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Running 4 Speakers Off a 2 Channel Amp?

holdenboy

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No problem, its just a suggestion.

Well if youre not wanting to spend too much money then buying a set of 6x9s and running them off the amp while running the splits off the head-unit sounds like your best option.
 

Robbo VS3

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The thing is, most of my songs play really well on them, my splits can handle the mid-bass fine. But i have a few songs that must have a really low frequency, its like really deep bass, and my splits just distort when i turn these songs up. I have turned the bass and everything down on the head unit, but it still does'nt help. Thats why i was thinking that adding 6x9's might be able to handle those low frequency songs, or is this all wrong? Any other suggestions? I don't want a sub, and i would'nt fit one in my ute anyway.
 

marcdon

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if you are looking at buying Powerplants I wouldn't waste my time if i was you. Your splits run a frequency response of 40Hz-22kHz. The 6x9 powerplants are 45Hz-22kHz. The only way you will get low bass is from a sub. Why not look at the Reactor Super Slim Active Subwoofer... it will fit anywhere in your ute and its frequency range is 20Hz-120Hz. I am fitting my VZ exec out with Powerplants. 6.5" splits front and 6.5" 2-ways rear, powered off an amp...i love deep bass and reading your problems i am now looking at either on of those Active Subs or Powerplant 12" Bass pack.
 

TehFastyOne

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Due to what the others have said, there's a reason for why they invented the 4-channel amplifier.

The frequency response, impedence and power levels of the speakers are all different. If you run the setup you want to run on a 2-channel amplifier, you run the risk of over-driving the amplifier as well.

The op amps inside the amplifier (Basically the transistors that increase the current to produce a larger audio signal) are going to be run harder to give a larger audio signal to all the speakers. In the short term, its okay for testing purposes perhaps but over time, you're going to diminish their ability to reproduce the same audio signal. In some cases their won't be any noticeable run-down, they'll explode if the fuse doesn't explode first. You're just adding more weight to a distance runner metephorically.

You get this a lot with some circuits that contain darlington pair transistors or op amp drivers which are a setup to increase the current in the circuit in order to increase the power of a reference signal. You find this on tranceiver radio systems as well every time you transmit, transistor setups like darlington pairs / op amps will drive as hard as they can to produce the audio signal being pushed out of the antenna. So long as you keep transmitting in bursts, you'll be fine. Prolonged transmissions will deteriorate these transistors and they will blow if you don't take it easy with the radio. Going back to the 2-channel amplifier, essentially you are doing the same thing. You don't run the speakers at max all the time but adding more speakers is essentially asking for more from the amplifier as well. Keep the tolerances within specification and you'll be fine.

Save a couple hundred bucks and get a decent 4-channel amplifier. It is worth the stretch mate.
 

VZ-Rob

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..... i have a few songs that must have a really low frequency, its like really deep bass, and my splits just distort when i turn these songs up. I have turned the bass and everything down on the head unit, but it still does'nt help......

What is the low end frequency of the splits woofer ? ie 255 hz well just put say a 300 ohm cap inline with each woofer which will stop ALL lows below that getting to the speaker
They will sound cleaner and you'll be able to crank them up more as well
 

holdenboy

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Your splits should be high passed. NO 6.5" woofer will reproduce <50hz with any sort of volume.

Turn the high pass filter on the amp, if its adjustable turn it to around 60-70hz. You'll notice immediately they'll play so much louder without distorting.
 

Robbo VS3

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Your splits should be high passed. NO 6.5" woofer will reproduce <50hz with any sort of volume.

Turn the high pass filter on the amp, if its adjustable turn it to around 60-70hz. You'll notice immediately they'll play so much louder without distorting.

High mate, yes i have tried turning the high pass filter on, it only has on/off option, and when i do crank it loud, i get a clipping sound.
 

holdenboy

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Hmm, well ok......you need some 6x9s or a sub, maybe a new amp.....50wrms per channel is only 3db louder than if they were running off the head-unit, my opinion is to buy a decent 4ch amplifier with 100wrms per channel minimum. Run your splits and 6x9s off this and you'll see a huge improvement in both volume and bass output.

Keep an eye out on eBay etc, decent 4 channel amps can sell on there for around $100, well worth the investment ;)
 
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