# New Alpine PDX-F4



## MUGWUMP (Jan 29, 2012)

I replaced an old Kenwood I was using...

Kenwood KAC-8401 60W x 4 Car Amp at Crutchfield.com

...with this

Alpine PDX-F4 4-channel car amplifier — 100 watts RMS x 4 at Crutchfield.com


This is all in a 2012 Mustang GT.

My head unit is an Alpine CDA-117. I am using the F4 to power a pair of Focal 165 VBs. I've also got a pair of Diamond Audio 5x7s in the rear deck I may or may not use. I got the 4 ch amp because I may decide to go active in the future as well. I've got an IDMax12 in a sealed enclosure powered by an American Bass 75.1. That's a lof of I's.

Obviously I was under-powering the Focals with the Kenwood. The Kenwood sounded pretty good, but it seemed like the Focals would distort at a pretty low volume(gain?).

The F4 has them playing much louder and it seems more detailed. My head unit clips at max volume so I went down a few notches and used a 1khz tone to set the gain on the F4. I barely budged it before I got some distortion with the Focals. Lots of headroom. I'm pretty damn happy. I went for a drive and while playing pretty loud for 30 minutes it barely got warm. I could fry an egg on the Kenwood after 15 minutes.

I have the CDA-117 filter set to 80hz with the filters off on the F4. I put it there because of the distortion on the Kenwood. I'm wondering if I should knock it back down to 60 to see how it sounds. The only drawback is that the Focals will possibly distort at a lower volume correct? 

What would you all set the High pass to with this setup?


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## TEARfromRED (Oct 2, 2009)

you will see distortion earlier with the filter set lower... if maximizing your volume is necessary then keep it where it is


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