do people run two 4 ch. amps or two 2 ch. amps? please read...

[michaellane 5,000+ posts]

i have now a eD nine.1 and eD nine.4. id like to keep matching amps but id also like more power than the nine.4 puts out. so my question is....should i buy two 2 ch. amps and run the front speakers off one then the rear off the other amp or buy two 4ch.'s and just bridge 2 ch.'s per speaker and run it like that? i kinda feel like if i buy their bigger 2 ch. i wouldnt be using the amp to its full potential....the speakers are all 4ohms so i could bridge the 4ch and get 150x2 @ 4ohms...so please give me your opinions here

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[Side Show 10+ year member]

get another 4 channel imo, then you can go active if you wanted to later on

 

[Redlineaudio 10+ year member]

I have a guy running a 4 ch for the fronts active and a 2ch on the rears.

But he also has one amp per sub on a 3 10's setup.

 

[michaellane 5,000+ posts]

wait what do you mean go active? thats another thing i dont understand...the active stuff or the passive i guess is the other option...whats the difference?

 

[michaellane 5,000+ posts]

soooo should i do two 4ch amps? i mean is that common? will people look at it and be like "what the h3ll are you doing?"

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

Just buy an 8ch and call it a day....

 

[dragnix 5,000+ posts]

just do the 2 4ch.

 

[IDSkoT 5,000+ posts]

wait what do you mean go active? thats another thing i dont understand...the active stuff or the passive i guess is the other option...whats the difference?

Going active is when you set the frequency and dB slope curve for the cross overs of your drivers, as well as T/A and all that fun stuff.

 

[lincolntc690 10+ year member]

x2

 

[bonesninja 5,000+ posts]

just buy another nine.4 and call it a day

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

i have now a eD nine.1 and eD nine.4. id like to keep matching amps but id also like more power than the nine.4 puts out. so my question is....should i buy two 2 ch. amps and run the front speakers off one then the rear off the other amp or buy two 4ch.'s and just bridge 2 ch.'s per speaker and run it like that? i kinda feel like if i buy their bigger 2 ch. i wouldnt be using the amp to its full potential....the speakers are all 4ohms so i could bridge the 4ch and get 150x2 @ 4ohms...so please give me your opinions here

Bridge it to run the front speakers only. The extra power adds headroom, it's not wasted. Run the rear speakers off another smaller amp or even HU power.

Or you could run the front speakers active. That means channels 1 & 2 power only the tweeters, and channels 3 & 4 power only the mids. You program your headunit (if it's capable) to give you biamp output so it splits the frequencies inside the head unit so the tweeters only get high frequencies (upper half), and the mids only get the lower half of the frequecies. You will probably have to turn the tweeter amp channels down by at least a third or more, they don't need as much power. If your HU won't do active output, then you can check if your amplifer crossover will allow a crossover point in the 2khz range, if not you can get an external crossover to put inbetween the HU and amplifier to split the frequencies into high and low.

 

[michaellane 5,000+ posts]

well i have a eclipse 5435 i beleive..i dont think its capable of doing all that. whats a good hu from eclipse that doesnt cost a arm and a leg that can do this? and if i do run the tweeters off their own ch.'s does that mean i dont use the crossovers that came with the comp set? someone who feelis like taking some time to help me understand all this please pm me...i have a million questions.....PLEASE SOMEONE lol

 

[michaellane 5,000+ posts]

okay so ive decided its not worth it to go passive...so my only question is "is it a normal thing for someone to run two 4ch's or would that make me a ***?" not am i already a *** but would running two 4ch's seem weird/ like do people normally just run two 2ch's?

 

[budahbuddy803 10+ year member]

man it does not matter... personal preference. If you want another 4 ch. get it, if you want to buy 2 2 ch. get them. you will not look any different in the eyes of people...

edit: if you have to use y-splitters to bridge the amp i have had interference problems with those on some amps. If not then it REALLY doesnt matter.

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

Correct. If you run the speakers active, you do not use the passive crossovers that came with the speakers. I wouldn't change HU's just for that. Your amp may be capable of doing the crossover function, or you can by and external crossever for less than $100.

There is nothing wrong with running another 4 channel, except you don't need 4 more channels. You only need 2 more channels.

I would bridge the 4 channel to power the fronts and run the rear speakers off the HU amp or buy a small cheap amp for the rear.

What about active confuses you? There are stickies about it in the speaker section.