okay heres the scoope my sister is buying me speakers and a amp for now till the next holiday. shes getting me alpine 6x9 type Rs in front in 5.25 type Ss in the back since they dont make type rs in that size and the bestbuy guy said this is the way to go any ways since it would be to much base for such a small cab. well the speakers say they have a Peak Power Handling 175W RMS Power Range (Watts) 55W. what does rms mean? how much power needs to go to this speaker?

we found a alpine amp that does Continuous Watts per Channel (4 Ohms) 40 x 4 would that be enough?

any advice would be helpfull. we re probly going to put the speakers in our self and have the amp installed cause i think thats over our head.

thanks again

 

The 175w number is a peak power the speakers can handle for momentary surges in power. You'll get these when your music hits a very high or low note. 55w rms is power that the speaker was made to perform best at continuously and gives you an idea of the size amp needed for them to sound their best. A 40w per channel amp will be plenty to power those and will sound great. Also, if amp has a power distribution switch I rec you put more power to the front than the rear. If it doesn't, then you should set the fade on your head unit so the front gets more power. Reason being is that the smaller speakers will be louder with the same amount of power and it sounds best when the fronts are the main sound source and the rears just add a little.

 

keep RMS of amp as close as possible to RMS of speakers and you will get a good sound. I hope the Alpine does you good. I personally despise Alpine head decks and Kenwood amps but that is neither here nor there.

 

so if the amp is rated for 40W RMS (continuous) x 4 @ 4 ohms, and the speakers at RMS Power Range (Watts) 55W will this be close enough? is there a real difference bewteen the amp working on 12v or 14v is there any reason i would wont one or the other? thanks for qll the help

 

The quickest way to blow a speaker is to UNDER POWER IT... Your speakers will live longer with an amp thats rated to push the same/more power than the speaker is rated for. When you under power a speaker is causes distortion... this is what kills speakers in a quick way. I learned this lesson the hard way when I blew my 12"Cirvin Vegas... I sent the speaker back to them and they told me I underpowered it and thats why they fried. They replaced it for free on the terms I purchase a more powerfull amp... I did and well over 9 years later... the still freakin thump like you would not beleive.

So in short... Get an amp that is rated for more POWER.


SPEED SAFE, AIR RAM

 

thanks alot that helps a ton.

 

would any advise putting an amp in your self? if so how hard is it? also i have a huge question if the amp needs RMS Power at 14.4V can i still use that stock radio?