I'm thinking about getting a Jensen XA4150 75W x 4 Car Amp for use with my Empeg. I don't know anything about AMPs let alone jensen. It cost about $200, it looks like a good deal, but I don't want to buy crap either. I do know however that I live in the middle of nowhere and we have only one car audio store and they screwed up there first and last installation on my car about a year ago. I'm going to be putting the Empeg in an 1998 Ford Countor.

Jensen amps certainly aren't crap - we actually sell quite a few, mainly to people looking for the maximum amount of power for the minimum amount of money. They're not however the most refined amps in the world and, given the amount of money you've spent on the Empeg itself, spending a little bit more is probably justifiable.

We've sold loads of Kickers for use with Empegs now - we've also used Alpine, Sony and Kenwood, and all gave very good results. Yes, the Jensen will probably do the job acceptably, but any of the above will almost certainly do the job better.

Dominic

Cambridge Car Audio
http://www.cambscaraudio.co.uk

This is exactly why I wish I could just ship my car to you! :) I have no idea what amp to buy, and no one locally (or within a 4 hour drive) to help me. Spending a little more money is defently alright, like you said, I shelled out a lot of money for my Empeg, and I really want to show it off. Any particular model you would recommend? I don't want to go to over board. but I'm willing to spend around $500 if it means I'll get better sound. After christmas I plan on replacing the speakers, but until then I'll be running with the factory set. Thanks for all your help!

Any particular model you would recommend?

There are quite a few options. We tend to sell a lot of Kicker amps in general, and the KIX-404 in particular for use with the Empeg (it's the same amp we used in Empeg's own A-Class demonstrator). This sells for 207ukp (about 330US$ assuming a 1.6/1 exchange rate) after deducting our usual Empeg customer discount. It's rated at 4 x 40W RMS, so it's ideal for a lot of typical Empeg installs. We've sold countless of these now, and I can't recall having any significant problems with any of them - other than one odd exception which seemed as though they'd somehow neglected to solder the RCA inputs to the board during construction. One of the big UK car hi-fi mags recently reviewed this amp and gave it a really good rating.

Slightly cheaper, there's the Sony 504X at 179.99ukp (about 290US$). We've sold one of these for use with an Empeg before now, and it worked fine - the main reason we don't tend to actively sell them all the time is that a lot of people have criticised them for sounding a bit flat - I know for a fact that a lot of their lower end head units underperform other manufacturers equivalent units, but their higher end stuff if pretty good, so whether that's fair criticism is difficult to say - we don't sell enough of them to get a good perspective. It's got a "rated" power output of 4x50W - RMS, it's probably a little bit less powerful than the Kicker.

Alpine also offer a couple of options - the MRV-F303 4 channel, rated at 4x90W max, which costs 269.90ukp (431US$). Internally, this is very similar to two of the amps we installed into Hugo's MX-5/Miata built onto one board. RMS power is about the same as the Kicker, but it never seems like an especially powerful amp when used in anger - it'd probably be fine in a smaller car, but less so if you plan to use it in a bigger car or run inefficient speakers off it.

Also from Alpine there's the MRV-F353. I's a shade over your 500$ budget (assuming you're US, not CA) at 560US$/350ukp, but definitely worth considering. It's very similar to the F303, but it's got an additional 300W max mono channel, allowing you to add a sub at a later date. If you're not going all out for maximum SPL, it's a good choice, as it gives you loads of flexibility - you could run front and rear speakers, plus a sub off it, or add an active crossover and run an active component kit in the front, plus sub, which should sound pretty good, and give you great front staging but at a slight trade-off in terms of lack of sound to your rear seat passenger's (if you actually care ;-)

I'd happily sell any of those options for use with an Empeg. If I thought about it for long enough, I could probably reel off a list of about a dozen more options, from a good few manufacturers, but I don't know how available they are outside the UK. If you do need an opinion of anything in particular though, just let me know. We tend to get to hear/sell/fit most mainstream brands at one time or another, so I tend to have a pretty good idea what's worth buying and what's not.

