My 1.5DIN Alpine HU in my 89 died. I had ran it direct into Alpine normal-sensitivity speakers, and I never maxed the volume out. Though I've got a new 1DIN Alpine HU and decided to go ahead and get the new Alpine KTA-450 50Wx4 mini-amp to put behind the dash. It gets real good reviews.

It's 50W RMS but Alpine says can briefly go to 100W with music spikes to keep it from clipping during spikes. This mini-amp gets real good reviews on Crutchfield and other websites.

Alpine KTA-450:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_500KTA...ower-Pack.html

Has anyone used the KTA-450 mini-amp? How does it compare to similar mini-amps?

Is there a huge sound quality difference or about the same between a 50W mini-amp and a larger D-series amp that is around 50Wx4 amp like the Alpine S-A32F (55Wx4)? Is there a huge sound quality difference, or fairly close?

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_500SA3...ne-S-A32F.html

I'm looking at sticking around 50W as on the Crutchfield website, it says that should be enough for a small coup. And if I were to go with say a 100W, that would get expensive with the 100W speakers, etc. I figure 50W with high-sensitivity speakers would be more than enough for volume as I've only ever used the Alpine HU internal power and never maxed the volume out. I'm looking at going with Focal RCX-165 6.5" for the front speakers. I've got Alpine 6x9" in the rear and may upgrade to high-sensitivity down the road.

Focal RCX-165:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_091RCX...l-RCX-165.html

If I were to get a sub later. It would probably be a powered sub where I still have room to put the top in the rear of the coup. Though I'll probably do a separate post on subs.

 

Alpine's amp will sound about the same. Power will be about the same too. I wouldn't mix speakers. Go Alpine all the way.

 

I used it and it sound great with the Focals. Although i used the PS series Focal component speakers.