Car Audio questions...

[Justin Thibert 10+ year member]

Okay I'm new to car audio systems and I would love to upgrade mine... But I dont really know much about them yet.... I have no idea on what amp to get or if I need 2 amps, crossovers what gauge wire ect..... and I know that you go by RMS and not total wattage... But can someone please explain to me what I would need to have 2 10' subs in a box and 4 speakers powering 50 watts rms each.... two in front and two in rear of my ford explorer.... I really dont need anything fancy like leds that blink or an eerie glowing amp... I just want a normal system that can power my 50 watt speakers and two 10' subs....

Any help is greatly appreciated.....

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[jsloan10 10+ year member]

This is just a suggestion, there are other ways to do it as well, but just for the sake of simplicity.

Head unit-

Get a quality head unit that has front/rear/sub rca outputs, this will allow for most equalization to be done right from the head unit.

Speakers-

Again get somthing of quality that will fit in the factory locations, you could go with different than stock but the cost of the install will be considerably higher due to fabrication.

Subwoofers-

Quaility, find something that performs well in the enclosure you plan to use and will match to your amplifiers capabilitys, for example a 500watt rms amp will work well with two 250watt rms subs (be aware of wiring of the voice coils though to get the proper ohm load).

Amplifiers-

A four channel amp that puts out around 50watts x4 rms will do a good job of powering you upgraded speakers, huge power is not needed here as the subwoofers will take on all the power hungry low notes.

A class D mono block is an excellent choice for powering subwoofers, its efficient and purpose built for the job, a 400 to 600 watt rms monoblock is a good choice as most factory electrical systems will handle it with no problems and it will still have enough power for a pair of quality subwoofers, an added bonus is that it won't require huge power wire either, 4gauge will work fine and save you on install costs.

 

[Justin Thibert 10+ year member]

Thanks alot for the reply....

I have a follow up though...

So if I got an amp that was 500 watts RMS and I had 4- '50' watt speakers and 2 10' subs that were 200 watts with a 4 ohm load each it would work? Or no... and if no then why...? because of the total wattage or.....

 

[laxman03 10+ year member]

well, you're going to want two amps for all the speakers, including the subs. a four channel amp that puts out 50 watts rms each channel would ge ideal for the four main speakers. then you could get a mono amp for the subs and wire both of them to it, or get a two channel amp that puts out 200 watts rms each channel and be good that way as well.

but either way, one 500 watt amp like you mentioned would not work for all six total speakers.

an easy way to look at it, all of the main speakers ( 5.25, 6.5, 5x7, 6x9, whatever sizes) will need their own channel, but the subs can be wired together to one amp in mono, which is basically a single channel, or you can wire a subwoofer to each channel on an amp as long as the amp can put out enough power to push the sub.

hope this helps

p.s. i have horrible typing skills, so if i misspelled anything or added an extra letter somewhere i apologize in advance

 

[Justin Thibert 10+ year member]

Yo thanks so so so much for the replys.... It is so appreciated.... youre spelling was great lol.... I may have more questions in the future so watch out!!

Thanks again guys....