I'm no good at chooing a Car Amp. Care to help me out?

[ViG 10+ year member]

Hi everyone, I have swapped out my 4 (2 front, 2 back) stock speakers from my car. They are currently running off my stock 2004 Honda accord deck (radio) and I realize this is a bad thing (not enough power for a speaker is bad). I want to purchase an amp that will sufficiently power these speakers so that I may listen to them in their full glory.

Here are the power details of each speaker:

[Front] - Peak: 100W each speaker, RMS: 50W each speaker

[back] - Peak: 300W each speaker, RMS: 100W each speaker

Adding this all up it comes out to require an amp that is at least 800W Peak power and 300 W RMS. (Right?)

My problem comes in with my lack of knowledge about crossovers, "bridgeableness" (I'm not quite sure what bridgeable means, I assume its splitting one channel to power 2 speakers), and other amp specs.

Should I just Google "4-channel 300W RMS amp" and buy the best one that fits my budget, or am I missing something? (I assume I am)

Do I want to power the speakers just to the RMS value or should I get to their peak? Does peak mean exceeding that value will blow the speaker? Should I aim for a number in between RMS and Peak?

This is why I stopped by this forum once again, because I know you guys help fast and provide accurate detailed information to me!

Thanks for reading and helping

-Vig

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[misfit138 5,000+ posts]

Buy this: Crescendo Audio :: Amplifers :: 1000C4 4 Channel Amplfier

It's a really nice amp with plenty of power. Should you ever decide to upgrade your front stage, you'd already have enough power to do the job.

 

[TheJuggla1 10+ year member]

I'd go with an amp slightly bigger than your needs, I am not sure but I don't think amps come with different wattage on channels(ex amp would come with 4 channels at 50W not 2 Channels at 50W and 2 at 100W) but I could be wrong. Amp maxed out doesn't sound that great compared to one putting out the same power but not maxed out, just make sure you don't feed to much power if you choose a bigger amp.

You may have to go with 1 amp for each set of speakers, I don't think that many cheap 4 channel ones do much higher than 75RMS per channel, so if you aren't planning on maxing the speakers out I wouldn't worry about buying a bigger amp, just grab one that does 75 per channel and don't overdrive the 50W speakers.

 

[ViG 10+ year member]

Hi, thanks for the fast replies. Yeah anything over 200$ is way too much for me. Since my front speakers only need 50W each and I'll assume Honda's XM stock headset provides something like 45W to each, they should be fine. So I'm thinking, as Jugglas post led me to think, that I'm just going to go with an amp to power the back 2. Each back speaker requires 100W RMS. So my new current question is: Do I just look for a 300W RMS amp (I only need 200W rms but like juggla said, don't run the amp on max). Do I want to but a 1 channel bridgeable with 300-400W, or do I but a 2 channel? Whats the disadvantages of bridging? Thanks.

-Vig

 

[misfit138 5,000+ posts]

So I'm thinking, as Jugglas post led me to think, that I'm just going to go with an amp to power the back 2.

This is a mistake. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[TheJuggla1 10+ year member]

That isn't what I said. I don't suggest running off the HU, I was saying I don't think amps come with different wattage on each channel, ex. would be Chan 1 & 2 Doing 50 Watts and Chan 3 & 4 doing 100 Watts, I don't think they make them like that(If they do must be rare because I haven't seen any)

I was suggesting get one amp to run the rear and one amp to the front or a 4 channel that did over 100 RMS each channel, but since you are trying to save a bit of money that might get a little pricey, I thought getting an 2 channel amp that does 50RMS each Channel, then another 2 Channel Amp that did 100RMS each channel might save you a bit, but you will have to compare buying 2 amps or one. I use a JL amp right now and it sounds pretty decent, maybe head over to the amp forums for some suggestions.

The one thing you should keep in mind if you want to be maxing out these speakers and if you can afford it, buy a bigger amp than you need(Don't overkill, you don't need an amp that does 100 RMS each channel to run you 50RMS Watt speakers, but a big more power like getting one that does 125RMS each channel for your 100RMS Watt speakers) will give you a more clear sound than if your amp is maxing out, just set gains properly so you don't over power and fry your speakers.

And for future you don't really need to post the Wattage, just the RMS Wattage.

Edit: Bridging is where you take a Multi-Channel amp, then combine to channels, you use the positive from one and the negative from the other channel some examples would be;

A 4 Channel Amp doing 50 RMS per channel, you then combine channels 1 & 2(Front) and 3 & 4(Rear) to make 2 Channels with 100 RMS Per channel

Doing it this way will require 2 RCA "Y"s unless your amp has a switch to send the proper RCAs to each channel. You will "Y" your right side into the front channels(1 & 2) and "Y" your left side into the rear channels(3 & 4) or vise versa, this will give you left and right in your speakers.

or

A 4 Channel Amp doing 50 RMS per channel @ 4 Ohms or 100RMS @ 2, you leave 1 and 2 but combine 3 & 4 together and run a sub with 3 & 4 Bridged(Don't think all amps can do this, check their manuals) now 1 & 2 get 50 RMS @ 4Ohms and your 3 & 4 bridged would get either 100 RMS @ 4 Ohms or 200 RMS @ 2 ohms because you should be able to run your sub at 2 Ohms. - Also if your Sub is Dual Voice coil, I believe you can feed each coil a channel but not 100% sure.

 

[Mr.Ronin_2U]

That isn't what I said. I don't suggest running off the HU, I was saying I don't think amps come with different wattage on each channel, ex. would be Chan 1 & 2 Doing 50 Watts and Chan 3 & 4 doing 100 Watts, I don't think they make them like that(If they do must be rare because I haven't seen any)

Zapco does make some like that.