waterboy222

Im sourcing out all the parts I need to install a stereo system in my boat. Since I'm on a tight budget, I'd like to use a lot of the stuff I have layin around in storage.

The only thing that I don't have is amps. Just in browsing around on Amazon.com, I see Orion 1000.1 amps are about $4000 and Lanzar 1000.1 amps are about $85.

What is the difference? I know thats two extremes and not really interested in either brand. I am trying to push two infinity kappa 124.7's in a ported box. Do the cheaper amps use more power or do they not live as long or what? I can replace a $100 amp 20 times for the price of some of these!

Also, I will be adding two batteries to run the stereo system so I don't have to worry about no-start situations anymore. What kind of timeframe can I expect to run a system that has 6 6.5's and 2 12'' subs off of two batteries and how should I wire them?

low_psi

Kicker makes very good reasonably priced amps. You get what you pay for up to a certain extent. Your are not looking for competiton type equipment.... But the cheap crap is useless. There is no set standard for rating the power output, so the manufactures can really stretch their numbers.... For the record, I have kicker amps running my highs, and a Kenwood 1800 x 1 Class D sub woofer AMP that I bought for about $250 from Crutchfield, and it has been an absolute beast. The cheap stuff may very well put out 1000 watts but at such a high distortion level it will nuke your sub long before you reach that level.

With that said, if you can find a good deal on some Alpine Digital Amps, I have heard they are very small and compact, put out huge amounts of "clean" power and are very energy efficent.

Battery life will depend on a multitude of things. Battery capacity, Amp efficency, wiring, quality of charge. I have 1 group 27 battery for starting and running purpose and 2 True Deep Cycle AGM Group 31 House Batteries wired parallel to power the stereo. At about 3/4 volume with aproximately 2500 watts of total power I get a solid 8-10 hours. I charge the House batteries off of an onboard 30amp charger overnight. The alternator will not put a dent in them unless I had all day and night to drive around at 3000 rpm........... Again quality of components will greatly effect the consumption of your batteries.

MILD THUNDER

iTrader: (3)

Amps are tricky. For the most part, nowadays, wattage ratings are pretty much BULL$HIT.

What you're looking for in a amp, is several things. Peak wattage really means nothing, especially when its rated at BS levels. Think of Joe Blow the engine builder. He can build you a engine for your boat, and dyno it. He can make the dyno sheet show whatever he wants, and you think, wow, it makes great power. Then you install it in your boat and you don't go any faster.

High end amps usually rate their nominal power, at 12.5V. Continuous wattage output. (RMS). Cheaper amps, will rate their power output at 14.4V.

For subs, you want a powerful amp. Your Kappas can handle 350W RMS. Give it to them. Nothing worse for a speaker than underpowering it. Once the amplifier starts Clipping (distorting) it burns the voice coils up. People think overpowering speakers is what blows them. This is not entirely correct. Underpowering is no good.

Now, do you have to spend a zillion bucks on a amp? No way. Your subs should be selectable, 2, or 8 ohm setup. This gives you some versatility. Running them in parallel, set on the 2 ohm setting, will be a .5 ohm load on the amp. Most amps today, aren't gonna handle that. Wiring them in series/parralel, you can be at 2ohm load. Series will give 8 ohm load.

If you select the 8 ohm version, you can wire them in parallel, for a 4 ohm load.

Ideally, 2ohm is good for power. IF the amp can handle it. If you give us a idea of what you'd like to spend for a sub amp, we can prob make some suggestions....

neva satisfied

+1 on the Kicker amps. I had a ZX 700.5 pushing 4 MTX 6.5's and 2 10" MTX subs and it worked very good. It wouldn't win any contests but it was great for a day floating around.

waterboy222

I am going to run 4 JL 7.7 MX770-CCX off of this amp:http://www.amazon.com/Lanzar-VCT4110...=lanzar+vector
Mainly because I already have it. Is the amp too crappy to run the JL's? I dont want to ruin $600 worth of speakers by running a $100 amp but if it will work, then I'd like to use it..

As far as a sub amp, I'd like to spend as little as possible.. $250ish?

OldSchool

For what it's worth... I put a JL Audio 4-channel amp in my boat about 6 years ago. It's a car amp (non-marine) and I think it's a 4300 model. I paid less than $150 for it. I'm running two 10"Babbs and two 6.5" Kickers off of it in my cockpit.


.....and it still cranks like a MoFo to this day!!!

MILD THUNDER

iTrader: (3)

Im gonna one up ya!

I am running "AURA" amplifiers. They were manufactured in 1996, and installed in my boat then. They still work like champs. "AURA'' wasn't a big name, but quality made in the USA stuff from the 90's. 17 years on these units! In a boat!

For the most part, there isn't much out there today, that i'd spend money on. I'd rather buy some used stuff from 20 years ago, like Soundstream, ADS, PPI, US Amps, orion, zapco, etc. Maybe this winter I'll put a nice system together.

Sydwayz

iTrader: (1)

I am a fan of matching Amp to Speakers when possible--obviously in wattage but in Brand as well. Normally there is a class of amp that you can determine matches the speakers you are looking at or have bought.

Captain YARRR

You get what you pay for. I went through three amps for my cockpit last year and finally when I bought a JL marine amp the days of shutting down went away. I even was using good name amps but on the cheaper end. I was asking them to push eight cockpit speakers and they hated it even though the RMS matched for the first two. The last one I went overkill and it still didn't work.

OldSchool

That's awesome!! I've never been one to think that the most expensive is the best (comes from growing up poor ). I went back and searched for my stereo thread. It was the winter of 05/06 and the amp is a JL e4300 model. I paid 199 for it