Amping speakers........

[rbull51]

I have been reading previous threads and some of you say about amping the speakers...?? How do you do this?

[Craig]

Basically, instead of using the onboard amp in your head unit, use a separate amp. You will need a head unit with pre outs/rcas, amp/s and fitting kit. You run, rcas from the HU to the amp. The amp needs separate power and earth and a switch from the HU to switch the amp on. Its essential IMO to fit an inline fuse from the power to the amp.

A simple set up is a 2 chanel amp powering some 6x9s in the rear. Personally I hate 6x9s. I have non amp'd components in the front doors and an amp 12" sub woofer in the boot. I keep meaning to get around to amping the comps as they sound much much better amp'd. In my old ZR, I had amp'd fronts and a sub, nothing else and it sounded great and was fairly cheap.

[afcbadam]

ive not needed to amp any of my speakers. i think they sound good just using the head unit. i have infinity all round in mine with a sub and amp in the boot

[Fudgepacker]

but if you amp your speakers your able to control the quality of your speakers alot more and the quality is loads better than the head unit if any one is going santapod on sunday ill show you some quality

[afcbadam]

im planing on changing my head unit to a alpine 60wx4. with a really good quality unit like that i dont think it will be needed atall

[Fudgepacker]

lol this is so funny

[afcbadam]

i cant see anything funny about it. a decent hu will put out similar power to a small amp. the head unit gives alot of control. why do you need to control speakers? only if you listen to alot of different types of music, which i dont

[rbull51]

I was just wondering about the amping of speakers as some of you have mentioned it, im quite happy with my speakers now as i have fitted ref infinity speakers all round. I am thinking of getting a sub so prob wont need to worry about doing the speakers anyway..

[Fudgepacker]

just one thing you may find if you have a sub and you dont amp your speakers the sub can drown out the speakers

[afcbadam]

just one thing you may find if you have a sub and you dont amp your speakers the sub can drown out the speakers

i have just today brought a more powerful amp as my speakers were to loud for the sub. even with it it up to max on the old amp and on the head unit sub control. its strange how different systems sound in different cars. alot of it is to do with preference. i personally fit them without an amp and see how i go, if i think i need a amp i will then look at getting one.

[Fudgepacker]

if you buy a sub that is running over 1000RMS it goes alot louder than the speakers when fully bedded in i found that i needed to amp every speaker in the car so it would sit at the same volume as the sub i like my music loud and loads of base with the amps i was able to set the speakers up so they would not run any bass so it was just treble and was able them to go louder than the head unit then i set the sub up to run at the same volume it took a while then i had to buy a power cap to stop my lights flikering through out the car but its worth it

[Craig]

Amp std speakers will sound better than non amp std speakers. If you amp the infinty speakers there WILL be a big difference. As I have a saloon, I find that the sub is drowned out more than when I had it in my zr. My next job will be to fit better rear speakers.

[Fudgepacker]

im getting a vibe black box 4 mono block for my sub the directed just hasnt got the grunt any more

[afcbadam]

mine amp is 400w max going in to a 1100w max sub. fudge its starting to sound like your speakers arnt very good or your sub is over powered. or not set up correctly, a friend of mine works in a audio centre and a lot of the cars he gets it are running lesser powered subs and amps which set up correctly atchually run better than huge powered amps not set up correctly

[Fudgepacker]

well ive got a bandpass enclousre with the vibe space 2 inside it they can produce over 3700 watts max

[Fudgepacker]

thats my problem

[afcbadam]

that is very powerful. no wonder it over powers your speakers. lol. im surprised it hasnt smashed the windows!

[Fudgepacker]

we have base testers in and the windows vibrate loads if you go into a indoor car park and crank it all the way up and lie on the floor you can see all the little bits of crap on the floor vibrate

[Fudgepacker]

the two twin boxes are what i use to have but they didnt pack a big enouth boom boom boom and the last twin box i manged to crack the speaker lol i had these in my garage from my old rover 214si but the single one well it would destroy those hands down the amp just doesnt have the power to run it and keeps going into safe mode or it will cry and pop the power lead fuse so the new amp will run it to the max or just make me go death

[Jem]

ive not needed to amp any of my speakers.

I do agree with that but i do think this year i might add a amp:yes:

[Maxxed_Ross]

I ran my old ZR with Clarion components in the front and 6x9"s in the back and didn't really think they were that good

Then I amped them with a 400W 4 channel amp and good grief what a difference!

