Alpine or MTX Audio amps? Urgent!

[thesvensk]

Can't decide whatever im going for the Alpine PDX-1.600 or the MTX Thunder Elite 801D. Both are really good looking and great brands, the Alpine is small and cute but has 1% THD compared to the MTX with only 0.5%. The MTX is huge and looks great.

I have the JBL Power 12" (P1220e) woofer which is run best at 400WRMS/1600W Peak. The Alpine delivers 600WRMS @ 4Ohms and the MTX 400WRMS @ 4Ohms. I've got some experience about the MTX amps, the older ones atleast. Tryed both 2-ch and 4-ch amps of BlueThunder Pro and the 4-ch delivered about 100WRMS and kicked the guts of some Blaupunkt GTA (750WRMS) and the sound quality is great.

Need some help deciding which amp I want and why. Was also lookng into some 2-ch JBL Power amps which were supposed to give 663WRMS @ 4Ohms in bridged mode but I don't want JBL for unknown reasons.

I'm looking for a high quality amp with lots of power aswell as superb sound quality.

I'm ordering the amp from SonicElectronics.com so If there is better alternatives at $350 MAX, please give some advice.

Click to read more...

 

[nveselinovic16v 10+ year member]

MTX from these two

but if you want a really small amp with loads of power get DD SS1

you can get it in sweden, also it is easier than wait for the amp to arrive from us

it's rated 750w @ 1ohm, so perfect for you, but actually does a tic over 1000w at 14.4v

 

[SlamSession 10+ year member]

Ok, when it states Peak Power, what that means is, what the subwoofer is capable of handling in one short burst of power that lasts maybe a second or so. It could not handle 1600 watts of continous power because it will blow. However it can handle 400 watts root means square(rms) of continous power and that is going to be on a 2 ohm load. The Alpine PDX 1.600 puts out a rated 600 watts x 1ch. @ 2 ohms, that is too much wattage for your subwoofer. The MTX 801 D amplifier is rated at 500 watts x 1ch on a 2 ohm load from the speaker when at 12.5 volts(when the car's engine is off). When the car's engine is on and producing 14.4 volts the amp's output changes to 800 watts x 1ch at a 2 ohm load from the speaker. So both of those amps are too powerful for your sub and will eventually blow it. What I recommend is the Alpine MRP-M450 which puts out 400 watts x 1ch @ 2 ohms, and that fits your subwoofer like a "glove". It has a subsonic filter and gold plated terminals. It costs $170 on woofersetc.com. Good luck my friend.

 

[thesvensk]

Is the Thunder Elite a better series than Thunder Pro? There is a 200WRMS difference on these amps, but I'll rather pick the one with real WRMS and the one with better quality. When looking at Alpines website they said that the PDX-1.600 is optimal for running 15" Type-R subs and on the MTX website they say you need some either MTX Super Thunder or Thunder High-Performance amps to run 12" MTX Thunder High-Performance subs. So my MTX amp fits best to the cheaper series like X Thunder and Road Thunder subs. Crap, I want amps that can run good subs. I want to be able to run MTX Thunder T7512 (400WRMS) subs with this amplifier.

Well the choice is these two but which and why?

 

[SlamSession 10+ year member]

The MTX Thunder TA Super Amplifiers are the top of the line amps. The Road Thunder Pro amps are the cheapest ones offered by MTX. Yes, the Thunder Elite amps are better than the Road Thunder Pro amps. You mentioned you have one 12 inch JBL P1220e and I suggested the Alpine MRP M450 which is perfect for your one 12 inch subwoofer. So do you have an MTX 7512 subwoofer(s) and how many ? Or do you plan on buying the MTX 7512 ? And how do you plan on wiring them, parallel or series(that only applies if they are DVC's[dual voice coils]). As far what "they" say, one could just go by the specs of the speakers and the amps to see what meets your needs. They can recommend a host of things, they're probably just trying to sell that 15 inch sub to make more money, but you may not even need what they recommend.

 

[nveselinovic16v 10+ year member]

jbl will handle 600-800 daily

so get DD SS1 @ 1ohm and set the gain to 1 o'clock