Hi Guys,

Newbie here so be gentle . I'm currently in the process of buying some new amps and would like some recommendations as its been a while since i've gone shopping for audio gear. I'm very much a Boston fan however i'm a little disappointed at the specs and pricing of the GT range of amps, so i'm considering something like a Rockford T series amp. I also read on the forum that Focal have a range of amps - are these available in Aus yet?

Therefore my question is which of these amps would be best considering i'm after well balanced sound? SPL isn't a real concern. I'm more than willing to spend $$ on some decent amps but i would also expect some sort of acceptable value for money. Details are:

Car: EF Fairmont
HU: Alpine CDM-7857RB (This shows how long i've been out of the game!)
Fronts: Boston Rally 5.25" Splits (didn't want to cut bigger holes in the doors)
Rears: Boston 6.5" RX67 Co-Axials
Amp: Blaupunkt (i know - this was only supposed to be temporary)
Sub: Will be a single 12" dual voice coil (4ohm) Boston G5

Any help wopuld be much appreciated!

Cheers,
Anthony

I have a Focal 5 channel and also a couple of T series Rockfords sitting in front of me...both are awesome amplifiers and it would be hard to pick between the two...the power series of Rockford amps have always been fantastic amps and since they have dropped in price they are going to give a lot of other amp manufacturers a run for their money...they have always been great amps but they were priced accordingly, as for the Focal only had it here a week but since when do Focal release a dud?

What do you want from your amp???


Sound quality?? SPL?? Both?

the Focal Amps will be Excellent SQ,
Very similar, equal or better would be Soundstream References.
Rockford also make very good high end amps.

There is alot of other gear out there too, but the reality is, it's very hard to know whats going to be good,
and whats just a copy of a cheaper amplifier with a fancy name and price.

I've heard quite a few bostons now, I'm hoping that the ones I heard just where setup wrong,
cause i couldn't find anything exciting about them.

there is lots of brands to consider.
an idea of what your trying to achieve with what money would be good.

If your talking focal, I believe your talking in the $1-2k area +

Juls

I think it's probably best to look at your cash, car and sound needs first.

Have a look at what you need your amps to be able to do; How many amplifier channels will you need? What power will each channel need to have?
Will they need to have built in crossovers, etc?
Then, work out what room you have to mount them and any other gear that you're putting in too.

Then, you can spend your hard earned wisely knowing your new amps will fit in.

the focal amps, all beside the hard core top end one are in and aound 900 dollars,

cant say how they sound though as to me amps dont sound, they take one chicken and turn it into many chickens, but others will disagree, so i wont go there...


what i look for in an amp, is

a) build quality
b) power
c) how well it cools it self
d) crossover and features

go the rockford IMO

for better SQ, I'd avoid the Mosfet amps and go for Bi-polar.
Used to have Bi-polars and the new Mosfet are just a little harsh, not so sweet-sounding. Sounds mad, but if I can hear it then to me its real.

I'm budgeting around the $2K mark for the amps alone - I figure for this amount of coin I will be able to buy something above average but not completely over the top.
In terms of sound needs i want the whole system to sound as good as it can without going to extremes. I've got big plans for the drivetrain over the next couple of years so theres no point spending rediculous amounts of time and money relocating tweeters and the like to achieve perfect sound quality when you won't be able to hear it over the exhaust of a cammed V8 and the whine of a blower anyways



I basically want reliable power and some degree of 'future proofing' from my amps. If in two years time i decide to fit another sub the mono-block should ideally be able to handle it. I've been told that the new Alpine PDX amps are quite gruntly little b**tards so I'm currently looking at their 4-channel and mono-block amps. The 4-channel produces 150w rms@4Ohm per channel and the mono-block 1000w rms@4Ohm, both are measured at 14.4v. Any thoughts/feedback on these?

In regards to the channels required, i suppose that comes down to the power produced by the amp. I.e. maybe it makes more sense to buy a high powered 2-channel to power the splits and a 4-channel to run the rear speakers and sub (bridged obviously). Ideally i'd also like to stick to two amps. I believe some people don't run rear speakers at all, opting for a front stage set-up however i want to run my rears off an amp. To me rear fill is a must - I just don't feel that a system sounds right without it.

To be honest i've never seen amps without built in crossovers - what are the pros and cons of this?

The car is an EF Fairmont so theres heaps of space to fit the system and alot more in the boot Having said that i also want it to remain slightly practical as well so i want to have the ability to remove the sub if required. This is also one of the reasons why i don't want to go for a full show set-up with perspex, fake floors etc etc.