Must Have For Any Vehicle

If you want some of the best quality sound in your car, truck or SUV, you're probably going to spend thousands of dollars to do so. This would include, but isn't limited to: Mobile Video, XM Radio, Component Speakers, high-quality head unit...and the tool that pulls it all together, the amp.

Step into any car stereo shop, or Circuit City (my personal favorite). Step up to a stereo and turn it on. Turn it up. You have to go quite a ways up on the dial to get sound. Now, turn on an amp. If you didn't turn down the sound, you probably just got a blast of sound. Amplifiers help increase the output of sound.

MTX Audio's Thunder6500D does this in spades.

More Bass For Your Buck
At around $500 (at Circuit City), this is expensive amp. A mono amp, it is meant for controlling subwoofers only. A 4-channel amp would be suggested for the speakers in your doors, dash or rear deck.

Many of you may ask, "But Sarv, this is only a 250W x 1 amp? Why is it so good? I see other amps out there with many more watts listed on them." Let me list some minimum specs for this amp, and then what they actually are.

Signal-to-Noise Ratio
Min. Spec: 100db
Actual: 120db

Max Power at 1% THD+N
Min. Spec: 500 Watts RMS/Channel
Actual: 600 Watts/Channel

Also, note that the 250Wx1 is at 4 OHM, and that it also has 500W at 2 OHM. Depending on what your sub is rated at, it will get one or the other.

Another benefit of this Mono Class D amp is that it can put this all out continuously, which many other amps cannot do.

Installation
Fairly simple to do, if you don't mind wiring from your battery to the rear of your car, which involves taking apart your car to do so. Many people don't mind doing this, but many others prefer to take it in to a car stereo installer to get this done. The only thing you will really need to install this amplifier in your car is a cable kit...8 Gauge or 4 Gauge rated at 200W or more will do. You can get a Monster Cable kit at Circuit City for around 49.99 that'll do the job. It comes with all the wiring and hookup's that you'll need for the amp.

Powering Subs
So all this is good, but how does it sound. After hooking it up to two 12" MTX 6000 Series subs in a Type 2 MTX enclosure, as well as putting it through a Pioneer DEH-P6400 deck...lets just say the hair on the back of my neck was standing up at times. You could hear the power of the Amp and subs almost as much outside of the car as inside. But really, you should run down to your local MTX dealer to hear this combination in person, for the written word can hardly describe the feeling you'll get when you test this system.

Conclusion
I spent about $700 for everything through discounts, but expect to pay around $1700-$2000 for a complete system. The amp is one of the more crucial parts to this system, because with it, you won't have any power to run the subs or put out any decent sound. Therefore, I recommend investing the most money into the amp, for that reason. And, if you prefer MTX, I suggest you purchase the MTX Thunder6500D Mono Class D amp for your system.