acuratsx03

arite, lemme keep it simple, i want to replace the stock amp to power my type r components, type s 6x9s and stock rear doors. im looking at two different amps; the 4 Channel Alpine MRV-F340 and the 2 Channel Alpine MRV-T320. im gonna guess the 4 channel amp would be best for this setup, but could a 2 channel amp be used instead? what would be the pros/cons of using the 2 channel amp over the 4? the reason im considering a 2 channel amp is to reduce costs, so if the job can be done, it will be, but if i cant cut corners then i wont.
thanks for all your help

p.s. finalizing this decision will lead me to a very near date of custom work on my trunk setup. gonna do some audio shop shopping to see where i can get the best deal for a custom sub box w/amp rack and install of type r 6.5 woofers & xovers, and on the new amp i choose to purchase... my budget is $600 for this work, hopefully i wont have to go too far over, but im always prepared

joerockt

So lemme get this straight. Your wondering if you can power SIX speakers with a TWO channel amp?



Ummm, no...

You either need 2, 4 channel amps with one of them bridged so you can power the sub you said you would eventually get as well as all 6 speakers.

acuratsx03

i have an alpine mrd-m500 amp for the sub, i was just wondering if the 2 channel could power my interior speakers... not possible?
sorry, not much of a audio genious so i dont know about how many speakers each amp can power.
bottom line - 2 channel amp cant power interior speakers...?

joerockt

Think of the word "channel" as "speaker". So a 2 channel would power 2 speakers. If you trying to power 6 speakers, you need 6 channels from a couple of amps.

What Im planning to do is my current setup is a 4 channel amp powering my front speaks, and bridged to power my sub. Bridging just means taking the power from two channels to make it one channel. I will eventually get another 4 channel amp to power the rear doors and deck. Right now, they are still hooked up to the stock amp.

acuratsx03

so then what would be the most efficient way to power all the interior speakers? a 4 channel AND a 2 channel... thats too much flow for me.
although, maybe i wouldnt even have to worry about 'amplifying?' the rear doors cause theyll be stock...?

joerockt

My bad, read that wrong about your rear doors. Yea, I 4 channel for the front and 6x9's and either a 2 channel bridged or a mono amp for the sub.

acuratsx03

i got the sub covered. its already installed and all with an alpine mrd-m500 for the type r 12". its just an ugly setup with a low quality box, so im gonna get it custom installed and such.
so i guess ill go with the MRV-F340 for the fronts (also, do components count as 4 speakers or 2?) and the 6x9s.

musicbox

That's not true...Unless you want specific control (fade and balance)...I will be running 4 doors and the tweeters off a 2 channel amp..

acuratsx03: you should think about completely removing the 6x9s if you are going to use a sub(with it's own amp), then a 2 or 4 channel amp for the rest of the speakers...

acuratsx03

well the thing about my 6x9s is that theyre wired full range, or whatever the rear doors are wired as, so theyre not just playing bass as the stock system intended. it actually sounds really good wired that way with the sub; you can hear more of the music.

so could run my tweets, F door, and 6x9s off a 2 channel amp?

joerockt

Well, I dont know enough to argue your point, but to me, that dosent sound like the "right" way to do it.

Too bad elduderino isnt around...

acuratsx03

yeah, well thanks for all of your help! its really appreciated considering i didnt know any of this before anyways so any amount of information is bound to be useful.

tuan209

you can use a 2 channel amp to power the front components, 2 speakers and 2 tweets. just use the passive with your component set.

xaznperswaesonx

you can do a couple of things:

1. using one 4channel amp, hte front channels will power the front door and rear door meaning you'll have to bridge the speakers in the door to left and right, and the rear channel will run the speaker off the rear deck. you'll definately get more music out of it.

2. using one 4 channel amp, you can power the front door and rear deck off the amp, the rear door off of deck power for "ambience" (sp?)

