Car AudioCar audio related questions and helpful hints for building the best sound system for your car or getting the most out of what you have.
Welcome to ThirdGen.org!
Welcome to ThirdGen.org.
You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our community, at no cost, you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is free, fast and simple, join the ThirdGen.org community today!
I dont know anyplaces around here that sell Volfenhag subs let alone amps.. i want to try them cause i have never heard anything bad about them. what prices am i going to be looking at and where can i look to buy them?
Ok so how are they, how do they rate up....i want the details guys. i dont wanna drop 300 bucks on 2 amps and get **** back. do they keep the current Steady or do they break up?
Originally posted by HamSpiced Ok so how are they, how do they rate up....i want the details guys. i dont wanna drop 300 bucks on 2 amps and get **** back. do they keep the current Steady or do they break up?
They are nice. The keep good current. Work well if ventilated well.
is it just me, or does the volfenhag stuff hit like a 9 year old girl?
the subs look nice, but the stuff seems cheap, and if you know of ANYWAY in the world to use an 80 amp on 1600 watt amp, then you are way ahead of the game, my only conclusion is that the power is rated at 1,000,000 volts.
what do those amps birth certificates say? or do they have them?
i built the box myself......its just lik all the other boxes but i had to angle the side towards the back up 2 inches so that the subs would fit in there.....i dont have any demensions....i just kept measuring and bringing each peice back to the well to see if it fit correctly
with the Volfenhag, dont waste your time, the build quality is mediocre, the subs are right in there with boss, pyramid, and legacy, dont even waste your money, save it for some real equipment. go with JL or kicker, JL audio w0 subs, or kicker comp VR series, also look for the Cerwin Vega vega series. just please dont waste time or money on the volfenhags, they look cool, and thats about it..... you could get 3 JL 10w0 subs in a box on ebay for around 250(its what i have but i got them for 175) and an MTX or JBL amp. the MTX 6500d or 6152 will do them good.
ZX7170 4X250 WATTS MAX AMP dealer cost $119.99 list $269.95
Additionally I can get abbout 5% off the dealer cost also.
Volfenhad is all about eye candy. Half way decent looking products built with inferior componetry and engineering. Have any of you heard the term "you get what you pay for"?
This is a golden term in car audio industry- dont forget that.
Now lets do a simple review on something you may want to know. Its Ohm Law, and it governs all electrical equipment regaurdless. This means that amperage*volts will give you a real world idea what your amp is really putting out, not accounting for amplifier inefficency- which may be around 12% or so.
So 80amps*13.8 Volts (fuse rating and charging voltage). That come out to 1104 watts, thats not accounting for amplifier inefficency either.
Also what kind of alternators are you guys running? With an amp that requires 80 amps off the alt you better have a nice big one, like 175 amps plus. ANd as you motor heads porobably know thats gonna be peak charge, not idle/cruise charge.
In closing if any of you would dare to argue any of my points try this. Take that 1600 WATT MAX AMP out and toss in, lets say a JL 500/1 amp. Were talking about 300 watts RMS less (RMS is what counts!). I can gaurntee you will see a night and day difference- shortly before the Volfs blow.
I dont mean to diss or rip you. We all start somewhere. So please dont take this as an attack, but rather an eye opener.
thank you, someone that knows what they are talking about, so if you dont want to spend over 300 dollars, just keep looking, you can get a pretty good amp for around 130-140 bucks(www.etronics.com, the JBL 300.1) and some good subs on ebay(JL audio w0) 2 12s should do, and you can probably get them for around 200 dollars)
so, just add in some money for wiring(about 30) and you got urself a decent system for around 350 bucks
see, you just gotta find the right stuff in the right places, so dont just go out and buy the first thing you see thats cheap, you will get what you pay for. like the guy before me just said
Are you two the same person? you have like 3-1 posts so far.. .. ..
Anyway im still gonna "Waste My Money" on them because so far i hear they are good and i need a cheap winter system for next season. This season i was too worried about damaging one of my Infinities i rarely ran them. anyways i sold my Legacy amp today to some highschool kid for like 100 bucks. not bad considering i got it for free. so now im in the market for researching a new amp. So far Rockford Fosgate is way out of the question along with a few others. I've heard alot of good about MTX amps, think they are worth it?
MTX amps are decent. Good build, durability and price.
You want something thats cheap and decent?
JBL amps
Subs JL W0
Take a JBL 300.1 and 2 12" JL W0s in a properly built box and it will have more SPL and SQ over Volfenhag- I gaurntee it.
Im not gonna try to tell you what to do with the money, but I will offer you over 8 years in the hobby experience.
I also moderate on a 1300+ member board. And honestly thats how I got turned onto this topic in this forum.
