Head unit power/capabilities

[JustPerfect 10+ year member]

So far in my '96 Saturn SC2 I haven't done anything with the speakers or cd player. When I bought it (used), it had a Clarion cd player that isn't in very good shape. It works fine and plays cd's, but it gets all messed up when the weather is cold and it's just not as....nice as I'd like. I bought some Alpine SPS-170 speakers, but it's way too cold to install them now, and I don't have access to a heated shop or anything, so for now I'm just waiting on them and trying to find a nice way to make my car sound good //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

The SPS-170's have an rms rating of 40 watts. I'm not sure yet whether I'm going to put them in the rear for now and then get some higher quality speakers for the front or put them in the front and then move them to the back when I upgrade. But either way, I know that cd players don't give much power to the speakers (about 20 watts or less?). I figure that should be fine for the Alpines since they have a low rms rating (and are likely going to be for the back speakers anyway). But for the front speakers, I'm probably going to get something a little nicer and I want something that will sound real clear and pleasing to the ear. The problem is, my head unit right now only has one set of amp pre-outs, which is already taken by the amp for my subs. So.... Unless I'm missing something, I can either just settle for the very low head unit power or get a whole new deck to power my speakers.

Is there any way I can somehow make two sets of pre-outs out of one? Like, split them or something? I'm kind of leaning towards getting a new cd player anyway because I don't have the deck keys for mine and have to drop $10 to use the nearest sound store's keys every time I want to take it out.

Another question I have is, are there any decks that are made to give out more power than 20 watts or whatever most give? I mean, are some cd players made so that they can power aftermarket speakers that need more watts? Or do they just have another set of pre-outs so you can hook an amp up for the speakers?

Lastly, I know most people power the fronts with an amp and the rear with head unit power, but is it at all common to buy an 4-channel amp that does, say, 50 rms x 4 and use it for all of the speakers? Would that work well?

Thanks a lot for any answers. Much appreciated :veryhappy

- Dane

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[sumone 10+ year member]

y-adapters for rca's will split one terminal into two

so you could have your main rca cable going to your amp, and hook up a y-adapter on each terminal;

as far as I know head units don't put out more than 20w rms because of the type of internal amp it has inside. I could see if there was some thousand dollar head unit that could...but as far as I know, nope.

yea...it would work. me, I just got one 4 channel amp. components off 1&2, sub bridged on 3&4. running 6x9s off head unit in rear

 

[JustPerfect 10+ year member]

Interesting, thanks a lot for the replies.... 10 watts rms, eh? Man, that's pretty crappy, heh.

Can you find y-adapters pretty easily for cheap? I mean, do wal-marts or radio shacks have them usually? 'Cause if they're cheap, I'd love to use that for a while and then get a new head unit later. My mom hates me putting money into my car's audio system, hehe.

Well, thanks for the replies guys. I have kind of a similar question, too. My Alpine SPS-170's that I'm going to be installing probably for the rear speakers are 40 watts rms, and I'm planning on getting better speakers for the fronts.... But aren't those usually more like 60-70 rms? If so, is it okay to give the Alpines a little more than their rms, supposing I decide to use a 4-channel amp to power them as well as the fronts?

Thanks again :thumbsup ,

- Dane

 

[80_Cutlass_mn 10+ year member]

With most 4 channel amps, if thats the way you go, they usually have seperate gains and seperate c/o's for the the front and rear outputs so you could easily buy a bigger amp than you needed and then run your good front speakers off the front with the gain set for them and then run the rear speakers off the rear and lower the gain for them. Its as simple as that.