Car Amplifier Recommendation for (4) Infinity Kappa 603CF + (4) Infinity Kappa 303S

[BrendanHoskins]

Hi,

I really hope people respond. I have terrible luck with forums, as I've posted 6 times to 6 different threads on Reddit and no one has responded. I am such a big fan of the concept of this forum!! Everything in tech comes down to real-world specs!!

My sister got ripped off by Cartoys a few years back, and was recommended Kappa 603CF for her 2017 Subaru Forester stock speaker upgrade. Ever since then she has turned to me for upgrades, and I put in an aftermarket head unit for her last year for Christmas. This year she asked for an amplifier for her drastically underpowered speakers. To save people the research the Kappa 603CF are rated for 110W RMS with passive crossover for tweeter and woofer that is upgradable to 3-way component system with Kappa 303S with that same passive crossover. They are 3 ohm speakers I guess created to get true 4 ohm power ratings.

Based on what I know about her preferences, she would like to drive them to full RMS, but not at the expense of SQ. Of course, the reason these trade-offs must be measured is because of budget. Based on this, I have come to like the looks of the JL Audio JD400/4, but have also considered the Rockford Fosgate T400x4AD and the Alpine HDA-F60. Other contenders are the Audiofrog A150.4D and AudioControl LC-4.800. These seem to fail in SNR and THD/THD+N. Of course there are major price discrepancies here. Also, Google is not my friend and shows me only brand name, and because audio is the technology I am least knowledgable about, I am very open to people spitting on my research and recommending completely different amplifiers. It's funny because you go on a forum like this and most people are discussing NOT brand name. Go figure.

I would prefer to keep amp below $600 USD, but can do slightly above that. Please help! I am so unsure.

Thanks,
Brendan

 

[fpitas]

If you haven't tried there already, Tech Talk is generally car audio friendly: https://techtalk.parts-express.com/forum/tech-talk-forum?2-Tech-Talk-Forum=

 

[BrendanHoskins]

If you haven't tried there already, Tech Talk is generally car audio friendly: https://techtalk.parts-express.com/forum/tech-talk-forum?2-Tech-Talk-Forum=

Thank you so much for the reply! Awesome, I just signed up and am pending mod approval.

Do you by chance have any recommendations or are you not too involved with car audio?

 

[Bolt-E]

Thank you so much for the reply! Awesome, I just signed up and am pending mod approval.

Do you by chance have any recommendations or are you not too involved with car audio?

Hey Brendan, I ran into your post while doing research on the Kappa 603CF I have on order. I'm sorry you haven't been getting responses, hopefully someone has helped you out on some forum. I'm just starting to get into car audio so I don't have a lot of experience, but based on what I have read here are two suggestions at different price points:

• JL Audio XD800/8v2 - 8 75W RMS Channels or 4 200w RDS Channels bridged - retails for $1000 but you can do a quick search on eBay and find them hovering around $650-675
  • This one is just on the other side of your budget and it might be the one to go with if space allows. You can run it in the 4 channel bridged set up and it should give you more than enough for your 3-way Kappa setup. If anything you might even have some power head room which should help with clarity at lower volumes.
• Kenwood Excelon XR401-4 - 4 75W RMS Channels - retails for $380 but you can find it on eBay for under $200
  • This option is well within your budget and the specs are inline with the other amps you were looking at in your initial post. I've heard several great reviews on this amp on the forums and it should be enough power if you want to stay on a tight budget.

Hope this helps in some way. Would love to hear what amp you end up going with and what you think of it.