No X and I are not the same person, although I know who he is.
The camaros are always a fun one to put a system in. Im not sure how you all went about your box but heres the easiest approach. Line the cubby hole with 4-5 layers of 1.5 oz strand mat (fiberglass it). But one of them baffles for $20 and glass it onto the mat thats you fiberglassed over the metal. Bingo! you got a solid sturdy box cheap and easy- thats light weight!
Im gonna work on putting a radio and stuff into my dads '69, granted its not a 3rd gen.
Listen to one before you buy it, and while you're there, listen to a better brand at the same price. Then decide. I think you'll find that your money goes farther with brand name equipment. Volfenhag is yet another in a sea of over rated under built amps.
I see that Volf_pimp beat me to the calculator, but since I already typed all this crap, I'm not deleting it.
That "1600" watt amp above has an 80 amp fuse. At 14.4 volts, a current draw equals a power of 1152 watts. Now, BEST CASE scenario puts the amp at 50% efficient. So now you're down to 563 watts of output. But... lower priced amps don't deal well with reactive loads, so even if it could theoretically pump 563 watts into a resistive load, its actual output into a speaker will be much lower. Does that mean it can't get loud? Not necessarily. It just means that 1600 watts is a pipe dream of epic proportions. It also means that when you compare it to a quality amp, you can't compare equal ratings. A Punch 360a2 puts out as much (or more) power as the Volfenschitt, and costs about the same.
Just for comparison, my "150 watt" Kicker amp has 90 amps of fuse.
Originally posted by FyreLance lol, I think Jim should put something like "Yes, Volfenhag DOES suck" in his signature...
I was afraid to get on this soap box because I knew a lot of people here had them, but the more research I did on these things the worse it got.
I don't want to tell people not to buy them, I just want to tell people to become better informed and to audition as much as possible. Then if they still think that stuff is better, then they obviously aren't going to benefit from better stuff anyway, so they might as well buy it.
If you want a good amp for a descent price look into a Jensen.
Laugh all you want, but right now there's a "600"watt 4 channel at Wal-mart on clearance for ~$150
It's actually a great amp for a 4 channel system.
It's RMS rating at 20-20KHz @ .08% THD ± 3db is 50x2, 100x2. You could run the 50x2 to the fronts, and the 100x2 watts to 2 subs. Then use the HU for rear fill.
I was thinking about getting for my wife's Mazda. We've got 5x7's (actually stock components) in the front and 2 Roadmaster 8" subs in a pre-fab box in the trunk. ( Remember Roadmaster = Volfenhag )
It's not bad so far for $200 spent on the entire system so far. But I'll be damned if I'm gonna spend more than $150 on an amp, for a pair of subs I got at Wal-mart for $7 ea. on clearance. :sillylol:
I know Jim and others may disagree but I've been very happy with Jensen amps. And even head units. They're getting it together. Dunno that I'd buy subs or speakers by them but I've had good luck with their amps.
I bought a pair of subs from jensen once (my first subs) and i wasnt very pleased with them. They came in their own prebuilt bandpass(thats probably why) they were tens and i cant remember any information after that. they hit hard but by my standards today i feel they are crap. same with the headunits.. alot of them are really poorly made but i cant vouch for the upper line stuff.
I owned a Jensen 4 channel amp, and yup... I do disagree. It was rated at 50x4 and at the time I thought it was a decent amp for the money. It worked decent and got relatively loud. When it croaked (which didn't take long), I replaced it with a 30x4 Pioneer. The pioneer cost the same, sounded better, and got louder.
The jensen wasn't bad, but as is the case with most of the cheap stuff, if you look a little harder, you can find a better amp from a better manufacturer for the same cash. All you give up is an unrealistically high power rating.
As for Jensen's head units... those are garbage too. Those are worse than their amps. We used to sell them at a place I worked at, and they were such cheaply made decks it was unreal. Their "5 volt pre-out" was so pathetic that a few of our amps on our sound board couldn't even reach maximum output when using those decks. One of our sales guys installed one in his truck to test. He hated it, and so did the rest of us. It broke very quickly, as did a very high percentage of the ones we sold. And the sad part was, there were brand name decks available for only $25-30 more.
no offense, i know im not originally from this forum, im from the same forum as volf_pimp, we are experienced in car audio and are only trying to help you and keep you from buying crappy equipment, if you like it, thats great, good for you, stay with it, but there is always a better deal if you dont just get the first flashy thing you see.