I have no idea what amp to buy, and no one locally (or within a 4 hour drive)

Well we do offer mail order if you're really stuck finding decent stuff. We've even got a F353 with slightly beaten up packaging that we could sell you for 279ukp/446US$ ;-)

Dominic

Cambridge Car Audio
http://www.cambscaraudio.co.uk

Well I finally got my KIX-404 amp. I started the install today and learned (after about four hours) that my car (98 Ford Contour) already has a built in amp! The sound quailty of the Empeg going through that amp really sucks, but I assume a lot of that has to do with the fact that the grounded RCA plugs haven't been installed and the line voltage my be incorrect. I want to remove this amp and use the kicker amp, but I can't find the internal amp! I started tracing the speaker wires from the Empeg back to where they should be coming out of the amp, but they're tied down very far back in the car and I can't seem to find where they go. I found something that looks like it could be an amp under the dash in front of the passenger's seat, but I thought that might be the computer. I'll do some more investigating tomorrow. Has anyone done an install on a Ford Contour and know where the amp is?

I couldn't sleep last night so at about 3:00 AM I went outside and took the dash completely apart and found and removed the amp. I now have my Empeg and amp installed. I still have some clean up work to do with the wires (The RCA cables I bought were WAY to long). I am getting a whine though, and it changes pitch when I hit the gas or turn on the lights.

Scoco --

Your whine, as I'm sure you have already figured out, is most likely from your alternator. Sometimes this is easy to fix, most times not. I would recommend that as a starting place you do a search on this bbs for the word "whine", choosing all forums and all dates. At present there are 27 posts, and quite a few more than that if you follow the threads backwards/forwards.

Cambscar and Schofiel in particular seem to have had a lot of experience and good ideas in tracking down and eliminating alternator noise.

Good luck, and let us know what you find out.

tansaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Actually the whine is so barely noticable with the car running I don't think it would be worth the time to look into it. Empeg really did a GREAT job with this player.

Good luck, and let us know what you find out.

hey cambsar or anyone who can help?, gotta question!! I have a 4 channel 600 watt jensen amp. model xa4150, and i have had the amp for about 4 yrs now.. and not once had a problem with it.. its been through 3 installs and its been with the same 2 10' JLAUDIO subs i have as well.. well last week it stopped giving me output to the subs!! i checked the fuse and the remote wire to the amp to make sure the amp was turning on, and it is. i get full power from the amp on my reader!! but on the output to the subs i get nothing.. QUESTION> is there anyway to check or fix that with out having to buy a new one?? please help!!!!!!

From your description I get the impression that you made no changes to any wiring, it just stopped, right?
Do you get absolutely nothing at all from the subs? No very faint vocals if you listen really close? The amp doesn't go into protection? (if it has such a mode) If so, it could be a short in the speaker wiring... disconnect speaker wires at amp and measure (resistance) between the wires (should be probably around 3.5 Ohm for a nominal 4 Ohm speaker. Also measure between each wire and ground - should be infinite.

What are the filters set to?

Try playing a constant volume test note (50 - 60 Hz) and put a voltmeter on the speaker outputs (AC, >20V or so range and check if you get anything there...150W into 4 Ohm corresponds to roughly 24.5V (lower than max volume of course <-->lower voltages
ANything there would mean the signal reaches the amp and gets amplified - look at the sub wiring (amp to enclosure and also inside the enclosure.

Do you have another amp to test with - to check that you have a signal arriving on the RCA wires? Or atry another signal wource - maybe a portable player and 3.5mm to RCA adapter wire. Either turn on the normal HU/empeg while testing, or turn on the amp manually by bridging the remote turn on terminal to the +12V (B+) terminal if you disconnected the remote along with the RCA wires... You could also use the voltmeter and mesure if you get the signal to the amp input.

You didn't say in exactly what situation you checked the power to the amp:
Iif you have an AGU fuse (glass tube with metal end caps) it can be bad under load while it otherwise checks out - often due to a partially melted connection between one of the metal caps and the actual fuse element, which causes a large voltage drop as you pull a big current through it (simply replacing the fuse is probably the simplest way to safely test it)