Upgrades, which first.

**scott_fx** · 04-19-2005, 12:52 PM

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

I wouldnt bother at this time adding new wiring. Despite what some people may say here, you can run a true 50 watt amplifier through your stock wiring. 50 watts to each corner just fine. In fact, shops do it all the time! faster to reuse stock wiring rather than rewire the vehicle from scratch.

do you plan to run a 100x4 amp in your car? Id probably think about rewiring the car. 50 watt four channel amp? youll be fine reusing your stock wiring.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooorrrr

feel free to rewire your car. but theres no point as long as you are running off deck power, for sure. When you buy your amplifier, and have to have the car torn apart anyways to run power wire and RCA cabling, THATS the time I would consider rewiring the car

why have your car apart twice if you dont need to?

:iagree:

**BenjaminS** · 04-19-2005, 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by lgbr

Amplifier. You don't want to underpower any speakers.

MYTH!

This is an old trick to get people to by more expensive amplifiers. In the simplest way of explaining this is pose a question, what effect does turning down the volume on you head unit do the the output of the amplifier? OH wait what is that, yes yes, it reduces the output of it.

NOW, there is some truth to this myth though, you can under power a set of speakers, but it is the installers fault. The installers turns up the gains and volumes on the amp/head-unit and that creates clipping which CAN damage speakers.

So in conclusion to this short rant, don't ever worry about under powering speakers, just make sure that you are not creating a clipping condition, very difficult to tell, but as a general guide line, if you gain is up over 75% on the amp, then its probably not on the safe side. But hey I know we all have cranked the gain on our sub amps just to squeeze a little more out of them :P

Anyway back to the main topic at hand. Buy speakers! Your music only sounds as good as what moves the air. It may not be as loud, but that is fixed with a nice amp.

**WhiteRabbit** · 04-19-2005, 01:49 PM

yikes, what a poor attitude! I hope you dont offend lgbr and start a flame war, it would ruin this thread!

**scott_fx** · 04-19-2005, 02:08 PM

i didnt find anything wrong with that reply, it was very informative (and correct) It helped the thread. I doubt lgbr is that thin skinned to take offense.

`s

**Will Albers** · 04-19-2005, 02:09 PM

Originally Posted by BenjaminS

MYTH!

This is an old trick to get people to by more expensive amplifiers. In the simplest way of explaining this is pose a question, what effect does turning down the volume on you head unit do the the output of the amplifier? OH wait what is that, yes yes, it reduces the output of it.

NOW, there is some truth to this myth though, you can under power a set of speakers, but it is the installers fault. The installers turns up the gains and volumes on the amp/head-unit and that creates clipping which CAN damage speakers.

So in conclusion to this short rant, don't ever worry about under powering speakers, just make sure that you are not creating a clipping condition, very difficult to tell, but as a general guide line, if you gain is up over 75% on the amp, then its probably not on the safe side. But hey I know we all have cranked the gain on our sub amps just to squeeze a little more out of them :P

Anyway back to the main topic at hand. Buy speakers! Your music only sounds as good as what moves the air. It may not be as loud, but that is fixed with a nice amp.

Hmm, I have to disagree, and yet somewhat agree... You almost contradicted your own statement. Clipping is the devil and the point as to why people say its better to overpower than underpower. People want X volume... that X can be whatever gets ya going... people with a small amplifier will try to overdrive the amplifier into clip range to get that volume. Where as, if they had a 250 watt amp on 100 watt speakers, they will find a significant amount of headroom to obtain volume without clipping. Headroom is a wonderful safety cushion to volume freaks

As an installer, I can set the gain to the proper level and still have the user pump the bass up on the HU, turn the loud button on and turn the volume to 30. The gains have a lot to do with it, but its volume that taunts the operator to push things beyond their limits. If you provide enough clean power behind the speaker, volume levels can be obtained without clipping, your only factor becomes overheating. If we discuss pure class A amps, i will alter my statement, but for A/B switching or "D" amplifiers, i maintain overpower is better than underpower.

So yes, i consider a 20 watt amplifer to 100 watt speakers more destructive than a 250 watt amplifer to 100 watt speakers.

**Frankino** · 04-19-2005, 02:10 PM

if you plan to develop your audio system further, go for an amplifier, you can plan your system knowing what amplifier you have. you can not plan a system with good speakers and no amplification. if you think a "default" system is OK for you, then go for new speakers. if you plan to develop it go for an amplifier and keep your speaker for now
this is how I see it

**sdashiki** · 04-19-2005, 03:01 PM

Look for amps in yer price range.

Get its 4 channel RMS rating.
Buy speakers that match the rating for RMS.

Stock stuff is always crap, even the BOSE systems in cars, underpowered and overpriced. Bazooka tubes from Toyota etc, its all BS, build it yourself and sell the rest on ebay. Stock **** sells WELL for cars if you never sold any before, dealers gouge on prices so you can really clean up.

**Frankino** · 04-19-2005, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by sdashiki

Look for amps in yer price range.
Get its 4 channel RMS rating.
Buy speakers that match the rating for RMS

I suggesti to buy speakers that DOUBLE the RMS rating of the amplifier

**BenjaminS** · 04-19-2005, 04:58 PM

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

yikes, what a poor attitude! I hope you dont offend lgbr and start a flame war, it would ruin this thread!

Whoa... sorry didn't mean it come out that way, not trying to offend but hoping to inform :P

Originally Posted by Will Albers

As an installer, I can set the gain to the proper level and still have the user pump the bass up on the HU, turn the loud button on and turn the volume to 30. The gains have a lot to do with it, but its volume that taunts the operator to push things beyond their limits.

So we are in complete agreement, no? As long as a smaller amp is properly tuned (and the owner is not trying to get max spl by tweaking levels, because they have been so well informed

) there can be no damage to the speaker, although the small amp will not give the desired output levels of a larger amp, it still wont damage the speaker by "under-powering" it.

**mbuchman** · 04-19-2005, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by Frankino

if you plan to develop your audio system further, go for an amplifier, you can plan your system knowing what amplifier you have. you can not plan a system with good speakers and no amplification. if you think a "default" system is OK for you, then go for new speakers. if you plan to develop it go for an amplifier and keep your speaker for now
this is how I see it

Thats funny, I know the speakers I want (and already have the sub and rear), yet I am still in question with the amps. How is that backwards? If you know the speakers you want, then whats wrong with matching them to an amp? Most amps are either 50wrms or 100wrms per channel anyway, so who cares (of course sub amps are different, anywhere from 200-2500, but their are still somewhat normals, like everyone makes around a 1000 watt amp, and everyone makes around a 500 watt amp)

Matt