Hey guys. I need some input on a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica. Time is counting down to get this car done.
My customer has decided to not wait any longer for Metra's CHTO-02 Pacifica interface. It's been on back order and in 3 weeks he is moving a couple states away for graduate school. He wants me to go ahead and bypass his factory amplifier. I found that Metra offers a 70-6506 bypass harness to do this. I also found a full wiring diagram on the entire premium sound system for the Pacifica. We are going to use the Kenwood Excellon KDCX791 headunit to run the door speakers and add a amp to the factory subwoofer. He's still debating on adding an amp for the highs. For the front components I'm going to have to add some 2-way crossovers for the mids and tweets which won't be a problem since I've actually got a couple sets laying around from old components.
This brings me to the question. The center channel. How would you guys go about powering it? He still wants to keep it running. Should I amp it, run it off the headunit? Haven't really messed with many center channels. The only ones I have ever worked with is maybe the add on ones that fit in the center pockets from clarion and others. Could really use some help here.
I have a Center Channel speaker in my truck. Its a Polk Audio EX2565 (just the woofer from the component set). Its powered using an amp bridged mono. I've heard that I'm gonna blow that speaker for about 10-years now (its getting 2-1/2-times its RMS rating for almost 10-years) but I have never had a problem.
Overall it seems to work well.
My 10-cents worth
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The moving power of mathematical invention is not reasoning but imagination.
Augustus de Morgan
see that was what my thought was. Just a really low powered 2 channel amp that I can bridge. Is that how most do it?
I have found that it works. My problem is that I own a Ford Ranger and the speakers in the doors make the sound stage too wide. The Center Channel narrows the stage considerably. Experiment a little, in my truck the center seems to work best wired out of phase with a 1200Hz low pass filter. My sons car (a 93 Cavalier) has a 6 x 9 center and it seems to work best in phase with no crossover.
In both cases the centers are driven with twice the power that the stereo speakers are.
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The moving power of mathematical invention is not reasoning but imagination.
Augustus de Morgan
Well my customer brought the car by again tonight. Our concern is space as well. Man that car is tight with the two rows of rear seats. I'm lucky though. I think we are going to use a single 4 channel amplifier and it will fit under the front passenger seat. I'll bridge 2 channels to run the factory subwoofer and the other two channels to run the center channel. I can't imagine the factory 8" needing more that a 100 watts.
Sound reasonable? Cost obviously has become a factor to the customer since it would have been nice to use a $100.00 interface and call it done with the new headunit but now we are getting into rewiring the factory amp, adding a amp and crossovers...lol Money jumped up!
I think that would work well. I am not an expert on center channels but I know whats worked for me.
I did a customers Eclipse a few years back and used a Sony Amp. The XM 2025 was bridgable and really small. You could actually tuck it behind the dash. But the Eclipse turned out sounding really good. The amp was only 50 or 60 watts RMS (I don't remember the exact specs) Bridged.
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The moving power of mathematical invention is not reasoning but imagination.
Augustus de Morgan