Thoughts on Polk Audio Speakers/Amp?

[phenryiv1]

I wonder if those would work for an 09 Forester. I just did my buddy's system and the brackets supplied by Crutchfield were a laughable joke. I ended up reusing the OEM speaker frame after some Dremel work.

 

Nice product BTW, I subscribed to the link in your sig for future reference

They WILL work for a forester, according to all of my measurements (my brother has a forester). If your buddy would like to be a "public" tester just to confirm fit to the masses, have him contact me and I will send him a set for actual cost.

[maddoc]

By the way, THIS is a HELL of a deal:

 

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_39518_Image-Dynamics-ID12-V.3-D4-Sub-CTX-6.5cs-and-CTX65-Speakers-FREE-RE-Audio-XTX500.5-Amplifier.html

 

HOLY SHIT. It's in stock again?!

 

I don't think I want a 12" sub.. but I want the rest

 

edit: I bought it...crap - someone go buy my crap, my CC is getting up there !

[phenryiv1]

HOLY SHIT. It's in stock again?!

 

I don't think I want a 12" sub.. but I want the rest

 

edit: I bought it...crap - someone go buy my crap, my CC is getting up there !

Good deal all around, there. You can always sell the sub if you want to, but that was a smokin' deal. If I had not already bought an amp and components, I would have been all over that.

 

The amp is smaller and yet more powerful than my Boston amp, and the components/coaxials are both good quality. I don't really like the box size of a 12" sub, but for that price I would live with it.

 

I still paid less for the equivalent parts of my setup, BUT I still don't have rear speakers. Even with adding those exact rear speakers, I'd be ahead on cost but that amp is a $340 amp on its own. With it being a 5-channel, it would be more than enough to power everything that I have planned for my setup in the WRX.

[maddoc]

Yeah, I looked up the amp and was immediately sold due to the price of the amp! I'm hoping the rear speakers fit in nice and the fact that I only am going to need to run 1 amp is awesome (hopefully it'll give me enough power for some good oontz). I was always told to run a 4-Ch and a Mono - is there a difference? Now I need to figure out where I can hide the amp and still get it the right amount of cool air.

[phenryiv1]

It should be fine under the seat.

 

And the 4-channel + a mono amp thing is something of a personal preference thing. Back when amps were less efficient and mor epower-hungry, you did not want your front stage to suffer from a voltage drop caused by a big bass hit, but to me, that logic always seemed counter-intuitive. 2 power supplies (in different amps) seem like they would be more of a draw on the charging system than would be a single amp with 1 power supply, even if it were a fairly large amp.

[BigTDogg MA]

They WILL work for a forester, according to all of my measurements (my brother has a forester). If your buddy would like to be a "public" tester just to confirm fit to the masses, have him contact me and I will send him a set for actual cost.

 

Thanks, wish I had known before. We both have young kids, so getting free time to do the work (he lives an hour away) is tough. If he changes his mind I'll let you know.

[maddoc]

It should be fine under the seat.

 

And the 4-channel + a mono amp thing is something of a personal preference thing. Back when amps were less efficient and mor epower-hungry, you did not want your front stage to suffer from a voltage drop caused by a big bass hit, but to me, that logic always seemed counter-intuitive. 2 power supplies (in different amps) seem like they would be more of a draw on the charging system than would be a single amp with 1 power supply, even if it were a fairly large amp.

Ah ha - so I guess a capacitor isn't really necessary then? I think I may mount the amp in the trunk below the rear shelf if there is room.

 

I just went back and looked at the deal - only one left in stock. They go QUICK!

[rexster]

If you're thinking about getting anything from Polk, check here first:

 

http://stores.ebay.com/Polk-Audio-Direct

 

They run some really good deals from time to time. Some of it is reconditioned, some of them are brand new with full warranty. I got one of their 10" MM subs to replace an old Boston sub that I ran for about 14 years. The sub was brand new and half price. It sounds good, I don't think I could have found anything better for what I paid. The MM series is pretty good, and Polk is a pretty good value as a brand overall. But if you can get it for 1/2 price it can be a real bargain. I have some of their full size towers in my house that I like, but I have never heard their separates. I'm sure they are decent, I run Boston Pro separates and I have a set of A/D/S separates as well.

[Scorps]

On my old car, i went for a 4 channel amp, with 4 speakers, and later on got a sub.

 

i had to connect the 4 speakers to the front 2 channels and the sub to the 2 back channels.

 

for my new legacy, since i am keeping the old sub, i actually got this: http://www.bostonacoustics.com/GTA-1105-P742.aspx

 

5 channel amp, 70 Watts x 4 RMS for the speakers and 250 Watts x 1 RMS for the sub.

 

will be installing it this weekend, and let you all know how it sounds.

 

also, for the speakers i got 4 of http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/spr-60/

[garbo41610]

i had to connect the 4 speakers to the front 2 channels and the sub to the 2 back channels.

Why??? Why didn't you run Front L/R off channels 1 and 2 and bridge the sub over channels 3 and 4 and run your rears off the headunit???

[cwo715]

it'd be nice if you could somehow customize a stealth box into the spare tire space then have your amps mounted right behind the rear seats. Would at least let you keep ample trunk space and have a clean look. OR the one ten centered and set back against the seat, and the amps setup staggered on the left or right side of it... course then you'd lose your ample trunk space... make sure you use an L bracket to keep your sub from sliding around in the trunk if you go this route.

 

Also just get 2 amps or one powerful 5 channel. IMO think about a capacitor if your gonna run a lot of power. like maddoc said above about the older amps being efficient and more power hungry; but you could just pick one up to be on the safe side. Dont go the way of using your headunit, everything will be out of tune.

[Scorps]

Why??? Why didn't you run Front L/R off channels 1 and 2 and bridge the sub over channels 3 and 4 and run your rears off the headunit???

 

Because running 2x 6.5" at 75 watts RMS off the Amp, and running 2x 6x9 at 25 watts peak off the headunit would not sound very good, might as well not have the rear speakers, since they are not gonna have enough power going to them.

 

it still sounded good having the 4 speakers coming out of the 2 front outputs.

 

my point was, Think ahead, if you are gonna get a sub later, get a 5 channel amp, or think about getting a second amp.

[garbo41610]

Fair enough, if it sounded good to you, that's all that matters. Rear speakers are a bit redundant anyway, unless you have regular rear passengers. Most people, including myself, never run rear speakers in any SQ comp cars as it pulls the staging too far to the rear and to me, and SQ comp judges, it ends up sounding terrible.