Help me choose amp and electrical and HU

[gibson]

I have a 95 suburban and I just got 3 15 adire brahmas. i built a box that is right around 7.8 cubic feet sealed. i having them running at 1.34 off a hifonics brutus 1605d which is ''rated" at 1600 at 1 ohm. they sound really bad when i turn it up and the gain is pretty low, also my power meter drops way down into the red zone. i would like to know if it sounds bad due to not enough power from my amp or from not enough power to my amp from the vehicle. either way i need to get a big enough amp to power these, and a real beast too. im going for sq so any suggestions? i know its hard to find an sq amp in this power range but im looking for ideas. im sure someone will suggest the SA3500 but i would also like to hear some other opinions. i also would like to know what is the best way to go about my electrical system. should i get an HO alternator? add an alternator? add a battery(and whats the best brand of battery?)??? or add capacitors? i would also like to keep price at minumum if possible.

also i need a good sq HU. i dont care much about price but i want a lot of good features and best sound possible. i think alpines sound great but id like to hear something differentif better. thanks in advance.

[Neutered Sputniks]

I won't give advice on amps as that power range is outside of my experience (although, I will say I do love the Sundowns I have in my truck more than the JL/Audison I have in my car).

As for HUs, either the Pioneer 880PRS or Eclipse CD7200mkII would be an excellent choice. My preference is Eclipse - partly b/c I prefer the Eclipse tones to those of the Pioneer but mostly because I have a few friends with the 880 and setup is much more complicated than on the Eclipse.

[gibson]

thanks alot for that. jl has the best sounding amp to my personal experience so its good to hear that you like your sundown more. isnt it more of an spl amp than it is sq tho? either way i checked out that eclipse deck and it looks sweet. why the 8v if it has no internal amplifer tho?

[Neutered Sputniks]

The 8V low impedance outputs allow better SQ by keeping the amp gain low (less amp-induced distortion from lower gain and better SQ from the HU b/c of the lower impedance).

Sundown is one of the very few SQ amps on the market. JL is geared more towards hearing that bass slap/bright highs that let inexperienced kids know their system is "loud"...

[hobie1dog]

Originally Posted by Neutered Sputniks

Sundown is one of the very few SQ amps on the market. JL is geared more towards hearing that bass slap/bright highs that let inexperienced kids know their system is "loud"...

Well said, that's exacly what I was going to say.

If you're going to upgrade the electrical, add a battery first, there's no substitute for more batteries.

Suburbans tend to have more trouble producing bass than just about any vehicle out there. ( yes, I have a 94)

[gibson]

Originally Posted by hobie1dog

Well said, that's exacly what I was going to say.

If you're going to upgrade the electrical, add a battery first, there's no substitute for more batteries.

Suburbans tend to have more trouble producing bass than just about any vehicle out there. ( yes, I have a 94)

who makes the best battery? like optima or kinetik? what are you running in your truck and what did you do as far as electrical? my truck runs at like 14 volts but when i bump it drops down to like 11.

[hobie1dog]

Originally Posted by gibson

who makes the best battery? like optima or kinetik? what are you running in your truck and what did you do as far as electrical? my truck runs at like 14 volts but when i bump it drops down to like 11.

Both of those brands are good, but you don't have to spend the extra money on those brands to get the initial benefit of an extra battery, as most will do fine. Having only one battery, you quickly drop voltage as you're storage from only one source is drained upon burping....... I'm in the process of completely re-doing my system in the Suburban, so no details yet.And I'm not going to be "burping" my system as it will only be used for actual music.

[Neutered Sputniks]

As far as batteries go, I'm running an Optima Yellowtop in my car (no room for a second, not to mention the weight...jeez) and haven't seen any real power issues (approx 800W total system power).

The truck has killed a Red Top and a couple Yellow Tops over the years. Right now I'm onto a diff brand (still AGM deep cycle), but I'm not sure exactly which (I don't spend much time working on the truck these days).


Here's some interesting reading on batteries I just found:
Deep Cycle Battery FAQ

Probably more than you wanted to know... lol

[gibson]

Originally Posted by hobie1dog

Both of those brands are good, but you don't have to spend the extra money on those brands to get the initial benefit of an extra battery, as most will do fine. Having only one battery, you quickly drop voltage as you're storage from only one source is drained upon burping....... I'm in the process of completely re-doing my system in the Suburban, so no details yet.And I'm not going to be "burping" my system as it will only be used for actual music.

so i can buy some regular batterys and those would be the same? cuz my current battery is 850 cca which is more than those gel batterys so i was wondering if i could just build a case in my trunk with like 4 of these as opposed to 2 yellow caps for the same price? do batterys increase the voltage meter at all?

[Electrodynamic]

Extra batteries stabilize the voltage under current draw, they don't increase your voltage. And if you have the room and the money you can buy higher quantities of a lesser battery and achieve similar results.