Car Audio - Amp suggestions.

[Kenny]

I've been very happy with the JL 250W amp for my sub and the Alpine 400W for the F-R speakers.

I'm not an audiophile at all, but I like clear loud music. What I've found is that getting a decent brand amp ~$250 was good enough (previous year's model sales are awesome) - the real trick was to focus on your front speakers (components with aimed and calibrated tweeters in the A-pillar areas). Rear speakers should match in power but should only provide "fill" (some people even go mono) to make a nicer sound stage where you sit as a driver.

I've been experimenting a lot trying to figure out what people meant by "soundstage", "fill", "crossover freq" etc... and from my experience the vast improvements have come from upgrades and tweaking the front speakers.

Just my $0.02 from a neurotic layman's perspective.

From what I've seen on our site, most people are picking up nice head units so I'm assuming that issue is covered.


Sort of a work in progress pic.

[pbkid]

tom I think the part of this theory you are missing is that your overpowered amp isn't used to its full potential. That is what I have always learned.. Use each of your components at 60-80% but never max out.

When setting up my audio in a car I set the amp to 25% or so, then turn the head unit to about 80% of its volume scale. With a song playing I slowly increase the gain on the amp until I hit the loudest volume I would potentially listen to. Any distortion what so ever and I back the amp down until distortion is completely gone.

An amp rated higher than the speakers gives a lot of room to adjust..

Some folks prefer to set their equipment up at normal listening level and 50% volume on the head unit, but I like making sure when doing a demo or just rocking out I won't be doing any damage with distortion

Yes, etl is very correct. I couldnt of said it better myself.

I had always heard 3 ways(speakers at least) were inferior to a component system(which we have). On 3 ways doesn't the tweeter get muddied by the midrange since it's sitting right on top of it? I thought that's why they came up with component(separated tweeter and mid) systems in the first place.

and yes, once again. correct. 3 ways dont sound near as good as component speakers.
the difficult version is that higher frequencies are more directional than low frequencies. Therefore, the tweeters need to 'bounce' off something towards you (like the windshield or dash) or they need to be pointed straight at you. In the factory location (down by the feet) the sound of the tweeters get blocked by your legs.

the real trick was to focus on your front speakers (components with aimed and calibrated tweeters in the A-pillar areas). Rear speakers should match in power but should only provide "fill" (some people even go mono) to make a nicer sound stage where you sit as a driver.

ya, kenny also has a valid point. that the most important speakers in your car are the fronts. You dont go to a concert and stand backwards do you?

[tom4bren]

that it requires the gain's on the amplifiers to remain to a minimum and creates less distortion.

tom I think the part of this theory you are missing is that your overpowered amp isn't used to its full potential. That is what I have always learned.. Use each of your components at 60-80% but never max out.

... normal listening level and 50% volume on the head unit, but I like making sure when doing a demo or just rocking out I won't be doing any damage with distortion

OK, I'll buy off on that.

The way that you should look at it though is: The amp should be selected so that it is normally operating at approximately 1/2 of it's max power for the speakers being driven. This is done so that the amp is not being over driven into a level of distortion. Designing a system to intentionally over drive one of the components is asking for problems.

There is a drawback to this approach however, with this set up, you could easily end up with blown speakers if some Gomer cranks the volume too high and overpowers your speakers.

Keep in mind as well that initial transients can be as high as 150% of max normal operation. What I mean here is that if you leave your sound system turned on to a high volume when you turn off your car, when you turn it back on, you could get short duration spikes that could damage your system. A lot of systems (but not all) avoid this by having a short delay in powering up your amp after the head unit gets power.

Sorry if I'm coming across as anal retentive about this ... rekin it's one of my pet peeves. I H8 pulling up next to a car and hearing their stereo cranked so high that the the distortion causes physical pain in each and every one of my fillings.

[pbkid]

yup tom. thats why i tune amplifiers the same as etl explained.
i turn everything all the way down on each amp, turn all the settings up on the deck (EQ's, volume, etc) then turn the amp up until the speakers distort, then turn it back....
that way, even if the gomer who own the car turns their bass all the way up on the EQ on the deck and crank the volume, it doesnt damage the speakers.

in fact, we have stickers at our best buy store that we would put over the knobs on the amp, so that if someone tries to screw with it themselves, their warranties on everything is void.

also, regarding overpowering speakers. New spakers have filters on them that they only take the amount of current that they need to operate at full capacity. so its virtually impossible to overpower speakers nowadays.