amp suggestions for focal ps 165

[adrian s 10+ year member]

I just installed focal ps 165 for front stage and ditched the rears. Im looking for a good amp to power them. Budget is around $300. Any help would be appreciated. D class would be great as far as efficiency but not at the cost of sq

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[Lowflyin 10+ year member]

My Zapco Ref 360.4

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

Small class D 2-channel, 190W x 2 RMS

P600.2

I could have this in a USPS Priority flat rate box today.

 

[adrian s 10+ year member]

Pm with price

 

[juanmgarza26 10+ year member]

i'll prolly get bashed for this, if you can find a jl slash 450/4 or 300/4 or 300/2 used cheap that would be MY first option

 

[adrian s 10+ year member]

I appreciate the suggestions. I was also wondering if I should be concerned with overpowering (if there is such a thing). There rated at 80, so should I be looking in the 100 range? I'll be running passive

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

I appreciate the suggestions. I was also wondering if I should be concerned with overpowering (if there is such a thing). There rated at 80, so should I be looking in the 100 range? I'll be running passive

More power is needed for transients. This is from music with good dynamic range where there's a noticeable difference between quiet and loud passages. You can adjust the gain just high enough to get the speakers as loud as you want or until they bottom out. The crossover on the amp will cut the bass, and that helps a lot to protect the speakers.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

yep, you want more power than you'll need.

if you don't buy one of the amps listed above, also consider Boston Acoustics GT-2125 or GT-475.

i just installed a GT-475 on some JL C5 comps and it sounds great. plenty of clean power. you can bridge it for even more oomph and head room.

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

yep, you want more power than you'll need.
if you don't buy one of the amps listed above, also consider Boston Acoustics GT-2125 or GT-475.

i just installed a GT-475 on some JL C5 comps and it sounds great. plenty of clean power. you can bridge it for even more oomph and head room.

This. The Boston GT amps are great. Especially the older ones.

I have experience with both and actually still have a couple of the older ones.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Some of the best sq amps of all time

Alpine 3542 Bridgeable Power Amp | eBay

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Great amp also

Crossfire CFA602 2 Channel Old School Amplifier Tons of Clean Power | eBay

 

[zako 10+ year member]

I would go for Alpine MRX-F35 or MRX-F65. These amplifiers are very clean low distortion amps, and the F65 has a quite impressive power in a tiny enclosure. Having a 4-channel amplifier will open the future possibility to upgrade to the active front stage.

 

[adrian s 10+ year member]

I would go for Alpine MRX-F35 or MRX-F65. These amplifiers are very clean low distortion amps, and the F65 has a quite impressive power in a tiny enclosure. Having a 4-channel amplifier will open the future possibility to upgrade to the active front stage.

I was considering the f-65. Wasn't sure if there would be a huge different between it and the pdx-4

 

[zako 10+ year member]

I was considering the f-65. Wasn't sure if there would be a huge different between it and the pdx-4

PDX should be better overall, in terms of build quality and technology. For one, it has a lot more power (the F6 at least, outputs 4x190watts RMS in real life tests). Having said that, the MRX amps are supposed to be _very_ good and they share a lot of technology with PDX amps. From the tests I have seen, the MRX amps have very low distortion and they are normally underrated by some 20-25%. The PDX amps are better, but the real life difference is not "huge". It's more of a logarithmic scale sort of improvement. Certainly, PDX is a fine amp if you can afford it. MRX is great for low budget installations. The only MRX amps I would probably skip are the mono blocks, being implemented internally as a bridged 2-channel amps they're probably not the most efficient or cool among Class D mono amplifiers.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

More power is needed for transients. This is from music with good dynamic range where there's a noticeable difference between quiet and loud passages. You can adjust the gain just high enough to get the speakers as loud as you want or until they bottom out. The crossover on the amp will cut the bass, and that helps a lot to protect the speakers.

Another issue is THD. A typical amplifier has low distortion (typically below 0.1% THD for most amplifiers) until about 80% of the rated power (assuming it does the rated power), then THD takes off and reaches 1% (the audible threshold) at the rated power, and then 5%, 10%, etc, very fast. If you need to send a most 80 watts to speakers, having a +100watt RMS amplifier will ensure that the amplifier output is _always_ operating in the ultra low THD region for the output you need.

Having said this, I wouldn't necessarily worry about not having too much power with Focal speakers. My understanding, Focals often err on the side of high sensitivity, this is sometimes at the expense of bass output performance. The PS 165 are supposed to be very good entry to mid-level SQ speakers overall though. Probably a bit under-appreciated. I have seen very good reviews from a couple of good sources.

Fairly flat freq response 30degrees off axis. The tweeters do seem to get crazy in upper frequencies. There is probably benefit from running active. These speakers are bi-amp capable as the tweeter crossover is separate from woofer crossover. If you have a spare 4 channel amp, you can plug woofers and tweeters into dedicated channels each and adjust the gain by ear to make the tweeters match the woofers in the specific vehicle environment.