Choosing amp for system and best set up?

[JDR]

Hi!

I’m in need of some help choosing an amp for my boat and figuring out how to best set it up. we have a ‘96 MC prostar 205 and I just bought a Big Air H20.3 tower with 2- 6.5in kicker bullet speakers(specs are posted below). We have a pioneer Deb-4300ub head unit powering 4 infinity 6.5in kappa speakers right now. And it actually sounds pretty good. But now with adding a new amp I’m wondering if I should just get an amp to power just the 2 bullet speakers or if I should get a bigger amp and add some or all of the infinity speakers to it. My knowledge of speakers is very limited and any help is much appreciated!


Thank you, Jason


6.5" Bullet Speaker Specs

Woofer: 6-1/2 Inches
Tweeter: 1/2 Inch
Impedance: 4 Ohms
Power Handling: 65 RMS
195 Watts Peak Power Rating
Sensitivity: 90 dB
Frequency Response: 35Hz to 21kHz

[MLA]

An amp like the Wet Sounds HTX-6 will power the new tower speakers, all 4 existing in-boats, and another pair of you wanted to add later.

[JDR]

Thanks for the quick response MLA! That would be a great amp but I forgot to add that I’m only wanting to spend around 150$ and I’m trying to maximize my budget, so that amp is just too much $ for me.

[MLA]

A chnl amp at the minimum, would allow you yo power the 2 new tower speakers and existing 4 in-boats, but now room to add additional in-boats.

You could leave the 4 in-boats on the head and bridge a small 4 chnl amp to just the towers. This would get you most wattage for your money.

Sorry, I do not have any brand/models recommendations in that price point.

[JDR]

Is there any other specs I should be looking for or can I buy any four channel amp?

[MLA]

You are going to bridge the amp into 2 chnl mode just for the tower pods, id look for one that is in the 150W rms x 2 @ 4 ohm range. Thats more then enough for a 6.5" tower speaker.

If you are to run it 4 chnl mode and power all 6 speakers, id want an amp thats 70+ watts rms X 4 @ 4 ohm.

Just steer clear of those boasting astronomical wattage outputs. Those are typically false or unrealistic peak outputs.

[CruisinGA]

Check out Precision Power. I've heard it's a decent "high value" line. I have one powering my Rev8's and it has worked well for me and it's at your price point.
I'm sure it is no where near as good as what MLA would set up, but it's worked fine for me.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005KVEPVO/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[JDR]

Right on, thanks for the detailed break down. That’s exactly the info I was looking for! Your the man.

And I’ll look into that one, cruisin. Thanks for the recommendation!

[Rossterman]

Ppi phantom or the nvx clone is an awesome amp for the money. They are made by the same company that produces polk’s marine amps and are carbon copies. Same features and specs as polk but way cheaper price. Car stereo review gave them excellent reviews and testing showed they actually put out more power then their ratings! Class D so small size, less heat, and lower current draw than traditional A/B class amps. I have all 3 models (in polk versions)- mono amp running boat’s under dash sub; 4 channel running kicker HLCD 6 pack on the tower; 5 channel in my truck running speakers and sub. They put out huge power and run very cool. No hiss, hum, or distortion either.

[ccelia]

I have two PPI 900.4 amps sitting on the shelf - shoot me a PM if you are interested.