4 Channel Amp Wiring Techniques

I heard that some people with four channel amps and four speakers(ex front and rear deck), will wire the right speakers to amp 1, and the left speakers to amp two. What are the benifits of this if any? Doesn't it just make it harder to set your gains and match your speakers potential?

not in mono, just wiring LL RR instead of LR LR, I didn't notice any difference, just lost some volume.

I have a kx300.4 kicker 6 1/2" components upfront, and 3way 6 by 9 in the back....and a clarion drx7575z head unit. I was looking into buying the kicker 5 band EQ, with built in line driver. to better my dynamic range. while talikng to the salesman he said that some eq setups have their amps wired as I mentioned above.

I've wired like that before, but I wired Front Right/Left to 1 amp and Rear Right/Left to the other. You would use 1 amp for the Front, and the other amp for the Rear. If you're headunit has Front and Rear RCA pre-outs (total of 3 sets: Front, Rear, and Sub) you will keep both Fade and Balance controls. If you only have 2 set of RCA pre-outs (1 for internal speakers, and 1 for a sub) then you can use Y-adapters, but will not be able to keep the Fade control. If you do it right, the benefit is more power and louder volume. Here's an example... Hypothetical 4-Channel Amp Specs 4 x 30 @ 4ohms 4 x 60 @ 2ohms 2 x 120 @ 4ohms bridged Since most internal speakers are 4ohms (I said most, not all!), if you wired one 4ohm speaker per channel you would only get 30watts per speaker. Now, if you bridged the Front Left speaker on channels 1 and 2, and the Front Right speaker on channels 3 and 4, you would have the 4ohm bridged rating for both speakers. Instead of 30watts each, you would get 120watts each. If you did the same thing with the Rear speakers, you would end up with 4 speakers running at 120watts each, instead of only 30watts each. The drawbacks are an increased load on the alternator and having to buy the 2nd 4-channel amp.Squirrel

"No more Cpt. Kirk chit chat"

If its too loud, then you're too old

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Keep it simple man.  Deck speakers don't require all that much power (in most cases) to get good and loud sound.  If you have say a 400 or 500 watt 4 channel amp and 4 speakers it should be more than enough.  Just wire each speaker to it's individual channel if you're not sure about sound quality or ohms with it bridged.  You should be more worried about quality than power.....power is easy to get.Drew   "Fuses are only 10 cents...go for it."

It's not always a matter of "keeping it simple". And you're right, SQ is always important. But if I were you I wouldn't trust that 400 or 500 watt rating. Most 4-channel amps that say its a "400" or "500" watt amp is really more like a 4x30 or 4x50. You have to pay close attention to the spec sheet and how the power rating was measured. Most manufacturer's are basing their specs off of a 14.4volt electrical system now, not 12volts. And that claimed 400 or 500 watt power rating is 9 times out of 10 the Max power of the amp, and can only be obtained for a split second before the amp blows/shuts down. Lets take the Kenwood KAC-649S for example. It's a good amp (not top of the line, but it's not trash either). It's listed as a 320watt 4-channel amp. Should be great for 4 internal speakers right? Well, the actual specs are 4x30@4ohms, 4x40@2ohms, and 2x80@4ohms bridged. You'll never obtain the "320watts max power" under normal usage. It's a marketing ploy manufacturer's use with Class AB amps to make you think you're getting more power for less money. Oh yea, I forgot to mention the above specs were based on 14.4volts. So on a 12volt system you would be getting even less power. And there are quite a few aftermarket speakers that require 80-160 watts for optimal performance. Granted most are high-end speakers, but there are still quite a few low/mid-end speakers that can use more power then a standard aftermarket headunit rated at 4x52 can produce. The real trick is obtaining the proper balance between SQ and SPL. And that's what makes it hard to keep anything simple!Squirrel

"No more Cpt. Kirk chit chat"

If its too loud, then you're too old

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