3. you can do above instead of running the rear door off of deck power .. get a 2 channel amp and run it to the rear door and used a woofer type to bring the bass up front

me .. i'll probably do #3 plus a 5.1 surround sound !

musicbox

AH so you're a"loud music from any direction" category. not the " the stage is in the front, I want the music in the front audiophile" category... Which I'm not saying that's wrong, just saying, you're in the minority...Yes you can run all those speakers off a 2 channel amp, but I'm not saying you plug it all in and you'll instantly be satisfied, you might have to do some more tweaking with passove crossovers, etc...

musicbox

I wouldn't call it "right" or "wrong" it's just different ways of setting up an audio system...If you have one channel per speaker you have more control over that speaker. The freq it plays, the volume it plays, etc etc... But for a lot of people this is unrealistic, because of the money and physical space needed. With probably the same "amount" of tweaking but a different kind of tweaking you can get good results from one channel amp. In one of my installs back in the day, I had 9 mid and highs and 4 subs running off one 2 channel amp, takes a lot of tweaking, but it won trophys.

Times have changed and multi channel amps are more common, but you still see most people running all their front channels off 2 channels, and sometimes the back on a seperate 2 channels and then a sub amp...and a combination of passive and active crossovers..


Yes, I probably shouldn't be handing out free advice without paying the vendors fees

musicbox

Are you going to watch movies in your car?

jiggaman

go with the 4 channel. and don't get rid of your 6X9s.

jiggaman

in my opinion you need to set it up so that your front speakers are on their own channel so that you can fade the sound to the front. even with the gains higher for my front speakers than the rears i still have to fade my sound about forward +3 to 5 to sound "right". other wise it feels like the majority of the sound is coming from the 6x9s.

acuratsx03

yeah, i want a good front stage, thats why i got the components. i wired the 6x9s full range because if i had wired them the way they were intended it woulda waay too much bass. i def plan on keeping my 6x9s though. so i guess ill go with the 4 channel amp. i got all my previous audio equipment from ebay, might as well get the MRV-F340 off there too. i think its only around 260-270-ish including shipping, so thats already about $120 cheaper than store price. and i can imagine how some of you feel about buying from ebay, especially an amp. but ive had nothing but good experience so wish me luck! i think ill let the installer do the whole tweaking and such seeing as i cant. thanks for all the help and replies once again! i really appreciate it

jiggaman

do it up!!

jiggaman

how do you like that type R subwoofer?

acuratsx03

i like it a lot. but i feel that im not getting through all of its potential. its got a mrd-m500 to itself and i magined it much stronger, one of the reasons i am getting a custom enclosure done but so far its been really good, its clean, it booms... air force ones by nelly and 24's by TI really bring out the best in it

acuratsx03

so hopefully ill get what i was expecting when i get a good box for it, plus itll look awesome

jiggaman

do you have to turn your gains way up to get good bass out of it?

acuratsx03

im not sure how my amp is tuned seeing as i dont know how to tune it exactly and which features do what. though i really like to get some time to just play around in there

jiggaman

do you have a line driver for it?

acuratsx03

yes i do, before i was getting really boomy bass. but after i put in a line driver it cleaned up a lot and sounded a loot better. but i think without the line driver it was louder, or maybe it was just the boomyness

acuratsx03

actually, i think it was a high to low signal converter... same thing?

xaznperswaesonx

nah .. CONCERT!

musicbox

How many concerts are recorded in 5.1 now? last I checked there was only a few, the only ones I can think of off the top of my head are the Beegee's and Fleetwood Mac....

jiggaman

nope. different

acuratsx03

well then i dont believe i have one... just the high to low signal converter... ::

xaznperswaesonx

I really have no clue. But i buy musical dvd that either just play music or like concert. A regular system cant really get the sounds like how a 5.1 system can give even if the music isnt 5.1. I have the cold play dvd and it sounds hella good! Not sure if its 5.1 but it has dts .. i'm assuming it's 5.1 siunce it's dts ...