So I went to a local shop to have my head unit, compositor, amp and 2 10" Alpine subs hooked up. First they called and said the head unit was bad, so I bought a Alpine CDE-121. Then they said the amp was bad, so I bought a Alpine MRX-50. When I finally picked up the car 3 days later and they said one of the subs is blown. I've been trying to decide if I want to get two Alpine SWE-1043. My concern is will the amp power the 2 subs or should I get another amp? I know it's better to overpower the subs then underpower, but I really don't have the money to buy another amp when I just bought one. The new subs at 250w each and the amp is a 500w's.

Any help would be great. I just don't want to spend more money on something that I don't need or that will break.

 

1. WTF is a compositor?
If you mean capacitor, you don't need it--waste of money.


2. If they say everything you gave them is bad, it sounds to me like they're just trying to get more money out of you.

 

any good shop that does an install with used equipment will first test all the equipment(Bench test takes 2 mins) to ensure it works prior to putting it in. Did they find out it was all bad AFTER they installed it? Its hard to believe that all the parts you gave them were bad honestly I would tell you to take your car and all the equipment to a 2nd shop for a 2nd opinion. If they didn't do the bench test and just put it in, then there is a chance that they damaged the equipment..... Another problem is that it should not take 3 days to do all of this, more like 3 hrs..................

 

Did they offer to return the head,amp and sub that they claim are not working?

 

Yeah I did mean a capacitor, which I got from my brother two years ago for free. I'm not sure if they bench tested the HU and Amp before installing. My brother did test them after all of this and neither one was getting any power. Everything is hooked up in the car already, just one of the subs is blown. I pretty much just want to make sure a 500w amp is enough to power 2 250w subs. I'm passed the point of pissed about them keeping the car so long, although they did have the car for the 3rd day because I had work and couldn't pick it up before they closed.

 

get the biggest amp that you can afford to throw the most power to them you can. Make sure that the amp will run the impedence(ohms) of the sub is about the only important thing to match with subs/amps. As long as you keep the signal clean and out of clipping for long periods you could run them with 200 watts or 2k watts. The more power the more headroom and louder it will go but budget is normally the most important #.

Ask them if they did bench test the equipment before they installed it as I am curious. If they didn't I would straight out call them out to their face as it NEEDS to be the first thing they do before they even take your car or have you fill out paperwork. Bench testing always saved me from being in this situation but if the did it, well they would have told you before the 2-3 day mark.

Not sure I would recomend going back for anything more then for warranty work if you think something is wrong with their gear later.

 

Thanks ttocs. I'll try to get back down there this week to talk to them. I'm defiantly not taking my car back to them for anymore work, which sucks because they are the best know shop around as far as I know. I have a 500w alpine amp hooked up know but I should be able to buy another. Thanks for the help.