for amplifiers....they have MONO CHANNEL, 2 CHANNEL and MULTI CHANNEL....what does this mean, does this mean how many things its connecting too? or does this have to do with the level of sound like with DVD-Audio how the DVD Audio uses more channels than regular cd quality which uses 2 channels...

 

Think of channels like TV channels - there is different information on each channel, but it's still TV.

"Mono" is a single channel of sound. It can have great highs and lows, it can have very low noise, but mono sound cannot create a three-dimensional illusion of depth.

Humans have two ears and we hear location and distance because our brains process the differences between the two sets of sounds heard by the two ears - differences in time and in loudness.

"Stereo" is a way of creating a three-dimensional illusion with two discrete channels, in this case Left and Right. When stereo is recorded, the engineer may record a channel for the drums and a channel for the vocal and a channel for the guitar, but when the recording is finally mixed, there are two channels, L and R, each with slightly different information on them.

A stereo amp has 2 channels. A four-chanel amp is like two stereo amps in one case.

Since our ears can't hear low bass directionality, and so a single woofer can work as well as two in playing low bass as far as directionallity is concerned, a mono channel is often used for playing bass.

Since amplifiers sell better if they are flexible, almost all amps can be configured into a bridged mode where two channels are combineds into a more powerful channel, or four into two. This is intended to allow the amp to be used in more different ways.

If you have a car system and a fader, you usually have 2 F channels and 2 R channels. This is STILL two-channel sound, because the same signal is sent to the F and the R channels. We tried this in the 70's with Quadraphonic, a disaster, no one liked it, but we've been screwed with 4-speaker sound in cars ever since.

"Multichannel" sound like Dolby and DTS was invented for movie special effects - which is NOT the same as high fidelity musical reproduction.

SUper-Audio CD and DVD-Audio also allow multichannel MUSICAL recording... but why? So you can feel like you're on stage?

The fact is, we are making multichannel music because we can, NOT because good stereo playback is so commonplace that we need something better. It's not true... good stereo playback is almost unheard of.

 

And stop shopping on eBay so much... : )

 

DVD is capable of more channels, but doesn't always have more.

 

so it would make most sense to get a mono-amp for a subwoofer?

 

yes... maybe. it depends. but most likely, yeah

 

what about OHMS ive read a few posts about it and i saw a few things where someone posted a formula on what it ? i searched but i don't understand what it is.

 

Kid, you are looking like a troll again. Go read some stuff on car audio forums.

 

i am a troll :-p

i am looking on an audio forum, specifically for our cars. i searched here, i found a few things, i know these issues are addressed but i need them in more laymen (sp?) terms.... like i told you...im completely illiterate when it comes to car audio and audio just in general....

and im not voiding your advice from previous posts.

 

Ohms are good.
Channels aren't as good but decent.

I hope that helps.

 

good advice

nflblitz.... go read on here http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/S-YfpETRlesz3/

I don't think you are worthy of elduderino's excellent advice until you get at least an understanding of the basics...

 

You gotta hand it to elduderino--he really takes the time to explain things in a clear, cogent way. I applaud his willingness to explain things to those of us on this forum with questions. (I know, because I've been asking him questions for a week myself).

 

i understand what Channels are, i don't understand what OHMS is, the way elduderino explains things are great, in-depth and thorough, but that dosn't change the fact that i still don't understand some things. i don't understand why i can't ask questions without certain people getting pissed off.

 

who's pissed off...?
I'm just bein an asshole.

 

i think some people sometimes forget that others don't understand it all. HOWEVER, it is fair to say that a person should at least try to do a little bit of their own research when it comes to certain things. understanding what an ohm IS compared to what an ohm MEANS in car audio...i don't think are the same things. so it's not necessarily important to know the whole history of the ohm, including every formula associated with it. however, it is important to know what ohms your pushing to your speakers via your amp.

read a little bit on that link provided, or just google 'ohm'. you'll find a multitude of information. then once you get the basics down, the descriptions and advice people are giving you will make more sense. just my 2 cents.

 

Ohm is a measurement of electrical resistance, also called impedance. (Like Volt is a measurement of electrical volume, and Amp is a measure of electrical pressure).

The impedance of a speaker needs to be proper for the amp driving it. Typical auto speakers are 4-Ohm, but 2-ohm and even 1-ohm speakers are available.

You don't need to understand a lot of electrical theory to install a car stereo, or to select components, but you do need some.

For instance, putting a 1-ohm speaker on most amps would burn them up. Because most amps are designed to push a 2-4 ohm load.

 

Let's put it this way.

If you took a piece of metal - like a wrench, or a thick copper wire - and you bridged it across the + and - terminals of your battery, sparks would fly and the metal would get hot and burn your hand. Why? Because ALL the electricity in the battery would try to make the trip from one terminal to the other, ALL at the same time. (Don't do that, BTW - you might even blow up the battery).

If you take a light bulb, and bridge one electrode to one battery terminal and the other electrode to the other, the two battery terminals would be connected by a tiny little wire inside the light bulb. NOT all the electricity tries to make the trip - very LITTLE tries to make the trip - just enough to make the light bulb filament glow.

THe first one is called a short circuit - when the connection has too low an electrical resistance, which is measured in Ohms.

Speakers have motors in them. Those motors, called voice coils, have electrical resistance (4 ohms, or 8 ohms, etc.). If you hook them up where the ohms are too low, the amps see a circuit that is outside their limits - a "short" circuit, to them at least. They either shut down, or bad things happen.

I have discussed speaker AC impedance as if it was electrical DC resistance. Impedance varies with frequency - a speaker has a different ohm value at 1000 Hz than at 100 Hz. But that's theory for another day.

Look, if every time you ask a question the answer gets handed to you, what good does that do you? Not to sound too "uphill both ways in the snow", but back when I learned all this shit we didn't have car stereo forums or FOUR car audio magazines or Google or BCAE.com - it was work learning this stuff, and identifying the people teaching us who were ignorant from those that weren't. And now because you don't understand Ohms, like the most basic electrical concept there is, we're supposed to teach you? Look, dude, I know that you can read good tutorials about this topic on many Web pages - so I have to say that you just don't seem to be trying that hard. If you seemed to be working at it, plenty of people would be trying to help you, but the fact that you seem to be lazy doesn't endear you to me, at least.

 

LoL BCAE.com
Arizona Business Council for Alcohol Education
Thats where I learned all I know about car audio and home theater.

 

LOL, my bad: http://www.bcae1.com/