I haven't installed JP amps, but underrated 900w 1ohm stable on the 5th channel? Wow. Its dimensions are a bit big for some installs, but wow I need to get setup with D4S.

There is no best. 😝

I have a dilemma. I am trying to choose between the the first amplifiers your mentioned. The jp23v2. Or the nvx xad15. I know the main difference is half bridge vs full bridge. Do you have anything to say about that topic? My priority is best sound quality for the lowest frequencies possible. Want full immersive output as low

@@jordanfritts7532 I think the JP 23 is a better amp.

I bought a jp95, silver one, on black friday 2023. All new install. (silver flute speakers, vifa tweeters, dayton crossovers. morel 2" mids for the front doors 3 way on a bmw e39. wired correct, less than 18" of ofc power wire with fuse.) first impression, I thought my vifa 019 tweeters were terrible. The best way to describe it , its like you turned the highs way down , or if there was a "loud" button that did the inverse of most loud buttons. On top of that the noise floor hiss was intense to say the least. (Never buy a clear amp, clear plastic lets all interference right through to the board, letting it act as a antenna for noise. ) I had no sub yet. after one month was given a 8ohm punch p1 in a sealed box. hooked it up (150watts rms) less than half gain, playing grateful dead at low volume, The sub channel played for 90 seconds before the amp started to smoke. turned it off, but the sub channel was done. (mosfet melted) I dont trust the amp , so i wont use it for highs, with a blown sub amp doing who knows what to my electrical system from a channel i cant turn off. I swapped to 2 sony xmgs4 each bridged for highs , a old Memphis 500 watt mono I already had for the sub. I was blown away at the sound difference from my mids/highs. My tweeters are great, all the speakers exceeded expectations. NO noise floor. I think it would be called the slew rate that has to do with higher frequency / noise that the jp95 has? Is a jp any good for subs, sure? (if it works) ... highs , not so much. the jp95 channel 3 and 4 bridged sounded fine testing on the 12 inch sub. I have not tried to get it replaced, I would never use it after testing it out a to b vs. any other amp I tested ( a old 35 watt alpine, a new pioneer 5 channel , or the sony xmgs4 ) jp makes the power, but its lacking highs in a to b testing. worth a mention also, the Jp95 bleed signal between channels when testing. (say drums are only on the right side, you can hear them come through on the left side.) Doing the same thing to my sony, It stays separated. If I could do it all over I would have bought a used mmats 6150 for similar money in a much smaller package.

I agree. Call it a 500 watt amp, and then if it dinos at 550 every one thinks you're amp is awesome. Call that same amp 3000 watt amp and everybody hates you.

The truth goes along way when people are spending there hard earned money. Most the time guys an gals on a tight budget can't afford to be lied to an deceived.

@@mikellewis2346Yes. Especially for those who actually do the electrical math on paper before spending that cash

Not if the jp amp were sold at the boss price level. Lol 5k amp for 250$ or less. they would be considered legends. in the amp world. to true bass heads. Just a opinion 💯🎶👍✌️😉

Agreed. I kinda like how some of their amps look but you can't trust the ratings.

Good tip!

If there was a well established standard by which this was measured and regulated by a 3rd party organization I would agree, however, this is just another gamed stat manufactures can make up. For example, if this was a legit # then the Sound Ordnance amps would be the best sounding amplifiers you could get on Crutchfield. All 3 are specified as 100 dB signal to noise. The best JL and RF amps are only specified at 70-80.

I still preach the inportance of slew rate to guys who claim they want a amp for a sq setup. And damping factor i know is supposedly not a factor in todays amp but im still old school and amps i like have a high dampening factor which is why i still love the kenwood KAC-1023 in a sq setup. And you woukd think dynamic headeoom wohld be important to everybody but most dont actually listen to real music to even really care about having reserve power for when the music has say a cannon fire.

@@ericperry72 the new Linear Power amps have like 7dB dynamic headroom. They're absolute beasts. And your old 1023 is one amazing amp!

​@@michaelbloom5342Hey can a get a link to those amps please?

Unless it's a crap brand, all the name brand class D amplifiers are going to be so close to each other that efficiency becomes irrelevant, even less so when it's only a 500w amp. 75% vs 80% is simply irrelevant.

@@marcuslinton310 in a world that’s exploring EV’s that come with weaker 12V systems… efficiency can matter.

Just one of the many important things that people overlook.

