need help deciding

[installerman]

hey I've got a set of diamond audio d971 components, and I'm wondering what everybody thinks whether I should go with one amp or the other.

I wanted to go with butler's tubes, bi-amping my comps on 4 channels, OR

diamond d7401. I've heard nothing but good things, and I've already got diamond in my car.

now I've already got my sub amp, it's an audison vrx 1.500 EX, which is the chrome shadow with gold hardware and walnut center strip plus most upgrades factory installed. and I plan to amp a pair of alpine type x 12's

so I just want to know what everyone thinks about which direction I should head in. I appreciate your opinions in advance

[DasBot]

Butler Tube amps are crap. The PPI versions are the bomb. Designed by the guys from Krell. Bi-amp if you can and cross down to about 2.5 or 3.5k at 18db per octave. If you don't have active, the passives are OK. Kind of dumb though to make a $1200 comp set and then run passives. Passives will allow a single TD2150 to make them sing. The mid bass is the real champ in that setup.. The tweeter, not so much.

[installerman]

you're probab ly the first person in the world to say butler is anything short of incredible. I know some of the ppi's were actually ripoffs of the butler design. you think the original were better than the butler's though? have you heard new butler's? to be honest I was really leaning towards butlers even if it means I gotta redo all my electrical to support the power draw. I also found some people who have a pair of tdb 475's that would let them go for 400 bucks a piece, so I'm really leaning towards that.

the crossovers on the d971's oddly enough have bi ampable inputs, so I'd be going passive anyways. you don't spend 800 bucks or so on speakers and then just say to hell with all the engineering I'm gonna go diy. I don't anyways. thus far.... lol. I had the diamonds running on just a cheap old amp I found before which I already know limited them severely, but still sounded amazing, I know with the proper eq those speakers no matter what amp I have them on are gonna be all they need to be. the midbass definitely kills it in this setup. that's another reason I wanted to go butler, the aluminum tweeters can be a little sharp unless you attenuate the tweeters to like -8. so I figure a warmer amp would be better anyways. plus it would make the midbass just that much better. I dunno. opinions? (ow that there's a little more in depth info?)