you get what you pay for, and im done with this forum, i'll leave it to jim to set you guys straight from now on, listen to him, hes got his sh*t together. he knows what hes talkin about
good luck
-Blitz
My system:
MTX 6500D sub amp
3 JL Audio 10w0s in sealed powerwedge box
Alpine 6x9s in rear
infinty kappa 3 1/2s in front
Pioneer premier DEH320 (older HU)
Pioneer 25x4 amp for 6x9s and 3 1/2s
the most expensive thing there was probably the kappa 3 1/2s, they are very nice, and i need a new amp to push more power to them, they rock, but other than that, thats a fairly good system for about 600 dollars including the head unit and mids amp, you may already have good speakers and a head unit so it may only cost you the 400 dollars that i payed for the subs and amp.
quality is out there for good prices, u just gotta be patient in finding it
All I'm saying (using myself as an example) is (and admittidly so) sometimes I'm not as picky. As with my wife's car. Hers isn't something we're looking to put $600 into on stereo equipment. Evidently not a lot of other people here are looking to spend that much either.
I like Jensen for a number of reasons. One..... it's cheap. Two... it's easy to find. Three.... since it's easy to find (like Walmart), it's easy to walk in with no reciept, say "I bought this last week, just hooked it up, and it doesn't work" when I really bought it six months ago, overheated the SOB and blew it up. Within 10 minutes, I have a new one, and I didn't even buy the original there.
I (as well as a few others) are just giving recommendations to the totally inexperienced people on what you should definitely NOT buy.
My next recommendation is Pioneer. A little more expensive, but worth it. Again..... readily available for replacement as needed. It's a little more recognized in the industry for it's "Super Tuner (insert Roman numeral here)" than anything else, but they've never been known for being "cheap".
Anyway..... don't take this as (and I mean the entire thread) that the big names suck, or charge too much for what you get. Hell...... I have a RF Punch 100 DSM that I paid $400 for over 10 yrs ago, and an Alpine 25x4 that I paid $350 for 12 yrs ago. They've seen more cars than most of you have. :sillylol:
Jensens and other brands are the ones I leave IN the car when I sell it.
Originally posted by AJ_92RS All I'm saying (using myself as an example) is (and admittidly so) sometimes I'm not as picky. As with my wife's car. Hers isn't something we're looking to put $600 into on stereo equipment. Evidently not a lot of other people here are looking to spend that much either.
Good point- and probably more so because you and your wife aren't expecting $3000 worth of sound out of the cheaper amplifiers/speakers.
Hell, my first amp (besides the old Sherwood) was a Pyramid Pro something-or-other. Sounded great when the volume was low-middle... raise the volume past that, and the distortion was so bad that you'd scream in pain.
I like what you said about keeping the amps, too- it's true, once you buy a high-quality amp, it stays with you. Kinda like buying a Craftsman lifetime-warranty socket set as opposed to a $10 Walmart special- you only buy the Craftsman set once. If you go with the cheap no-name socket set, you might keep breaking sockets and stripping bolt heads and wind up buying 8 $10 sets over your lifetime.
__________________ -Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l)
there are plenty of great amps to be found used on ebay. i picked up a MTX amp for $75. thing was in near mint condition and put plenty of real power to my subs. birthsheet rated it double what it was spec'd at. you dont always need to have tons of watts either. a good low watt amp (i think mine was 75x2) will push a sub better than an cheap "high watt" (spec's are good on a cold day in h*ll) amp. i also purchased the amp i have now for a great price off ebay. $225 for a mint condition refurbished (clean inside and out) amp the would have been $600+ new.
exactly, i did the same thing, got a quality MTX amp for around 80 bucks, rated at like 100x2 or something, but will push around 250-300, and thats one whole hell of a lot cleaner power than some cheap jensen or legacy amp. hey, u can buy jensen if ur just looking to up the value of the car before selling it, thats fine with me, but for personal use, i wouldnt touch them.
and on those cheap amps, the max wattage on them is impossible to reach. an amp with a 30 amp fuse cannot push 1600 watts, its just against the laws of physics. 30x12(cars voltage with efficiency factored in) would be about 360 watts MAX and i would be surprised, with the internal components that these have, if they could even reach 200 watts. and thats not at all clean power. just be patient and you can find good deals, u just gotta know where to look and what to look for.
i got nothing against legacy amps, sure they are cheap and look like a kidergarden science project but the one i currently have is holding up pretty well and i dont have any complaints, i just want to go for a more reputable brand
You might not be having problems now, but those are certainly, not reliable amps at all, most likely,you will have problems in the future. to you it may sound okay, but i like to have clean power going to my speakers.
O, kay, well, as long as it's, working out for him, then I guess, we can't really complain, he doesn't have, any complaints right now, and he wants, to go with a more, reputable brand in the, future so I'm sure he'll, be upgrading in the, not too distant future.
