[Invinsible]

Originally Posted by abhibh

An honest suggestion stay away from JL HD & Alpine PDX if you are looking for SQ.

Jl HDs are far better compared to the PDX amp in regards to sound quality. It's hard to defferetiate between the Jl slash class AB amps and the HDs in terms of overall SQ.


But as naughty suggested if you going to power the rear you can get the coax instead of comps for the same. All the amps that are mentioned are all good. Adding to the list new soundstream reference series. DlS are more musical than the JL's. JL slash series tend to have more flatter sound. Amongst the comps you can opt for DlS, Alpine, Rainbow, JBl power series keeping the budget of about 300-400$. What ever comp or amp you choose make sure the amps power rating is close to or more to that of the comps.

Two great package in SQ HU's will be Clarion DXZ785 or kenwood that is mentioned.

I would suggest dont compromise on the comps and Headunit.

[donarun]

Originally Posted by panky12345

donarun: cheapest in most cases would be ebay.. but again, you need to be quite cautious in choosing sellers that match the lowest price!! pay through paypal and you never get wrong!

i found this deal to be the cheapest for DLS RA50 ... and also it says paypal. Would it be a risk buying from here ?

NEW 2010 DLS RA50 REFERENCE SERIES 5 CHANNEL AMPLIFIER - eBay (item 360230827746 end time Feb-09-10 13:25:01 PST)

[abhibh]

HU
Clarion DXZ785 / Kenwood X693 around $180

Amp
1. DLS RA-40
2. iD Q450.4
3. JL 450/4 V1 or V2

All the above amps costs anywhere between 400-450$. I would suggest you get a 4CH amp and power the rears via HU.

Components
1. Rainbow SLC NG 265 or SLC265 NG KICK if you like a lot of midbass kick (if you can spend around $250-300 for components and leave the coxials in the budget)
Otherwise

2. DLS R6A
3. Rainbow SLX265 or if you can find Rainbow SLG Kick 265 (A lot of midbass kick in these)
4. Infinity Kappa Perfect
5. Diamond Audio (Heard a few of them are good check reviews online and go for Soft dome tweeter as they come in both soft dome and aluminum version)

Subwoofer
If you prefer your Tight, light and accurate bass want the sub to be transparent then iDQV2D2 for $150.
Or you can opt for iD10V3D2 for $160 if you prefer tight and loud bass.

2. Infinity Kappa Perfect 10.1

3. JLW6 or W7 (Go for W7 only if you are interested in output. I have auditioned both W6 & W7 and W6 is way better and musical than W7)

Both the HU's cost the same so don't fiddle with HU options. Pick whichever you like more. Rest you have a lot of options to pick up from. So according to your budget pick up stuff. Make an excel sheet and see what suits your budget best.

Best of luck.

[donarun]

@ All
I'm not too well versed with the technicalities of ICE setup. I have a few clarifications (some of them might be very dumb/basic) ... but I'm really eager to increase my awareness in this regard.

1. The DLS RA 50 has the following specs ...
Output power @ 4 ohm - 4 x 70 W RMS
Output power @ 2 ohm - 4 x 110 W RMS
Mono bridge mode @ 4 ohm - 2 x 220 W RMS
Mono sub channel @ 4 ohm - 1 x 265 W RMS
Mono sub channel @ 2 ohm - 1 x 365 W RMS

Will it be possible to run the front 2 ch's & the mono for sub on 2 ohms load and rear 2 ch's on 4 ohms load simultaneously ? Would it harm the amplifier ?

2. The DLS UP6i is rated 150 RMS @ 4ohm. Can I connect this speaker to the DLS RA50 running on 2 ohm load (i.e. 110 RMS/ch) ? Or will it blow either the speaker / amplifier ? In general can a 2 ohm load signal be fed to a 4 ohm speaker and vice versa ?

3. Why is it always suggested to have a good set of comps for the front, coaxials for rear & a sub but power only the front comps and Sub with a good 4ch amp ?

