OK, I'm wanting to upgrade my great sounding audio system to a little more power with an external amp. I have a Sony MEX-BT3700U head unit that puts out 54W per channel, but only 17W RMS. The front speakers are 6.5" Alpine Series S components with 5.25 Series S coaxials in the rear. The fronts are rated at 80W RMS/240W peak. The rears are rated at 55W RMS/170W peak. Rule of thumb for amp power is equal or more per channel RMS as the speaker rating. I'm looking at a 4 channel amp rated at 80-100W RMS X4. Is this a good choice or would I be just as happy with one rated at 60W RMS X4 considering the lower rating on the rears? Should I consider putting 6.5 Alpine coaxials in the rear just for balance? Would I then want the 80-100W X4 amp for those? The stereo sounds pretty good right now, but it does distort a bit at higher volume levels and the bass EQ up. Can I expect it to sound cleaner at the same volume level with an external amp and be able to crank it louder? Do you have a preference for amp brands and if so, which ones and why? All replies appreciated.

 

I'm going to make a new reply to give you a bump. I'm shocked that this made it back as far as it did.

IMO, unless you plan on trying to out power the "ricer" group, I would just throw a nice little amp in the back and call it a day. That's the only problem with my build up. I've got six speakers, and unless you are outside the cab, prepare to have a headache by the end of the trip.

Now, as far as amplifier brands, I'm fairly open to them, just as long as you stay away from the obvious. Brands like Lighting Audio/Fosgate, lower end Pioneers, and any other non major name brand out there.

My personal choice lies with four different brands: Alpine, Eclipse, Kenwood, and my all time favorite- Power Acoustik.

PA might not ring a bell with you since they really never tried to get into the mobile audio game. My first amp was a PA, and it served me well. I still have it in the garage waiting for the build for the Avie.
I went and looked on BB's site, and came up with this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218012124981

I will remind you that you also need to add in your deck's RMS output on top of the external amp.

Right now in this household, Every one of those amps I mentioned are either being used or have been used. I've got an Eclipse and a kenwood in my truck, and we have an Alpine and another Eclipse in the 2004 Ford. IMO, you can't go wrong with those four brands.

 

OK, here's my issues, I just want to know if it is worth it to go through the trouble of mounting an amp and rewiring the speakers. Will it give me cleaner sound and less distortion at the same volume level? I know I am pushing the head unit's puny 17W RMS beyond what it was designed for and I can just hear it on the edge of distortion at times. I have damaged ears from years of playing the drums, so I tend to listen at a higher than average volume setting. I'm pretty sure that since the speakers are rated so much higher than what my amp can provide that I'm overdriving the head unit, so I think an amp matched more closely to the speakers will sound much better, no?

Also, since I will be using the head unit's preamp out to the external amp, what value does its internal amp have? It won't be used.

I'm looking at this amp:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWAX%3AIT

or this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWAX%3AIT

Crunch gets good reviews on all the websites I checked. Not sure which is the better of the two, though.

I am going to replace the 5.25s with 6.5s in the rear doors. I know the hole is larger than 5.25 because those barely fit, but will I have to cut it more to fit the 6.5s?

 

Yes it most definitely will make them louder and cleaner at high volumes. For example. If your looking for a good set of 6.5's I REALLY recommend looking into the Phoenix Gold RSD 65CS they say 5-60rms and 120 peak but I'm pushing mine with 150RMS and damn they are loud and very clean. I'm not sure if your looking for a budget upgrade but I would also recommend the Alpine PDX4.100 it's a little spendy but these amps are rock solid. Another option you can do if you get an amp is get the phoenix gold tld22 line driver. It has to be the best purchase I have ever made. Takes the pre-out voltage from your deck and turns it into 10-15 volts so you can leave the gain all the way off on your amp. Makes a HUGE difference, they are louder and so crisp. Especially for a sub but it doesn't sound like you have one. If you are still stumped check into caraudio.com/forum very knowledgeable people.

I would also say check out onlinecarstereo.com for good prices on car audio. I get everything from there.

