Everyone is an audiophile so that's why it's in quotes I guess but if someone with some good knowledge of this good help me out I would appreciate it.

So after a few yrs of running Kicker ZX amps with a JL W3 Stealthbox and Polk components I've decided to step my game up and was introduced to a local company here called Elite Audio Solutions who I've worked with a few times since this project and have always been helpful with great/classy cars they always seem to have every time I've been there on about 5 different occasions and military friendly, their shop is amazing making their own stuff all the time. They primarily sell Hertz and Audison equipment which is pretty much the same company with both lines being very comparable.

I installed a Audison Bit Ten and now Im installing Hertz MLK-165 mid woofer and ML-280 tweets but my little Kicker 4 channel smelled like it was burning a weak ago and has since gone so then I was introduced to a Audison 5.1 Amp for $1500 which would do away with my two amp setup currently. No crossovers will be run with the new door speaks either but other than going from a 2 amp to 1 amp setup I'm thinking how bad is Kicker technology really? I've always owned Kicker amp/subs for 15+yrs now and never had a bad amp/sub but there has to be a difference between a $500 amp and $1500 one...right??? I would really like to more know about the internals because I feel that a $1500 amp which I assume is mostly putting the money toward the door speakers since a sub operates off a mono channel typically so you really need something powerful yet obviously good quality to run a simple 1 sub configuration. Seems hard to justify.

Thanks for any info.