4. Why cant we have have the same kind of comps for both front & rear & a sub and power them all with suitable amplifier / amplifiers ?

5. The DLS R6A seems to have the cone made of non-pressed paper. Would it survive the harsh indian weather (hot/wet), if fixed on the car's door panels ?

6. Finally can the DLS R6A / DLS UP6i be fixed on the door panels of a Santro ?

Thanks,
Arun

[pranava999]

Originally Posted by abhibh

An honest suggestion stay away from JL HD & Alpine PDX if you are looking for SQ.

Hey abhibh any particular reason you consider the pdx amp not a good option for sq? I have a pdx 5 running in my set up and its quite a wonderful amp especially when it comes to strong mid and high freq performance.

[donarun]

Friends, I have finally decided on few setup configurations (most of them meet my $1000 budget), please advice which would be better to satisfy the following requirements i.e. music needs to be clear, detailed and warm at the same time.

Setup 1
Amplifier - Infinity KAPPA Four / MB Quart DSC 4125 / Alpine F600
Speakers (both F & R) - DLS Ultimate UP6i / DLS Ultimate UP6

Setup 2
Amplifier - DLS Reference RA40 / Rockford Fostgate T600 / JL Audio slash V2 300/4v2
Speakers (both F & R) - DLS Reference R6A / Infinity KAPPA Perfect 6.1 / Infinity KAPPA 60.9CS / Boston Acoustics SR60

Setup 3 (This overshoots my budget but can be met only if its really really worth it!)
Amplifier - DLS Reference RA40
Speakers (both F & R) - DLS Ultimate UP6i / DLS Ultimate UP6

The Sub stage is planned for a later date due to budget constraints.

Thanks.

[Invinsible]

As per setup 1 I would say Alpine F600 with UP6i comps.
Setup2: DlS amp or JL audio slash and DLS R6A or Infinity kappa perfect.
Setup3: The other Setup I would Say JBL gti mkII components which is available at 300$ at wooferetc.com or the DLS iridium comps with Infinity kappa amp / Soundstream Ref 9.420 (strongly recommend) balance money can be invested in getting a good decent sub something like IDv3 / dayton audio HO / RE audio SX or you can pick Ground zero sub from here which run of under bridge mode of the rear channel of the amp.
Pick up a cheaper coax and 2 channel amp from here for rear filling.

okay - ive had a look at the options you are requesting about - as far as i know some of the DLS amps were designed by genesis for DLS - so i like the idea of using a DLS amp and if you wished to stick to a single brand setup then id suggest that RA40 is great so stick to that amplifier

but in terms of the speakers - well i am more into SQ where the idea is that the system needs to play you a sound that is reminiscent of a realistic performance ie as if you are sitting in the centre of the fifth row at a live performance which means that you need a three dimensional sound stage which has width depth and height in front of you - so to me the front speakers are the ones that are important

in this scenario rear fill is all about ambient sound ie it must simulate reflections off the rear wall of the concert arena hence it will be time aligned and also band limited in other words all the frequencies of the sound spectrum will not be represented ie no treble required and it will also be time aligned so that it suitably just represents an echo and that is what is meant by rear fill which means you need a processor to perform that function of providing this functionality to those speakers

most people though just consider rear fill to be higher frequency sound for rear seat passengers and when this is the case it is not important to actually bother with great speakers because those would draw your attention away from whats happening in the front speakers which results in a loss of coherence ... which is why i prefer to have only just a weak set of speakers which are powered off the headunit instead of a second set of great speakers

my opinion is that you should use the 4 channel amplifier to power one set of components for now with a modestly powered cheap subwoofer and leave the rear fill as a cheap coaxial powered from the rear channels of the headunit onboard power so you can fade that out if there are no rear passengers