 

Miami, yes you WILL see a difference in the overall quality at the same levels that you listen to at this point. I try to tell people this when they first build a system, and very seldom will someone take my word for it. They always just throw in a deck and speakers and call it a day. Then when they decide they want more they yell at me, and once I convince them into an amp, they pretty well are speechless. The difference between the two are amazing.

Forget that last comment about using the deck's amp. I was thinking about another build up where they didn't have RCA outputs on the back of the deck. NVM.

I will tell you this though, you'd be a lot smarter to buy your amp locally. If you have a Best Buy out there go to it. An amp is the last stereo component that you what to buy that doesn't have a warranty. Personally, I like getting an extended warranty so that if and when something happens, I get a new one. It's the only way to go. That "crunch" might have a warranty of some kind, but have you ever seen a "Crunch" Amp in any shop around you? I sure as hell haven't. What I'm getting at is, if you have a problem with it, you'll most likely have to send it off for repairs. Not a good thing if that's your only amp and you love your tunes. Get my drift?

 

But at the same time you'll be paying a 200-400% markup. I bought my first amp from onlinecarstereo.com it was a Kicker 06ZX1000.1 for $300. I went to best buy and circuit city and a lot of the local shops and the cheapest I found was $630. For that price I could have gotten a Kicker 06ZX2500.1 Ya a warranty may be nice, but for how much you fork up just a for a stupid warranty and 75% of the time if somethings goes wrong it's because of user error and it won't be covered anyways. Just tune your s**t right and you won't have a problem. An easy way to set the gains on the amp is to use this formula Power*Resistance = Voltage in my case 1600*2= 32volts plug your DMM (if you have one) into the speaker connectors and set the gain while listening to a repeat of a 1000hz tone so you get that voltage. But sometimes that's not a full proof way either. You can do it by ear as well but sometimes it can cause clipping that you cant hear yourself and over time could cause damage to either the speakers or the amp. If you have an O-Scope I'd recommend using that.

 

^ That doesn't work everyone slick. If it works for you then aces, but not everyone can tune their "****" correctly. I know most everyone that installs their own stuff is going to play with the settings.

Let me put it to ya this way, you buy a $200 amp at a discounted rate for $150. I buy the same amp at the store for $200+$50 for the extra warranty. We both blow a channel out of them at the same time. You are out another amp. I on the other hand go to the store and exchange it. Now, tell me, who is money ahead?

 

If you blow a channel do to user stupidity good luck getting your "warranty" replacement out of that. Car audio warranties are BS IMO. Unless they actually cover self inflicted damage then by all means go for it. But why not save yourself some money and not go nuts on the gains to the point of actually blowing something. I mess with my settings all the time, but it's never to the point of possibly causing irreparable damage, and if it I do tune it that way it's only for short 2-3 second burps from the sub for competitions that's it. There are factory warranties as well, ya you may have to send it off for a week or so but your still saving money.

 

Only an idiot goes into to a store where they bought an extended warranty and truthfully tell the clerk what they did to it. I've had people pop amps when their alternator gave out. Take it back and just say," It don't work". And 90% of the time you get an exchange.

As for the part in bold. That doesn't work for people wanting a setup like Miami. His system will be reliant of the external amp. He has a problem with it, no more tunes until he sends the amp off and waits for repair.

If you have a spare amp laying around then it's not a big deal, but when that's the component stringing the rest of your system together, it's not smart. Personally, I like my tunes too much to have to go with out them for more than 2 weeks at a time. Yea, you could go ahead and rewire things as a back up, but who in the hell wants to fool with moving wires all the time like that?

Once again, I'm glad you know what you are doing with tuning the amp, but not very many people know what the hell they are doing when they start twisting buttons. IMO Amp tuning isn't something you can learn how to do by reading about it on the net.

 

I agree with you 100%. But when a friend of mine decided to try and turn the gain all the way up on his sony xplod (lawl) to get more bump he fried his amp. He bought the warranty through best buy and well he didn't get his replacement because they looked over the circuitry and found that it was self inflicted damage.