Design question

[fruitbum]

Hi guys, new here and I'm doing an install in a '09 Camry Hybrid. I picked up two comp. sets of Rainbow SLC 6.5's and one set of Rainbow SLC 5.25 comps. The setup was going to be the 6.5's in front and rear doors w/ the 5.25's in kick-panels. I'm running the AQ HDC310 10" sub off of the AQ 1200 amp. I still have the job of choosing my comp. speaker amp(s). I'm split between a tube amp setup or the Zapco Reference DC750.2 coupled with the Zapco DRC-SL processor.

My question is are the rear doors overkill and maybe an added expense I may not hear? If I go with 6.5's in the front door and 5.25's in kick-panels should be great? Can I run a 2-ohm stable amp for all comps in front? What's the best approach in choosing my amp setup with the speakers I have?

Second question is how does the Zapco line up for SQ? I'm torn between that and tube?

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[neo_styles 10+ year member]

Rear doors will end up overkill in that type of setup. Rainbows are known for SQ, but I honestly couldn't tell you what advantage I had when I was running Rainbows in the front and on the rear deck. As for the amp, the Zapco would be my recommendation. Tubes are great in home audio where the environment is controlled, but there's too much stuff in a car that could cause those tubes to go bad, adding to the expense. Zapco makes great, clean power and should bring those Rainbows to life. Definitely a great SQ amp.

 

[fruitbum]

And Audison or Mac looks good too? Also, to run front stage 5.25's and front door 6.5's am I looking at two 2-channel amps or one four-channel amp? Either will work?

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

Zapco is high quality, IMO. Both Mac and Audison are great as well. I wouldn't put anything in the rear. I actually have Rainbow 265 slx deluxes in my Explorer, they get plenty loud. They are on an eD 9.2x, about 200 watts per side available. Any sound coming from the rear sounds odd to me. Say, when you are at a concert, they don't put speakers behind you. On another note, you'd be better off running a different woofer or more power to that woofer to get everything out of it.