the front amplified stage should receive a signal from the front pre-out and the sub obviously recieves a signal from the subwoofer preouts. At a later stage if you want a better subwoofer with it's own dedicated amplifier you can use the DLS to run your component set actively so that you will feed the tweeters with their own channels of power and ditto for the woofers but you will need to remove the passive crossover and use an active unit (sometimes these are built in into some of the more SQ orientated headunits or you could invest in a good processor which allows you complete control of all processing functionality)

so according to the logic of what i have said above what i would personally chose is actually the DLS RA40 amplifier and then one set of component speakers maybe higher up the range if i can afford it cos it concentrates the good music where it needs to be good so i would go for a set of the iridiums and get a really cheap coaxials for the rear fill no need to even sonically match them so they can be any brand and then i would get a subwoofer (here you can get one which needs a decent amount of power if you wish because if you are going to upgrade to a subwoofer amplifier later then get something that you dont need to change and underpower it for a while but just be careful that you dont try to pick up volume levels to where the amplifier clips and match the impedance to what the bridged channels of the RA40 would be able to handle ie no use to get a 4 ohm DVC subwoofer that will have an impedance of 2 ohms because it wont play with this amplifier - whereas you can get a dual 2ohm dvc subwoofer because it can be run in series to a nominal impedance of 4 ohms, so when you upgrade to a dedicated subwoofer amplifier which is satronger and also handles lower impedances all you do is add a second identical subwoofer so the power from the amp increases as well as increased cone area from two subs gives you more output than one sub would

all the while the rear fill can be left powered from the head unit but going active for the front stage will give you other sonic benefits that make the sound better and later upgrading the subwoofer will give you as much great bass as you like

that is how i would personally run my system and in fact it is how i am configuring my system ie multiple channel amplifier for the active front stage, and a big amplifier for the pair of subs that ive got, and rear fill powered from the headunit which has an option to switch off the headunits onboard power as well as to fade it ... and this system works perfectly for me

[donarun]

@naughty001 - I'm really overwhelmed with your much detailed (technical) responses. Thank you very much.

@abhibh - Thank you very much for your detailed listing of choice of equipments.

@Invinsible - Appreciate your help in the deciding on the configurations.

@others - your interests in this thread are much appreciated.

Will keep you all posted on the final configuration.

Originally Posted by donarun

@naughty001 - I'm really overwhelmed with your much detailed (technical) responses. Thank you very much.

........

Will keep you all posted on the final configuration.

pleasure - I hope that between all the responses we all were able to assist you to decide on a configuration that suits your needs and also sounds really good to you and gives you many hours of listening pleasure because at the end of the day thats what it is all about

[donarun]

Hello All,

I have kinda arrived at the configuration, pls feel free to post all your comments.

Front speakers - Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1
Wanted to go for DLS R6A / DLS UP6i speakers, but felt R6A would be difficult to safeguard the non pressed paper cones from indian conditions (weather, vehicle service). The UP6i is rated 150w RMS, the amps i have in mind push only in the range of 75-85 RMS. Felt the speaker's potential would be wasted.

Rear speakers - Infinity Kappa 62.9 / may continue to use my exisiting infinity ref 3way 6*9. Rear will be driven by the HU.

For amplifiers it boils down to the below 3
1. DLS RA40 (many at tbhp prefer the RA40)
2. DLS Ultimate A5
3. Focal Solid 4 (heard a setup powered by this amp, the music was good. The amp was very small, more or less the size of a A4 sheet paper)

The amp will be used to power only the front comps and rear sub. No plans for an active setup even in future. Which amp would best suit my setup ? How old are these DLS amp designs ? Focal solid seems to be relatively new to the market.

The focal solid 4 retails for $400 (incld shipping) at crutchfield, they are authorized Focal dealers. The DLS RA40 and A5 retails for $420 & $535 respectively at sonic electronix (excld shipping). Sonic electronix claims themselves to be authorized internet dealer for DLS, but nothing of this sort is mentioned in DLS website. I also read that there were lot of fake DLS amps doing rounds in the market. Would it be safe to buy DLS gear from Sonic ? Pls advice.

