Impious

A well designed metal dome tweeter is not going to be harsh. Another option is to play with the aiming to see if pointing them more off-axis will tame them some. $200 budget...were you hoping for both front & rear speakers, or is that $200 just for the front speakers?

You will lose your ability to fade front-to-back, which may or may not be important to you. Depending on speaker locations/layout, what the speakers are, etc it may make the rear speakers be a little overbearing. What is the layout of your system & what does it consist of? Personally if it were me, I would generally opt instead to only run the amp on the front speakers & run the rear speakers off the headunit.

I presume he is as well. Passive crossovers only lowpass the midbass.....it's not a bandpass filter on the mid, the passives don't highpass it also. That needs to be done actively, either in the HU or in the amp.

Yes, only 1 RCA cable from headunit and using the y-splitter to send only the left signal to both inputs for 1&2 and only the right signal to both inputs for channels 3&4. I couldn't tell from the manual what that switch does. Which is why I suggested the y-splitters. I couldn't find in the manual an example where that switch was set to 2-channel or an explanation of what the switch does. I was afraid in 2-channel mode it would simply route the input from channels 1 & 2 to the inputs for channels 3 & 4 so that you could use only 1 RCA cable to supply input signal to all 4 channels. In which case, it wouldn't work for bridging. 1) That would unnecessarily require 2 runs of RCA cables from the headunit to the amplifier with zero benefit. 2) He needs to highpass the speakers, either with the headunit or at the amp. He shouldn't have the both set to full range. I couldn't tell from the manual what that switch actually does? If it simply duplicates the inputs from ch 1&2 to ch 3&4 then it wouldn't work.

The reason it's not working is because you have both speakers playing both left and right signals. You will need to purchase a pair of y-splitters. Connect them to the end of the RCA's at the amplifier end of the cable. Let's say you have the left speaker on channels 1&2 and the right speakers on channels 3&4. You would then plug the y-splitter for the left signal cable into the inputs for channels 1&2 and the y-splitter for the right signal into the inputs for channels 3&4.

Noise Troubleshooting Guide

Sealed or ported?

You wouldn't want to keep amps for home use, trying to find an appropriate power supply to properly power them would be as expensive as the amp itself. As M5 said, the W7 could work in a house. Up to you to decide if you'd want to keep it or sell it (since resale value is still fairly high on them) and look into something else. I always thought the same thing....car audio until I was older with a family & my own place, then switch to home audio. Doesn't work out that way. You get older you have more responsibilities & crap going on, kids running around the house constantly, etc etc. Hell, now being in my car is the only opportunity I have for peace & quiet to listen to music.

However if you do stick with passives and place the passive crossover near the amp, keep it away from the power wire. The inductors in the crossover can pick up induced noise from the power wire if the proximity is too close. Several inches is probably fine, just don't have the power wire running directly on top of or next to them as a precaution to avoid potential issues..

Possibly. Do you have a separate source, like an Ipod, you could plug in directly to the amplifier?

Depends on the enclosure, and what bandwidth you are referring to. As I said in the locked thread, the Gcon is more sealed enclosure oriented, the SSD is more ported oriented. The Gcon leans towards larger enclosures than the SSD. So, for example, if you were looking to use a sealed enclosure the Gcon would be a little better option & would have more output over most of the bandwidth compared to the SSD.

It's not over 100% efficient. I don't care what marketing BS the designer wishes to spread. All it does is trade-off lower peak current draw for higher continuous current draw. It's still drawing the power from the electrical system to supply the capacitor bank, it's not a generator that creates it's own power. Only difference between this and a standard amplifier is that on large musical peaks it utilizes the capacitor bank to decrease the peak current draw from the electrical system, however the downside is that the current draw is going to be higher during non-musical peaks because it then has to recharge the capacitors. So yes, you will still need a very hefty electrical system since the continuous current draw from the electrical system will be extremely high compared to a standard amplifier. The reason it only has 1 set of 1/0 gauge inputs is because it's peak current draw is 350A. But again, that's peak current draw and says nothing about the increased continuous current consumption from the electrical system. When a "normal" amp nearly stops drawing current because the music stopped, this thing is going to continue drawing large amounts of current to recharge the caps. Again, it's a giant capacitor, not a generator. It doesn't create power, it stores it. It needs to get that power from somewhere, which is the electrical system. Also calling it a 15kw "RMS" amplifier is a bit of a mistruth. Based on the capacitors, it can only supply 15kw for 16 seconds before the capacitor bank depletes. It's actually a 4kw RMS amplifier with 15kw "burst" power, not a true 15kw continuous power amplifier.

