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Frog Morton Unregistered guest | I am getting ready to hook two amps up in my car. One amp is a 35x4RMS to run my highs and the other is a 200x1RMS for my 10" subwoofer. I plan on using a power distribution block to make things need and simpe, so here is my question. I have plenty of high quality 8 guage wire at my disposal, is it rather safe to use that for all of my wireing or should the wire from the batter to the distribution block be 4 guage, keeping in mind that my batter is in my trunk (Saturn Ion) and that the wire from the battery to the block will be 18 inches and from the block to each amp around 3 feet each. Second question, a very ignorant one but if you never ask then you'll never know. I understand how you can wire speakers in sequences to present differan loads and wot-not. But I am wondering what would be accomplished by plugging two seperate sets of speaker wires into the same speaker-out of the amp, other than a ghetto-rig appearance. Would the power be distributed evenly (which I dount) or would it fluctuate between them, or something worse? |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfNorthWest, Michigan USA Post Number: 3493 Registered: Dec-03 | for a combined total of 350 watts RMS, you're good with 8ga cable up to 8 feet. If your cable run from battery to amps is more than 8 feet, go with 4ga. make sure it's good, supple, multi-strand wire. I'd run 4ga from battery to distro block, and 8ga from block to amps. It's very common to run more than one speaker or set of speakers on each channel of an amp. the way you described it would be parallel wiring, which if the speakers are identical, would halve the impedance, dividing the channel's power between the speakers. If you have two 4 ohm subs and wire both directly to the single channel of a mono amp, the amp will see a 2 ohm load, and divide it's 2 ohm rated power between the two subs, giving each sub the amp's full 4 ohm rated power. (or close to it. keep in mind there are other factors like efficiency and loss to heat) |
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Frog Morton Unregistered guest | Thanks for the timely answer, you seem to be a big help here on these boards, and a fellow Michigander I see, does that make us a Michigaggle? ;) Okay, so if I am reading your post and doing the math correctly then what I was thinking about attempting is quite feasable, but would someone confirm my math here, I'm not very comfortable with all this stuff and could just use the reinforcement. My amp is a 35x4RMS@4ohm / 40x4RMS@2ohm I have 4 35RMS@4ohm speakers that are NOT 2ohm capable (at least nothing on the packaging states so). I need the speakers in the back because I have passengers in my car and don't want them to be left out. I plan on installing a seperate pair of tweets for the front just to put the highs more in my face, looking back at it I wish I had gone with a component set but $30.00 for for 4 nice pioneer 3-ways was a deal I couldn't pass on. If I ran all 4 on my 3-way speakers from 2 seperate channels, giving each channel 2 speakers, then each speaker would receive 20RMS@4ohms and the tweets running on a seperate channel each would receive 35RMS@4ohms. Does this sound correct? |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfNorthWest, Michigan USA Post Number: 3507 Registered: Dec-03 | that is a very inefficient amplifier if those ratings are correct. ok for impedance, remember, a speaker is sort of like a resistor. the impedance is a fixed value representing the electrical resistance to the circuit the speaker presents. if a speaker is 4 ohms, then two of that speaker together in parallel would be 2 ohms, yes. However, I think in your case with four 4 ohm speakers, and a single 4 channel amp, I'd put one speaker on each channel, and use your fader to adjust what you want where for focus. I wouldn't bother with the extra tweeters as that will in actuality just unbalance the system. remember, your best solution is "KISS" keep it simple. the more speakers you add, the more you mess with the soundstage, and any chance of a natural sound. Also, the moer you introduce complexity and problems with things like imaging, and phase correction, time correction, and having the highs too bright, and sounding harsh. If you want separate tweeters in front, go with a matched set of separates. Till then, stick to the 3-ways and your fader and balance. |
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Frog Morotn Unregistered guest | Thanks, you really cleared up several things for me. As for the amp, I'll take your word about it's inefficiency, but I was on a very very strict budget and had heard that pioneer makes decent amps, as opposed to the array of pyramid, boss, etc that were in the pricerange I was willing to spend, plus the amp matched my 3-way speakers to a T. 4 35watt 3-ways and an amp to push them all for under $150.00 and from a fairly reputable company was a deal I could not resist. New products of course ;) |