this is probably pretty basic stuff but i figured i would check, if i run 2 x 4 channel amps will this be asking too much of the stock battery? im not using a head unit so its only these two amps, although it would be good to know if i could use a head unit too incase i decide to put one back in General information: amps are both max 1000w (think about 700rms) powering the basic 13cm components, 3.5" dash and 6x4 shelf speakers and a sub battery is recently replaced with new terminals too
doesnt make sense 8 channels, total of 1400rms, for a handful of components and a sub well overkill and not i doubt the standard batter and alternator would be happy with the current draw of 1400rhm (non class d)
should be okay....max figures are way exagerated lol if it struggles get a bigger battery and a alt of a bigger model and upgrade the cables
he has already quoted rms. that many rms in class D might be doable, but not in class a/b, that would be a massive current draw
bet theyre market specials lol ive got 2 rudeboy genesis amps of the stock battery with beefed cables, doesnt sweat at all
how about if i was to use 2 low powered amps such as http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/product/products_id/1180.html 4 x 50 rms that would apparently give 150W for the sub and 50W for each speaker
imo (and i did car hifi a lot years back) get a simple two channel amp for the front. 2x100rms is absolutely plenty. get a pair of good components to go with that get a class d amp for the sub in the boot. pick a good efficient sub. you need headroom (ie more power than you need). so with a 400rms sub, pick an amp with at least 500rms. done. that is all you need for a good hifi in car
surely puttin that much power to ordinary speakers would f**k them up?? def go for the component kit etc
ofcourse it would it they couldnt handle it thats why amps have gain control a lot of comps can handle close to 100rms, if not more, but you need headroom, hence i said aim for 100rms
i c. wonder if ya can help, my amp goes to safety mode as and when it decides!! some times its fine, then its just poo and goes off (safety) every few min... any ideas? blown amp?
definately start with simple things like making sure it has a good clean earth safety is usually an overload protection, which can easily occur if there is a short on the speaker's -ve and +ve
one of my old setups did that for a bit, i think in the end it was from having the amp doing most of the work and the head unit not doing enough, basically the gain was too high. and Matt, would it not be worth using a 4 channel for the front and getting some speakers in the rear shelf powered by that too?
no, not if you actually want something that sounsd good. by all means experiment, as people generally dont learn from other people's mistakes, but it is widely accepted that speakers in the rear of a car drag the soundstage behind you, where it is no use as it becomes just a distraction from the sounds you can actually hear properly in front of you. you dont need rear speakers, at all
I wouldnt go that far!! altho they are a lot less important that the fronts, As you say matt its all to do with staging the sound, i used to run some boston 5 inch mids and tweeters up front with some more 5 inch bostons in the rear, all run from a Alpine 4 channel amp. it was all set up using a setup cd, which was very useful and i would reccomend getting one if your into you tunes!! if an amp is drawing 700w rms surely it will be needing about 50a continuously! way too much for any car battery to deal with for too long!
i see your point, i might have a play about with some random peices i have lying around but that sounds logical. cheers for your help matt
its worth having a look at the fuses to see what they are rated at, in theory, the max current draw shouldn't be more than the total ratings of the fuses e.g 3 x 20A fuses being 60A blow. i have a memphis belle 5 channel amp in my mk1 golf, that amp has 6x 30A fuses, so the current draw would be quite high once i crank the volume up. i'm now debating whether to go for a higher output alternator and an audio battery,or a split charge system with a second battery in the boot. if you want to reduce the load on the amplifier, get a line driver, this amplifies the signal to the amp so you can run slightly less gain and get the same output
With regards to whether your stock battery / alt can cope with the load of your system it will help to know what car it is going in and what the output of your alternator is. As a sort of guide though I have 1800 wrms going to my sub and 300 wrms going to front components and mid bass. I am using a cheap halfords battery at the mo and running from 90amp alternator with no problems. Obviously I cant run it for long without the engine running but otherwise it's fine.
well im using a cheap halfords battery and a stock mk2 1.3 golf alternator if anybody happens to know the output of that
