I am in a bit of a dilemma regarding my 1997 Civic EX. On one hand, I want to do an old school setup. I have an Orion 250 SX and a Linear Power 1752 that I was planning on using for this setup. I was going to use the Orion to power the front stage and the Linear to push two JL Audio 10W3v2 subs and shoot for a SQ system.

On the other hand, I have some other choices. I have a RF Power 351S, RF Punch 5002, and a Memphis 16-PR1.5KD. I could use one of the RF amps to power my front stage and the Memphis amp to power my 12" Solo-baric L5.

I guess I went a little overboard while purchasing equipment.

Which route would you take?

 

whats the wattage on everything and how old is everything.

 

The Orion and the Linear are both ancient, 15 years old minimum. The Orion is under rated at 50 watts per channel and the Linear Power is rated at 87.5 watts per channel, but has been modified by TIPS so it probably does 165 per channel and closer to 500 watts @ 4 ohms bridged mono. Also, I am an old school junkie when it comes to car audio. Believe it or not, I find that some of these old amps sound better than many of the new amps that are out now.

Ratings for my other amps:
351S - 90x2 @4; 180x2 @2; 350x1 @4 bridged (3 years old)
P5002 - 125x2@4, 250x2@2; 500x1 @4 bridged (2 years old)
16-PR1.5KD - 750x1 @ 4; 1,500x1 @2 (3 years old)

I am going to have to be extremely careful if I run the Memphis 16-PR1.5KD to my Solobaric because it is capable of producing more RMS power than the L5 is rated to handle. Sure, it has a 1.5% THD+N rating at its power, but I still think its RMS output at a lower distortion rating would be way more than 600 watts @ 2 ohms.

If I run the JL Audio subs I am looking at either going 2 ohms stereo or 4 ohms mono due to the fact that none of my unused amps are rated for 1 ohm mono.

 

no i know what u mean.... a lot of oldschool guys think that the old stuff is built better and im sure it is. its like tvs today.... they last like 4 years when people still have tvs from 30 years ago running like the day they got them.

As far as amps sounding better... The music should and will sound the same in any amp..... its distortion and noise that changes stuff.

i would go with the 750 watt amp for ur subs... for your other speakers use whatever u can control very well.

 

what the config on the l5? d4? d2? i wouldnt put 1500 watts on it, even with gains way down.. a lot of people dont like kicker for its spl standings, i guess it would depend more on the music you listen to, if you;re tryin to street beat then id go with a ported l5.. obviously the sq would be nice with the jls..

 

The L5 is a D4, thus giving it a 2 ohm final load and it could potentially see 1,500 watts RMS from the Memphis amp. I don't know if 1.5% THD is audible, but I am guessing that 1,000 clean watts is easily do-able out of the Memphis amp!

I am going to try the JLs in my Civic. I put the 10s in my Mustang today, and I am less than impressed with their output. Each 10 is in a .75 cubic foot sealed chamber versus the ported L5 equals a loss to the single L5 in my Mustang. One of these days I will see the back-ordered JL Audio Stealthbox that I am still waiting on.....

Music wise, my main music listening habits are Rock and Meta as well as some Drum n Bass, House, and Breakbeat. Chances are you will NEVER hear me playing Rap music, unless it is the old school stuff.

 

High output alt. good battery(s) and upgrade the big 3
Don't do any of your install till you get these tiny problems solved.
Your "stock stuff" (charging system and batteriy) won't work!

 

One more thing.......
http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/...TID~73496~PN~1

 

I had planned on doing this for both vehicles but I was going to make it a winter project.

I wanted to see how badly the Civic reacted to a sound system first because I still have not decided which configuration I was going to use. Just when I thought I had things all figured out, a buddy gave me his Orion HCCA 225G5 so now I am back to square one. After all, if I install my Orion 250 SX and my HCCA, I will only have a 150 watt sound system

Of course in reality, that 100 watt 250 SX is slightly underrated and the 50 watt HCCA is grossly underrated. The HCCA will push 400 watts RMS at 1 ohm, at 12 volts. As the voltage goes up, so does the power output.