completely dont understand amps, so i need a little help....

[whitelightnin 10+ year member]

i have a truck and i wanna put in 2 12" inch subs that RMS at 1200 watts and are dual 4 ohm. im also putting in all new speakers: the speakers in the back rms at 150 watts each and are 4 ohm, the door speakers rms at 35 watts each and are also 4 ohms, and the dash speakers rms at 125 watts each and are also 4 ohm.

so my questions are should i get a mono channel amp or a multi and if multi how many channel should i get?

a friend also suggested getting 2 amps, one for the subs and 1 for the speakers?

and what power outputs should i be looking at for the amp/amps?

and what about the ohms of the amp?

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[PeerlessAudio 10+ year member]

I would recommend getting 2 amplifiers.

For your subs, look for an amplifier that matches the combined power rating of your subs at 4 OHMS, not 2 ohm or 1. A lot of companies rate their amplifiers "max power" at an abnormally high voltage input level and an abnormally low impedance. (Impedance referring to 4 ohm, 2 ohm ,etc...) If both of your subs are dual 4 ohm coils, you want to wire each subs voice coils in series (positive connected to negative, positive connected to negative). This will essentially make each one of your subs present an 8 ohm impedance. Now wire both subs together in parallel (positive connected to positive, negative connected to negative. This will present a final impedance of 4 ohms to your amplifier. I would use a mono, preferably class D subwoofer amplifier.

Now as for your speakers, you are dealing with 6 speakers which all have varying power requirements. You could use a 6 channel amp, but they are a little hard to come by, and are usually expensive. Plus you have power requirements ranging from 35 watts to 150 watts. If you use a 6 channel amp, chances are you are either going to have some seriously underpowered or dangerously overpowered speakers. Your best bet would be to not use the 35 watt door speakers at all, and get yourself a 4 channel amp that puts out 125-150 watts per channel at 4 ohms. Door speakers are usually poorly located for quality sound and imaging anyways.

Hope this helps.

 

[bigaudiofanatic 10+ year member]

How are 6 channel amps hard to come by? I can name at least 4 companies that make them now. They work well and would do great for what he wants. Just not running subs off them just speakers. Amps have something called a gain knob, this allows you to control how much power are going to each set of speakers so you will not have a set over powered and a set under powered.

 

[PeerlessAudio 10+ year member]

Just my opinion, 6 speakers seems like overkill, and chances are the location of the door speakers are going to be poor anyways, unless he has proper kick panel placement or is willing to do the work. Why waste the money degrading sound quality, when 4 speakers will do just fine.

 

[bigaudiofanatic 10+ year member]

I agree with to many speakers just your info on amps and power are wrong.

 

[metallicaddict 10+ year member]

another option although not as good as buying another amp would be that you could run the door speakers off your head unit

 

[bigaudiofanatic 10+ year member]

Ya just would not sound as good as with an amp.

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

Dump the dash and rear speakers and get a real set of front components. Deaden/seal the doors, get good speaker placement, and you'll be happier instead of having the same thing coming from 6 different sources.

 

[bigaudiofanatic 10+ year member]

Dump the dash and rear speakers and get a real set of front components. Deaden/seal the doors, get good speaker placement, and you'll be happier instead of having the same thing coming from 6 different sources.

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