Results 1 to 10 of 12

Hybrid View

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Minneapolis, MN
    Posts
    386

    Default What amps for your tower?

    What amps are you guys running to power your tower speakers? I know a lot of guys are just running the OEM set up which I believe is a Kicker amp.

    What are you non-OEM guys running?

    I've got the Fusion P-series pods that were blown out on E-Bay a few weeks back. The recommendation is 275w RMS per pod.. DAMN! That's a TON of power. I'm 100% sure that I will underpower these as I can't really afford to buy that much power..

    What amps are you guys running? Is anyone running a non-marine grade amp on their set up successfully? I'm wondering if running 75 x 2 RMS @ 4 ohms is even WORTH buying.. I'm trying to avoid buying a seperate amp for my sub and towers. I was hoping to buy a 4 channel and use 2 channels for the tower and bridge one to my 12" sub but with the power recommendation on these Fusions, I'm thinking I may have to get a big 2 channel to power them and find a mono for my sub.. (Yuck - more $$, more wiring, more mess)
    Sold my Moomba. Currently boat whoring.

    Set Ups - 09 CWB Transcend Platinum w/ 09 Ronix Cells (his) and 08 Liquid Force Angel w/ 08 Alloys (hers)

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Durham, NC
    Posts
    649

    Default

    I wouldn't even bother with the 75x4 amp. I have the double barrel Monster cans with the Polk db650's running off a Rockford Fosgate Punch P400-2. I am running it at 2 ohms and it is pushing 200w to each "pod" (pair of speakers). It is pretty loud and you can hear it at 75 feet, but for the people in the boat, their ears are bleeding.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Des Moines, IA
    Posts
    3,237

    Default

    Yeah the 75x4 isn't close to enough unfortunately. 150 rms would be the lowest I'd even try. I have these speakers too and plan to pick up a bigger amp soon. I'll let you know what I find.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Chester, SC
    Posts
    169

    Default

    I run kicker non marine amps and get great performance. Marine grade is a rip off. The only thing on the boat that is marine grade is the wet sound tower speakers.

    I run an 850.2 kicker for the wet sounds and a sub, to an alpine head unit. One channel comes from the sub out on the head and one comes from the pre out on the head unit.

    I have my cabin speakers on an amp as well, and they are turned down to allow my sub to punch out well. For my towers I have a rotary volume knob that connects inline via RCA. That way I can run my sub and not have my tower speakers on, or in other words, while my sub is playing, I can control the volume to the tower speakers.

    Setup works well for lack of a better option, or in my case lack of wanting to spend the extra dollas to buy a sub amp. The sub is playing near full range, but the head unit does a good job at limiting the frequencies that channel through the sub out.


    Any marine grade amp will fry if it gets splashed, just the same as any non marine amp. If you want to make one that can sustain water you can take it apart and put a silicon coating on it yourself.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Jacksonville FL
    Posts
    42

    Default

    I used to run all marine grade stuff in my boat. I had 2 marine JL audio amps, marine sub, marine head-unit and speakers and had nothing but problems with them.

    The sub I had was a Marine rockford fosgate 10" that was directly behind the drivers seat drilled into that small fiberglass section between the driver and the backrest for the seat behind the driver. The first one I had blew within 2 months and the next one blew within 1 1/2 months.

    Since then they installed all NON-marine parts except for the tower speakers and speaker around the boat. Headunit, amp, and sub (that is in open air) are all non-marine and I have not had a problem since!! It has even rained on the non-marine sub, I was stressing about that though, and it still work perfectly.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Vancouver, WA
    Posts
    5,456

    Default

    Lesson learned - it is better to overpower your speakers than under power them. That seemed like backwards logic to me at first but that's what you're supposed to do...

    I am running 4 Polk MM 6.5" tower speakers (2 Liquid Audio doubles) at 2ohm on a Kicker Zx350.2. The amp puts out 175watts to each set of doubles however the little tag on the amp certification said it is putting out 198 per channel. The speakers are rated for 100watts RMS each so you at least want to match that if not go over a little.

    I should have done the same setup in my cabin but am running a Kicker ZX 350.4 to the 4 cabin speakers (also Polk MM 6.5") at 4ohm (okay, Polk says they are actually 2.7ohm) and I'm thinking they are underpowered. I am occasionally getting distortion at high volume on some songs because they are starving for more power, even with the high pass filters turned on. They are actually only getting about 65-70 watts each where they would be more happy at 100+.

    I run a Kicker ZX 750.1 mono amp to a 12" Polk sub in a custom sealed box. Amp puts out right about 400 watts at 4ohm which is exactly what the RMS is for the sub. The Kicker amp also has a separate remote bass control knob mounted right by my steering wheel which is great for fine tuning. I may add a second 12" Polk on the other side of the cabin and split my 750.1 amp down to 2ohm. It would power both 12's just fine but probably rattle everything else loose on the boat and I'd lose a fair amount of storage from that second sub box! Still tempting though...

    All the Polk MM speakers are marine certified but my Kicker amps are not. They are mounted about 6-8" off the floor though so if I do take on some water they will "hopefully" be high enough to avoid taking a bath.

    I haven't had to worry yet about equalizers or in-line volume control because for now we all like it loud!
    So when is this "old enough to know better" supposed to kick in?

    2001 MobiusV - Slightly Modified...

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    164

    Default

    Jeff, that's funny I was about to post something very similair. I bought those Fusion Pheonix Series on the blowout as well and love em How are you liking yours? I was thinking about buying a kicker zx 450.2 to run these. Found that Amp for $189 with a warranty brand new. That wouldn't be the 275Watts RMS that they SAY they can handle but it sems like I've read somewhere they were more like 225 RMS Speakers ????? At any rate, I can hear them 75' back now and have no where near that many watts running to them.

    I think your probably on the right path of having to buy a Mono for the sub and then an amp for the Fusions. I think you would be much happier having the power these things deserve. I feel your pain though having to always throw out money. I might as well just keep my wallet out. Have a good one man.


    Chad









    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff W View Post
    What amps are you guys running to power your tower speakers? I know a lot of guys are just running the OEM set up which I believe is a Kicker amp.

    What are you non-OEM guys running?

    I've got the Fusion P-series pods that were blown out on E-Bay a few weeks back. The recommendation is 275w RMS per pod.. DAMN! That's a TON of power. I'm 100% sure that I will underpower these as I can't really afford to buy that much power..

    What amps are you guys running? Is anyone running a non-marine grade amp on their set up successfully? I'm wondering if running 75 x 2 RMS @ 4 ohms is even WORTH buying.. I'm trying to avoid buying a seperate amp for my sub and towers. I was hoping to buy a 4 channel and use 2 channels for the tower and bridge one to my 12" sub but with the power recommendation on these Fusions, I'm thinking I may have to get a big 2 channel to power them and find a mono for my sub.. (Yuck - more $$, more wiring, more mess)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •