: Aug-06 | I already bought a blaupunkt 1200 sub, box with 2 speakers. That will stay in the trunk. Then, I need to replace the 6 speakers the car has in stock. 2 highs in the dash, 2 speakers in the front doors and another 2 in the rear doors. For these 6 speakers, I would spend up to $300. Again, I'm not interested in blowing off the roof. I need good quality - as good as I can have in this budget. Thanx for helping out. |
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Silver Member Username: Van_manBoston South, MA Post Number: 818 Registered: Mar-06 | Speaker amp http://cgi.ebay.com/ZAPCO-360-4-AMPLIFIER-NEW-IN-BOX_W0QQitemZ130016806390QQihZ0 03QQcategoryZ4950QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem For speakers, look into Rainbow, Morel, CDT, and check some elite audio forums for other highend selections. |
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New member Username: MetrathonPost Number: 3 Registered: Aug-06 | I've never heard about these brands. I'll look into it, research cannot harm. My question though, is was about the amp. Any quality sound amps out there in the $250? |
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Gold Member Username: JuliobSanto DomingoDominican Re... Post Number: 1877 Registered: Dec-05 | Old PPI |
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Bronze Member Username: MendonmafiaMendon, Ny Usa Post Number: 51 Registered: Aug-06 | if you want quality i think you should get a different sub i hear bad things about blaupunkt |
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Gold Member Username: IlluminatorUSA Post Number: 4144 Registered: Apr-05 | Yeah, I'm with Juliob...the PPI PC and Art series posess stunning sound quality and they are extremely affordable via ebay! |
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Gold Member Username: JuliobSanto DomingoDominican Re... Post Number: 1896 Registered: Dec-05 | hm... earning some reputation hehe lol! |
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Silver Member Username: N2audioLawrence, Ks USA Post Number: 960 Registered: Mar-04 | If SQ is your goal and you have something less than an astronomical budget - don't make your amp a priority. Speakers are by far the key, preceeded only by the attention given to installation. For amps, just get something from a respectable brand that you know will give you enough power to make your speakers happy. Alpine, RF, Kicker...just as much "SQ" as the elite amps, just not the price tag. |
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Gold Member Username: IlluminatorUSA Post Number: 4174 Registered: Apr-05 | ^Very true, but I've seen many PPI amps sell for less than Alpine, Kicker, RF etc. equivalents(and I jumped in on some of them :P). |
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New member Username: MetrathonPost Number: 4 Registered: Aug-06 | Indeed, I was going towards an Alpine amp. I've seen this http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=16956 or this http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=14928. I'm not sure the price difference makes sense. What do you guys think? |
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Gold Member Username: JuliobSanto DomingoDominican Re... Post Number: 1909 Registered: Dec-05 | they're both good |
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Gold Member Username: IlluminatorUSA Post Number: 4191 Registered: Apr-05 | You're not the first one to bring up that comparison. One has more useless 'goodies' on it than the other. I'd go with the cheaper one if I had a choice. |
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Gold Member Username: JuliobSanto DomingoDominican Re... Post Number: 1913 Registered: Dec-05 | but seriously... check ebay for one of those PPIs hehehehe |
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New member Username: MetrathonPost Number: 5 Registered: Aug-06 | I think I'll do the same, I'll get the cheaper one. As a general thought, I have the impression that in order to get the same quality in your car that you wold get from a $500 system in your house, you need to pay at least double. And this is sad. I have home a pair of studio monitors (speakers) hooked to a regular Yamaha receiver and they give a very nice, clean sound. Flat and true. I'm afraid I'll never get the same quality in the car, not even for a $1,000 budget. |
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New member Username: MetrathonPost Number: 6 Registered: Aug-06 | The only "problem" I have with the PPIs is the number of channels. I'm a begginer in the car stereo field, but I think the more channels you have, the more flexibility it gives you. I was thinking to bridge 2 channels and send them in the sub, to send one channel in the back doors and the last to send it in the front doors + pillars. Is this stupid? |
