jmvotto - A few thoughts for you on your system changes. You've gone the single amp route and have reached the max ability of that amplifier to satisfy you. Over time your needs have grown and the ability to scale your system upwards has reached its limit with your current gear. Here's what needs to happen. I'll break out by category:

Towers: Your going to need to aquire a 2 ohm amplifier to run that double pair of Polks. Be advised that after you do install this amplifier, your still asking the amplifier to make some magic where it cannot because its powering car speakers in cans/pods and thus limits its projection abilities. You mentioned trying to get the towers louder than the cabin. This could indeed be a function of not enough power behind it. But I suspect when you step up to a big 2 ohm amplifier then you'll have the power to push any tower speaker but not the speaker to take the power. It's definitely a give or take situation here but the right thing to do is start to split out your system and drive the individual area's with dedicated power amplifiers. Long answer is, look into HLCD speakers if your still not happy.

Cabin: Rather than having your cabin speakers powered by that over shared multi channel combined with HU outputs, you need to refocus ch's 1/2/3/4 on your cabin set up and yank out that blocker etc. Could you run out and buy a bigger amplifier? Sure! Do you need to? No way. You'll be plenty happy with what you have already. You could still use 5/6 for a sub but this is also an area that adding dedicated amplification would produce superior results.

A few observations for the group: There is no such thing as having to much power available to you. Meaning having a big amplifier that has the ability to produce 2-3 times the rated power gives the user dynamic range. Likewise, having an amplifier that barely cuts it is asking it to run at 100% all the time. this is where distortion and other nasty buggers come into play. The user wants more, so he cranks up the gains, flips on bass boost, steps up the HU volume and up up and away he goes. The result is something that doesnt get much louder but infact sounds worse and distorted. SOLUTION: Split out your system with dedicated amplifiers and get yourself as much DYNAMIC RANGE AS POSSIBLE. (or your can afford - whichever comes first) hehe!

With all this in mind, Newty is right! We all upgrade. Its just the nature of the beast. Speaking of which, I know that Mike has a big 2 ch kicker 2 ohm amp that he wont be using much longer. Not sure if he wants to part with it, but it would be ideal for the situation mentioned above. He's beta testing a new Exile 2 ch code name "Harpoon" --- if he ever gets it in his boat! I can tell you guys more about that later but don't want to hijack this thread.

Hope this helps! If you need help with wiring diagrams on your reconfiguration give me a shout at [email protected] and I'll steer you through it.

peace!

-Brian
Exile Audio