amp power envy Issues?

[EarmarkMarine]

Some good advice here from Brian, Phil and others (you know who you are). I don't want to take on the entire discussion and only have one tiny area to contribute.

Sometimes its necessary due to a budget... However, anytime you run the bow speakers off the source unit it forces you to run the gains on the amplifier (that runs the sub and four cockpit coaxials) wide open or at least inordinately high. You have to do this in order to keep the source unit internal power from prematurely clipping. And now its going to be difficult to run the tower speakers more aggressively off the same amplifier. So if you power the bow speakers from the external amplifier also you can achieve a better tuned, cleaner and more balanced system. You could either add a very small 2-channel for the bow or a larger 2-channel for the tower. Since your sub channel(s) and tower channels usually are worked the hardest I prefer to break these areas into separate amplifiers. So that's the story and I'm sticking to it.

David
Earmark Marine

[jmvotto]

Wow , this thread really brought out the heavy hitters. OK

Brian"My suggestion was pick up a dedicated 2 ohm rated amp for the towers and utilize the existing multi channel for the rest of the system (cabin speakers)." which size amp would match and not blow the speakers? 300 x 2 at 2 ohms or 150 X 2 at 2 ohms

we like to hear tunes surfing, but probably not footin, boarding, skiing on the long line, our lake is lined with residences. don't want to be a punk a$$ kid with a trunk rattler, just a good sounding system with control

David, I finally got to hear the reason behind the HU and amp sharing the signal. I will need to change that to isolate gain/power to the tower speakers.

maybe i will cave to the hcld at some point( bullet points ,wetsounds exiles or the new kicker combo), But why to some mfgs like SC, MC, Nautique all load there boats with " Expensive Junk" if it does not project very well. i am perplexed with that.

[cab13367]

This is tantamount to a thread hijack, but....

Cab-

You mention using the 4 full-range channels of the Kicker 700.5 in bridged mode to run the KMT6's. I think you might be unhappy with that setup. The KMT6 is nominally a 4-ohm speaker, but it has an impedance closer to 3-ohms. That is a little low to run on a bridged amp. If your 700.5 starts cutting out at high volume, this will be the reason why. It might work for you, and it might not.

If the KMT6's give the 700.5 fits, consider a different amp. An good example would be the ZX450.2 that delivers 150 watts into a 4-ohm load. That amp or another stereo amp like the 450.2 will run the KMT6's better than any bridged amp, due to the KMT6 impedance.

FYI-

Phil
Kicker

Phil,

Thanks for that info, really appreciate it. I didn't realize the KMT6's are really 3 ohm - I was going by the specs which said 4 ohm. This might be a show stopper for me - I don't want to run three amps. Since hearing music 75' back is really not a priority for me (I mostly just have the tower speakers to hear music while anchored and swimming behind the boat), I might stick with my 4 polk audio speakers in aluminum cans. I bought the 700.5 for that purpose, with the 5th channel running the sub.

Thanks again.

Al

[Brianinpdx]

Aint no heavy hitters here.. Just all us industry guys with to much time on our winter hands. hehe!

To answer your question, either of those power rating will work just fine with your setup. I didnt scroll way back in the thread but I vaguely remember someone talking about a used kicker amplifier and that would be fine! Your comment about not wanting to be the punk kid blasting the lake peeps means to me that your probably just fine with those tower speakers you have now. But just keep in mind the punk kids didnt start out that way haha! they grew over time with several audio upgrades. You might find after placing the right amp into the mix that the performance just isnt there. This would be more on the speaker side than the amp. So my advice is get the biggest amp that you can afford. You can always turn the gains down some and if you want to upgrade the speakers later you already have the amp in place.

About the boat mfg's: Well the simple answer is price. Audio is an option and HLCD's are the Ferrari of audio performance wise. Some boat companies are getting away from stock systems. I think you'll see more of that in the future.

Let us know how the upgrades go!

[mustangairchair]

that amp has lots of power not only that it is jl and they rock. there is a big diffrence how the amps are rated peak power is a bad way to rate a amp in a range you will never run it in. rms is the only way to rate a amp and 25 watts rms is alot of power.the class of amp makes a differance to. a A class amp is a compition amp and rated low for what they put out.