Best budget SQ amps: chime in

[firemedic7733 10+ year member]

As the thread says, let me know some opinions on good, clean, readily available budget sound quality amps. I will not be competing and im not looking for the "holy grail" or something old school that's impossible to find. I want something that a search on eBay or forums could easily turn up in the $100-$200 range. I will need 2-4 channel amps around 80-125 watts rms @ 4 ohms and a mono sub amp in the 500w @ 4ohm/1000-1500 watt @ 1 ohm range. For now, sub amp will be 4 ohm, but would like 1 ohm stable for future use. I will be using an MS8.

PS: I have 2 ONX4.80's on hand. Should I use them or upgrade?

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[NIHL8ION]

"Budget" & "SQ" do not go together...

 

[Bobfig 10+ year member]

PPI BK series are a good start.

 

[SounDrive Pro Seller]

[quote name='firemedic7733']As the thread says, let me know some opinions on good, clean, readily available budget sound quality amps. I will not be competing and im not looking for the "holy grail" or something old school that's impossible to find. I want something that a search on eBay or forums could easily turn up in the $100-$200 range. I will need 2-4 channel amps around 80-125 watts rms @ 4 ohms and a mono sub amp in the 500w @ 4ohm/1000-1500 watt @ 1 ohm range. For now, sub amp will be 4 ohm, but would like 1 ohm stable for future use. I will be using an MS8.

PS: I have 2 ONX4.80's on hand. Should I use them or upgrade?[/QUOTE]

SQ is not as much of a factor in your substage. Low levels of distortion are inaudible, so you'll be fine with any decent brand of amp as long as you don't cheap out on something like audiopipe. For the 2/4 channel amp, lots of oldschool equipment has great SQ and can be really cheap. I have an oldschool Sherwood xa1240q and an old school Alpine 3553 and I love the way both of them sound.

Maybe @audiobaun ; can hook you up with something for your front stage

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

PPi phantom is very nice for the budget, size and power.

JBL stuff is an SQ steal, IMO. I don't know why it's overlooked.

 

[logan963 10+ year member]

As the thread says, let me know some opinions on good, clean, readily available budget sound quality amps. I will not be competing and im not looking for the "holy grail" or something old school that's impossible to find. I want something that a search on eBay or forums could easily turn up in the $100-$200 range. I will need 2-4 channel amps around 80-125 watts rms @ 4 ohms and a mono sub amp in the 500w @ 4ohm/1000-1500 watt @ 1 ohm range. For now, sub amp will be 4 ohm, but would like 1 ohm stable for future use. I will be using an MS8.
PS: I have 2 ONX4.80's on hand. Should I use them or upgrade?

Listen to TaylorFade, he is probably most knowledgeble on budget sq systems, and a really good guy //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[destined2race 10+ year member]

Listen to TaylorFade, he is probably most knowledgeble on budget sq systems, and a really good guy //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Bro I lol'd at your avatar. nice. And to the op, are you looking for matching amps then I take it?

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

I tend to focus on offering "budget SQ" amplifiers and I agree with the suggestions given so far. The new PPI iON amps shouldn't be overlooked. They're made in Korea, which everyone seems to consider the "good" country for amp build houses. They're not the powerhouses like the Phantoms but they're small.

 

[logan963 10+ year member]

Bro I lol'd at your avatar. nice. And to the op, are you looking for matching amps then I take it?

I just realized that was still my avatar lol

 

[firemedic7733 10+ year member]

Yes, I would prefer to have matching amps. I should have been a bit more clear, I will be using 3 amps total. Two 4 channel amps (I will use 7 of the available 8 channels) and 1 mono sub amp. The PPI amps seem to be getting a lot of good ref's. should I maybe offload my MB Quarts and go with PPI?

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

In your budget, everything is going to be pretty negligible I think. What are you using 7 channels for?

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

Boston Acoustics GTs are my go-to budget SQ amps.

 

[PPI_GUY 10+ year member]

OP, please have a look at the newer JL Audio JX series of amps. I have a JX1000/1D in my daily driver pushing two IDQ 10" subs and love it. It's compact, never gets warm and is so easy on stock electrical. I also have used a JX360/4 for mids and highs. The 4 channel is a class a/b amp if that matters in any way. Personally, I like a a/b amp on components and a class D on subs for efficency.

Someone mentioned the PPI Black Ice series as an alternative. I haven't used those amps but, I hear their internals are based on the Soundstream Rubicons which are proven performers.

OnlineCarStereo is currently having a sale on their Orion XTR series and they are pretty underrated performers. Even PowerBass might be an option as they also own Image Dynamics and are known to use the same internal in both lines.

Lots of stuff out there right now but, remember excellent SQ is more contengent on a quality install and speakers than on the choice of amplifiers.

 

[MisterDeadeye 10+ year member]

I say you should go with Audiopipe.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

I would say Alpine MRX for full range applications and PPI Phantom P600.2 or P1000.1 for subwoofers. I have seen many tests confirming that MRX full range amps have clean output with low noise, low distortion, and high channel separation. They're normally underrated by some 20-25%. They're class d amplifiers, so they're easier to install and easy on car's electrical system.