Car Amp and speakers

[james_gray]

hiya, just helped my bro install an amp, sub and speakers in his car, sounds damn good, so iv decided i need some lol. problem i have is that i have no clue what speakers go with which amp etc? (RMS power....) what things should i be looking out for to pair some speakers with an amp? im not too bothered about a sub atm and this can wait till later. i know about different channel speakers so prob only looking for a 2 channel amp for the new rear speakers. what makes are best? my budget is great, max £200,
THANKS James

BTW my bro recently bought his car which the sub, amp n speakers came with and he dont know much more than me

[Jimi137]

Well for a set of 6x9s 150 - 200 watt rms is gonna sound insane - ive got some 150 watt ones powered off a 30 watt head unit and they sound beast atm. Also make sure your head unit has the output for an amp on it (pre-outs) and also check how many it has - if it only has one then you can only have one amp connected so you might need 2 think about getting a 5 way one to make it completely futureproof - if its got more than one then u can just get another 2 way amp in the future or a mono block one for your sub.

Also some people hate the sound 6x9s give and say rear speakers ruin the sound distribution in the car - they say you should get a new set of front speakers (you can amp these if you want) and a sub for the boot. This is meant to give the best balance of sound but tbh in a corsa you won't really tell lol

[james_gray]

well i know my HU has 2 pre-outs, its power is 4x50W?? is it possible to wire a sub along with 2 speakers to a 2 channel amp?

[Jimi137]

Thats the onboard amp power - probz gonna be about 25 watts rms tops but if your plugging an amp in from the pre-outs then this is irrelavant as they are unamped (pre-out is basically pre amplifier out). I don't know about the 2 way being able 2 do all or that but it might be able to if you bridge it - i don't know too much about that tbh

[james_gray]

so wat sort of RMS power speakers would i be able to get compared to the RMS value of the amp?

[roperstun]

the rms of the amp is what you need to go by as this is the actually power its going to give out. you will need a four channel amp for a sub and two speakers inless you put both the speakers into one channel and the sub into another then you could use a 2 channel amp. when looking for rms values just make sure that the rms off all the speakers and subs your planning on amping is not more then the amp's rms or else they wnt get the power they need

[james_gray]

k thanks a lot for the help guys

[Jimi137]

But also if you get an amp which is slightly less powerful than ur speakers then u got less chance on accidentally blowing them as they won't go over their maximum power ratings

[mobiius]

But also if you get an amp which is slightly less powerful than ur speakers then u got less chance on accidentally blowing them as they won't go over their maximum power ratings

I read somewhere that this could damage the amp as the speakers would be trying to pull too much power from the amp or something?

[roperstun]

yea u wnt blow ur speaker url blow your amp instead

[mobiius]

yea u wnt blow ur speaker url blow your amp instead

Thank the lord I'm not full of it! lol

I knew I read that somewhere. (Oh and I did mean the amp, dunno why I said them?)

[Jimi137]

True but a slight imbalance isn't too bad - like 20 watts or something - amps are more resistant to damage than speakers. The best bet would have to be a perfectly balanced amp and set of speakers though but unless you get a pack this is pretty hard to do in the real world lol

[roperstun]

or just get an amp thats more powerfull then the speakers and the speakers will just take what they need and you can always turn the gain down on the amp as this should only really be set at 3/4 anyway

[prawny12009]

A lot of people forget to upgrade the standard speakers when fitting amps and what not and end up blowing them.

get a set of good quality front and rear speakers (and tweaters if they come standard) that are rated to or higher than your head unit output that way you can get the best out of your head unit even before wiring in the amps etc.

tbh i just upgrade the main speakers (with the odd set of 6x9 on occasion), much better sound than o.e. and less chance of poping speakers at full volume, I am not one for base boxes and the like but I said make the best of the basics before spending £100s on amps and boxes.

Even if that means just going down the scrappy and liberating the speakers from a bigger car (higher spec the better more likely to have decent stereo / speakers standard).