​@@johnbcardin Not when it's within so few % of each other. 75% vs 85% is simply irrelevant in the grand scheme. You would need to be dealing with 10's of thousands of watts for it to begin to matter and at that point would it really? No, the electrics for such a system wouldn't ever be right on the edge of being just enough, they would always overbuild the electrics for something of that magnitude and 10% difference is irrelevant once again. I don't know what kind of system you can install in a typical EV, but I seriously doubt it comes down to a 10% difference whether or not you can install a certain amount of wattage.

Good to know!

That is a good amp.

Kenwood makes good sounding amps, and I am quite fond of their in-dash units as well.

I had actually included some info on Infinity in my script, but cut due to time. They are made by Harmon, who also owns JBL and they badge engineer their car audio. So always compare prices on the two and just buy the one that is cheaper .

Hopefully we can educate some people!

That's a good point.

I remember those amps.

Slapping a max power number on an amp is not a deal braker for me, especially if the brand includes an RMS number.

Thanks!

I think you're right.

Audio Control, Marconi & U.S. Acoustics are just a few audiophile grade companies out there... If I had a brand new MB SLK... I would worry about the highline equipment... RECOIL has some super amps for the moola 👍😎 I concur with the Brazilians too

I don't mess around with electric cars.

If you do that, then suddenly the limitations of EV start becoming very apparent. And worse than audio is the impact of air conditioning on an EV's range - something never talked about. My buddy rented a Tesla for a Ohio to Florida trip and back. The EV added over 5 hours to the trip, one way. Due to the length of time recharging compared to refueling (did you know generators are used to charge EV vehicles?) but he said running the air on high (which you need to do because Tesla's having a plexiglass roof that always allows sun into the cabin) reduced the range of the vehicle by 40 miles or so. It only had the OEM stereo, which wasn't much. But he figured if you upgraded the stereo you'd see another 20-40 miles taken off the range of the vehicle. Apparently, headlights don't seem to impact the range so much he said. Guess they are more efficient. So now, Yeah I'd say you will see car stereo competitions fade away if there are only EV vehicles. To help I'd say make sure to only buy Class D amplifiers if you have an EV vehicle. And be happy with "less stereo" than you can have with combustion engines. Which by the way really don't pollute very much thanks to technology today. Fuel injection and catalytic converters have reduced a car's pollution by like 70-80% from before without those devices. I think EV's and regular cars should be offered and let the consumers decide. Both have pluses and minuses which is why both should be allowed on the road.

If I were to make a list of "good brands" it would be a very long video. I tried to limit myself to ones that I've had personal experience with or brands that stand out for some reason.

And NOT made in China! South Korea instead. China has too large of a black market industry allowing too many fake "copies" out there for sale. And little incentive for workers to "work smarter, harder or longer" since they don't see any more pay for either.

Glad it was helpful!

Awesome! Thanks!

Uncle Bobby B!

Then adjust for efficiency. If you're running at 14.4 volts and you have a 75% efficient amplifier and you've got a multiplier of 10.8, which isn't too far off from 10.

@@DIYAudioGuy you might be right. I figured the efficiency losses were downstream from the fuses but I may be wrong.

Those are good amps.

I tested one of their amps, good power and a great price.

@DIYAudioGuy I've got the echo amps, a couple of different separates, a couple of amp kits 4awg and 1/0, battery terminals, a couple different distribution blocks and everything has been top quality. So people can really get a great product at a great price 😁

@@DIYAudioGuy Would you recommend recoil to play highs in terms of sq

I think so.

Those are top-notch amplifiers.

is Diamond still around? i had a set of 2-ways from them like 20 years ago. they were solid.

​@mikestivers8302 yes diamond audio is still around...I will say there quality in my opinion is not what it used to be but they are still good..I would never pay full price for them but with a good discount u get a really good deal on good equipment

Good point!

Most of my systems have been under 1,000 watts total power across the entire system.

@@DIYAudioGuy My old car had a stock system with one "RADIOTEHNIKA S90" as the main bass. 35/90w made a very good boom, but the damn thing was too big for a trunk.🤣

Ever heard of them, I'll have to check them out.

Thank you!

True.

You can HAVE 1,000 watts on stock electrical, or 5,000, just don't try to USE all of it. If the voltage starts dipping, reduce volume a little, etc... I had many thousands watts on stock electrical, but I didn't actually use all of it. It's good for dynamics, though. 👍

I no longer recommend NVX.

@@DIYAudioGuy any specific reason?

The jp95 has the capability to put out a whole lot more power. So it's going to draw more current. A good way to figure it out for yourself is to just look at the fuse rating. If it's got a bigger fuse then it's designed for more current. If you are asking which one's more efficient, I do not know. Between the two I would pick the jp95.

Everybody has their favorite brands.

You need a crossover.

