Car Audio II: Tube vs. everything else

[pennypinch]

I strolled into this smaller car audio place yesterday after dinner. After speaking to the salesperson, he suggested that, given my lack of any good place to put a sub, hat i might consider a tube. Does anyone have any insight into how well these perform? He said it would cost me about $150. Now, I drive a Durango, and there is literally no where i can put a conventional woofer (short of cutting sheetmetal, and I'd like to stay away from that, thank you very much). Are tubes an adequate piece of equipment, given that they have a decent speaker inside? Your help is greatly appreciated...
Also, if anyone has a pretty good handle on pricing of amps, let me know, I have a few more questions.

[att]

some tubes are pretty nice, but they can never match the deep bass quality of a sub box. unless you put one tube on each side of the rear/trunk area you're not going to get a lot of bass. if you are only doing it to improve the sound field in your durango then in say go for it. in hatchbacks and suv's they sound good. as far as amps go you're probably going to find a better deal at a local shop than online.

[blxmjx]

Hey pennypinch I got two links for you that would sound way better than a bass tube. I don't think that you would have to do any cutting for either one. The JL audio system would probably sound better since it uses a 10" vs. the 8" in the mtx system. JL audio subs tend to perform a lot better also.

http://www.mtxaudio.com/caraudio/durango.cfm
http://www.jlaudio.com/home/stealthboxes/durango.html#

[pennypinch]

Hey, thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback. BLM, I've seen that JL product, the only problem is that they use their worst model speaker in the availible durango models. Additionally, the thing runs over $400 for just that thing, a little more than I was looking to spend on just the speaker. I agree, though, of the JL systems that I've seen, they perform terrifically!
That MTX system is intriguing. I'm going to look around for it and see how much it sells for. Again, thanks, guys.
As a side note, I've been looking at a couple of amps: a kicker, a Nakamichi, and a hifonics, which I have never heard of. If I'm looking at 5-6 channels, and I think they're about 50 watts/channel. What should I pay for something like that? I feel like a car audio moron! I appreciate your response.

[blxmjx]

No problem, bro. All those amps are pretty cool. You should also take a look at precision power amps. They are excellent amps and usually cheaper than Nak's. Either way your gonna probably spend at least $400 for a 250-300 watt 5-6 channel amp of decent quality. If you wanna go for the best get this.

http://djmobiletoys.com/mcintosh.html

You could go for the mcintosh mc440m. Sweet amp.

[Renski]

For a good powerful you are looking at probally $1.00-$.200 an amp. Kicker is a decent amp. I recommend Soundstream or PPI amps for kick ass power...

Renski

[blxmjx]

Oh yeah I forgot about Soundstream amps. Pretty good amp for your money. I would stick with soundstream or precision power (PPI). If you want the best get the mcintosh.

[pennypinch]

I will take a look around for those. I've heard the Macintosh's perform very well.
Do you guys know of a good info site on the net for car audio geneneral knowledge? It just seems like a useful thing to know about.
I'm not looking to bounce quarters a foot off my hood, and I understand the Kickers are known for that specifically, so...probably looking at the Nak, but I'll check those other two out. The $/watt is a very useful metric. I appreciate, duders.