Hi all,

Im trying to make a decision. I could get a Soundstream Van Gough 800.2 and a Van Gough 600.2 and use them to run 3 way splits and a sub. But Im not sure how I would work this. How would a two channel go powering 3 way splits? I was wanting to get two 4 channels so I could have a channel for each speaker, but these are such good amps :)
Is it a better idea to use both these for the splits and save up more for another amp for the sub? (but its so expense :()

Or another option, I could get like two Jaycar amps that are like 4 x 130wrms, thats good power, but are they lacking features or do they not reproduce the sound as well or something?

The splits I will probably be running with these are Morel Elate 6 or 9" + Supremo tweeter, so 8 speakers in total. But I would probably just run the Elate tweeters off the headunit as ambients.

So what do people think?

Thanks

Dave

No opinions guys? :confused:

Hi all,

Im trying to make a decision. I could get a Soundstream Van Gough 800.2 and a Van Gough 600.2 and use them to run 3 way splits and a sub. But Im not sure how I would work this. How would a two channel go powering 3 way splits? I was wanting to get two 4 channels so I could have a channel for each speaker, but these are such good amps :)
Is it a better idea to use both these for the splits and save up more for another amp for the sub? (but its so expense :()

Or another option, I could get like two Jaycar amps that are like 4 x 130wrms, thats good power, but are they lacking features or do they not reproduce the sound as well or something?

The splits I will probably be running with these are Morel Elate 6 or 9" + Supremo tweeter, so 8 speakers in total. But I would probably just run the Elate tweeters off the headunit as ambients.

So what do people think?

Thanks

Dave

A 2 channel amp is fine to run 3 way splits. It also saves you a lot on processing power (crossovers, wiring, amplifiers etc) to run one 'active' instead of passive. Active being one channel powering each speaker, passive being one channel powering 2 or 3 drivers and a passive crossover being used.

There are many pro's for going active or semi active (eg running passive tweet and midrange) and active midbass and sub -> this is what Im doing now. But it is very exxy and can produce bad results if you don't have a lot of time or money to have it tuned properly.

So best bet is to KISS... Keep it simple stupid.

Try passive for now I reckon. To run a good 3 way setup with a 9" driver you'd want between 120 and 500 w rms per side from your amp (enough headroom for daily listening)

I would definetly go the Soundstream before the Jaycar. In fact I just swapped a mates Jaycar 4 x 130 for a picasso 4x110 and the soundstream is just in a whole new league. Especially if you are looking to use high end equipment.

If your budget is stretched for now I would look to do go with the soundstreams you mentioned. A few years down the track if you want more you have good quality amps that can be used to run indivual drivers, then you can possibly look to buy another high end 4 channel amp to run your mids and tweets

Peace

Tim

OK, so does that mean your running your tweeters and mids off the head unit and running the midbass and sub off the amp? I would have thought any amp, even a cheaper one, would have been better than no amp?

Those two Soundstream amps have sold now :( but the principle is the same, your saying 1 or 2 two channel amps from a good company is better than 2 four channel amps from a not so good company?

If you have a two channel amp and use it to drive say 4 speakers. Say the amp is 2 x 200wrms, does that mean each speaker would get 100wrms? so you divide the power of that channel by how many speakers it has to run?

Another question I always wondered was I know that a sub with a single voice coil, say 2 ohm has to be fed power from the amp at 2ohm. But if you have a duel 2 ohm does that mean it has to have 4ohm, or can you choose to use 2 or 4ohm?

Thanks

Dave

OK, so does that mean your running your tweeters and mids off the head unit and running the midbass and sub off the amp? I would have thought any amp, even a cheaper one, would have been better than no amp?

Those two Soundstream amps have sold now :( but the principle is the same, your saying 1 or 2 two channel amps from a good company is better than 2 four channel amps from a not so good company?

If you have a two channel amp and use it to drive say 4 speakers. Say the amp is 2 x 200wrms, does that mean each speaker would get 100wrms? so you divide the power of that channel by how many speakers it has to run?

Another question I always wondered was I know that a sub with a single voice coil, say 2 ohm has to be fed power from the amp at 2ohm. But if you have a duel 2 ohm does that mean it has to have 4ohm, or can you choose to use 2 or 4ohm?

Thanks

Dave
I'm driving my ambient tweets off an Alpine mrv-405 (4x45 w rms) with 2 channels spare for testing stuff out etc.

2 Supremos and 2 CDM54 Midranges of 2 channels of a soundstream picasso 4x110. I am running these passive through a custom passive crossover.

Elate 9 Midbasses running off the other 2 channels of the same soundstream picasso

2 Phoenix Gold XMAX 12" subs running of an Eclipse 2 channel class d. (~1kwrms)

My headunit doesnt have an internal amplifier, so just spins the disc and makes the signal, there is also another electronic crossover (besides the 3 way xover on the alpine headunit)

I previously ran 3 x 4 channel amps and a monoblock, but am trying to cut down the crap there that i dont need.

Soundstream/zapco/audison/tru tech etc are in a different league compared to Jaycar amps, (not dissin Jaycar as they do make very good value gear) but you can't dress up a Jaycar amp anymore that it is. Cleaner power results in more underrated power usually. higher damping factor has more control and stops your drivers distorting at 80%+ rated amplifier power.

Correct each speaker would get 100 w rms each. But power isn't everything as above.

Dual 2 ohm subs can be wired in parrallel to present a 1 ohm load or in series to present a 4 ohm load.
You can't present a 2 ohm load to an amp with a dual 2 sub.

For that you'll want a dual 4 ohm sub (can be wired to 8 ohm or 2 ohm)
Or you'll want 1 x 4 ohm svc
Or 2 x 2 ohm dvc

:) confused yet

Peace

Tim

Thanks Tim, your a champ :)

Yeah I understood that. So I think the best plan is try and get a good 4 channel, have one channel each for the midbass, and run supremos and mids with the other two channels. Then I can just run the ambients off the headunit (getting Alpine CDA9853R with Ipod adaptor installed on friday ;) Just brought a 30Gb Ipod video today :))

Then I would just need another good amp to run a sub.

Thanks again

Dave

With the ambients, try tuning it all without them first and getting your imaging nice n sharp. They arent a necessisty more an afterthought. And ideally should be highpassed at 10khz 12db/oct slope. (passive filters can be bought from jaycar for $10 otherwise I use the filters on my headunit.