They were in the script, but cut for time.

Thanks!

@@DIYAudioGuy amp cooling?

I recommend the Down 4 Sound amps because they make their power (plus some if your electrical is up to the task), they look awesome, they have a great bass knob, and they are reasonably priced.

I like Kicker.

Turn off pop is never fun.

@@DIYAudioGuy Had a Alpine no issues. Switch to the NVX BECAUSE I NEEDED 1000 RMS BECAUSE I UPGRADED FROM 110 INCH SUBWOOFER TO TWO Getting turn off pop no matter what I did. I went as far as buying a relay that you can program to turn off what amplifier or what DSP in order before I hooked it up. I found a great deal on an open box kicker, CX1200.1 after that turn off, pop went away Hate to say it, but I just think it’s from a more cheaply made amplifier Sad because the NVX amp I had put out a good clean sound, and definitely did. It’s rated power. But now it makes me question there other amps It makes me question every cheap amplifier out there I know their subs especially the version threes have been getting rave reviews and I wish they made a three-way component system But I think I’ll stick to alpine high resolution amps for mids and highs for now on

These? howl.me/ckXC3G65rEa howl.me/ckXC4e6LkxG You cannot turn around for the difference. Both will do just fine.

After you adjust for efficiency the fuse x 10 method is surprisingly accurate.

I would have to know more to answer.

You will always benefit with separate channels. When you combine two speakers together, you will have a crossover board that splits the signal and power, which means you have less control of how much power each speaker gets. With separate channels you can adjust the frequency points and gain for each specific speaker in order to tweak it perfectly to your listening preferences.

@@DIYAudioGuy I have all Kicker DS series speakers in my doors and dash. I currently have 3.5” in the dash, 6x9s in the front doors, and 6.5” speakers in the rear doors. I am also running (2) 12” subwoofers under my rear seat. This is in a 2003 Dodge Ram 2500. I just swapped out my factory radio for an android radio that has a subwoofer output and a left and right RCA output. I am currently running the dash and door speakers off of the radio and using the subwoofer RCA output to my amp that is powering the subs. Does this help? I’m not sure what else you want to know. I don’t plan on SPL competitions, I just want a nice sounding system that I can crank up the bass when I want. The question stems from the fact that the dash speakers seem to overpower the front door speakers currently and they are ran in parallel to the head unit right now. Would it be better to run them individually off of an amplifier on separate channels?

@@DIYAudioGuy I miss spoke earlier. I have coaxial speakers in my doors and dash.

​@@JayRays1truckWhat type of passive crossovers do you have between your front door and dash speakers? Ideally, your door speakers would be using a bandpass crossover to roll off frequencies below and above. Something like 80hz to 250hz. This way it can blend into the dash speakers. Any high frequency driver in the door should be turned off. So if the door speaker is a coaxial just unplug the Tweeter on it. If your dash speakers are still too loud you can try using what called an L-pad which is a big, variable resistor on them to increase the dash speakers impedance. This will lower their output. Adding a dsp will give you more control, but it's also more equipment and additional complexity.

True.

Dollar per watt is used by some people, but definitely not all.

That only works if the amp is 100% efficient. After you adjust for efficiency x10 gets very close.

Does the factory amp give enough volume? A lot of times they do and its just the low bass region that needs an amp and sub added. The number 1 upgrade people do. Adding bass can literally make your front speakers sound louder and clearer.

Yes, the speakers play loud enough with the factory amp. But it does lack the bass. Thank you for the help!

@@sammydavidson4201 Does your vehicle have a factory sub or just door speakers?

Just door speakers and dash tweeters.

@@sammydavidson4201 Okay, that makes things a bit tricky. A small amp and subwoofer is easy enough to install, but getting the signal is the hard part. What vehicle do you have? Have you checked Metra, Axxess or Crutchfield to see if they have adaptors that can tap into your system to provide a signal for an amp? That can make things easy. Another option is to tap into the door speakers and run extra wire to the rear of vehicle. Front door speakers are sometimes carrying good low frequency signals even if they can't play the really low bass. Then in the trunk you'd use a sub amp than accept high level inputs or use a Kicker KISLOC to lower the voltage down to low level inputs and add rca connectors to plug into the amp. Once you have that, you can set the low pass crossover and gain on the amp and use its remote bass knob to fine tune it.

JBL is great, made by Harmon. Here is a pro tip. Harmon also owns Infinity. So when shopping look to see if the Infinity version is cheaper than the JBL version and vice versa.

