Noob question.. Amps and components..

[Camer138 10+ year member]

I've read lots of people saying that an amp is almost necessary if you are getting component speakers or else they wont sound good..

But I've never heard the reasons why.. If you have a set of coaxials and components that are both rated at the same RMS, why is it more necessary for components to have more juice?

I recently ordered some JBL P660c components(90w RMS @ 2 ohms) and am wondering if I will even really need an amp for them.. While I do like my music loud, I dont like it so loud that it hurts my ears.

Strictly going for SQ here, do you think I should get an amp for my components or not? Will the amp make the speakers sound better at lower volumes or is the only purpose behind the amp to make it sound better at higher volumes?

Click to read more...

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

if you're looking for SQ, then i would definately go with an amplifier.... one reason, is that your HU's stock amplifier is very very weak.... so it mayput out 15w to each speaker.... i dont care what 99% of hu's out there say, you'll be lucky to see that with the large majority... so, with that low power, you can end up getting more distortion or even a clipped signal to your speakers, just to get to the same level as you would with an amp.

and sounding "better" is really a relative term.... what sounds good to me, might sound crappy to you, and vice versa... i will say this though... how well the signal is processed, and how clean of a signal is delivered to your speakers does have alot to do with your amp choice... but any of them will beat out the stock amplifier in your HU

 

[Camer138 10+ year member]

thanks.. and how about the need for components to be amplified and not coaxials? that still stumps me.. and being a car audio noob and all I want to learn this stuff!

 

[Gregulate 10+ year member]

AFAIK coax and components are essentially the same thing. W/ coax, the separate tweet would just be integrated into the speaker as opposed to the comp where it is separate. I would vote for amplifying. I'll be doing the same thing when I get mine picked out.

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

coax's should still be amped... depending on the speaker... if you have some cheap walmart brand ones, you wont notice much of a SQ difference, but thats just cuz they're not very good speakers... there are some really good sets of coax's out there, and for those, you would still want to amp them for best experience

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

AFAIK coax and components are essentially the same thing. W/ coax, the separate tweet would just be integrated into the speaker as opposed to the comp where it is separate. I would vote for amplifying. I'll be doing the same thing when I get mine picked out.

they are essintialy the same thing... biggest difference is with components, the mid woofer can use all of it's cone area, and is usually better designed with better response (but like i said, there are some good coax's out there)... but 9/10's of the time, a component set will sound a lil bit better than a coax of the same model