Shaner... Yes, an amp may be needed... I like having it, but it all depends on what type of music you listen to and what you think is good. Only the low freq really need tons of power. I've heard mid-range+tweeter combos that got louder and cleaner with 18WRMS then my 50Wrms, and no my amp is not cheap... and my speakers are very efficient... On the other hand I have never heard a sub that gout louder and cleaner with less power... IT may exist out there, but I bet its expensive and hard to find .


Barry is already running 27wrms x 4... that is actually a lot of power (assuming Alpine isnt fibbing)... I bet its very clean for upper freqs too... I think with rear speaker it may be adequate for his listening tastes (he repeatedly says that he isn't a bass freak).


Now as far as the crossing off, It all depends on where he crosses it off. 6.5s cannot reproduce anything below ~70Hz (at least not cleanly), no matter how clean the power source. I really think all 6.5s should be crossed above 65 Hz (a little discrepancy between my two #s, but I think a little distorted bass is better then none).

BTW, I have used the EQ method (and actually that is what I'm using right now), but amazingly with the correct set of notes it will still distort at high volumes. I'm going to buy a test CD soon and find out what is really going on.

Of course all I've just said is opinions, I've never actually tested every 6.5 out there (only about 12 or 13 pairs all different brands).
-- Robert

 

If you want clean undistorted full range sound that will drown out ANY road noise, use my signature line for a shopping list. You will need amplifiers, big ones. The rest will be details. Your neighbors will hate you, and people on the freeway give you weird looks. Keep the volume down unless you need it. While you may not be a basshead, only use the power if you need it. And/or might I recommend installing an 8" sub in the passenger footwell. Definitely get an amplifier and seperates though. Crossover your mids at 120hz-ish and install some kind of sub. Most road noise at 80mph is towards the low end of the listening spectrum, so WILL need the oomph down there.

 

Robert, that is a really helpful post. I'll have rear Polk EX402a speakers installed by Saturday. Lucid is shipping them back to me today.

I suspect the Alpine CDA-7876 really is 27 watts rms x 4 when supplied with enough amps. Mine is with a good ground and a 6 or 8 gauge direct battery connection. Note that 27 watts rms x 4 does not mean 108 simultaneous watts because ALL head manufacturers rate their heads with one channel driven at a time, as I understand it.

My Alpine allows high pass set for OFF or 80 Hz or 120 Hz or 160 Hz. After hearing your discussion, I'll just set it at 80 for now. Hopefully, I'll get the Kenwood xr600s to give me some bass.

The CDA;7876 bass control is quite flexible. You can set the center of the control anywhere from 80 hz to 150 hz in 10 hz jumps and set the width of the control in 4 steps and set the amount of boost/attenutation if 15 steps from max boost to max attenuation. I'm going to leave that flat for now.

The CDA-7876 has BBE which seems to act like the old "loudness" setting, boosting low and high frequencies at low volumes, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, this weekend, free-time-permitting, I'll post my impression of how I'm doing with the hole system after adding my rears.

 

It depends on your preference.

I like to hear my music, so I installed an amp. I'm running a 75x2rms to my door speakers and 200x1rms to my sub.

It sounds great at 80mph.

My issue now is with all my music, I can't hear my radar detector. I'm resolving that soon, though.

Good luck!!!