What Amp?
 

I am not good with electronics and could use some advice. I just purchased a pair of exile xm7 tower speakers. What size amp should I power these with? Also what brand is reasonably priced? Not looking to spend a lot of money but I do want something that is decent quality. (Bang for my buck)

Well, I'd suggest PPI900.2 but others will disagree

Would suggest calling brian at exile or an exile dealer. Harpoon sounds about right.

How many watts and how many channels do I need? Does it have to be marine grade?

Power handling for those speakers is 250 w RMS.. the Harpoon amp would be perfect for them. and if down the road you decide to add a second pair, with the Harpoon amp you will be set.

Is the Class-A/B harpoon even still available? A bridged 4 chnl delivering in the range of 200W rms x 2 @ 4 is going to be 1/3rd the retail cost of the Harpoon but with similar output. An actual marine class-D would probably still be less than half.

A good choice from Exile is their XM 30.2 it's Class D and is Marine rated.

XM30.2 Amplifier

Power Ratings:
Into 4 ohm: 300w x 2
Into 2 ohm: 420w x 2
Into 4 ohm Bridged: 840w x 1

I'm a little uncomfortable with 300 watts per driving any 6.5" HLCD regardless of the speaker brand.
Frankly, if you had a rock solid 150 watts per with a 12.5 volt supply you could drive the livin' heck out of any 6.5" HLCD. With the way amplifiers are rated with a 14.4 volt supply, I think an honest 200 watts per would be just about the max.
I would try and get a Class D amplifier.

I just hooked up a set of XM7s on my boat and am running them off a Exile 800.4 amp bridged. I dont think that amp is available anymore because i got it on a closeout for cheap from Exile last year. When i had bought it, Brian thought it would be matched well to those speakers and though i've only heard it in my garage, they sound good so far. You might be able to find one of these used for cheap.

A $500+ amp isn't exactly bang for your buck.

The PPI 600.2 would likely be your most immediate bang for your buck at the moment. There is, unfortunately not an abundance of 2 channel class D amplifiers in the market priced in the $250-$400 range yet. From what I have found there are really only 2 price points at this configuration and power handling. ~$200 or $550. Everything in between appears to be a 4 channel which is not typically optimal for future proofing an eventual second pair or a used amp.

If used is OK in the $250-300 price range, I would hunt for an Arc Audio KS300.2 in a heartbeat.

Its also worth noting that the 6.5" xm7 is also been discontinued. I would not plan to add a 2nd pair latter, but rather upgrade to a larger HLCD or coaxial.

Thanks for the info so far. Iam now thinking of adding a sub too! What do you guys think......

I was driving my kicker 6500.2 HLCD setup off a Kicker KM350.4 bridged giving 175 per channel to each side. I'm sure the Exile 6.5" HLCD setup would be similarly happy.

I'm changing up my setup so my Kicker 350.4 is for sale. If you want it, it's yours for $100.

https://post.craigslist.org/imagepre...Ks_600x450.jpg

And for adding a sub, pick up one of the many 5-channel amps and use it to run your cabins and sub.

Then pick up a zone controller like the ws420sq to control the sub/cabins/tower separately.

I can't find a PPI 900.2 I can only find a 900.4 so are you talking about getting a 900.4 and bridging it to 450x2 at 4 ohms?

Since when have you been afraid of head room David? :)

For the record I was thinking the XM9's my bad.

My idea of bang for your buck= you get what you pay for

PS. I have the PPI 900.4 on my golf cart and it works great powering (2) 8's and and 2 pair of 6.5" coaxials but I wouldn't use one on my boat.

You are right. I am not afraid of extra headroom in my own hands...but not necessarily in the hands of everyone.
You might reflect on the power handling of your own HollowPoint 770 HLCDs. But the HP 770 had a larger midbass voice coil and would handle far more power. The flipside is that the XM7 is more efficient with a smaller voice coil and that is the trade-off. So the XM7 will not require quite as much power to reach their full output.

Cant help with locating one for sale, but the PPI phantom 600.2 is an actual model

http://precisionpower.com/store/prod...om/p600-2.html

I am aware of the P600.2, which is a 2 channel Precision Power Phantom class D. However Racer808 mentioned a PPI 900.2 which I couldn't find to exist, only a 900.4 which could be bridged to two channels.

I have a 600.2 pushing 6.5 hlcds and it sounds great

One pair or two? Which ones specifically?

Taken the context of this thread, I would gather he was referring to the 600.2, but 900.2 was just a typo. Thats what I meant by actual model.

1 pair of krypt 6.5 hlcds.

Okay! really confused. My exile speakers came in! I need an amp to power two exile xm7 speakers and the boat speakers in my 210. How many channels and watts per channel do I need? Please keep this simple thanks :)

just bough arc audio 900 6 channel. will run 4 inboats and a sub.

what are your speakers rated for? then find an amp to match! snap up that kicker for a bill if it fits your needs!

Derik,

Besides a pair of 6.5" HLCDs, how many in-boats?

My personal setup is as follows

2 x 6.5 HLCD (Krypt brand, which is basically a hollowpoint knock-off) running on a ppi 600.2

6 x inboats and 1 x sub running on a 5-channel Alpine MRX-V70 (you can wire 4 speakers in parallel to 2 channels, 2 speakers to the other 2 channels and the sub goes on the mono channel)

So basically what I am saying is that I would recommend running 2 seperate amps. 1 for in-boats and possibly a sub and 1 for towers.