Audio Question for the Audio Experts

[A4Entity]

OK there is a story before my question. I used to drive a 04' A4 1.8 but now the rents drive it. Well.... it belonged to them before me. I co-signed with my dad and I drove it all the time. But now that my dad’s motorcycle was stolen and he needs a ride I gave it to him. In return they gave me 2k to put down towards another one so I will be getting one that's my own in the next couple of months. I have more then the 2k for a down payment. Now to the question....

I started buying all the stereo equipment before I gave up the car. I have two JL 12w6v2 with a JL 500/1 to power them. And 2 sets of Focal 165K2P's but I do not know what brand of amp to run them. Could I get some suggestions from the audio gods out there?

[sweettalker]

This question is not necessarily for audio experts at all. To power the inside components all you need is decent solid power. You can run the JL audio amps for the insides but I'm not a real big JL audio fan myself. PPI amps are good, and so are zapco and crossfire and avionixx. I personally have rockford fosgate in my car but that's because it was free haha. Good luck to ya.

[astris]

I had Rockford Fosgate amps in my old car and truck for years. Good amps, no problems. My absolute favorite is Audiobahn (check out the Audiobahn website ). There stuff is amazing for SLP competition, show, or in any ride. The wattage they claim is true (unlike other companies that overinflate watts to wow people). I highly recommend them. I ran one of their subs for a while. Awesome.

[bbaudi382]

some important questions for you first...

how much $$ are you willing to spend...
buy used or not?
how much onboard processing do you want on the amp.

[A4Entity]

So far on the subs and the amp to power the subs, I have come close to about 1k. The components were a gift from my friend for my b-day, so freebie. I prefer new product over used. I don't want to spend anything over the price of like $300 to $400 on the amp to power them. I was looking at a HiFonics Hifonics ZX6400 Zeus.

[bbaudi382]

sweettalker had some good suggestions. i would stay away from rockford because the quality of their stuff has dimishished GREATLY the past few years.

i would look into avionixx, orion, hifonics, phoenix gold...

also maybe elemental designs preorder of their new amp. they make some killer subs but have never made amps before. you could get a new amp on preorder.

advantages? very cheap price to pay for a supposedly good product.

disadvantages? u dont know when they're going to come and it might suck and have first run production problems.

[Krendor]

I agree with stay away from RF nowadays..

Zapco
ARC Audio
Helix
PPI
Xtant
Phoenix Gold
I'll leave the the almighty 'B' company to be mentioned by their biggest fan :)


I really like the idea of converting to balanced outs right out of the head unit for a much lower noise floor. hence I am going Zapco

I've heard bad things about the JL 500/1 regarding it's digital design adding noise to other parts of the system in a B6

[wombatt_0]

do you guys know anything about the new mb quart amps?

[sweettalker]

MB quart amps? Only MB Quart I would buy are the components..but those are too bright for my ears and they might make my ears bleed if I turn it up loud.

Rock fosgat. amps were decent back in the days but they are not up to par these days. Only bad thing is that fogate amps tend to heat up alot, my 4 chann amp (older model) gets extremely hot almost heatsoak and it has no fuses on the outside which could be a bad thing.

Whoever said Audiobahn is good quality amp knows NOTHING about car stereo. Audiobahn is made in Korea (not that it's a bad thing) and is a POS whether it be speakers or amps. You must have watched too much Pimp My Ride because that's all they talk about on there, the car having 10 THOUSAND watts...and 6 THOUSAND watts of pure power through your inside speakers.. yeah okay...Good grief. My father used to make stuff for car audio companies and Audiobahn would buy from him long ago in Korea and when he saw me with a Audiobahn keychain he laughed and threatened to disown me as a son if he ever saw me with another Audiobahn stuff haha.

[hyperspeed]

LOL yeah dude audiobahn is pretty crappy

[bbaudi382]

i have to agree. i've heard audiobahns stuff and i'm not a fan. there are much better buys out there IMO.

the mbquart amps are new arent they? its the same type of thing...it might be great but it might suck, especially in the first production run. i would give it a while for them to work out the kinks if any show up.

i agree with the mbquartz being too bright for my tastes...especially in audis where the tweet is pointed right at your ear. people who like mbquartz usually hear them in kicks where the tweet is on the floor, not on the door pointed at your ear.

[bbaudi382]

Originally posted by sweettalker
My father used to make stuff for car audio companies and Audiobahn would buy from him long ago in Korea and when he saw me with a Audiobahn keychain he laughed and threatened to disown me as a son if he ever saw me with another Audiobahn stuff haha.

LOL that's freakin sad hahahaha

[ungucpho]

you could go with a JL 300/4 to match up the amps. if you want to try a smaller company & depending on your budget, you could try tru technology

http://www.trutechnology.com/t_v2_series.htm
http://www.trutechnology.com/to3_series.htm