No, the amp is designed to stream from your phone using bluetooth. It's the kind of feature that you need if you have a classic car and you don't want to change the dash but you need to upgrade the audio. I'm sure someone out there has a way to make it work, but I have no idea what that would be.

@DIYAudioGuy what I don't get is they connect to each thru aux but when I put the head unit is set to AuX, it see that their is music playing on the amp but doesn't play it thru the car speakers.

@@rokbeast4291I'm not a very good troubleshooter. I need to actually have my hands on the equipment to figure out what's going on.

I am not sure what an e60 is, I think it is a BMW? That is a really big alternator, it has to be big to power all of the luxury car bells and whistles. So even though your alternator can pump out enough juice for a 1,500 watt amp with no problem part of that power is going to be used by the car.

@@DIYAudioGuy Yes its a bmw 5 series ..... the stock sound it's nice but it's not powerful, it has 6 speakers, 4 are for medium-high range and 2 are subwoofers placed under the front seats and i was thinking to upgrade also those speakers and i need a amplifier also

@@smamas114 it sounds like some upgraded speakers and amplification is what you need. You probably need a real subwoofer in the trunk. BMWs are complicated machines I'm going to recommend that you find a local shop that's worked on a 5 series.

I have not tried them.

DSP makes it much easier. Plus you get extra features like time alignment.

@@DIYAudioGuy in my opinion time alignment isn’t a big issue because you take the speed of sound and the distance it has to travel inside the vehicle. You are talking about a difference of 1/10 of a millisecond. Not distinguishable to the human ear. Not bashing DSP but most people won’t need them unless you’re dealing with many speakers in a huge build you’d see at a spl competition

​@@brianwaller7383 ​ Facts, right? People won't like hearing that about DSP because everyone claims to have high fidelity ears these days and can pinpoint every single note of every single instrument being played in the music. LOL! Then, the first thing they do is bust out their phone, connect it to the stereo and start playing mp3's with their tweaked out DSP system.

@@DIYAudioGuy Thanks. I believe I would like to try a DSP with enough outputs to control my speakers individually which would require 6 channels for mids/highs as my door and dash speakers are all coaxial speakers and a separate channel for the subs. Maybe this would make it sound the best.? Any thoughts?

​@@marcuslinton310No, that's wrong facts. DSP are capable of 4 main functions, level control for each channel, crossover control for each channel, time alignment for each channel and precise equalization. Big spl systems don't need time alignment and I've never heard of them using it. Large number of mids and tweets basically can't be time aligned. Normally a dsp is for a high end system that has a small number of drivers. The extreme control and flexibility allow for precise imaging and staging. Proper time alignment also allows for better dynamics. If you go to any sound quality focused competitions you will see all competitors using a dsp. Better dsp's let's you save multiple global presets which can be used for driver focused image, passenger focused image (great for giving passengers demos) or both front seats. You have the flexibility to do whatever you want. Thats the power of a good dsp. 👍

The next time I do an install on a kid's vehicle I'm going to use a 5-channel. If for no other reason just to save money on distribution blocks.

The whole idea behind a 5 channel amp is to have an easy way to install a balanced system. Having extreme bass over the full range is not balanced, it's simply a preference that many people like and so you need to get separate amps to accomplish that.

​@@marcuslinton310What do you mean "extreme bass"? It looks balanced to me. Are you forgetting it has gain knobs? These let you balance the sound. Plus you have a bass knob to balance things on a song by song basis.

​@@JasonWW2000 WTF are you talking about? I literally said 5 channel amps are an easy way to install a balanced system. If you want extreme bass, usually have to get separate amps for that type of system. What is the problem?

@@marcuslinton310 Were you not saying the NVX 5 channel in the video was unbalanced and sent too much power to the subs?

A lot of people feel the same way.

MAXX POWER!

Hopefully we can educate some people.

While it's cool to see dyno numbers on amplifiers, you never really see that in your applications. Big differences between static and resistive loads. After rise and so forth, you never really see rms power except occasionally. I've always used amplifiers with more power on tap than needed.... can always dial it back, but never can make up, for power that sn't there. Good video man.

@@Chuck_Sanders that’s they reason why I look at the uncertified numbers because it rates the power to clipping which most of us set the gains to just below clipping not 1% thd. That’s why I always go for amps that do 500-1000 rms over what the sub is rated for. To account for box rise and voltage drops

We have some of the best sounding systems today compared to the past. Progress marches on and things get better.

It's hard to answer a vehicle specific questions like that. I need to measure the output to make sure that you can do it. Personally I would not try to retain the factory sub, your aftermarket sub is going to be a whole lot better.