Subwoofer - Yet to be finalized.

cheers,
arun

[donarun]

Originally Posted by donarun

Hello All,

I have kinda arrived at the configuration, pls feel free to post all your comments.

All,

Guess I was wrong in making that statement so early. Every day there's a change in choice of equipments (thanks to tbhp). The more I read through the forum the more i get confused & spoilt for choices. Now that I have jumped into this bottomless pool, I'm slowly realizing that the $1000 budget would no suffice my ICE greeds. A colleague of mine's flying down from the states. I have to decide on a amp place the order soon. Please help in deciding from the below choices,

1. DLS Ultimate A5
This is a 3-Channel Class AB amplifier and not a 5 ch as we would presume from the name. The amp specs are
4 ohms: 85 watts x 2 ch + 300 watts (mono) x 1 sub ch
2 ohms: 100 watts x 2 ch + 500 watts (mono) x 1 sub ch
This amp is capable of 2ohms stable.
The mono channel is also capable of 1 ohm stable, doing 780 W RMS

For further reference pls refer to
A5 - DLS Ultimate 3 Channel 500 Watt Amplifier

2. Boston Acoustics ST-42
This is another amp capable of 2ohms stable. The amp specs are
@14.4 V DC
100 watts x 4 chan. @ 4 ohms
150 watts x 4 chan. @ 2 ohms
300 watts x 2 chan. @ 4 ohms
450 watts x 2 chan. @ 2 ohms

@12.6 V DC:
75 watts x 4 chan. @ 4 ohms
120 watts x 4 chan. @ 2 ohms
220 watts x 2 chan. @ 4 ohms
350 watts x 2 chan. @ 2 ohms

For further reference pls refer to
http://www.woofersetc.com/p130/GT42-...-Amplifier.htm

3. Rainbow iPaul 4.300
Amp specs are
4 Ohms: 4 x 90 Watts RMS
2 Ohms: 4 x 140 Watts RMS
4 Ohms Bridged: 2 x 270 Watts RMS

For further reference pls refer to iPaul 4.300 - Rainbow iPaul 4 Channel 540 Watt Amplifier

My plan is to power the front and sub through amp. In future if the need for rear fills arises I plan to use the pioneer amp which I own.

The 4 ch amps are flexible and can be leveraged for different kind of setups with 2 ch bridged to drive a subwoofer, but would output be similar to a mono block ? On the other hand the DLS has a inbuilt mono block which is even capable of 1 ohm stable (mentioned in DLS website).

Which of the above amps would suit my requirement better ?

[abhibh]

I will go for the DLS or the iPaul. Both suits your requirements.

Which subwoofer are you planning to go for ?

[donarun]

Originally Posted by abhibh

I will go for the DLS or the iPaul. Both suits your requirements.

Which subwoofer are you planning to go for ?

Subwoofer I have in mind are
1. iDQ12V2 / iDQ10V2
2. iD12V3 / iD10V3
3. RF Punch P3

Are these easily available in india ? How much do they cost ?
With the choice of amps in frame, which is better, sub with single voice coil or a sub with dual voice coil ?

[abhibh]

Originally Posted by donarun

Subwoofer I have in mind are
1. iDQ12V2 / iDQ10V2
2. iD12V3 / iD10V3
3. RF Punch P3

Are these easily available in india ? How much do they cost ?
With the choice of amps in frame, which is better, sub with single voice coil or a sub with dual voice coil ?

AFAIK iDQV2 is not available in India anymore. iD12V3 / iD10V3 & RF Punch are available in India.

I have no idea of the cost of any of those but they must be around ~ 10-15k

Both SVC and DVC can work with any of the amps you have listed. If you go for DVC 2 Ohm you can run it at 4 OHM as well as 1 OHM (DLS has an advantage here if its stable at 1 OHM). Considering you have a Santro and you are not looking for too much SPL, any of the amps will be able to drive the sub with good enough bass level at 4 OHM's.