SDuquette

It's all personal taste, for the price, I love alpine amps, owned many different ones, all were great, all made good power and good sound. my only complaint was that most of their 2 channels could not be bridged to 1 channel and 2 Ohms, they over heat. Well, now with the class D m-series, they answered that. They are super efficient, great power, and have some neat features. An m500 will power just about any sub. As for subs, the JL w6s have always been a favorite, owned the 10 and 12", along with the alpine type-r, I currently have the xtant x1244 which is really showy with all the chrome and hexagon cone, and sounds super clean and loud. I've never heard a bad thing about the IDMAX, with it's near 4 inches of movement, and still able to keep some SQ. I have never liked audibahn, all show no go, IMO. Ohh yeah, can't forget the Eclipse titanium subs, they are sweet.

retrodrive

Sealed and ported enclosures JL W7 wins in loudness, clarity and precision. IB setup, not many can outdo IDMAX. Class D amps sound muddier then class A/B and you can clearly tell that by just swapping out the amps. Zapco is great company but I would take ARC over them...same engineer just a personal preference.

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

For the Audiobahn amp you mention, assuming all RMS numbers (not peak), and also assuming 4-ohm subwoofers, you'd wire the woofers in parallel, resulting in a 2-ohm load to your amp. If the amp can do 800W@2ohms cleanly, you theoretically have enough power. You only need the single mono output from the amp to drive both woofers.

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

Retro, how does a W7 compare to the IDMAX?

retrodrive

W7 goes deeper and sounds as good or better in sealed applications. The IDMAX will outdo W7 in IB big time though. Also in ported applications W7 has more authority and precision. If I was not running my subs in a baffle, I would be using a couple of W7 13's

J.P.

What about Soundsteam? I always had great luck with thier class a amps and SPL subs

LexSteele

U can't run W7s isobarically. The surround on this subwoofer makes it impossible. I could be wrong, but if u have done it or seen it done please instruct, JL Audio would love to know how you did it. Cause they think it's impossible as well, based on testing data i picked up from an authorized dealer.

BigghookUp

Hey engine_ear so what your saying in order to drive 2 400w woofers i can run a mono amp with a 1 channel like in the amp i described?

TimDimman

Clamshell is not the only isobarik configuration.

Tim

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

Bigghookup:
Yes. When you run the woofers in parallel (vs. series), it halves the nominal impedance that the amp sees to 2 ohms if each woofer is 4 ohms. The amp will then have to produce twice as much current to run the two woofers to the same excursion, but the two woofers will then be producing roughly twice as much sound pressure output as one woofer. Blah blah...

Watch out for the specs, and watch out for RMS vs. peak, you really don't want to just add numbers up, sometimes 2+2 doesn't make 4. Some amps will run hotter than others, some can't produce the instantaneous dynamic power it takes to run particular woofers effectively, and sometimes the manufacturers lie with specs (anyone ever heard of that???). Try to get recomendations from experienced users that are familiar with the products/combinations before buying them. If not, you could wind up with numbers that add up but stuff that doesn't sound good. One other thing is that the enclosure that you put these woofers in will also affect the power requirements. Also make sure that you run two of the exact same woofer type (same model #) if running in mono mode.

BigghookUp

awight man thnx, this really cleared things up. Have you tried this yourslef? or have seen someone else do this. Cuz all I want is, cause its my first system, I want a system that will not get busted, but I do want a system with good quality and loud sound.

Do you think 300-400 watts has enough power to give me what I'm lookin for?

Just wondering, which way will I save more money, In your opinion, either do I get:

1 amp with one channel, mono that pushes 800-1kwatts @ 2ohm,

1 amp with 2 channel
or
2 amps with low power

I'm just wondering, I don't mean to keep on asking this, but i just dont want to be ****ed over if i do something wrong and end up blowing out a sub or wasting money cuz im running on a budget of 1k$ for all my stuff for my car.

Ok man thanks for the help

TimDimman

BigghookUp,

I've sent you a PM on something semi-unrelated. Thought I'd inform you as I didn't notice there was any type of PM alert?

Thanks,

Tim

Rico's Revenge

I believe he meant "infinite baffle" or free-air, no "isobaric."

On a $1K budget, it will be tight to get what you are looking for. I am NOT a fan of Audiobahn, but they have their place in a show application. In SPL and SQ competition, they get smoked, we've done it MANY times. On the street...cool.

Keep in mind that you get what you pay for. Every amplifier manufacturer lies about their amp ratings, it is the buyers responsibility to find out who lies the least.

The last thing you should worry about is the wattage rating on a subwoofer. 99 times out of 100 the sub is blown because of distortion, not power. If you get a big power handling sub, say an Orion HCCA and you hook it up to a P.O.S. amp you'll blow it quickly. If you hook it up to a clean "monster" amp it will play forever and at a higher SPL.

The other extreme example is you have a poor quality woofer that says 1000 watts and you hook it up to a poor quality amplifier that says 1000 watts, it will probably play because the amp is really putting out 100 watts of REAL power. Now take the same sub and put it on a Hifonics Z200 which is rated at only 200 watts when bridged and the sub will play louder because the Hifonics is putting out 180 REAL watts. Now hook the sub up to a real deal 1000 watt amp and it will probably catch fire because it can't take the real deal.

I know that I probably went a little to far, but IMO I would rather see you use that $1K and buy something of real quality that you can build on when you have another $1K to drop.

I have used many different brands (including Alpine which is not on the list below, IMO they are NOT what they used to be) and currently use Orion Amps and a Treo sub. Here would be my brand suggestions (this is not ultra high end, like Brax, Mac, etc... just very good products with decent availability) in no specific order.

Amplifiers...Orion, Hifonics, Xtant, Zapco, US Amps
Subs...Orion, Treo, Alpine, JL, Rockford, Kicker

In the end, do what is right for you.

Todd

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

The 2 amp solution is not a good choice.
The answer here is not as simple as you'd like it to be, depends on what you have feeding into your amp - do you already have a crossed-over sub output from your head unit or EQ? If you have a L/R input going into the amp for the subs you can go with either one monoblock with a 2-ch input, or a 2-ch amp. One aspect of using a straight 2-ch amp is that you can run (2) 4-ohm subs, each on a separate channel, so the amp is seeing 4 ohm loads, not 2. You can go the other way, too, with one monoblock driving 2 subs in parallel. Your final decision depends on what subs you want to use and can afford, and the prices that you can get subs/amp for, there are too many combinations of this. I'd think in general you would spend less just going for a straight 2-ch amp with enough power to drive 2 4-ohm subs, a standard configuration. The subs that you pick, sound quality wise, will affect the final sound more than the amp - I recommend focusing on them relative to your budget first, then fill in the amp.

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

Great points, Todd.