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Gold Member Username: JuliobSanto DomingoDominican Re... Post Number: 1915 Registered: Dec-05 | is not stupid but is not the best to do... what subs r you planning to run?? and what components r you going to run??? if you're on budget i'd check infinity comps or PG comps, a lil SQ system would be AA polymids 6.5 midbass AA Assassin (10 or 12 inches)sub infinity reference components 4 channel amp (the one you want)for comps/midbass or even a 2 channel... 1 PG gold xenon 400.1 amp for sub... That would be a great SQ setup for the money... my 2 cents... |
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New member Username: MetrathonPost Number: 7 Registered: Aug-06 | So you suggest I should get a sepparate amp for the sub. Hm, as I said before, I'm not looking to blow the roof of my car. I'm pretty "old", I'm nor looking so much for powerful sound as for quality. I already got a Blaupunkt PCb1200 subwoofer http://www.blaupunkt.com/us/7606200292_main.asp I'm looking for an amp (I don't have the budget for two) and for the best speakers I can get in $300. Your help is appreciated a lot. |
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Gold Member Username: IlluminatorUSA Post Number: 4196 Registered: Apr-05 | I would actually tend to think the opposite, really. Though certainly the noise introduced in a car makes it less desirable to listen to music in as opposed to the home(so in a way it's comparing apples to oranges). However, some of the best speakers aren't more than $500 for a pair, whereas in home audio one can easily spend 1k for nice speakers(though, again, they really can't be compared). The most amazing part is the most expensive head unit I have seen is the Alpine F#1. It is around 3k. However, I have seen 50k Krell pre-amps! To be honest, it's a weird thing to debate over, and I'm glad you brought it up. To put it simply: the amount of money one can spend on a home audio system can easily exceed what one could ever hope to spend on a car audio system (from a pure sound quality perspective). I think the biggest reason why car audio seems so much more expensive than your Yamaha system is because, well, there's less space. So it has to be broken down into components like mid frequency woofers, tweeters, a head unit, and even an amp and subwoofer to get the same fidelity. Not to mention needing external amplifiers because there isn't enough room in the dash for a bigger amp in the head unit. Your yamaha system has adequate space for a large, nice amplifier built directly into the receiver, as well as the space for the speakers to house all the necessary drivers with a good amount of air volume for whatever flexibility is deemed desirable by the manufacturer. Anyway, back to you finding an amp, this PPI might have been a good alternative to the Alpine...if you keep checking ebay, I wouldn't be surprised if another PC450 came up: http://cgi.ebay.com/PC450-PRECISION-POWER-PPI-PC-450-NR-MINT_W0QQitemZ2600209175 02QQihZ016QQcategoryZ18796QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem |
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Gold Member Username: JuliobSanto DomingoDominican Re... Post Number: 1920 Registered: Dec-05 | you're not going to blow your car hehe, it's better to run a class D amp for subs cuz they're more efficient... plus you can run your 4 channel cooler... what you really need is a 4 channel that puts 100w rms at 4 ohms per channel or a lil more... infinity reference components are very nice when it comes to SQ and they're cheap on ebay... for less than 130$ |
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Gold Member Username: Dustin3Tigard, OR U.S. Post Number: 3077 Registered: Oct-05 | jexx, go to networking |
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New member Username: MetrathonPost Number: 8 Registered: Aug-06 | I heard Infinity's have harsh highs. Is that true? I like more mild highs, silk like. |
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Gold Member Username: JuliobSanto DomingoDominican Re... Post Number: 1921 Registered: Dec-05 | well... that might be true... do you have a local audio shop? see if you can hear some components cuz when it comes to voice you really need to hear the components... they can sound soft or harsh and that's something personal.... in that case i'd look Mb Quart See if you can talk to Rovin or drivingreckless... |
