i have two 6x9's and am soon to have two 6.5's...
i want it to be louder, but when i turn it up too loud now, it sounds bad quality, especially b/c the bass messes up the highs n mids...
will an amp fix this or make it worse?
also, what stats on my speakers do i need to look at and compare to the amp
thanx
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What is the watt rating of the amp??
If it's low then it will always sound bad when it's loud. For good quality use an amp where you only need the volume turned up <50%.
Also use bass blocking capacitors inline to the speakers to curb the bass distortion. You can find them on e-bay cheap.
id get a head unit with a crossover. panasonic makes them at a real resonable price. you can take all the bass out of the fill speaks if you want to. this is great for adding sub(s). if you got a 7301 or 8301, you also get a 7 band eq. and not that parametric crap either. see, the cool thing is that you can run the front/rear speakers off the hu crossed over already. that would be the easiest way, if you ask me. once youve done that, and the bass distortion is gone from the fill speaks, you may decide its loud enuff w/out an amp.
mecp certified installer#39272
if the new amp has a crossover (any amp of decent quality should have one built in), you can use the high pass filter on it and that should stop your speakers from distorting.
this is also true, but my stereo 250.00
my 4channel 400.00
see my point?
mecp certified installer#39272
I had a four channel amp hooked up to my speakers and it sounded great. in my opinion an amp will sound better then a head unit no matter what head unit you buy. yes it will cost more but if your going for loudness which i am. amps are better but they cost more. a pretty good four channel amp is the alpine and i think its only 200 and it sounds really good. small too.
You'll want to look at the power rating, and the amp's rms rating should be inline with the speaker's rms rating. Usually a good quality speaker can be overpowered a bit with little trouble, but don't underpower them or you'll be wasting time and money. Also, the amp should be of an A/B class design, with a variable crossover (filter). Frequency response of the amp isn't all that important as any decent amp will beable to reproduce frequencies you can't even hear, and the same goes for the speakers. Switched crossovers are ok but a variable type lets you fine tune the cutoff to match the speaker's capabilities. This will also let you blend the crossover frequency of the mids/highs and the subs if you have them so that the entire range of frequencies is reproduced accurately. With the speakers, look for a high sensitivity rating, 89dB or higher, and higher is better. The higher the sensitivity, the better it will use the power you give it. Lower sensitivity is fine, but you better give the speaker all the power it will handle to make it perform at its best.
"Silly cluth, glazing is for donuts!"
Oh, almost forgot -- THe comparison of an amp and a headunit: All things being equal, if the amp and the head are both rated at 25W RMS, take the amp any day of the week. The power will be more reliable as the amp has one dedicated function, and the signal is cleaner, which means better sound watt for watt. A head unit no matter the power rating, has to control output, tuning, filtering, every aspect of reproduction. As a result the power output and signal output can be unreliable compared to that of an amp. Just because the head makes 45 watts per channel doesn't mean it'll sound good. I'd take the 25 watt amp any day over a 45 watt head unit.
"Silly cluth, glazing is for donuts!"
In addition to what Ronin said. Most to all headunits will push a MAXIMUM of 18w a channel before the signal starts clipping. and MAYBE around 35W with a crazy clipped signal even though the are rated at 60X4 or whatever, its complete BS. (I tested this on a few decks) The cool thing about the RCA's though is that even with the volume knob cranked to max volume the signal does not clip at all or VERY little. this is why speakers that are amped sound better. Make sure gains are adjusted properly and the high pass filter is on for your speakers. If for some reason your amp or deck doesnt have a built in crossover, itd be a good idea to hook up a capacitor (bass blocker) to your speakers.
The amp in my eyes is almost more important than the speakers.. in that u can change your speakers out but they will still sound bad with a stock system, but if you add a nice amp / head unit to your stock speakers they will sound much better! but you really need to do both
first a few things, first your head unit has an optimum output let say 25x4 this mean the head unit is putting out at max power with the balance to centered 25 what to a speaker but you dont want to be runing that high duy tang is about right, but look it as a preamp, now buy a good head unit, because if you do you should have, 3 rca out uts for front mid and rear or sub, now a good deack will have internal, low and highpass filters, this will allow you to tune the sound going to what ever speaker you want before it ivn leave you deck, this is a very important part of geeting the best sound, you want to try and keep the volume on your deck low (the reason being sound travels on a sign wave, i know math calls, but ever intervel of the volume noob increases the volume by a factor of 10 this means that the noise on the line will also be amplified, by that same factor of 10) now when you have tuned the sound coming from the headunit then we move to the amps, now make sure yu have a decent set of rca wire you dont what to pick up engine, noise the test for this is aftre everything is conect rev you ingive and litem to see if you get a whinning noise theat mean you have an issue somehere replace you wires, make sure alwell to run you main power wire away from you rca wires for the same issue. now when you go to the amp rca striguh in if you deack dose not have rca out then you will have to do 1 of 2 things your amp will have a little pulg usally lablled low input it is a built in converter or buy and rca converter. now the amp usally dose not real have a cross over, it also has high and low pass filter, that you can tune, but any good componet set you get will come with passive crossovers now here is where it does the best seperation of sound, for you high sound the right type of sound to your 5" or 6" speaker and then the right sounds to the tweets, you shuld have wiecked highs now, remeber there is 3 or 4 places you have to tune the sound, to get it to sound right takes a bit of time and a good ear but when you are done, it will be swwwweeeeeeeeett, aslo remeber when you buy a headunit ask what how many vot the rca outs are 2 ok 4v and higher very nice, also remember then when you place your tweets the sound at the frenquency is directional so make sure and aim the right
Bass blockers = well worth the $5 and 25 min install.
