Had my Mutant XXX 5 channel amp fairly crudely fitted to the back of the back seat for the last year or so,which was ok,but it never really did my DLS three way components any sort of justice,and tried a couple of different 12in subs that gave a sound that wasn't really my cup of tea,I like my bass tighter and punchier than all but the very expensive 12s can give,and the box was cumbersome and took up valuable space that was needed as I go camping quite a lot.
So it was time for a change,the DLS in the front were staying,as was the Pioneer DEH-9400MP with the CD-UB100 USB adaptor,everything came out of the boot and I started again.I opted for a pair of Vibe Space 8 subs (8in if you hadn't guessed),rated at 300 watts RMS in a 1.1 cu.ft sealed box,this sits nice and snugly against the nearside of the boot,and the bottom cavity of the box is filled with sand to try and dampen down resonances in the box,and also it is now so heavy,even Geoff Capes would struggle to leg it up the road with it under his arm.This is driven by a Fusion PP-AM10001 monoblock amp that produces 555 watts RMS into 2 ohms.
The front speakers are driven in a slightly unusual configuration by a couple of Fusion PP-AM9002 two channel amps,each one producing 460 watts RMS into 4 ohms,the left speakers having one amp bridged onto them via passive crossovers,and the right speakers having the other amp bridged onto them.Doing it like this with a totally independant amplifier on each side should give better stereo seperation than having it all in the same chassis and sharing one power supply,and also improve the dynamics and headroom available.
All this adds up to 1475 watts RMS,or 2800 watts peak according to them,which is a lot of power for a standard Golf charging system with a 90 amp alternator to supply.With the old Mutant amp the headlights JUST started to flicker slightly on full volume on bass heavy music,with this lot now they are quite noticeably modulated along with the music,although still not really badly.By my reckoning my alternator can give enough current to give me about 700 watts of music,so time for a new higher output alternator and possibly thicker power cable than the 4 SWG currently being used.
So how does it sound? Well as the subs are still brand new,and I've only had a few hours use from them it's too early to say until they're run in properly (normally 15-20 hours of use),but the front end sounds a lot cleaner and louder than it did before,meaning higher listening volumes with less fatigue,it still needs to be properly tweeked by the EQ built into the head unit,but already the improvement is worth the effort and expense.
Thanks to the guys at Vibe and Dave Lowther at Fusion for all their help with this project,I'll put you on my christmas card list.
