elemental designs comes to mind right away sundown audio AudioQue DC Audio in some cases even Audison is cheaper then JL Even rockford fosgate can be cheaper than JL the first three i mentioned don't spend oodles of money on advertising so you don't have to pay for it when you buy their amps... All the amps stated above are very clean sounding, underrated and priced well. Hell, ever Steg amps from where i'm from are priced under JL audio and those are some awesome SQ amps. JL isn't even in the same league as steg.
Thanks for the help. The Steg amps look nice, but can't find anywhere to buy or order them. There are some good deals on JL because the new XD is coming out. I will be pushing Focal 165k2's with the 300/2 and a pair of 10w3v2's with the 500/1. Not a big fan of not being able to drop the ohm load or the constant voltage of JL's. My truck runs a true 14.4 voltage and with the JL's, it just doesn't matter. Looking at ALL amps right now, just trying to figure out what I want to run. This is just a personal vehicle, but looking for quality for the money.
I would go with the Elemental Designs amps. Crazy good amps. Im going to be getting a Nine.2 I think for my front stage sometime soon. They are underrated and sound real clean.
yeah boys around here really seem to like element, but i'm parcial to alpine, their PDX amps are pro, they run at 2 or 4 at the same ratings, and they're incredbly under rated, my pdx 4.150 is rated at 150 per channel, but it does about 180 per channel rms. and very clean power, the amp leaves alot to be desired as far as tuning on the amp its self but the head unit can take care of that. my fav amps though if i ever had the money are the MTX thunder elite models, are the cats meow, there top end model is rated 2000 watts, pulls about 120 amps, does 225 watt rms at 2 ohms and 150 at 4, but thats extreamly under rated, for the 120 amps, they should be doing 400 watts per channel easy, but of course that could blow almost any speaker on the market. so they use all that power for cleaner sound, so if you're going for the big boys, the thunder elite series is where its at from MTX, and they're high end speakers are epix too, but also extreamly expensive.
there are 4 amps that I know of that are great when paired with focals. I mean SQ winning great... first is steg, genesis, celestra and sinfoni. All are VERY expensive but the steg amps I think are the cheapest among the choices. your truck runs 14.4V now but with a load on it i don't think you'll be getting that kind of voltage. Prolly more like 13+ volts. eD is a very good amp but I think you should take a close look into the AudioQue amps. All the amps I mentioned are really good amps, just do some studying with reviews. you'll find that they are all VERY good. You may also want to check classified ads with DIYMA and caraudio.com. getting some deals on some great used stuff isn't a bad idea either. just make sure they have a lot of refs. I saw somebody selling some zapco amps (which are also great SQ amps) for a awesome price. you can find some really good deals if you look hard enough
take a look: http://caraudio.com/forum/car-audio-classifieds/472271-2-near-mint-condition-jl-audio-amps.html
i had a borrowed 500/1 in my truck for about 30 minutes to see what it could do on the meter on the 15 i had in my truck. i was able to do a 138.2 @ 1 ohm with it. my elemental nine.5 did a 138 even. ive heard the 500/1 can do upwards of 700 watts, and i know my nine.5's sub channel can do 530 @ 2 ohms. not sure what the impedance rise was on my box with the 15in sub. but the 500/1 was louder, and has a really good crossover built in, and its small as hell. i even know a guy with 2 300/2's in his car. very powerful lil amps. great crossover, full power at low voltages. i say if the price is right then get them.