@@DIYAudioGuy from what I've learned the stock amplifier is a total of 350w for all 7 speaker's, 2 tweeters, mids an rear deck speakers, plus sub. I've read the kicker loc can take up to 400w. So if I unhook the sub and wired it in the loc it prolly be OK you would think ???

​@@mikellewis2346 Your factory sub is probably 25 to 50 watts. Assuming the output is not filtered, you can probably take the sub wires and run them directly into the high level input of a new sub amp. If you get and amp that has to use low level then pick up a $20 kicker adjustable loc.

​@@mikellewis2346Its possible the signal going to the sub may have a subsonic filter and/or a volume based limiter. You should investigate to find out. You may also be able to tap into the low pass input of the amp, but that depends on the vehicle and what stereo options you have.

@@JasonWW2000 I've researched the head unit and it looks like it only sends a pos, an negative for front left an right, and rear left and right. It's a 07 honda civic si with navigation premium system. And the amps under my drivers seat. I've heard it runs at 2ohm for all speaker's, but haven't seen that anyway in my research. All tho Crutchfield shows a 2ohm subwoofer replacement for the subwoofer. I was worried it mite affect the high-level input of a amp hence y I considering a loc like kickers with the higher input voltage. Thank you for your response. I've had a hard time finding any info on doing this with a factory subwoofer.

If you follow the tips in the video you can easily sus out which brands are garbage. That is far more useful than just memorizing which brands are good vs bad.

👍

I've been leaning in that direction. I've got all the equipment I need to set game, but if there's a clip light life is so much easier.

Same here, would never buy an amp these days where the bass knob didn't have a clip indicator. I'm starting to think even full range amps need a similar knob that you can mount remotely so you know real time whether or not it's clipping as well.

Man, I've been in this 30 years and never realized people want clip lights. That wasn't even a thing back in the day. Lol

​@@JasonWW2000 Yeah, we know you have spock ears, an audiophile perfectionists who has trained his ears to utter perfection, so nobody will ever match your insane level of audio installation perfection. Not even a computer can match your abilities. All bow to the master of car audio, Jason. We are just piss ant car audio losers who like our pathetic clip indicators because we aren't expert level top audiophile enthusiasts like Jason who can tune to perfection and max out his audio to 99.999999% of it's power simply by his Spock ears after 30 years of training them to perfection. He don't need no stinkin clip lights. LMFAO! Nobody "NEEDS" clips lights, genius, it's just another F'n tool that makes life easier when just cruising down the F'n road and want to blast your stereo and not clip it. Turn the F'n bass knob and if the light hits back it off a tad and you're all set. I know that's just to ghetto for you though, so don't F'n use em and just STFU.

I am not a fan of maxxsonics or epsilon.

Amen 🙏 ❤

These companies sold out. It's cheaper to manufacture stuff overseas. Those brands chose to sell the name to big corps, that merged the brands under conglomerates. I don't care for either, but Epsilon is a better build house. When did Crossfire use Epsilon? I know most of, if not all their amps are Korean. But I haven't really messed with Crossfire in years, except reconing some subs here and there for a few clients. I've seen many of their amps, and they're built quite well.

@@Chuck_Sanders you are absolutely right crossfire is a Korean board,i got the two mixed up because back in the 90's they both had the white heatsink, art series and crossfires flag I meant soundstrem phonex gold. But I can tell you that crossfire is a shadow of it's once former glory

All watts sound the same.

Myth. Only difference in cheap like a taramps is the filters ..now if you have a headunit like a excelon kdc x304 it has the xover built in so you can lower the lpf down lower of need be .....

@@alconyers2003 you've obviously never heard of the ten thousand-dollar amplifier challenge.

​@@alconyers2003sound quality is a totally subjective matter. What you think sounds better to you, may not sound as good to another.

Cheap amps have poor sound quality because they are cheap amps that can't provide the actual power they claim. A BOSS amp will perform great within it's real actual specs, not it's fake specs. If a BOSS amp says 500 watts and it dyno's at 100... it will likely sound great at 75 watts. Try and push more, it will clip and crap out and likely sound terrible. This is the case with all amplifiers, even name brand. However, the trend these days, is to claim 1,000 watts and push 1,300. It gives everyone a warm fuzzy feeling they are cheating the system when they really aren't, you are still paying for the 1,300. The rule still applies, you try pushing them over 1,300 consistently and bad things start to happen. Play all equipment within proper specs and you'll have a hard time noticing any difference between them all. Everything tends to come down to power handling. How much power do you want and get equipment that handles a bit more then that. You want 2,000 watts, get gear that supports 2,500 and your 2,000 will sound great.

MAXX POWER!