amp eficency ratings? and questions.

[brian84corvette 10+ year member]

hey guys,

ive been wanting to upgrade my current system for a long time now.

and the first major purchace I need to make is on a better amp.

I have a 84 corvette - it has a 108amp alternator - and its old. at start up - I generaly get 14.1 ish volts - but after driving around and it gets hot under the hood - I end up with more like 13.5v on my digital readout.

I have a brand new optima yellow top installed as my main battery.

and I have absolutely no where else on the car to put a secondary battery of full size - maby one of those smaller "motorcycle" size batterys from kenetic could fit in my rear storage compartments - but for now - we are just working off 1 yellow top battery.

I have done the "big 4" - battery to ground - engine to ground / tranny to ground - and alternator charge to battery positive - all in big ass wire.

- Now about the amp im going to need -

since my car is relatively stock in the electrical department - ive read that im going to need an amp that is "efficent" - what that means is a mystery to me.

but I would guess that it puts most of its dc power it takes in to ac current going to the speakers.

- so how do I go about finding a amp that will suit my needs.

I havent seen efficency ratings on amps - or am I not looking in the right place for them. - where and how do they label an amps efficency?

im open to getting a good amp used off the boards here - or buying new

I was intrested in a company called "hifonics"

and mainly looking at their brutus series 1606d

since I want to mess with diffrent speaker configurations and enclosures

I like the fact that that amp puts off decent enough power at 1/2/4 ohms

should give me alot of options on various pairs / single speakers I end up with.

is there any reason I should look for another amp besides the hifonics unit?

and can you guys steer me in the right direction to go,

ive also heard nothing but good from -

us amps

sundown

rockford fosgate

and others,

but so far the hifonics seems to be about the best power ratings for the $

lmk

thanks for the read.

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[dipitydoo 10+ year member]

look for class D amps to run your subs. they are typically about 2x as efficient as class a/b amps for real world usage. skip the 2nd battery.