Clarion Amp Details
 

My first post I know, I will try and keep it to the point.

I have a 1992 Maxima GXE (no Bose). I've been curious as to how much power that Clarion amp in the back gives to the rear speakers (both RMS and peak if possible). I've used the search option on here and on google and had no luck with how much the amp actually did. I'm wanting to replace them again (my uncle replaced the stock speakers with Blaupunkts before he gave it to me and the right speaker cone is ripped) but I'd like to keep my options open for some high output speakers to keep up with my 12"s. It'd also help in deciding whether or not I need another amp or not.

If anyone could help, It'd be greatly appreciated. Please respond in comprehendable English, I may be in my late teens but I can't stand overly slaughtered English. =P

I can't really say for sure how much power it put's out but I can almost say for sure that it is not that much. If you are going to replace the speakers with one's that can handle higher power, get a good amp that can put out a true 75-100 Watts per channel. By true, I mean a reputable amp like Rockford Fosgate or something. Cheap amps often put a label that says like 300 Watts, but in actuallity it doesn't come close to that in output, maybe it inputs 300 watts from your battery. Anyways, replacing the amp can't hurt. It should give you more power and clarity.

It's about 25 watts from what I understand

...yep, I'm sure its 25 watts peak per channel @ 4 ohms. It was designed to augment the factory radio & speakers - which are low powered to start with (try radio @ 15 x 4 & rear speakers nom 15 & peak 30 watts - NZ spec), so couldn't be too powerful or it would have blown rear speakers! Clarion not the only manufacturer - Panasonic also made these amps as well.
Thing is, it boosts whatever the head unit puts out. Therefore, if you have a new head unit that gives 50w to the rears, it's gonna amp that up by another 25w on top.
If you want to keep with the "stock" look, get a decent head unit & speakers, then add an amp for the fronts or it'll be unbalanced. Otherwise, remove & add your own system - more flexiblity that way.

My stereo system is completely custom (as in nothing stock) and I like to have a balanced sound rather than straight bass. I ordered a pair of the 75watt (RMS) Rockford Fosgate 6.5" rear speakers so this information will be useful.

Just one more question, if it's about 25w peak, do you know the actual RMS? I'll have to guess otherwise but I suppose it isn't too important.

Thank you all for your help. =)

Hello all. Just last night I noticed my rear speakers aren't working is this due to that amp and can I replace without using that amp? this is a non-bose max.

It could possibly be the amp yes, but it's most likely a wiring problem. If your head unit is not stock, you may want to check the wiring harness in the back for faulty connections. It oculd be the speakers themselves so you should have those tested.

I don't know much about the clarion amp because i just left mine alone but testing for signals would be a good idea.

WTF?! "boost it by another 25W" ?!?! You're full of ish.. please understand audio and electronics before you start to try to know what you're talking about. there is absolutely no way it CAN do that, since the input is completely isolated from the output. the amp takes a small signal and makes it larger. if you feed it a large signal, it's simply going to distort to no end and sound like crap because it's clipping the outputs.

IF the amp is 25W peak (which I highly doubt its even that much), then RMS is probably about 10 w. not much.

If you want decent sound, then I highly suggest you get some GOOD front speakers, power the ****ens out of them, then put some decent ones in the back and power them with 25-50W rms.
when you go to a concert, does the sound come from in front of you, or behind you? If you put huge mids in the back and feed them lots of power, they're going to overpower the front speakers and everything will be coming from the back... do you want to go to a concert and turn your back to the stage? that's exactly what you're doing if you put tons of power in the back.

Honestly, I recommend pulling the rears completely. I'm running 6.5" midbass, 4" mids, and tweeters up front, with about 250W RMS per side. (200 to the mid and 50 to the tweeter). It's loud enough to make your ears bleed, and I have NO rear speakers... other than the pair of 12" subs.
Simple, yet sounds amazing.

jeez...250w rms per side?! what kind of speakers you have running up front??

I'm putting some 100w RMS 4x6 Audiobahns in the front, and I already have 100w RMS 6.5" Audiobahns in the back (decided not to get the RF's). Hopefully I can replace my RF subs with Audiobahns as well if I can save up enough, my only problem is finding a good 1000w RMS X 2 @ 2 ohm amp and a 100 RMS X 4 @ 4 ohm amp.

Right now I have decent level Infinite's in the front but they still sound pretty good. My sound is great even if most of it is coming from the back. I'm happy with it. I've been to many concerts and I know dynamics of it's sound. I understand the front speakers will be a bit over driven which is why I set my head unit to divert more power to the back just in case. I only run my system at a level where I know all of the speakers aren't distorting.

Oh and for the record, that guy was just tryign to help. No need for insulting.

Running Focal 165 K2 mids, and the KS series tweeters.
The KS series 6.5" mids came apart on me due to a bad batch of glue, and the shop swapped the K2 mids for me under warranty. haven't had a problem since! :)

And for nismobaron... don't worry, I'm not insulting him. he's a :tard: and you gotta put him in his place every now and then. :tardsmash

think i'm going to look into focals now... my highs are ok, but it can be better...

You'll be utterly amazed, unless you've heard a set of $500+ speakers before. Infiniti and RF stuff doesn't even compare.
only thing I've heard that I like along with Focal are Diamond, Morel, and the high end MB Quart stuff.

The Focals aren't very bright. they've got a nice mellow sound to them. I used to use Boston Acoustics, but they had a very harsh titanium dome tweeter. went to buy a set of mids for them and the dealer said "here, listen to these before you spend your money on the Bostons"
soon as he did that, I said to f*** the Bostons! :)

i have some so-so pioneers up front that my uncle put changed out when he was still driving my max. they're ok, and with what i know now, i should have paid more attention to the front instead of the rear speakers. :(

yup, very much so. you'll see a world of difference over the pioneers! it'll be like a completely different system.

Yeah right, and the moderator is gonna know EVERYTHING :bowdown:

Going back to my earlier post, I said approx 25w RMS peak. I've done some further research here & the amp puts out 10w RMS @ 4ohms per channel. Which is why my stock head unit sounds much better now that the amp is hooked up out back.
I had same setup in my NX but was running a new Kenwood head unit (40w x 4). The amp drove the rears really hard - no distortion, but to balance it out front to rear, had to bias fronts by 60%.
You're right - absolutely no way you can "boost the output by up to 25w" If only audio electronics was as simple as that! Must have been a typo... :grinno:

But advising people to just run fronts only is a bit dubious (imagine the crappy acoustics in the back & a the waste of a potentially great sound stage). While you're concert analogy was partially accurate for a stadium setup (remember that although the speaker bins are at the front, sound engineers still try to balance out the audio levels from front to rear, side to side), these are cars, which by and large are enclosed and any half decent installer knows it's more about aural balance, not just raw power. While your system sounds & works great (for you, not your passengers), it could / would sound much better & more balanced if you added rear speakers to augment your front setup (here's a novel concept - surround sound...).

Finally, lets not forget that in the age of portable drives, DVD & home theater, you're gonna need the rear speakers for the head units that play DVDs, emerging 5.1 digital audio compact discs and downloadable mpeg 5.1 files that will start appearing in the automobile within the next 3 - 6 months... :thumbsup:

Hoping this "tard" has given everyone something to think about...

You've made THIS 14 year installing vet a believer... :rofl: