I'm looking to get a component set for my fronts soon and I'm looking for something with good acoustic characteristics. The best quality stuff I've played with is Alpine Type-X's, Infinity Perfect's, and Diamond D6's. My amp pushes 98w per channel @ 4 ohms. I'd like to stay around the $200 price range (online prices, that is, so upwards of $350 or so retail). I want something that has great sq with good spl to keep up with my Type-R sub.
For me, those brands are staples around here, and so that's all I've had experience with so far.
98 watts isn't much for a decent "high-end" set of components honestly. a lot of them are going to be wanting double that. hell, with 98 watts going to a nice set of comps you will want to be really careful with your gains and volume as you might want them louder, and by turning them up louder with that small amount of power, you will be distorting them quite easily.. BUT, I have been straying from the audio world so there might be some new stuff I haven't heard, or haven't seen.... I say look into CDT and Boston Acoustic. Sorry I can't give very many detailed recomendations, but I have just been out of the loop for a while.
On the other hand....you have other fingers.
In my family we teach that boys have a God-stick and girls have a Shame Cave. -John Stewart
That amp may end up running my sub instead for a short time, as I plan on replacing my sub amp soon; I may just buy a higher-output 2 channel to run the comps for now.
I took a look at those brands; what do you think of the CDT CL-6.25 and the BA SL-60? For what I'm wanting, it almost seems like my budget isn't high enough. What do you think of the Diamond Hex S600 in comparison to those two sets?
I have had good experience with CDT. their tweeters, i love. their woofers do their job nicely as well. For the price, their classic seriese is damn good. I haven't personally heard that exact set of BA components, but they do make quality stuff and I have a hard time believing that anyone would be disapointed. Whatever you do, I would personally look at a 2 channel amp that will give each channel around 150-200 watts @ 4 ohms. Call it personal preference, or call it being smart, but I ALWAYS want my amp to have headroom over what the speakers are listed as being able to handle. You will get full potential out of having too much power and knowing how to tune. Having less power makes most people compensate with gain and volume, and ruining good speakers and then blaming the speakers for being crappy, or not getting loud enough.
On the other hand....you have other fingers.
In my family we teach that boys have a God-stick and girls have a Shame Cave. -John Stewart
I'm not worried about tuning my system, so I'm set there. Now on to amps...I currently have a RF 500a2 running my sub which hates the arizona heat, and there's a RF 450.4 sitting around that pushes 532x1 @ 2, so I'll drop that to my sub when I rebuild my box (which will be really soon). Here's the next question...what two channel amp? I'm a big fan of Alpine, and I want a good quality amp for a decent price. Again, what kind of brands/lines am I looking at here? Again around $200. I want it to be clean to match the comps. When it comes to amps I'm not as experienced.
fr around $200 and being able to push a good amount of power to some components, i would go to www.woofersetc.com and check out Cadence. WoofersEtc is now a certified distributor for Cadence and their ZRS and TRX amps are damn good for their prices. I would stay away from the lower end FX stuff. But Cadence is a good place to look for a decent amp.
and what do you mean you are not worried about tuning? and also "clean to match the comps" for the most part, especially when you are talking budget stuff and not competition stuff, power is power if you have enough clean power, there isn't going to be an audible difference between a 150 watt 200$ amp and a 150 watt $700 amp...
You seem like you ask for help, then say things like "im not as experienced with amps" and "im not worried about tuning" which sound quite like you are trying to say you know everything, but are still trying to get advice, and to me, trying to help a little bit, it is kind of disrespectful.
On the other hand....you have other fingers.
In my family we teach that boys have a God-stick and girls have a Shame Cave. -John Stewart
I'm sorry, I did not mean any disrespect. I appreciate your input very much and I respect it greatly because of your evident knowledge and experience based upon your posts.
What I meant by the tuning comment is that I know how to tune a stereo system (no expert, but I don't break @!#$ and it sounds decent). And what I meant by the amps comment is that I don't have a great amount of experience with amps outside of mainstream brands (rf, alpine, inifinity, diamond, mtx, stuff like that). I guess what I'm trying to say is I'd like to expand my knowledge of different brands (especially first-hand knowledge) and their quality, in all respects (amps, speakers, subs, eventually signal processors). I'm trying to take what I know to the next level, and along with it my system.
Well as far as first hand experience with amps that perform well, put out rated power, and last , this is a half decent list... ALSO, before I make this list, realize I have been veering away from this hobby in the last year or so, and you would be surprised how far a company can go in that amount of time. Be it a @!#$ brand making good stuff now, or a great brand making crap now.
-RF might not have the best price/performance ratio, but they make damn solid amps that definitely give you the power they claim.
-Alpine's higher end amps have always been decent, but again, not the best price for the budget minded buyer.
-The ZRS and TRX amps from Cadence are definitely going to give you every ounce of performance their price reflects. GREAT bang for the buck. I like the look of the ZRS amps more, and they are supposed to be slightly higher end than the TRX amps, but the TRX amps are almost ALWAYS going for great prices.
-Last time I checked Orion also had some great performing amps for good prices.
-Much higher price bracket, but JL amps are also another brand that you can't go wrong with.
-Elemental Designs is another great one, priced similarly to the ZRS amps from Cadence, look good, perform great, and are solidly built.
Also, look into factory refurbs if you really want to get a deal. You can find tons of good deals on those. If they are factory refurbed that almost always means they replaced the innards and are basically getting a new amp in a used case. Some of the time, the bad part is easily replaced, so the entire assembly isn't replaced, but the bad part is. They aren't going to say "lets just clean this, or rewind this, and it will work" if there is a bad part, it gets completely replaced.
On the other hand....you have other fingers.
In my family we teach that boys have a God-stick and girls have a Shame Cave. -John Stewart
Thank you for that list...I've never heard of ED or Cadence til this thread, but they seem to be amazing values. From ED I found their NINE.2X, which seems to put out awesome power (2x200 @ 4ohms) for only $220 from their site. And from Cadence, their ZRS-1502 (2x150 @ 4ohms) for $250 from WoofersEtc. RF has their P550.2 (2x150 @ 4ohms and matches my other amp) on WoofersEtc for $210. Now my question would be which is the best of the three? The ED puts out more power, the Rockford is the cheapest, and the Cadence has a phase control.
Alpine, Orion and JL are simply outside of the budget for right now. I'm gonna continue shopping around while I decide, but I'm seriously leaning towards the ED just based on the "bang for your buck" value. I don't actually have the money to spend on an amp right now, but I'm gonna do it anyways cause if I wait, I'll never get it
Typo there, the ED is $250 from their site, not $220...
Out of those 3, I would go Cadence or ED. simply because you are buying Ed directly from them(obviously no need to be a certified retailer), and because Woofersetc. is a certified retailer for Cadence. They are not a certified retailer for RF, so factory warranties dont count, only woofersetc's warranty
On the other hand....you have other fingers.
In my family we teach that boys have a God-stick and girls have a Shame Cave. -John Stewart
Awesome. Do you know of a place to get factory refurbs of either of those brands? And is there another authorized internet retailer for either of them?
ED is going to be something you are only going to get directly from them. I dunno about refurbs. Do this.. E-Mail Jason@cadencesound.com and tell him the amp you are looking into, and let him know who referred you to him. Ask him if he would prefer you order directly through him or if it is just the same to go through woofersetc.
On the other hand....you have other fingers.
In my family we teach that boys have a God-stick and girls have a Shame Cave. -John Stewart
Thanks for that, I'll email him in a bit and figure it out. I'm still undecided between ED and Cadence, so what he says may be the deciding factor. Thanks for all your help man, I'll be sure to update this when I finally make my choice.
I've now run into a snag in my plans...my sub amp is pissing me the hell off; it's getting replaced, end of story, don't ask.
I now have a RF P450.4 that will put out just shy of 200w x 2 at 4 ohms, so that's my new "2-channel" if you will to drive my components. I now instead of needing a 2 channel amp need a mono block that pushes 600-900w at 2 ohms...I have a single 10" 4ohm dvc type-r in a newly built 2 cubes ported box. I would like to upgrade in the future to two 10" r's in a sealed f/b box, but I'm not sure I want to grab an amp that will push 1000w+ and put it to one. The budget is still $250, and the ideal situation is an amp that does 1200w at 1 ohm, and 600w at 2 ohm. Again, model and brand selection is where i could use some advice.
What about the JL T1000.1, it fits the profile (750 at 2, 1000 at 1ohm), and i've found it in the price range...