If you have the time to do it IMO it is alot better

[Fudgepacker]

i like my music to boom boom boom when i was in the army i use to drive 270 miles to get to base and thats when all my audio started i wanted quality and bass i use to get my the barraks and would be shouting were i have had it so loud

[rbull51]

After fitting the a sub has anybody had the problem of all the lights / power flickering when the sub is turned up? Is there a way to get around this. a better battery maybe???

[Jay-ZS+]

the Lights flickering is down to the amp pulling so much power from the battery. One to try would be upgrade the earths in the engine bay as thats a cheap option to start with otherwise (never used one but some people like the power caps they store energy that pass it on to the amp when needed. Or best option is second battery and split relay which us what i went for in the end.

As far as amping speakers its not essential how ever will notice a vast improvement. As far as im concered for SQ the front component speakers are most important followed by sub.

[Maxxed_Ross]

flickering lights normally mean either the battery isn't big enough or you don't have a good earth to the chassis from the amp. Make the earth cable from the amp to the car as short and beefy as possible!

As said beefing up the cable from the chassis to the battery in the engine bay will help too

[Fudgepacker]

the Lights flickering is down to the amp pulling so much power from the battery. One to try would be upgrade the earths in the engine bay as thats a cheap option to start with otherwise (never used one but some people like the power caps they store energy that pass it on to the amp when needed. Or best option is second battery and split relay which us what i went for in the end.

As far as amping speakers its not essential how ever will notice a vast improvement. As far as im concered for SQ the front component speakers are most important followed by sub.

lol i got one and it didnt make any diffrence just have to turn the music down when behind police or it looks like your flashing them or other people flash you back thinking your flashing them

[carmadbaker]

Deffinately amp the speakers up mate, i found regardless of quality of the H.U they distort at high volume level. Generally have poor control of the output and sound fairly crumby to be honest.
As for the lights dimming....i've heard a few different solutions, and found they all work differently, best option i found....turn the subwoofer down, reduce the gain. i personally whacked a power cap on my old 200 and hey presto the problem stopped. don't get drawn into the old "the greater the farad capacity the better" rubbish though, any rating will do. i won't be a geek and explain, but a 1 farad is just as capable as a 2.5 farad.
My zed only tends to dim the internal lights (because i have seperately powered HID's) when im stationary and really pumping the tunes.

[Fudgepacker]

:crazy:Deffinately amp the speakers up mate, i found regardless of quality of the H.U they distort at high volume level. Generally have poor control of the output and sound fairly crumby to be honest.
As for the lights dimming....i've heard a few different solutions, and found they all work differently, best option i found....turn the subwoofer down, reduce the gain. i personally whacked a power cap on my old 200 and hey presto the problem stopped. don't get drawn into the old "the greater the farad capacity the better" rubbish though, any rating will do. i won't be a geek and explain, but a 1 farad is just as capable as a 2.5 farad.
My zed only tends to dim the internal lights (because i have seperately powered HID's) when im stationary and really pumping the tunes.

oh and one last thing dont forget your car will rattle like a tin can if you reamber what mine was like at that meet the bumper sounded like it was going to fall off

[Jay-ZS+]

isnt that where the sound deadening comes in?

[Jem]

Yea sound deadening is the way to go you should be hearing your music in the car not for others hearing it outside,I hate the boy racers around here you hear them go through the town with their car rattling,You can hear what music they are playing way before they get close to you...You should only hear the sub bass...

[Jay-ZS+]

I put 2 bulk packs of sound deadening in mine was the first install ive used it will be instrested to hear the difference it makes when i pick it up later today as its having all the power wired up as i speak:thumbsup:

[Fudgepacker]

Yea sound deadening is the way to go you should be hearing your music in the car not for others hearing it outside,I hate the boy racers around here you hear them go through the town with their car rattling,You can hear what music they are playing way before they get close to you...You should only hear the sub bass...

mine is really bad for that :sad:

[Jem]

Go for it Fudge get some sound deadening i see it as i pay for the amp cables headunit and it doesn't come cheap so i want the best i can get out of my system,You will love it when you do:mml:

[Fudgepacker]

Go for it Fudge get some sound deadening i see it as i pay for the amp cables headunit and it doesn't come cheap so i want the best i can get out of my system,You will love it when you do:mml:

just got my vibe black box bass 4 and it ripped my space open so we duck taped it and it still sorta works but my god is it loud rattles the car to bits going to need a lot of dynamat to sort those rattles out but never felt so much base in my car before makes your vison go all blury