Help me connect 4 ch amp, 4 speakers and a sub

r3hab

CarAudio.com Newbie
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Hello,

My current equipment has no SW - Kenwood 6405 amp (4x40 or 2x130 at 4 ohm); 4 Morel speakers connected to the amp (110; 120rms) and Pioneer AVH 3300BT.

I'm thinking about adding a 150 RMS Hertz sub with minimal cost (money/space/effort), just to fill the lows a bit. My current idea is:

The head unit has 6 RCA (2 fronts, 2 rears and sub L/R), currently 4 of them connected. Can I leave my fronts connected to the amp, wire my rears to the head unit instead and bridge the freed 2 ch on the amp for the sub (using the already installed rear RCA and just moving them to SW RCA on the head unit? (attached image with my connection idea)

Car audio setup.png

 
Nope. Not the proper way of doing that. Power the speakers with the 4 ch amp and give the sub it's own amp power. Or find a good 5 ch amp and then you can power all your speakers and sub from it. I have a 5 ch amp right now, and have had a few in the past.

 
Yes it will be the best and most proper way, but I have to invest a lot more, since 5 ch amps are expensive and and it appears there aren't many used in my country (for reference, I'm thinking about HERTZ DBX 25.3 sub, which converted from my currency is around 90$ and the cheapest 5 ch amp is Hertz HCP 5D for 324$ converted). I thought about a second mono amp, but additional wiring to the battery and space in the trunk sets me off a bit. I will try to find a decent cheaper 5 ch amp, but there isn't much availability here and to spend nearly 4 times the price of the sub for a new amp just isn't cost-effective..

Still, thanks for your response.

 
You don't need additional wiring to wire a second amp, idk who or where you came up with that but that isn't true at all. You use distribution blocks for your ground and power wire as shown below in the picture of my current setup.

amp install 2003 ford.jpg

 
Yes it will be the best and most proper way, but I have to invest a lot more, since 5 ch amps are expensive and and it appears there aren't many used in my country (for reference, I'm thinking about HERTZ DBX 25.3 sub, which converted from my currency is around 90$ and the cheapest 5 ch amp is Hertz HCP 5D for 324$ converted). I thought about a second mono amp, but additional wiring to the battery and space in the trunk sets me off a bit. I will try to find a decent cheaper 5 ch amp, but there isn't much availability here and to spend nearly 4 times the price of the sub for a new amp just isn't cost-effective..

Still, thanks for your response.
No don't do it. Your gonna have a hard time making all that try and sound good. Subs are NOT meant to be powered from a 4 ch amp. So what if you have to "invest" more...welcome to car audio. Your an idiot if you actually go this route.

 
You don't need additional wiring to wire a second amp, idk who or where you came up with that but that isn't true at all. You use distribution blocks for your ground and power wire as shown below in the picture of my current setup.

View attachment 5311
So i get a mono amp and those blocks and do I need to change the fuse on the front of this power cable or can I leave it as it is?

Thank you!

 
Okay, thanks, I will research this route more - it's definitely less expensive than a 5 ch amp, a bit of a clutter for a hatchback trunk, but I'll think about it some more.

 
What about the signal sensing (turn on when head unit powers on). I need to split this one too. Is there something important about the way to do it?

 
Look at the blue wire in the picture. I used speedwire that has all 9 wires in it, 8 speaker wires for all 4 speakers and then a blue remote turn on wire. What I did was split it off to the two amps. Split it off or run another wire from the head unit. If you are running new speaker wire then get 20ft of speedwire as that is how it is sold on eBay and cut to the length you need and do it as I described.

 
What you want to do is PERFECTLY fine.  At WORST, it is a step in the right direction.

There is NOTHING bad about using 2 channels of a 4 ch to run a sub -- it has a low pass filter and will work fine.  Actually, it's probably the best way to build a decent sounding system at minimal cost.

Some of these know-it-all's don't realize mono/subwoofer amps just came to the market about 20 yrs ago.   People were putting together perfectly good quality sub setups with their bridged multi-channel amps LONG before mono/subwoofer amps were developed -- some still prefer them. 

At <200w you're obviously not going to have the LOUDEST sound around, but it will sound fine at moderate volume.

Don't let all these car audio holier than thou geeks tell you what you want to do is dumb.

Next step -- save for a decent sub amp and bridge the Kenwood to give your fronts more power.  That will allow you to kick the volume up a bit and still have good sound quality.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Wow gotta love all the name calling in the post above me! And mono blocks were around long before 20 years ago,lol. Try 1964 when the first Class D amplifier was sold to the public by Sinclair Radionics. Even back in the 1980s they were abundant for sale to the public. So before you spot off about how we know nothing try a little research. Even my dad laughed at your comment because he was using Class D mono amps back in the 1970s, were they expensive well duh but they were available to the public.

 
What you want to do is PERFECTLY fine.  At WORST, it is a step in the right direction.

There is NOTHING bad about using 2 channels of a 4 ch to run a sub -- it has a low pass filter and will work fine.  Actually, it's probably the best way to build a decent sounding system at minimal cost.

Some of these know-it-all's don't realize mono/subwoofer amps just came to the market about 20 yrs ago.   People were putting together perfectly good quality sub setups with their bridged multi-channel amps LONG before mono/subwoofer amps were developed -- some still prefer them. 

At <200w you're obviously not going to have the LOUDEST sound around, but it will sound fine at moderate volume.

Don't let all these car audio holier than thou geeks tell you what you want to do is dumb.

Next step -- save for a decent sub amp and bridge the Kenwood to give your fronts more power.  That will allow you to kick the volume up a bit and still have good sound quality.
Way to encourage the OP. This sorta thing might have been cool to do back in the 90's or so but nowadays the BEST route to go is simply another amp separate for his sub only or a 5 ch amp. Did you not read what Jeff said?? The amp is not gonna filter out any unwanted freq if he were to run a sub off it. Terrible idea at best.  I don't see ANYBODY doing this at all. So many amps on the market there's really no need to.

Yup, we know it alls know what we're talking about. Funny how newbies come to this forum "knowing" that us veterns are still around seeking the proper help needed.

OP...sell that 4 ch amp and buy a 5 ch amp. Or just save a little more $$ and buy a small mono amp for the sub.

 
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