Tell Me What You Think

[Session25]

My friend stopped by yesterday, and he showed me his subs (in his car). He turned on the radio, and they sounded AWESOME!! I was like, "That is exactly what I want." So he gave me some info on what he had. Here's the stuff he has.
two 12" Alpine Type R Subs (w/a box)
Alpine V 12 amp (not sure which exactly)
Kenwood Excelon Head Unit
Memphis Car Speakers
and a Kenwood amp for the speakers, (don't know which one).
So my questions are, what is your opinions on these? How many watts would you need for your amp for the subs? and why would you need another amp for the car speakers? thanks.

[sickcallawayc12]

Type-R subs are awesome. Great subs for sound quality. The RMS is 500 but people here tell me they can handle 1000 watts on a daily basis. You don't need a separate amp for the speakers necessarily. It just depends on what your power needs are. If you're not putting a ton of juice in your sub(s) then you'll probably go with one powerful amp. I'm only putting around 400 watts in my Type-R and it kicks butt. You don't need to meet the RMS to make it sound good.

Alpine amps are good, but they seemed to be overpriced to me.
Kenwood car products generally aren't that great IMO. For an HU look at Alpine, Pioneer, Panasonic, some JVCs, Clarion.

[Session25]

alright thanks, what exactly is RMS? i would proably get either an alpine or pioneer HU.

[sickcallawayc12]

RMS is the amount of continuous power. The more power, the louder the sound, whether its bass or music/words.

[nicks84]

Originally Posted by Session25

My friend stopped by yesterday, and he showed me his subs (in his car). He turned on the radio, and they sounded AWESOME!! I was like, "That is exactly what I want." So he gave me some info on what he had. Here's the stuff he has.
two 12" Alpine Type R Subs (w/a box)
Alpine V 12 amp (not sure which exactly)
Kenwood Excelon Head Unit
Memphis Car Speakers
and a Kenwood amp for the speakers, (don't know which one).
So my questions are, what is your opinions on these? How many watts would you need for your amp for the subs? and why would you need another amp for the car speakers? thanks.

I woudl have to agree with Sick. Type R, are nice subs.
Alpine is not bad, and IMO, decently priced and not too shaby. Personally, if I got Alpine amp, it might be for highend only.
I know that back in the day, Excelon was a VERY nice line, but I belive as of late, they have difference series. IMO, it woudl depend on what series he has. But your much better off with a cheap excelon over a Kenwood or Sony HU (LOL)
Kenwood, is complete GARBAGE anyway you look at it.
Memphis, I have only heard one series that sounded decent. It was thier best line. They do get pretty loud though.

You could skate with a mere 250 W, if there not kenwood or Sony watts. The RMS value is more of a level of optimum operation for the sub, it will take more than the RMS value, yet you dont need to push it to the full RMS value. You can actually be safe with about 50% Give or take 10 %. But I woudlnt recomend much lower. Not because its necessarily unsafe (but it can be), but because the performance potential will not likely show.

Lastly, you wont need a another amp for the high end. However, without one, you WONT maximize the performance of your high end, which can be VERY important with subs that get loud, because you do want to maintain an acceptable balance. Which I've found, can REALLY vary from person to person . And because of that, it might call for amplification.
The sound quality woudl be much greater with an amp, almost ANY way you look at it. And of course, this all depends on what set of speakers you go with. Some speakers dont require alot of power. But I think the difference is foudn in the distortion levels, towared the higher end of thier means.

[Session25]

which speakers are really good, but not to exspensive? my caddy has bose which i'm not a huge fan of.

[nicks84]

Originally Posted by Session25

which speakers are really good, but not to exspensive? my caddy has bose which i'm not a huge fan of.

Assuming you are talkin about "Memphis", It was the top line they have. Maybe studio something, cant remember, it was about 2 yrs ago. All I know, is it was thier top line series. Thats the only series I woudl consider buying based upon performance. Though, most people are satisfied with mostly all thier products. But I have a picky ear. Um , my guess is that for he money, you can get much better than what you heard. All we need is a budget.