Here are my options. Give me your opinion and or any other options you might have and explain why.

The Facts:
basic system, stock speakers,
My head unit has 3outputs which includes one for a sub

A)Should I, hook up a 4 channel amp to the front speakers and rear and a separate amp for the SUB. or

B)hook up a 2 channel amp to the front,a separate amp for the Sub, and run the rears off the HU, or

C)get one 4 channel amp, use 2 channels for the front speakers, bridge the remaining 2 channels and use it for the Sub, and use the HU to power the rears?

by the way, I plan on upgrading the stock speaker?

 

Option C, definitely.

 

depends on how much mula you are willing to spend, but me personally i would go with option: a.

I say this because you should get the best sound and have more control over the rear speakers this way. to get your rear speakers to sound to the level you want (if you have a high power amp for the front's and subs) you will have to turn down the gains on the amps. this means they will not be optimized and you will get a little more noise in your system.

just my 2 cents,

 

A

 

I would go for A, it would sound the best that way in my opinion.

 

OPTION A

do it right the first time, and you won't be losing money trying to fix what you wanted to do earlier

 

i also say "A"

but i would also recomend... for easier tuning and all..

==two channel amp for front speakers
==two channel amp for rear speakers
==mono amp for subwoofer

or
--two channel amp for front midbass
--two channel amp for tweeters and voacal of lower rating
--two channel amp for rears (no worries about the rears since it's just rear fill)
--mono amp for subs

my set up...
-4 channel amp for speakers
-2 channel amp for subs (well sub for now but it's bridged so it's mono for now)
-15 farad capacitor

 

Turning down the amp gains REDUCES noise, not increases it. Plus, the rear speakers don't need to be nearly as loud as the fronts, so it's a waste of amplifier to power those with a separate amp instead of the HU. The levels can be controlled with the HU fader.

 

Dude do you just see a post of mine and want to try and contradict everything i say???

Turning down your gains will put less power to you speakers. When installing and tuning you are "supposed" (I assume you feel excluded from this practice, but most people try and do this) set your gains at the same noise level as your head unit. You need to turn the gains all the way down on everything in your system and one by one, turn up the gains till you hear distortion. The gains should be backed down just a little and now you are optimized. Once it has been "optimized" your system is best set up to reject noise. If you don't believe me ... check any stereo manual or call someone you trust for stereo questions.

Oh and just because I say there would be more noise, doesn't necessarily mean you can hear that noise. Somep people can hear it, and others can't. And you should set you input gains to the sound you want to hear. Your head unit level controls should be used only after the system gains are set and optimized to you head units output voltage.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I believe that more power = less distortion. This is due to not having to turn up volume as loud so that clipping is introduced. Therefore, if he is getting new rear speakers I think he should get as much power (withing the speakers limits) to them as he can afford.

 

option C, in a truly realistic sound system, all of the sound highs, mids, lows, subs should appear to come from the front of the vehicle like if you were sitting in a concert or live performance, if you go to a show of any kind, the performers are all in front of you. Rear speakers are generally used to fill in the sound stage meaning the rear speakers should add to the spaciousness of your system making it appear that you are in a larger listening area than you actually are. Most high end systems give very small amounts of power to rear speakers and some don't use them at all but a dedicated amplifier for the rears is overkill and will take away from the sound. As far as amplifier gains, too much gain and you get audible distortion because you are driving your amplifier well into clipping at higher volume levels, this is bad and could fry your amplifier believe me, i've destroyed an $800 Rocford Fosgate amplifier by overdriving it, its an expensive lesson that I hope you can avoid. IASCA (International Autosound Challenge Assoc.) sells test discs that help you to set the gains on your amplifiers and fine tune your system, they have a website but I don't know the url. The advice I gave is not just for competition systems, it should apply to just about any setup little things like setting levels and gains can make a bad system better or a good sytstem great. Sorry for the novel..........


Peace

 

Working in the car audio industry for over 16 years...ispeed is correct...

Maximadave

 

Thanks maximadave

Thanks for the 8500 too, I got it a couple of days ago and I love it! I bought the hardwired smartcord for it and comes in so handy. I especially like the expert spectrum on there.

[sentimental voice] ahh, If it wasn't for you, I would have never gotten it[/sentimental voice]

 

I agree those test disks are great. I have the autosound 2000 disk and I love how easy it is to work with.

Now I don't completely agree with the rear amp being overkill, but in some systems it sounds good to have more that head unit power going to your rear speakers. I think it also he (pjalst) decide what he ultimately wants from his system. If he eventually wants to get into mobile video and such (especially if he will want surround sound Dolby 5.1) I think he needs an amp on the rear speakers. There was a great article in Mobile Electronics about 3 months ago about surround sound and no longer getting cheap speakers for rear fill.

Option C would be the cheapest route though depending on equipment purchased.

 

Thanks for everyones input, I think I will go with A), an install Coaxles in the rear and Components up front

 

yumm.. sq+ my favorite.

 

yeah baby!

We just installed a kenwood kvt-910 in my friends 94 Supra with the 5.1 processor. (It took 2 weeks to get the center channel in there and make the kick panels.) We watched Saving Ryan's Privates on there and it was amazing. You can hear bullets zing all around you and feel the explosions...shew get chills sittin here thinking about it! He put his car in a show this weekend and had all sorts of people commenting on system, but if the only knew what happens when you listen to it instead of looking at the install!