quisterio

Hey there,
Well, I have new speakers all around, the front 4x6's are rated at 140W and the 6x9's are rated at 320W.

I also have a Kenwood EZ500 Headunit.

Im trying to get a little better sound quality/bass out of them and have decided to add an amp, I just dont know how big of one to put in there or how big is "too" big.

Just trying to figure out what I need to do to get more bass/better quality sound out of my speakers WITHOUT getting subs.

Would a 200/400W amp help?

Jade Grey

iTrader: (1)

First, forget about those peak power ratings. That, and you'll never get decent bass out of a 4"x6".

Just get a good quality four-channel amp that puts out about 50 watts RMS at 4 ohms.

An external amp can help sound quality and clarity. It can deliver a cleaner, more powerful signal to your speakers than the internal one in the H/U.

Also play around with the EQ section on your deck. Or the Speaker Setting function. You might be surprised.

ScrapMaker

no offense, but any 4x6 rated at 140W, or any 6x9 rated at 320W probably are not... well, top-of-the-line.... are these Pioneer? Sony? whatever the case, you will NEVER get decent bass out of the 6x9s... it's a down-hill battle that you will not win.

I can tell you what to expect, if you decide to amp these speakers... the 4x6s will get very loud with 50WRMS, in fact, you will be able to kill them easily no doubt... they will sound harsh... hell, even the kappa plates sounded harsh, and I think they are the best 4x6s I've ever heard... -- except I haven't heard some of those new plates, or even the older Mb Quart Plates... but still... don't get your hopes up...

for the 6x9s, you will not get much response below 80hz... if you TRY to play those frequencies, you will get very irritating rattles... this is because the sailpanel is a horrible location for bass... no one will argue with that either... you will get some decent 'punchy' bass for rock songs and a bit of techno... nothing more...

if you want some good advice, get a small truck box built for a single 10", and get a cheapo amp... who cares what brand... if you get at least 200WRMS out of it, you'll be set... wire that up and don't look back...

with that said... you should still amp your 4 main speakers, because it still trumps the headunit by far...

di11avou

iTrader: (1)

Those numbers sound like max/peak power ratings. What are the RMS wattages?

89pontiac400

iTrader: (1)

yea man you gota look at the RMS ratings. you dont really have to worry about to much power in a AMP more is better just dont turn it up to the piont of distortion.

firebirdjosh

iTrader: (1)

Get 6.5" kick panels and you'll never look back. The highs don't sound like breaking glass and the lows actually exist.

ScrapMaker

your best bet is to get a nice 4ch amp for your highs, then get a bazooka, basslink, or just a small truckbox, sub, and amp...

87TPI350KID

With the right setting on my headunit, i was able to get my 6x9s sounds very deep and clean. Putting an amp on tweeters may not be such a good idea.

ScrapMaker

if the tweeters are connected to a good crossover, then you should be alright

thaforce

If you amp the 4x6's be sure to add Bass Blockers to them. It is an inline filter that takes most of the bass out so you dont distort the speakers.

The 4x6's most likely will be fine just running them off the headunit. that way if you score a 4channel amp, you can amp the 6x9's and still have the rear channel of the amp free to add a subwoofer later on.

By the way a good amp to start with would be a 4x100 amp. That will send a solid 100W to each 6x9 and you can bridge the rear channel which will send around 250W to a sub. A JL 10W3 rocks in a camaro. For the money Crossfire amps are good quality, but if you are gonna throw down, it's hard to beat JL's quality.

ScrapMaker

or... you could get a decent headunit made in the last 10 years with built-in crossovers...

you will get a SIGNIFICANT improvement by amplifiying the 4x6s... the highs will be clearer, as well as the mids... you don't want the lows anyways... but the headunit will always distort and sound like garbage... always...

'solid' 100W, eh? I'd love to see this amp... most amps won't put out much more than 65 at 4ohms... sounds like this amp would run at least $700... any links?

thaforce

Tell ya what Scrapmaker, you will have to forgive me for not getting uber technical with my post. I left my engineering degree in my console.

I gave this guy some good solid real world information, if he is smart he will listen to me. I have had as many stereo systems in my lifetime as anyone else I have ever met.

I posted as solid of advice as I could with the information given by the person asking the question.

His headunit puts out 22W continuous power, which in my opinion is plenty to run a pair of 4x6's. His headunit also is a fairly descent quality one, and I dont feel it will distort excessively, also it does have a built in crossover, however the crossover is system wide. Adding bass blockers to the 4x6's will prevent him from having to run his crossover at such a high frequency which would kill the lows going to the 6x9's, including the line level output.

I don't claim to be all knowing when it comes to car audio, but I did not give bad advice. Just because an opinion does not reflect yours, does not make it a bad one.

ScrapMaker

well if you use a headunit to power good 4x6s... then your whole system will be limited by the (very low) volume output that you will be stuck with... there really wouldn't even be a point in amping the rest of the speakers, since the ones up front are really the ones that matter...

quisterio... you say you don't want subs, right? then what you want to do is get a decent 4ch... you will find that nearly all 4 channel amplifiers will put out between 50-65w RMS @ 4ohms per channel... this is good enough for "okay" 4x6s, and low-end 6x9s... since we don't know what speakers you have, it's hard to give you real good advice... but since you don't want subwoofers anyways, you may as well amplify the front channels, which are the most important anyways.

you have to remember that headunit amplifiers are total crap... even if it seemed loud enough... if you picked up a good 4ch amp with EXACTLY the same wattage as your headunit, you would STILL hear an amazing difference... you will have better clarity, separation, and lower distortion levels.... this is partially because the headunit can now make a cleaner signal because it's not using power on the internal amp, and because aftermarket amps use better components for the most part...

it doesn't take an engineering degree to hear 4x6s sound awful on a headunit amplifier, then hear them sound crystal clear on an aftermarket amp...

lil tp1983

I have 2 kicker l5 and i was wondering if the Crunch P1500.1 would work by it being an ab amp

TheBandit

Scrapmaker is still posting in the audio section huh?

Thaforce, scrapmaker is correct in everything he just stated... why would you want this so called "real world" advice, when you can have the right advice that will make everything sound good. And what scrapmaker posted is very good advice that should be followed.

lil tp.. i would look at a mono class d amp for your woofers.. and i would look at trying to not hijack threads..

As for the speakers.. get some decent component speakers and build a plate.. Forget the crappy 4x6s and 6x9s and put speakers in that when matched up with an amp will sound good.

Civerus

There is always the 2-channel parallel bridge option, but most two-channels are significant enough at 4ohms to power 6x9's.

The head-unit volume levels and distortion are correct, if you amplify your 6x9's, you will want to do the same to the 4x6's, or else when turned up the 6x9's have plenty of room to go higher, but your 4x6's are exploding up front.

I HAVE run an amplifier on my components before, and the sound quality, clarity, clearness, everything, so much better, and distortion is literally eliminated. I would say the biggest mistake people make when running amplifiers, and they don't think about it, is the size of the wires you run. I prefer 14-16g for regular speakers, 10-12g for subs of 400wrms or higher. and for the amplifier, over 600w needs at least an 8g power/4g ground, over 1000w needs a 4g power/#0 ground. Always have a larger ground wire, and make sure the ground location stays clean.

IF anything, go and buy two cheap 2-channel amplifiers, and run a 4g main wire, and split it into two 8g wires at the back (fuse on 4g by battery, one on each 8g), and power fronts/rears, this gives you a degree of separation for gain levels and bass boost.
Though its much better to just get a 4-channel, they have gain control on each pair of channels, or each channel if you have a good amp.

For brands, I prefer Pioneer or Kenwood amps, they have solid metal heat sink cases, extremely reliable, have owned several Pioneer amps, all are still in existence running as strong as the day they we're bought. What you want to do is watch for store-brand crap and small-business names. A lot of amplifiers advertise on the box to be 600w, but are only around 200-300w in actual driving power.

I run a pair of Pioneer 6x9's, Pioneer 4x6's, Pioneer deck and 2-channel Amplifier, driving a pair of 2x 10" Crossfire CF3's. Flawless sound quality, even without crossovers or separation. I used foam backings for my 6x9's since my fiberglass backings in the sails were destroyed, this gave my 6x9's seat-rattling power, even when the subs are turned off, they still drive great bass for the size. And none of this distorts.