Does anyone have a clue?

Boy has this thread grown.
I've been busy with the shop and an upcoming competetion this weekend.
Just to make a few points about what I have read, I am certainly full of my own BS.:lol: But definately have a firm grip on reality. I am 32 years old and have been involved in the car audio scene for some 15 years of it.
I even competed in IASCA sanctioned events many years ago. (is IASCA still up and running?) Here is a layout of the system I was running.
Sony mobile ES cd tuner, 2 rane 31 band eq's (converted to dc), 2 orion 225 hcca's both running at 4 ohm stereo, MB quart 6.5 in door and tweeter in kickpanel, no rearfill, 2 custom built atomic subs.
I had to wait 2 months for the subs because there was no dealer in the area and for some reason every sub was custom built. Very small company back then. But Richard Clark had tested them and claimed to be the best sounding subs he had ever tested. They were good, but no better than my w6's I ended up running a year later.
The whole car was deadened twice over and very expensive flat wound cables were used extensively.
I had competed before it was finished, (EQ's still weren't here) and placed second in my class. My RTA looked like a lightening bolt on it's side but the quality of sound and ultra clean install had me only one point behind the winner. I still recieved best of show, and later found out that the winner in my class had actually cheated by using his Audio Control epicenter during the RTA SPL portion of the show. He would have not even placed if it weren't for that.
I didn't even run the regular spl showdown because I felt it was obscene.
Now I don't feel that way at all. SPL gets people excited. Let them have their fun. I had a boomer a year ago and quickly scraped it for my current set up.
but I still will go sit in a customer's vehicle because he wants me to hear how some song rips. It's cool. In that situation, I try to push some mids onto them to at least give it some sort of balance.
When it comes to power, sure you can make a hell of a good sounding system with modest power. But I still believe the more power the better. Not because of the loud factor, but because of the cleanliness of the sound when the amp is driven low. Plus, unbelievable dynamics. Speaking of which, my partner uses only two 8" resonant engineering subs but has an 1800 watt driving them. Excessive? Hell yeah, but awesome sounding. It's his choice and honestly it ended up being a good one. He also has the same amount of power driving his Bravox components. It really is a pleasure to listen to.
In a world of bass driven audio systems, we few stand alone.

And to another post, I actually deal U.S.Amps, so I too am one of the proud user of their fine product. Have you tried the tube hybrids? Spendy but very nice sounding indeed.

 

AX 1000de? or is it an older model? I talk to greg at usamps almost daily so I could probably do something for you.