What size amp for 6x9 and what size amp for subs

[Infanti]

Ok, i have bought Pioneer 4-way 6" x 9" TS-A6981S 420 Watt Speakers and have them in the rear shelf (80watt nominal rating)...

I want to buy 16cm 4-way 260 watt speakers from Pioneer (TS-A1681S) for the front speakers (50watt nominal rating) and probably **** the back speakers off...

I dont really want to go nuts with my money so what type of amp would be appropriate for running the 6" x 9"s....

I am also looking to buy 2 Pioneer TS-W306C 12" Subwoofers. They have 1,000watt maximum power and 400watt nominal rating...What type of amp will i need to buy to run the subs. Is one amp enough or do i need two amps, one for each sub...

I have a pioneer DEH-P7750 head unit if that makes any difference, notice that i want all pionner so far, i'm not fussed if the amps are not pioneer, just whatever suits best....

Also if anyone can tell me what type of amp if i only end up having one sub as well....

[1991_Vn2nV]

Im gonna reccomend some Soundstream amps as thats just the brand I like..

For the Subs...If you get both subs, go the Picasso 2 channel amp. PCA.760, its 760RMS x 1 at 2Ohms.

For one sub get the XSTREAM XTA 360.2 which is 360rms x 1.

For the 6x9's get the Picasso PCA2.520 which is 80rms x 2 at 4 Ohms.

[RVN 355]

I run a 800w Weconic 4 ch 125rms @ 2 ohms running my sub and 75rms for my 6 x 9's.... Any Amp from Germany or Europe is the goods. I like Alpine for Amps

Even a Mono Block is something to think about

[1991_Vn2nV]

Theres alot of good brands out there. Its really personal opinion I think and also depends on how much money you wanna spend.

Infanti, did you want to run the 6" off an amp also?

[Infanti]

Whats the difference with Mono, 2 channel and 4 channel, etc. How do you determine what amp to get, am i s'posed to look at the rms or the watt...I dont get it...! Help!

[Infanti]

no, not unless i have to Vn2nV...I just want one amp for my 6x9's and one amp for 2 1000w subs. but if i cant do that then just one amp for 6x9's and one amp for just one sub.....

What should the max watt be to power the 6x9's....

[1991_Vn2nV]

Whats the difference with Mono, 2 channel and 4 channel, etc. How do you determine what amp to get, am i s'posed to look at the rms or the watt...I dont get it...! Help!

Always go by the RMS rating.

Pioneer says Nominal ratings, which is equivalent to RMS. So try and find an amp that is closely matched to the speakers RMS/Nominal Rating, but the amp shouldnt really be more powerful than the speaker. It should be equal or slightly less. See herefor information on matching speakers to an amp.

Mono amps are generally the pick for Subs. As they are just a 1 channel amp. Just think about it like this, one channel per speaker. But really it doesnt matter, as a 2 channel amp can be run as a 1 channel anyway, and a 4 can be run as a 2 or 1 also.

Amps give different power ratings depending on the Resitance. This resistance is called Ohms. With most subs, they can run with as little as 2 Ohms resistance and some even at 1 Ohm. Those Pioneer subs can be run at 2Ohms, where as speakers are generally only able to be run at 4 Ohms. A speaker/subs IMPEDANCE is what it can be run at on an amp. See here for information on running amps on lower than reccomended impedance.

So when looking at an amp for the speakers, you must go by the power rating at 4 Ohms. Where as the subs you generally look at an amps power at 2 Ohms or at 4Ohms bridged. But it gets more complicated here. This then varies on how you wire them, if they are bridged, if the sub is a single coil or dual coil and how many Ohms the sub actually runs at.

[Tasmaniak]

next person to make a reference to or post a link to Lightning Audio is banned for eternity.

The next time my wife brings home a pair of Lightning Audio speakers from Wal-Mart because they were on clearance equals a divorce.

The next time anyone takes advice from Lightning Audio website ends up being balanced with 2oz of lead through the left ear hole.

[BeastVS]

so im guessing you really like there gear king ???

[1991_Vn2nV]

next person to make a reference to or post a link to Lightning Audio is banned for eternity.

The next time my wife brings home a pair of Lightning Audio speakers from Wal-Mart because they were on clearance equals a divorce.

The next time anyone takes advice from Lightning Audio website ends up being balanced with 2oz of lead through the left ear hole.

lol sorry man. Will keep that in mind in future.

I wasnt reccomending their gear... I was just using their support section to help explain stuff . I found the website pretty good with the Wiring Wizard when I first started fiddling with subs a few years ago.

No harm done I hope

[Tasmaniak]

lol sorry man. Will keep that in mind in future.

