More advise needed

sorry, i've prolly been asking some trivial questions, but ive found this forum to be so useful. anyways im trying to put a decent sound system in my car. i have some money to play with, but id like to get the best bang for the buck.

i have an eclipse 55090 cd/dvd/fm HU that will be hooked up to a sony xav-7w LCD unit. i also want to add an eclipse titanium sub. i was thinking 12 at first, but now i might drop it down to a 10" what are the advantages of having a 10 vs. 12? the price difference is about $40-$50. i also want to power it with a mono amp. i know id be fine with eclipse DA7122 but it's a bit pricey. if i can get something cheaper all the more better. i was looking at the JBL BP1200.1 but i wanna make sure it can give the sub the proper power.

for the components in the front im set on the a/d/s 346is. i heard em and love em. i'll put some cheaper aftermarket speakers in the rear too. what kind of amp should i use to power up the components and rears? one 4-channel amp? or multi-channel? any recommendations? thanks!

10s don't go down as low in frequency and they aren't as loud. But since the speaker doesn't have to move so much, it can move faster, and they can go a little higher in frequency response (which really doesn't help anything). They will have a bit cleaner sound on the bass they do hit though. 12s are, in most peoples opinion, the best tradeoff between quality and volume (in a non-competition vehicle, and sometimes in a competition vehicle as well). But there are a few people who swear by 10s as well. I'd go with a 12 if you have room. For amps, a 4 channel will be fine if you're running fronts+rears but not biamping components. otherwise a 2ch for front (if you amplify them at all) and a 4ch for rear or a 6ch for all. And as you seem to already know, use a seperate amp for the subs. Use a Class T amp for the normal speakers if you can find one that suits your power needs, and use a class T as well for the sub(s) if you can find/get/afford a suitable one. But a Class D/BD/X (all 3 are basically the same) will work for the sub(s). The JBL BP1200.1 is supposed to be good, and the specs seem nice as well. BTW, the reason I'm so into Class T is because they are very efficient (lower power draw, less heat) and yet still retail sound quality (unlike class D/BD/X which is why those are only good for subs)

-------------
2009 Pontiac G8 in planning stage
HU: ?
Speakers: ?
Amps: ?

I personally don't like 10's as much either. A 12 inch sub can hit just as hard as a 10 " in a sealed enclosure + you reap the benefits of having the lower frequencies. As far a a mono amp, I wouldn't do that with just one sub. A mono amp is meant to be run in a 2 ohm load for optimal power output. Unless the sub is a 2 ohm sub, then I suggest getting a 2 channel amp and bridging the channels.

-------------
Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

ok im confused. why do i need a two channel amp for a single sub? why would eclipse make a mono amp if you shouldnt hook it up to a 4ohm sub like their titanium line???
and so im good for a single 4-channel amp powering the front components and rears?
what's bi-amping?

trdgts wrote:

---

why do i need a two channel amp for a single sub?

---

As Velocity said, most mono amps are designed for either 1 Dual Voice Coil sub, or 2+ subs (not 1 single voice coil 4 ohm sub). Most mono amps that I've seen come in 1 or 2 ohms (I'm sure there are others available though), while most 2 channel amps come in 2, 4 and 8 ohms (again I'm sure there are more). It all depends on what subs you have/want, and how versitle you want your system to be in the future. Running 1 single voice coil 4 ohm sub would be better with a 2 channel amp (unless you plan on adding more subs to your system to get a 2 ohm load) due to the ohm load your sub presents, which is 4 ohms. Granted, most mono amps are stable at 4 ohms but you wont get the most from the amp unless you can drop the ohm load to 2 ohms. Since 2 channel amps are designed with handling a 4 ohm load in mind, they make a better choice and you can usually save a few bucks (instead of paying more and not being able to use you amp to its full potential)

trdgts wrote:

---

why would eclipse make a mono amp if you shouldnt hook it up to a 4ohm sub like their titanium line???

---

Amps are made for more than just that manufacture's product line/specific product. Just because a company makes amps and subs, doesn't mean that their amps will necessarily work for all their subs. In order to keep up with the market, company's are forced to make products to suite a varity of applications, and some that are suited for more specific ones.

trdgts wrote:

---

so im good for a single 4-channel amp powering the front components and rears?

---

As far as 4 channels go, yes. They are designed for running 4 speakers (usually internal component/coaxial speakers... 5x7's, 6x9's, etc). And again have more uses than that though. Just make sure that if you are going to run 1 speaker per channel to get an amp that matches the ohms and RMS ratings of your speakers. I.E. if you have Four 4 ohm speakers with an RMS rating of 100watts, get a 4-channel amp that is rated at 4x100 @ 4 ohms.

trdgts wrote:

---

what's bi-amping?

---

"Bi-Amplification - The use of two amplifiers, one for the amplification of lower (bass) frequencies , and the other for higher (midrange and treble) frequencies. The audio signal from the head unit or pre-amplifier is passed through an electronic crossover and divided into two separated signals. These signals are sent to the respective amplifiers and their outputs are sent to the respective speakers.(bass to woofers, midrange and treble to mids and tweeters through the use of passive crossovers) Tri-Amp is the use of three amplifiers in the same manner with the audio signal divided into three separate bands of frequency by the electronic crossover and so on."
NOTE: When the deffinition refers to "The use of two amplifiers", this can also refer to a 4-channel amplifier (they are essentially Two 2-channel amps combined into 1 package).

Hope that helped

-------------
Squirrel
"No more Cpt. Kirk chit chat"
If its too loud, then you're too old
Donate to the12volt.com

oh yeah, and the eclipse sw9122 is actually a dual voice coil 4ohm sub (rather than single like wvsquirrel stated). does that make a diff in whether or not i should get a 2-channel vs. mono amp?

I never ment to imply that you were running a SVC, I was just stating that mono amps weren't designed to specifically run them. You never mentioned your sub model before in this post (at least not that I saw), so I wanted to cover as many situations as I could.

If your sub is a DVC 4ohm sub, then yes a mono amp would work fine. Wire it in parallel to get the 2 ohm load and you'll be good to go.



-------------
Squirrel
"No more Cpt. Kirk chit chat"
If its too loud, then you're too old
Donate to the12volt.com

oops i feel bad for that! thanks for the info and all the help, i think im set!

No prob . Good luck and happy booming

-------------
Squirrel
"No more Cpt. Kirk chit chat"
If its too loud, then you're too old
Donate to the12volt.com