Alpine PDX Amplifiers?

[Timmy!]

Are Alpine PDX amps good? My buddy has a PDX 4.150 that he said he would sell me for $250 and I just wanted to get opinions if you think they are any good. His system sounds really good with the PDX amps. I would power my Wetsounds Pro 60's off of 2 channels and then some of my cabin or bow speakers off of the other 2 to relieve the Kicker 700.5 from having to drive 7 speakers (8 including sub).

[majestic]

Are Alpine PDX amps good? My buddy has a PDX 4.150 that he said he would sell me for $250 and I just wanted to get opinions if you think they are any good. His system sounds really good with the PDX amps. I would power my Wetsounds Pro 60's off of 2 channels and then some of my cabin or bow speakers off of the other 2 to relieve the Kicker 700.5 from having to drive 7 speakers (8 including sub).

I think the PDX amps are great. I have 3 in my boat 1 PDX-5, and 2 PDX 4.100's.

[chpthril]

The Alpine PDX amps are good amps. They are Class D, so it will run cool with low power consumption. For your Pro60's, the 4.150 will deliver 150 watts rms, which is perfect, but IMO, too much for a single cabin speakers.

If 2 of the seven speakers running on the 700.5 are the Pro60's, then that leaves 5 cabin speaker What did your dealer/installer do with # 6, as they do come in pairs

[Timmy!]

My dealer didn't do anything with them, it came from Tige that way. My boat has the tower of power option or something like that. The oddball speaker is under the helm next to the subwoofer and I think the other 4 are in normal locations. I might be wrong and it might be 4 in the cabin and 2 in the bow but I can't find any pics that I have to show me otherwise.

Right now the Pro 60's are running off of a Kicker ZX 200.2 and it's just not enough power for them.

[chpthril]

My dealer didn't do anything with them, it came from Tige that way. My boat has the tower of power option or something like that. The oddball speaker is under the helm next to the subwoofer and I think the other 4 are in normal locations. I might be wrong and it might be 4 in the cabin and 2 in the bow but I can't find any pics that I have to show me otherwise.

Right now the Pro 60's are running off of a Kicker ZX 200.2 and it's just not enough power for them.

The Tower O Power came with 1-2 pair of tower speakers driven by the zx350.4, 6 in-boats - 2 in bow and 2 in rear of main cabin (same as base stereo package) and then additional in the main cabin (1 under the helm by the sub and one behind the driver's seat) and a 10" sub under the helm. All driven by the zx700.5 - Sub on Class D sub chnl 5, bows on chnl 1 and 2, 2 port side main-cabins on chnl 3 and the 2 starboard main-cabins on chnl 4.

If your boat came from Tige with the Tower O Power, this is what it would have and how it should be configured. I agree that the zx200.2 is not nearly enough at only 70 watts x 2 @ 4ohm.

The zx700.5 is perfectly content running 6 speakers and the sub, but if I were to reconfigure the system and make use of the other 2 chnls of the PDX, here is what I would do.

Pull the zx200.2 and install the PDX4.150. Power the 2 Pro60's off chnls 1 and 2, each will receive 150 watts rms.

Next, pull the 2 port main-cabin speakers off chnl 3 of the zx700.5 and move them to chnl 3 of the PDX. These should already be wired in parallel (+ to +/- to -), need to make sure. And then do the same with the 2 starboard main-cabin speakers moving them over to chnl 4 of the PDX. Doing this will now give each of the four main-cabin speakers 75 watts.

Do you have an EQ? Now that you will have one 4 chnl amp driving both tower and cabin speakers, I would recommend an EQ soo you can split the signal up so you can at least have the 2 bows on the zx700.5 and the 4 main-cabins on the PDX at the same volume level, but independent from the tower. You could also config it to have independent control of the sub, or leave it on the same volume level as the cabins and just use the Bass Level Control knob, if there is one installed.

[Timmy!]

It didn't come with tower speakers so it was the option below that, whatever it was called. Will the Kicker separates take 150 watts though? Guess I would need to set the gain all the way down to ensure they don't blow (even though too much power is better than not enough).

Thanks for the recommendation!

[chpthril]

It didn't come with tower speakers so it was the option below that, whatever it was called. Will the Kicker separates take 150 watts though? Guess I would need to set the gain all the way down to ensure they don't blow (even though too much power is better than not enough).

Thanks for the recommendation!

The watts per chnl output is the same on the PDX amps whether the chnl is wire 2 ohm or 4 ohm and that output is 150 watts rms. With 2 speakers wired in parallel on a single chnl, the 2 speakers will divide that 150 watts, therefor, the net watts rms per speaker will be 75W's. That's perfect for the Kicker components. Its actually about what the bow speakers are receiving now from chnls 1 and 2 of the zx700.5.

[Timmy!]

Ohhh that's right, those Alpine's are weird like that. Seems like my stereo might sound a ton better just from the addition of this amp - I think I am going to go with it.

[majestic]

My PDX-5 is running 75 watts to the in cabins and it is plenty IMHO and I only have the 4 in boat speakers plus 300 wats to 2 jl subs. The tower speakers are running 200watts each off of the 2 PDX 4.100's and I swear you can hear them a half a mile away.