Newb Needs Basic Speaker Wiring Advice !

[C2C3PO]

Hello !

Guys, my head is gonna explode if I try and search this anymore.....

I have been given so much conflicting advice from friends/coworkers, etc that I thought I better turn to knowledgeable people for the definitive answer. Here's my question:

I'm trying to upgrade the audio in an old muscle car without cutting holes,etc. This really limits me to using small plate speakers in the existing dash location (2 speakers) and the kick panels (2 speakers). I am then running a pair of 6X9 speakers in the rear, and a Kicker Hideaway Sub to provide some much needed bass.

The deck is a Pioneer unit that puts out 14 W RMS X 4 and I'm using a JL Audio 400 W four channel amp to power the speakers.

The challenge I am having is trying to figure out a way to PROPERLY hook up the four FRONT plate speakers (Polk Audio MM461P) that are rated at 4 ohms and 50 W RMS to channels 1 & 2 on the amp.

I tried it by connecting the set of dash speakers directly to the head unit/deck and then running the other pair of speakers off of the amp (channels 1 & 2) but as expected I'm not getting much out of the dash speakers in the way of output. The rest of the speakers sound fine but is there a better way to wire all four plate speakers to get the best performance?

Please be forewarned...you'll need to walk me through the very basics in terms of how to properly make the connections as everything I've read on series, parallel and a combination of the two has me confused.

Thank you in advance..............!

Rick

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[Flex68 10+ year member]

tl;dr , but why would you just use Channels 1 & 2 ??

I have a JL Audio 6-channel amp that it sounds like you need!

With 3 sets of speakers plus a sub, you could leave the rear fill un-amped.

 

[C2C3PO]

I designated channels 1 & 2 for the front speakers (L & R) and channels 3 & 4 for the rear (L & R). The fronts consist of 4 small plate speakers and the rear consists of two 6 X 9's.

Switching the amp would have been my first choice too but I had an extremely hard time finding a spot to mount this amp let alone one that has 6 channels and slightly larger.

 

[All_Logix 10+ year member]

I would give each of the Polk plates a dedicated channel on the 4 ch. amp and run the rears from the deck, then fade it toward the front some as to prevent distortion from the HU at slightly higher volume. You wont be getting much performance from the 6x9s, but rear speakers rarely make much of a difference and can actually hurt your sound quality. The only other option I see if your stedfast on amping the rears is if the 4 ch. is 2 ohm stable on each channel, which I assume it is, and doing a parallel on the two speakers on each side. This means connecting the two speakers on the left into ch.1 and the two on the right into channel 2, then using 3 and 4 for the 6x9.

 

[C2C3PO]

CivicGti, I just assumed I would be getting most of my volume from the rears as the plates tend to "rattle" due to their terrible location and lack of a suitable enclosure. The rears seem to give me more mid-range at present.

Do you think by hooking up the front left and right plates in parallel I will see any improvement over what i currently have with running one set of them from the head unit?

Thanks !

 

[All_Logix 10+ year member]

I would say so, I am assuming that JL amp is 100 watts per channel, and I figure that is most likely a 2Ohm rating. This means in parallel you should get about 50 watts per speaker which is a huge improvement over HU output

 

[C2C3PO]

That's great news !

Thanks very much for your help !