Hey, if I've got my 4 outputs from my head unit which currently go into 4 separate speakers...

a) if I was after a 6 speaker setup, what's my options for setting that up?

b) if I split the front signal prior to the amp and send them to another amp, (is that wise / stable?), does that mean there's a volume difference between the front 4 and the rear 2? I guess you'd correct with the gain control.

c) could I just more speakers to the front L & R? If so, would that lower the impedance and increase the potential volume from the speakers?

d) my preouts are 5 volts. Why is a higher voltage better? Does it provide a clearer signal or minimises signal degradation over distance?

Thanks,

Redav

Can anyone pick my homage from my subject? :)

Hey Redav,

Just my 2c worth...


a) if I was after a 6 speaker setup, what's my options for setting that up?

Maybe the easiest way is to use the one of the speaker outputs of your head unit for 1 pair of the front and a seperate 4 channel amp for the main front/rears.
Or, for better sound quality, use a 2-channel amp for one pair of the fronts, and a 4 Channel amp (see comment for next question) for the main front/rears.

b) if I split the front signal prior to the amp and send them to another amp, (is that wise / stable?), does that mean there's a volume difference between the front 4 and the rear 2? I guess you'd correct with the gain control.

Some 2 channel amps have line in/out for exactly this purpose. It takes the 2 channels and puts it back out at the same level to the line out sockets!
If your amps don't have this, you'll need to use your gain control to boost the signal quite a bit if you split the 2 channels into 4.

c) could I just more speakers to the front L & R? If so, would that lower the impedance and increase the potential volume from the speakers?
Yes it would, but it the h/u may fry itself! Most h/u these days only support 4 ohm speaker loads. If you run another pair of 4 ohm front speakers from the same output it will put a 2 ohm load on your h/u for the front speaker output.

d) my preouts are 5 volts. Why is a higher voltage better? Does it provide a clearer signal or minimises signal degradation over distance?

They are less prone to interference and signal loss.

Hope any of this can help.

Cheers,
Matt.

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if your getting at, wat i think ur gettin at, then a 4 volt head unit is pretty sweet. ive got one and it runs my 6x9's at the back. and then my front splits and my sub are run off my amp. so all i have to say is, if u want sum power, depending on wat speakers u have, get a small amp and run wat ever speakers u want the most power out of, off that. if u just run ll six off the deck, you will lose power, sound quality, bass, and even maybe cut out. cheers

Trav

If your amp is 2-ohm stable, then running a 2nd pair of front speakers in parallel with the current front ones running off your 4-channel amp would probably be the quickest/easiest way of doing it. Although, I believe you start to lose sound quality for lower impedance loads on the amps...it's mainly used for getting obscene amounts of SPL.

Yeah running them off the h/u isn't ideal...it's a last resort/budget type thing :)

Yeah, your 4 V RCA's are good!!! A lot of h/u are now moving towards higher level outputs, although I think a lot of it also has to do with manufacturers competing against each other as well! :roll:

Hey, if I've got my 4 outputs from my head unit which currently go into 4 separate speakers...

a) if I was after a 6 speaker setup, what's my options for setting that up?
1) Passive Crossovers to get the correct frequencies to the correct drivers - eg. Midbass to midbass drivers, highrange for tweeters.
2) Active crossovers - does the same thing as passive, except you need an amplifier - usually adjustable, as they are based on opamp circuits (known as gyrators - I could get into this in depth but it would bore you to tears I guarantee...

b) if I split the front signal prior to the amp and send them to another amp, (is that wise / stable?), does that mean there's a volume difference between the front 4 and the rear 2? I guess you'd correct with the gain control.

Due to the high imput impedence (due to opamp preamps -1KOhms plus on most amplifiers) this is not an issue - you can split safely without an appreciable drop.

c) could I just more speakers to the front L & R? If so, would that lower the impedance and increase the potential volume from the speakers?

It would decrease the impedence, if your amplifier could handle this (eg. 2 ohms stable) potentially increasing the volume BUT at the expense of ruining your soundstage IF you do not use an LPAD (a type of volume control that maintains a constant impedence regardless of setting) due to different sensitivities of the speakers (expressed as dB/W)

d) my preouts are 5 volts. Why is a higher voltage better? Does it provide a clearer signal or minimises signal degradation over distance?

The reason behind this is simple - lower voltage preouts suffer from induced interference from running parallel to other cables. In a 5v preout, the induced voltages are still there, but their signal level (say 0.2v) is a lot lower than the true signal level, so they make up a smaller percentage of the signal. In a 1.2v preout, 0.2V is 16% - in a 5v preout 0.2v is 4% - much lower! The lower the percentage of noise to signal, the purer the signal, and the better it sounds.

Thanks,

Redav

The methods I suggested were based on what you require, and the capabilities of your system (and the $$$) you wish to spend.

If you were looking to add tweeters only to your system (eg. in the dash mountings) then you would use passive crossovers - bi-amping is overkill.

Need more information before I would suggest a method...

Cheers
Heath Young