I want to upgade my speakers. I want to keep the factory HU. At some point I want to add an amp and possibly sn MTX power sub.
I read good things about Infinity speakers. I was thinking about going with Reference 5010cs for the front and Kappa 682.7 in the rear. I also hear that JBL are a good quality as well. I was thinking about the Grand Touring Series GTO 8607c for the front and Power Series P8652 in the rear. I am looking for suggestings/opinions from you guys.
And as far as an amp goes, I know you want to match the ohms, but how important is the RMS? I know the JBL speakers are 2-70 RMS. If I get an amp that has a higher RMS would that be bad or do I want to keep it under? I am clueless when it come to this. I was thinking about going with an Alpine MRP F250 amp. Would this be a good match up?
Hope you guys can help me out, which I am sure you can. Thanks, ERic

 

Hoo boy, this is a toughie. As far as speakers go, research , research, research. Auto speakers are just as bad as home speakers. People have different likes when it comes to sound, but generally speaking, buy the absolutely best you can afford, and when possible, try to match the front and rears.

Amp wise, never go lower than speaker rating, in fact you should get an amp that is RMs rated to put out 15-20% more than your speakers RMS rating. Why? You don't want to push 100 watts from a 100 watt amp into a 100 watt RMS max speaker, unless of course you enjoy repalcing speakers on a regular basis. Now, 100 watts from a 125 watt amp would be fine. Nice clean signal, good sound, no clipping, etc.

SL

 

I think you stated that wrong. You want the Speakers to have a 15-20% higher RMS rating than the amp. Otherwise you might be blowing speakers.

 

No, he had it right. From crutchfield:


http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/le...ing_guide.html

How powerful an amp do I need?

Choose an amplifier whose power output matches the power handling of the speakers you'll be amplifying. Make sure you're comparing the RMS power ratings of both the amp and speakers. And remember — it's better to overpower your speakers a little than to send them too little power.

 

The JBL speakers 2-70 watt RMS and the Alpine amp is 50 watts rms. Would this be a good match or would I need a bigger amp?

 

I have the JBL GTO755.6 II 6 channel amp and I love it. Cost less than 2 seperate amps of lesser quality. It's a 6 channel amp with built in crossovers and level adjustments. You have front, rear, and subwoofer RCA inputs and also high level inputs to keep the factory head unit. The amp can also take the subwoofer input from the front and rear high levels or RCA inputs. I love the fact that my install is very clean. I don't have wires everywhere like i've had in multi-amp setups in the past.

For speakers I went with the Polk Audio db5250 5-1/4" Component System for my front doors and Infinity Reference 6812cf 6"x8" 2-way Speakers for my back doors. With a 10" Polk MOMO in a Q-Logic box. Sounds great but the polks tweeters are pretty bright and stand out a bit too high when coming from the cheap factory setup. I'm getting use to it and it's sounding better now that the speakers are getting broke in.

A few things you have to think about is where you plan to mount everything. I went with one 6 channel amp to cover all my speakers. It fits perfectly behind my supercrew back seat. Plus the small Q-Logic box only takes up the space under the drivers side back seat. Not the entire backseat like other brands.

Don't worry about the ohms too much. Car speakers are 99% of the time 4 ohms and car amps are normally rated for 4 ohm speakers. Buy speakers that outrate your amp but not by a large amount. You want to be able to drive that speaker. Otherwise it be like putting a 2 cylinder engine in your truck.

Infinity is a good brand I love the sound coming out of mine. I can't vouch for alpine. I've always had bad luck with their stuff.

 

If it were me, I'd go with a 100 watt amp for those speakers and dial down the gains.
Here's the problem with underpowering your amp: You keep raising the volume until the point you hear distortion. By that point, the speakers are already being damaged if only to a minor degree, keep it up and they will be ruined.
If you use an amp that is rated to put out more than your speakers are rated for, chances are you won't need to turn the volume up as high and you can always turn your gains down. Speakers will survive longer with clip free power (even if it is higher than what the speaker is rated for) than lower than rated for, distorted power.
JBL speakers are nice, but keep in mind the sensativity (db) level. The lower it is, the more power hungry they are. 3db goes a long way. Read up on it, it's good info.

SL

 

I like the idea of a 6 channel amp. That way I can put a smaller sub box. I have a brain (lack of better terms) for my siren and it is pretty big. That way I could keep it under my back seat and just mount the amp behind my seat.

 

I am NEVER wrong. Except sometimes.

SL

 

 

That's total crap. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with having an amp that has double, even triple the speakers rms rating. It's called "head room" and there is nothing wrong with having it. You just have to be smarter about gain settings and getting too frolicky with the volume controls!

Here's an example: I have a Soundstream Rubicon 1002 powering my sub. The sub is a JBL GTO1202D. It's got dual 2 ohm voice coils. I've got it bridged parallel so that it sees a 1 ohm load. The amp (bridged) then sends it its full power potential of 1000w x 1. And the poor little sub only has an rms rating of 300 watts. Granted I've got the gains turned waaaay down and everything is flat on the deck and the amp.. no boost period.

So you see? If you know how to set it up, there is no reason to have more power than you need. It just makes it easier for "upgrades" in the future

 

Headroom is my friend!!!!

 

Perfect example: My Rainbow Contours are rated at 80 watts RMS. I am putting 150 rated watts and according to the birthsheet of my amp, closer to 200 watts. Headroom baby

 

Like a pro

I usually have my amps rated at 2-3 times RMS on my speakers and subwoofers. It's never caused an issue.

More people blow aftermarket speakers by powering them from a deck than an amp. I won't even get into why though, heh...

 

Well heck since everyone else is saying how much headroom they have, I have 1200 wrms (more like 1400) on a 900wrms sub, and once I get some 1/0 wire I will have 150 watts (more like 180) going to 100 wrms components.

So, yeah, just though I would throw that out there for the heck of it