ok i wanna amp my stereo but i dont know a whole lot about em and just have a small question. Basically the 6x9's in my car run at 50watt rms (250w max) and my front 6" speakers run at 30watt rms (160w max). Basically my question is if i get an amp that runs 50w rms can i make it so it runs full power through the channel that the 6x9's are on, and then make the chanel that is running the 6" speakers run at only 30w rms? Because i dont wanna be running them at the full 50w if they cant handle it and have them crap themselfs after a couple of months... Any help?

u can get a 4x50rms amp and simply turn the gains down.

u can get a 4x50rms amp and simply turn the gains down.

yeah mate i know that but can you turn it down on just 1 channel and still have the other at full power?

I wouldn't worry about the 30wrms speakers running at 50wrms. Ive had the exact same setup running for over 2 years and they sound great, you would only run into problems if you had the gains set too high. You would be able to tell if it was hurting the speaker by clipping and other distortion If this starts to happen just turn down the gain level. BTW the speakers sound much better at 50Wrms than at the 28Wrms the head unit puts out.

I also have some 50Wrms speakers running at 120Wrms and they're fine. And yes, on just about every 4 channel amp you will have 2 sets of gain adjustments so you will able to adjust the 6x9s and the 6" seperatley.

I would recommend setting the amp to match the pre-out level of your head unit. Basically if your unit has 4v pre-outs, set your amp to 4v as well, or as close as you can get it. This will minimise any distortion but will mean that you have to turn the Head unit up a little more to get the volume, but this isn't a problem as most HU's have pleanty of room to do this.

Another thing, stay away from Boss and other cheap brands of amp as these are not great quality. Make sure the amp you get has inbuilt crossovers, pref on both sets of outputs. These will allow you to cut out the frequencies that the speakers can't handle, allowing for a much clearer, distortion-free sound. External crossovers probably do a better job but I use the internal ones for my 6x9s and rear splits with no complaints.

If you want the detailed info on how speakers handle power, Fhrx is the guy to ask, he knows his stuff. It isnt hard to find him or a link to his web page in the Audio forums.

Your reply was pretty good mate, no need to ask me anything really. :)

Just a quick word on power handling:

Continuous generally refers to the amount of current a voice coil can handle continously before it heats up and welds itself to the magnet and former.

Max power is theoretically the maximum it can take before catostophic failure occures (the voice coil bottoms out or the cones and motor assembly tears out the front)...

thanks heaps, you two really seem to know what your talking about! Just quickly, what isactly is the "gains"? is that just how much power the amp puts out?

I agree with the cheaper brands of car audio, i may not know a whole lot about car audio but what i do know is that cheap brands never seem to sound as good as the top stuff. For that reason i was thinking of either an alpine or pioneer amp, a mate was going on about some audioline amp but once again, not sure of the quality of that particular brand, prefer to stick with something i know..

The 'gain' of an amplifier is how much it amplifies the base signal. The signal is measured in Volts. The gain is adjusted by a knob (usually) or button (on some high end amps with digital controls). The gain adjustment is what the amp 'thinks' its recieving from the source. for example, if your HU has 4v preouts you would set the amp's gain to 4v so that the amp is amplifying the signal to the correct and optimum amount.

You can also set the gain to other voltages than what the amp is recieving. For example if the HU is supplying a 4v signal and you set the amplifier to a gain setting of 2v then the input-to-output signal difference will be twice as big (not nessesarily twice as loud), than when it was at the 4v setting. Doing this will produce more volume but it will degrade the sound quality, you can do it a little but turning the gain right up is not recommended.

This is why the gain knob shouldn't be used as a volume control, because lots of power on a crappy signal that maybe distorted and clipped will dramatically shorten the life of your speakers.

I have not heard of anyone getting any trouble from an Alpine amp, I own a couple myself and have never had a problem. I do know a couple of people that have had dodgy pioneer amps but Ive never really dealt with them so I cant say much.

I hope that all made sense:)

This list was originally posted by Fhrx:

If you're looking for serious quality amplifiers then look to things like:

ARC Aucio
Zapco
Tru-Tech
Boston
Diamond
Audison
Phoenix Gold
Phass
U-Dimension
Brax
McIntosh
Butler
Mark Levinson

Depends how much money you want to spend, I'v got a couple of boss amps in my car putting out about 350odd RMS each and they are powering a couple of subbys, which are in my photo and it sounds pretty sick also iv got 200rms 6*9's which help out alot, Sonys pretty avg I wouldnt head down that lane otherwise pioneer is nice or if you want to spend a few bob extra grab a v12 alphine which sounds mint

cheers people

Yeah v12 Alpines are really good quality they underrate them a lot. Especially the older models. I haven't had much experience with the newer models as yet. But I know the older v12's are regarded very highly. Audison, Phoenix Gold etc also make very high quality stuff if you can afford it.
But always best to go have a listen to someone that has them installed first.

Tim