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Gold Member Username: IlluminatorUSA Post Number: 4197 Registered: Apr-05 | Didn't see your last post! I was busy typing up my last one  It sounds now like a six channel amp would be ideal, use two channels for the fronts, two for the rear, and bridge the remaining two for the subwoofer: http://cgi.ebay.com/PPI-Precision-Power-pc650-6-channel-power-class-650-amp_W0QQ itemZ260022008779QQihZ016QQcategoryZ4950QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem However, you might not want rear speakers. As you have mentioned from your Yamaha setup, rear speakers are intuitively unnecessary, from a pure concert perspective, the sound is produced in front of you and not behind you. And if you're worried about passengers in the rear not hearing the sound, it's not entirely true, in fact, I have my own car running no rear speakers and my passengers are always remarkably surprised by it because they swear that it sounds like I have them! If you have an elongated car, however, then it is perfectly understandable. |
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New member Username: MetrathonPost Number: 9 Registered: Aug-06 | Ok, so it sound like everybody recommends the same: 2 amps. One for the sub (class D), one for the rest of the speakers (A/B, 4 channels). Other questions arise then: - Won't the 2 amps drain my battery in 5 mins? - Do I need high quality amp for the sub or it doesn't matter so much? I mean, the subs need to be pushed and that's mostly all, right? |
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Gold Member Username: IlluminatorUSA Post Number: 4200 Registered: Apr-05 | And it's true, Infinities do have more 'detailed' highs as I like to call them (I have a preference for brighter sounding speakers that others claim are harsh). Go with Juliobs suggestion... |
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Gold Member Username: JuliobSanto DomingoDominican Re... Post Number: 1923 Registered: Dec-05 | hmm... earning some good reputation again lol! hehe.... metrathon.. check your alternator one day and tell us the amount of amperes it can produce ok? that way we can make some calculations about your system |
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Gold Member Username: IlluminatorUSA Post Number: 4203 Registered: Apr-05 | If he does decide to go with the PPI six channel I linked above(or similar), his stock system should be enough, but yeah, always good to check, heh. |
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New member Username: MetrathonPost Number: 10 Registered: Aug-06 | Jexx, I cannot see your link. It's empty space. Can you repost pls? Thanx. In order to avoid spending some more on the stock electric of the car, I would go with just one amp. Either PPI 4-6x or Alpine 4x (I don't think they have a 6x). |
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Gold Member Username: IlluminatorUSA Post Number: 4206 Registered: Apr-05 | http://cgi.ebay.com/PPI-Precision-Power-pc650-6-channel-power-class-650-amp_W0QQ itemZ260022008779QQihZ016QQcategoryZ4950QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem If that doesn't work, just go to ebay, and copy/paste this number into the search field: 260022008779 and hit enter. |
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Bronze Member Username: MetrathonPost Number: 11 Registered: Aug-06 | OMG! It's hugeee I'll check out some reviews about this bad boy. I'll come back later with more questions, for sure. Thanx for all the interest and help. |
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Gold Member Username: IlluminatorUSA Post Number: 4210 Registered: Apr-05 | This might help with your research: http://www.audioreview.com/cat/carreview/car-audio/amplifiers/precision-po wer/PRD_3887_1806crx.aspx#reviews The amp is from the PPI PC series, the last best series of PPI before they were sold out to Directed Electronics (after which PPI was moved overseas and their build quality went out the door). |
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Gold Member Username: JuliobSanto DomingoDominican Re... Post Number: 1930 Registered: Dec-05 | PC series/art series and even the PCX were solid amps, they're not bad nowadays but their quality is not what it used to be.... |
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Silver Member Username: Crayola0Wisconsin Post Number: 597 Registered: Jun-06 | Why not some JL stuff. |
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Gold Member Username: IlluminatorUSA Post Number: 4229 Registered: Apr-05 | JL is pricey. |
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Gold Member Username: JuliobSanto DomingoDominican Re... Post Number: 1951 Registered: Dec-05 | too damn pricey for what it does... |
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