Hard time finding a decent amp...give me some ideas here

[mpunklil 0]

I had my front speakers running off of an old school Sony XM-2252HX, another one for the rear, and another for the subs...three in total. I decided to consolidate amps, and figured the Cadence F100-5 would be enough for my Image Dynamics CSX65CS components...christ was I wrong! Going from 225w down to 100w just isnt cutting it, my mid bass and highs are seriously suffering. I'm picking up a line driver tomorrow, as I have always needed one...I simply was able to crank up the gains more on the Sony's and get the desired outcome (factory headunit, spliced some rca's onto the line out). So, here is my question...I am desiring a 5-channel amp that is around 175-250rms on the 4 channels, 5th channel only needs to be around 500rms due to the infinite baffle setup. Does anybody make anything close to this, or am I honestly asking for too much? I technically could go with a 4 channel for the highs and a seperate amp for the subs, but I still run into the problem of not having enough power out of a 4 channel either. The only amp I have seen so far that is UNDER 300 bucks would be a Hifonics ZRX2000.4, but that amp is a beast in size and I just pulled out a beast...trying to go smaller in physical size! Besides, I dont have a whole lot of faith in there quality...nor have I gained much faith with Cadence. What else is out there?? I really dont want to put those big ass Sony's back in.

[audio-neon 34]

I was going to totally point you in the direction of the Zed Audio Leviathan until I saw your budget.

So your budget is 300$ for a 5 channel amp that does 175-250 rms x4 @ 4 ohms and a 5th channel (or bridged 5&6 as in the case with the 6 channel Leviathan) capable of ~500rms @ what impedance?

Hate to say this, but you won't find much in the 5 channel market for under 300$ and if you are focused on quality over "advertised output" that budget isn't much by todays standards.

[mpunklil 0]

Agreed, impedance on the subs would be at 2ohm. Subs are 2 ohm DVC wired as series/parallel. The zed interests me, and I'm sure the quality makes up for the power output. I can fudge a little on the price, but not sure I can fudge THAT much. At that range I would end up going for the Cadence ZRS-C8, which is 150x4 @4 + 600x1 @2. Clearly no comparison between the two, but the ZRS-C8 comes with a $350 price tag vs. $875. The other thing I'm going to try is to bridge the F100-5 and see what the headroom is at...distortion should be negligible and I would end up getting a second one. The lack of midbass output is killing me though, its almost there but just not what the Sony's had.

[altoncustomtech 773]

Finding a 5 channel with that kind of power available isn't gonna happen. I did a great deal of research in 5 channels before settling on the same Cadence amp for my sister's truck and never found anything more powerful than the Cadence C8 or the Massive Audio NX5. At their price I would believe the try at bridging the Cadence and getting a second isn't a bad option at all. I would try to look at other brands than Hifonics if possible. After using several of their amps I'm none too impressed with the sound quality, especially from full range amps. In my honest opinion they color the sound with what seems like the bass boost circuit being on with slight boost no matter what position the crossover switch is in and due to that issue seem to reach audible distortion levels sooner than it seems like they should. For example, on the same components and HU I'm using now I used to have a ZXi6006 150wrmsx2 amp, the direct swap to the Sundown 100.4 got the same speakers at the same EQ and crossover settings louder and cleaner than the Hifoincs ever could and with less rated power. Sure, I'm a little biased when it comes to Hifonics, but I have my reasons. A GREAT high power 4 channel would be the ZED Dreadnought, tho it has the same issue for you the Leviathan does with it's pricetag. I would imagine there has to be others out there better suited for you, but I would like to see what your opinions are about the Cadence after bridging it.

[Impious 1,476]

What do you have in the rear?

IMO bridge the front/rear outputs of 5-channel to the fronts and run the rears off the HU. Absolutely no reason for them to need 100w+. They'll be fine doing what they need to do off HU power.