Why is an amp so important? What differences will I notice? Kappa Five, worth it?

[crewxp 10+ year member]

Why is an amp so important? I've seen $50 500W amps on eBay and strangely, a 300W 5.1channel (500W total) amp for 500.00

...so I was just curious, what makes an amp so important? What differences will I hear when I try using a Alpine 500W Amp vs a Infiniti Kappa Five Amp?

I was thinking about getting this:

2010 & Up Camaro Coupe Integrated Amp/Sub/Stealth Enclosure *New*

But it is REALLY expensive. A guy at bestbuy told me that I can get a Alpine 500W amp (same wattage as the infiniti kappa five) and save about 400.00

The Kit Im looking at has:

(1) 5th Gen. Large Driver's Side Stealth Enclosure

With Built-In Amp Rack And Cover Plate

(1)5th Gen Factory Amp Replacement Kit

(1) Infinity KappaFive 5 Channel Amp

50w x 4 @ 4ohms plus 300w x 1 @ 2ohms

(1) Infinity Reference 12" dual 4ohm Sub

Power, ground, fuse, rca cables included

Is it worth it you think? I've used a Aline 500W amp in the past and I thought it sounded alright. Will there be a difference?

Click to read more...

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

A quality amplifier is important if you want something that gives you rated power and won't crap out on you. There are some diamonds in the rough out there, but, for the most part, a $50, 500 watt amplifier is a POS that may deliver less power than your stock radio. Things to factor into an amplifiers cost would be design quality, build quality, customer service track record, and overall company greed.

With all that typed, just because something is more expensive, doesn't mean it is automatically "the best". Brands like Critical Mass and AC Shockwave come to mind for having outrageous pricing for average products. Granted, there are some nice items in the Critical Mass lineup, but there is NO WAY I would spend $12k on their ULA-A5! If I was going to start putting that kind of money into a car stereo, it would be from the Audison Thesis line!

 

[crewxp 10+ year member]

Thanks.

So is choosing the Infinity KappaFive 5 Channel Amp over the Alpine 500W a big step up? Will I notice differences?

 

[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

A quality amplifier is important if you want something that gives you rated power and won't crap out on you. There are some diamonds in the rough out there, but, for the most part, a $50, 500 watt amplifier is a POS that may deliver less power than your stock radio. Things to factor into an amplifiers cost would be design quality, build quality, customer service track record, and overall company greed.
With all that typed, just because something is more expensive, doesn't mean it is automatically "the best". Brands like Critical Mass and AC Shockwave come to mind for having outrageous pricing for average products. Granted, there are some nice items in the Critical Mass lineup, but there is NO WAY I would spend $12k on their ULA-A5! If I was going to start putting that kind of money into a car stereo, it would be from the Audison Thesis line!

I was thinkin more JL for that lol

 

[Wingman0121 10+ year member]

That package that you listed is for 2010 Camaro that has factory Boston Acoustics premium system so it won't work unless you have that in your vehicle.

Amp is important because the amp is essentially the engine in a vehicle. You have old chevy 350 V8s in 1992 Camaros that does like 200hp and you have LS3 V8s in the new 2010 Camaro that does 426hp, they're both V8s but one is much stronger than the other but also costs more.

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

I was thinkin more JL for that lol

I don't recall JL Audio having any $12,000 amplifiers nor do I recall them rebadging "custom" build house products. Last I heard, they still design their own products at JL Audio.

 

[Sarthos 10+ year member]

Will you notice an actual difference in the sound of two amps of any relatively decent quality? No. Unless you already have every other part of your system perfect.

As for the pricing difference, what you're paying for is reliability, and power output. If an amp says 500 watts output, then later specifies that 500 watts is the maximum output at 1 ohm, then upon testing you find that the maximum voltage (at 100% clipping) is 20 volts, you now know the maximum, 100% clipped wattage is 400 watts at 1 ohm. The maximum RMS could then be 200 watts. But then the thing probably has too small of a heatsink and is horribly inefficient so at 200 watts it'll overheat and eventually it turns out that 50 watts at 4 ohms is the only way to run it without overheating. So you're paying a tenth as much and getting a tenth the power.

 

[jeffsanders 10+ year member]

you have two options here, 1 sub, or 3 subs, and I've never heard a amp that was 10 cents per watt that was worth listening to: 500 watt amp for $50=junk. Infinity KappaFive is a decent amp. look here for enclosures / subs that will work... Chevrolet Camaro Stealthbox by JL Audio

 

[whitedragon551 5,000+ posts]

I was considering the Kappa Five when I was looking at 5 channels. I decided to go with an older XA5000. They are some nice amps, but you can most likely find a good amp for a cheaper price. You can try eBay out as well. There are a boat load of good 5 channels out there: Kicker 10ZX700.5, Infiniti Kappa.5, XA5000, Cadence ZRS C8, Old school DEI650, Memphis Belle's, Polk Audio PA1100.5, Alpine PDX-5, Infiniti 5350A, Powerbass ASA700.5x, ASA1100.5x, etc. Just browse around for something you like and come back if you have questions regarding reliability, ratings, price, etc.

Infinity Kappa Five-Z 5 Channel Class-D Amplifier - eBay (item 150567181129 end time Feb-24-11 17:32:44 PST)