I wasnt reccomending their gear... I was just using their support section to help explain stuff . I found the website pretty good with the Wiring Wizard when I first started fiddling with subs a few years ago.

No harm done I hope

You can still post can't you?

so im guessing you really like there gear king ???

Yers......

[davey g-force]

LOL! They should be called "Frightening Audio"...

[Infanti]

so when the product says 80watt nominal rating is that per speaker or for both. Does this mean i can buy a amp with 160watt nominal rating and get the full potential out of the speakers. Where does the maximum watt come into it.....

[garfa]

max ratings only mean whats the absolute maximum power that can be put into the speaker, eg a huge amount of power/sound for a couple of milli seconds. it really has no huge meaning.
nominal ratings mean this speaker can take XW of power for an indefinate amount of time. this implies a flat un-changing signal or sound (as we hear it) and is again not an exact replication of exactly how much power a speaker can handle.
both max and rms ratings are not perfect but rms is FAR better because it introduces a standardised platform to test speakers on.
now if you were wanting to know what the exact amount of power your speakers can handle, no one can tell you that. music is all onver the place, with so many sounds with in sounds, if you will, that to be able to say my speaker can handle 80Wrms doesn't mean much because the power could change from 60Wrms to 100Wrms as the song and different notes are played.
so pretty much its not about how much power your speaker says it can take, there are so many other differences between speakers, such as excursion, cone material, magnet material, basket material, spyder material and construction, the list goes on. always remember that the sound level only increase just noticably when the power to a speaker doubles!


ok as for the whole impediance thing with subs, think of a huge pump going down to 1 tiny tap that only lets out a litre per sec of water. the water is the amount of power that the pump (amp) can deliver. the tap (sub) is the resistance or imediance in the whole circuit. so if you had 2 taps you could pump 2 times as much water as compared to only 1 tap, providing the pump can supply the water.
so taking that a sub with 4 ohms of impediance will only let through so much power. but if there is 2 subs coming off the same amp terminals then 2 times the power can be supplied by the amp. so now the two 4 ohm subs have a total impediance of 2 ohms (eg 4ohms/2subs=2ohms). so pretty much as long as the amp can keep supplying power you can keep adding subs.
thats PARALLEL wiring.


now if parallel havles the impediance, series wiring will double.
series is where the subs are connected one after the other. so two 4 ohm subs in series will have a total impediance of 8 ohms. therefore the power that can be supplied by the amp is about halved.

now the small problem with parallel is that an amp will only supply so much power before it will heat up so much its breaks. so pretty much most amps will go down to about 2 ohms total impediance. some amps such as the jaycar monoblock (specifically designed to make the most power possible, so its good for subs.) can power a 1 ohm load.

now some subs have only 1 VOICE COIL others 2. all this means is at you can wire the subs differently to get maximum power. so if you had 2 voice coils with 4 ohms impediance and wired them in parallel then there would be a total impediance of 2ohms (4ohms/2 vioce coils= 2 ohms total impediance).
now if they were in series the it would be 8 ohms (4ohmsx2voice coils=8 ohms).


ok i am tired, bed now and if you have any questions then post them and i (will be on tomorrow night) or someone else will answer.

[Infanti]

its all making alot of sense now but i didnt get an answer on whether the 80watt nominal rating is for one speaker of both???

[Infanti]

wait i think i know now, so a 2 channel amp will have a certain RMS for each channel yea? so 1 speaker for one channel and another speaker for another channel...so i need to look for an 2 channel amp with 2x80W RMS correct???

[semi]

yes, exactly. As a general rule, you want the amp to be +- 10% of the power, so an amp thats 70-90 W RMS would be good.

[Infanti]

+ and - or one or the other...will the amp say RMS is 70-90W or should the amp just be 70W RMS or 90W RMS...Why not 80?

[Tasmaniak]

Good god....I can't believe that question was just asked.

[semi]

bahahahahahahahahah, anywhere between 70 90 is what i meant

[1991_Vn2nV]

+ and - or one or the other...will the amp say RMS is 70-90W or should the amp just be 70W RMS or 90W RMS...Why not 80?

What was meant was... The speaker is rated at being able to handle 80 watts rms...

So you need an amp that is able to push out 80 watts RMS for that channel. But it doesnt need to be a perfect match.

So if you have an 80 watt RMS speaker, then try and find an amp that puts out within 10% of that power rating. Anything less is basically underpowered and pushing the amp, anything over is pushing the speaker and you will probably blow the speaker.

In my opinion I'd only go 10% over if its a good brand speaker. A cheap speaker on sale at Strathfield or something will probably blow if its pumped with 10% more than what its rated at. Also depends how hard you push your system as well.

[Infanti]

please please please just disregard that question!!!!!!! i know what i need now, thanks for your help guys!!!!!