Head unit has 4 rca outputs. Can I amp a sub and 2 front and 2 rear speakers?

[Broese 10+ year member]

My head unit is a Sony CDXGT350MP. I have an Alpine M500 amp and a sub. I was thinking of upgrading the front and rear speakers but was wondering If/ how I could amp them since my HU only has 4 RCA outs. I may be looking at this wrong. Can someone help explain to me exactly how this would work?

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[Broese 10+ year member]

In-case It isn't clear I am basically wondering if I can buy another amp and runthe front and rear speakers through it or is my head unit limiting me?

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

one set of RCA's for sub amp, 2nd set of RCA's for 4ch amp to power front/rear speakers. You'll need 2 Y-splitters to go into the 4ch unless your amp has a setting to run 2ch signal to all 4ch's. Some amps have that.

You won't be able to fade front to back on the HU, but can always turn gain down more on rear speakers if they're too loud compared to fronts.

 

[West]

Your best bet is to get a clarion, alpine, or eclipse deck. It will sound much better than 95% of what sony makes.

 

[330ci]

Not sure if your 4 general speaker amplifier also has an RCA output? If it does, run RCA leads to the front and rear input on your 4 channel amp, then run another RCA from the RCA output, to the second amp for your sub, job done.

 

[av83 10+ year member]

You can make it work with splitters, or by using outputs on an amp.... But you are so much better off buying a deck with there sets of outputs. Start a ”want to buy” thread, someone here's guaranteed to have one sitting around for cheaps, if you're budget is limited. If you can afford it, get pretty much any kenwood excelon. Great hu's.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

simpler solution is to not run rear speakers at all.

if you must for some reason, i prefer to combine front and sub on the same output so I can still use a fader to keep rear speakers much quieter than the fronts.

otherwise you can buy a 4 channel amp with RCA outputs as well - to feed the signal through to the sub amp.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

That HU has switchable rear preouts, which means the rears can be defined as sub preouts. Do that and don't amp the rear speakers, just use HU power for them.