Biamping How To

[gtidriver33 10+ year member]

Ok I have a friend that wants to install a Kenwood KAC-9103D mono block amp with 2 Alpine type R's. He has 2 10's and an amp in there now (not sure what model or power) but he wants to add 2 12's. Before you guys get all pissy about adding 2 12's to a system that already has 2 10's. I told him that it would not sound good. He says that he wants both of them in there so i cant change his mind. Since i have never biamped before I am wondering about how the RCA's hook up and what not. As far as I know his HU has one set of preouts for subs. How would I go about hooking up the RCA's for both amps and then connect them to one set of preouts?

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[grimreper912003 5,000+ posts]

Does the kenwood have preouts?

 

[Horsemanwill 10+ year member]

does he know he'll probably not even hear the 10s?

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

That's not "biamping". It's just multiple subs. It will work fine.

Usually one of the amps will have pre outs. If so then you just daisy chain them; just run the RCA's from HU to that one first, then take the pre out from that one to the next.

If neither have pre outs, then you can either take the right RCA to one amp and the Left RCA to the other amp, or use RCA splitter cable to make 2 pair of outs from the single pair of RCA outs from the HU. It doesnt' matter. Either way your spitting the voltage, then set the input gain higher to compensate.

 

[gtidriver33 10+ year member]

Ok i see what your sayin...and yes both amps have an IN/OUT preamp outputs. After i thought about it for a little bit....its going to be easy. And he doesnt get the fact that the 12's will over power the 10's but hey...its not my car! im just the installer!

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

The 10's will still produce just as much bass as they did before. The 12's will just add to that. It will work and sound fine. It's mainly a waste of money, because if you add up what he spent on all the gear combined, he could have bought a better system and/or less money, or sold the 10's and bought better gear. Not a big deal.

Just make sure you do a good job of giving both amps heavy power wire, either with a 0 gauge wire and a distro block or run a seperate 4 gauge for each amp. Don't try to do both amps on a single 4 gauge.

 

[gtidriver33 10+ year member]

Yup, plannin on doin 0 to a distro then 4 to amps! Also he got the 10's a while ago and had best buy or circuit city install them. He said they charged him close to $300 to install the subs and a head unit!