The RMS rating doesn't have much to do with anything. Atleast not as a determining factor on which driver to purchase. Without T/S can't tell you how it would do in a house or what enclosure to put it in for that purpose. What's your budget, what are you looking for performance wise, what do you plan to power it with, and how much space are you willing to allocate?

I don't need to own an E series. I've got a fair bit of experience in "overpowering" though, I had something like 4x the rated power on my front speakers. Just because I did it, doesn't mean I go around recommending everyone run 4x recommended power to their speakers. As I said previously, it's certainly possible it will work if you use the gain and subwoofer control intelligently. You are also risking damage by running an amplifier rated for 2x the power handling of the drivers. It's not rocket science. I don't know why you're even still asking....every time someone says it might be a bad idea, you come up with a reason it's not. Fine, so go do it. It's not any more complicated than that, unless you want the warm fuzzy of someone recommending you apply 2x rated power to a subwoofer, which in reality means absolutely dick.

Can't help much, other that than THIS GUY works for Alpine, I believe on the speaker engineering side but might possibly be able to help. I assume there are no updates available on Alpine's site? (assuming the 650 even has the option for firmware updates, I have no idea) Out of curiosity, why the need for a hard reset anyways?

Go ahead & put a 70w sinewave on them & see what happens. I don't know why you're even worried about the responses to this thread. You are going to do it anyways, it's obvious from your posts. Quit bitching about the responses that you are receiving & go hook up your subwoofers. Problem solved.

If you apply more than recommended power to a subwoofer you are risking failure. Period. Your buddy's uncle's friend's third cousin might have powered them with more power without issue, but that doesn't inherently mean you're now "in the clear". The enclosure, musical content, listening habits, system settings, etc etc all play a part of the equation. If Jacob wanted to recommend users apply 650w+ per driver on a regular basis, that's how he would have rated them. Instead he rated them @ 400w. So what does that tell you? I admittedly could very well be wrong, but I would be surprised if Jacob came in here & recommended you apply 50%+ more power to the driver (more than double at rated power of the Hifonics) on a daily basis. Not many manufacturer's would do such a thing. So if that's what you want, I wouldn't hold your breath. Is it possible to use that amplifier with those subwoofers without issue? Sure, it's possible. If nothing else use the gain and/or another subwoofer level control to keep power under control. Would I recommend applying full power from that amplifier to those subwoofers on a daily basis? No. But based on your responses and your arguing with everyone who seems to think it's potentially hazardous, you are obviously dead set on doing it. So hook them up & cross your fingers.

http://fortwayne.cra...2970005638.html Thinking about getting these for the Buick.

Who dat?

The Gcon is going to favor sealed enclosures more than the SSD, the Gcon is going to favor larger enclosures than the SSD.

Actually your response had absolutely nothing to do with the question asked. They are two different drivers. Pretty evident simply by looking at them as the motor structures are completely different. So how was your response relevant to the performance differences between the two drivers, or differences in performance characteristics of the two brands? Oh, that's right, it wasn't. It was simply another pathetic attempt to throw a cheap shot at SSA.

I would really appreciate you not saying these things over and over and over on every forum, they are simply untrue. I really could care less what you think is happening here with what part Fi plays with our drivers, and try and spread facts around instead of your opinions masked as facts. What part of that sentence is a lie and not a fact? I believe the point Mark is trying to make is that SSA has significant input into the goals, design and performance of each driver wearing the SSA logo, as opposed simply tossing a logo onto a Fi-designed driver which is generally what you attempt to indicate happens.

Started cleaning up the interior of the Roadmaster today. Must say, it cleans up well, especially for an 18 year old car

My daughter had semi-formal tonight. Luckily going with a group of girlfriends. And she'll be home at 10pm when the dance ends.

We went to a resort in the D.R. for our honeymoon. The van ride from the airport to the resort (and then back to the airport from the resort) are literally the scariest moments of my life.