Question On RCA's With A 4 Channel Amp

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

Hm, I just talked to someone who had the same amp and he said I only need to connect RCA's to the AMP 1 and it'll automatically make all 4 channels use the same signal.
This is where reading the manual helps I suppose, I only hadn't read the manual because I didn't have it with me. Just read the manual online though and this does seem true.

Regardless, this is good info to know in case I need it, thanks for the help guys!

Yeah my PG is able to take a single pair of RCA's and set it to all 4 channle's. Makes wiring easier but less flexibility that way. But for bridging it doesn't matter (as long as it still works the same way).

Either way having a set of y-splitters around is a good thing for future installs =D

EDIT: actually thinking about it now if you use the built in feature of the amp it may send both left and right signals to both amp 1 and amp 2 thus you will have the same signal going to both speakers screwing up your stereo image... I may be wrong though. I would use the y-splitters.

 

[x2o 10+ year member]

Yeah my PG is able to take a single pair of RCA's and set it to all 4 channle's. Makes wiring easier but less flexibility that way. But for bridging it doesn't matter (as long as it still works the same way).
Either way having a set of y-splitters around is a good thing for future installs =D

EDIT: actually thinking about it now if you use the built in feature of the amp it may send both left and right signals to both amp 1 and amp 2 thus you will have the same signal going to both speakers screwing up your stereo image... I may be wrong though. I would use the y-splitters.

Well what I'll do is try it both ways, I really like experimenting with things like this so trust me, it's no hassle //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif.

I'll be sure to post with the findings in case anybody else needs this same question answered for the ZX.4 series. That is what this forum is for afterall!

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

And if you dont beleive me then go take an amp and wire it up the way I said. Now disconnect one side of the splitters while playing music... it will get quiter.

Do not do this, ESPECIALLY if you have a pioneer head unit... You'll blow the RCA's faster than a hooker on friday night.

 

[Speedbump3]

Go back to electronics 101 and stop spreading false information.
Parallel connections split current NOT voltage.

Ah yes I was thinking backwards, I apologize, but I still maintain it is fruitless to use the splitters. It will make no difference at the input. Just use left side for one bridged pair and right for the other bridged pair and set gains appropriately. There is no real benefit to using the splitters.

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

Do not do this, ESPECIALLY if you have a pioneer head unit... You'll blow the RCA's faster than a hooker on friday night.

Did not know this. Does the change in impedance screw it up or something? Since it is a splitter there is still a load on the HU preout from the other side of the splitter... not sure I understand.

Ah yes I was thinking backwards, I apologize, but I still maintain it is fruitless to use the splitters. It will make no difference at the input. Just use left side for one bridged pair and right for the other bridged pair and set gains appropriately. There is no real benefit to using the splitters.

... How so? You have effectively half the voltage by only sending one rca to it unless you have a LOT of head room on your gain's. I know with my PG I wouldn't be able to get near proper gain setting without the splitters when I bridged it.

 

[Speedbump3]

Did not know this. Does the change in impedance screw it up or something? Since it is a splitter there is still a load on the HU preout from the other side of the splitter... not sure I understand.


... How so? You have effectively half the voltage by only sending one rca to it unless you have a LOT of head room on your gain's. I know with my PG I wouldn't be able to get near proper gain setting without the splitters when I bridged it.

Any amp I have used is compatible to input lower than 1V. Pioneer decks back in the day only put .5v through the RCAs. Voltage isn't necessary. It's more marketing than anything nowadays.
Just checked PG website and saw an amp that works from 200mV to 8.5V

So explain to me how you can't get proper gain off one lead from a 2V source?

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

Any amp I have used is compatible to input lower than 1V. Pioneer decks back in the day only put .5v through the RCAs. Voltage isn't necessary. It's more marketing than anything nowadays.
Just checked PG website and saw an amp that works from 200mV to 8.5V

So explain to me how you can't get proper gain off one lead from a 2V source?

With my PG Octane-R 5.0:4 and my Panasonic CQ-8400u HU I was unable to get the gain high enough. With the gain all the way up I was no where near max potential without the y-splitters.

And every amp manual that I have read shows the wiring to use y-splitters on the RCA's.

voltage is only marketing to a point. It serves it's purpose within reason.

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

With my PG Octane-R 5.0:4 and my Panasonic CQ-8400u HU I was unable to get the gain high enough. With the gain all the way up I was no where near max potential without the y-splitters.
And every amp manual that I have read shows the wiring to use y-splitters on the RCA's.

voltage is only marketing to a point. It serves it's purpose within reason.

Probably had the HU volume too low. I would set the gain at like 90%.

 

[x2o 10+ year member]

Haha, well I wasn't expecting to learn so much in this thread. Thanks guys //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif.

Like I said, I ended up buying the Y-Splitters anyways, so I will try it all different ways I can think of.

(Only running RCA's to amp 1, running the Y splitters, and running Left to Amp1 and Right to Amp2)

We'll see //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif!

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

Probably had the HU volume too low. I would set the gain at like 90%.

I set gains to where there is not a significant increase in noise (which is roughly 90% on most HU's). The panasonic went to 40 and if IIRC i set the gains at 36 though max listening volume was 30-32.

My Alpine was a different story where I could go to 35 (max) with no significant increase in noise/distortion and increasing the gains at all on the amp would cause clipping (granted the PG is rated 4v and the alpine is rated 5v)

Either way y-splitters give more headroom and would make adjusting the gain easier due to its logrithmic nature IMO.

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

http://vault.alpine-usa.com/products/documents/PDX-4.150.PDF

Just stumbled on this and remembered this thread. I remember reading this in my PG amp manual as well.

The following troubles may occur when it is not properly connected.1) One side input results in low output.

2) One side input will cause failure.

3) One side input may cause more heating and thus result in the earlier operation of overheating protection.

 

[Rainbow1616]

I know this is an old thread but I am looking to do the same thing and was wondering if you did indeed need to use the y cables or not?

Thanks!

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

I know this is an old thread but I am looking to do the same thing and was wondering if you did indeed need to use the y cables or not?
Thanks!

Depends on the amplifier. Some are setup to automatically double the signal to the channels that don't have an input. You can check the owners manual of your amp to see if it does. If not, just grab a pair of Y-Splits and have at it.