Amplifier upgrade

[OC Rider]

I?m very novice when It comes to stereo equipment so your help is appreciated. I have a 20' Bluewater open bow and i looking at upgrading my stereo system. I?m looking at adding an amp on my boat to run 4 speakers. I currently have a Sony Xplode head unit pushing 2 Kenwood 6 x 9 and 2 Pioneer 5 ?. I have a separate Fosgate amp and sub but need an amp for the highs. I found a shop that will sell me a Rockford Fosgate Prime R300.4 for $145 or an Alpine Vpower MRP F300 for $150. Which amp do you recommend or is there another amp i should be looking at? Are these amp powerfull enough or do you recomend i hold off until i can afford something more expensive?

 

[slia67]

Re: Amplifier upgrade

What size amp are you running with your sub? How loud do you like your music?

 

[OC Rider]

Re: Amplifier upgrade

slia67,
I believe the amp I currently have for the sub is a 200 or 300 watt amp. Unfortunately I don't have the boat with me to look at this information, I store it at my parents. When I purchased the amp and sub it was a package deal so i'm guessing they are made for each other. I like to listen to my music loud but also with quality.

 

[chrclo]

Re: Amplifier upgrade

For me either amp you mentioned sounds like a good fit. Both brands are of good quality and have more than enough power for the 4 speakers. I have also been very satisfied with Kicker equipment. The amp will add some volume for you but you will notice a big difference in sound quality. Good luck.

 

[slia67]

Re: Amplifier upgrade

The reason I ask about the power of the sub amp is because I like to match the combined output of my speakers to the output of my sub amp (as a general rule of thumb).


I agree with chrclo you would be fine with either amp, but I am partial to Alpine products. The Alpine also has pre-amp outputs if you ever wanted to daisy-chain another amp due to lack of outputs from your head unit.

Since you are adding the new amp I would also encourage you to run new power and ground wires with distribution blocks, and rewire your HU and sub amp to those new distribution blocks. That should eliminate your speakers cutting out as you mentioned in another thread.

Hope this helps.

 

[OC Rider]

Re: Amplifier upgrade

I looked at my setup, the headunit is pushing two 6x9 kenwoods kfc-6980ie which are 450 watt max and 90 watts rms, i don't know the watts of the two Pioneer 5 1/4. The amp i currently have pushing the sub is a fosgate RF2002 and the sub is also a fosgate P1. Will the amps i'm looking at have enough power since they are 50 watts RMS x 4 and two of 6x9 are 90 watts RMS?

 

[Fl_Richard]

Re: Amplifier upgrade

Yes! - They have plenty of power. Read this for a good explanation of how the power stuff all works. --- http://www.carstereo.com/rayfes/power.cfm

Essentially it takes lots of power to get a little louder - 3db requires TWO TIMES the power. 120db is a jet landing -- This explains the db concept well. http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/2004-About-dB/ ((Read "Perception of Loudness" interesting))

Any thing is sooo much better than the internal Sony Xploded amplifier. You'll be pleased with either.

Personally I would get this -- http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-MB-QUART-NA...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item45ef55562d


or this -- http://cgi.ebay.com/JBL-MA6004-4-CH...ewItemQQptZCar_Amplifiers?hash=item20ae394c67

But I don't play at ear splitting levels