MOST POPULAR SETUPS

[technofreak]

Hey everyone.. I just thought it would be great to start a topic so that everyone can post what they believe is the most populer car audio setup and sot hat questions like the following can be discussed:

This is my question by the waY..

With two front 6" splits and two rear 6" coaxials and a sub.. how is it best two set this up?
Option 1: 4ch amp running two speakers (either front or rear) and the other two channels bridged to run the sub.
Option 2: two 2ch amps - one to run either the front or back speakers and the other bridged to run the sub.
Option 3: two 2ch amps to run both the back and the front speakers and one 1ch block (or 2ch amp bridged) to run the sub.
Option 4: one 4ch amp to run all four speakers and a 1ch block (or 2ch bridged amp) to run the sub.

Whoever could pick out the 'good' and 'bad' of each of these setups please post em up.. as we would probably all like to know.. especially those of us who are fairly new to car audio (like myself).
I think this could also be helpful for those of us new to car audio to pick the right setup for what we want to spend and what sort of sound quality we get.

Now I have just a few more questions:
Is having seperate amps to run your speakers and sub give you more control over the balance you have over the frequencies ie. not to overpower your sub and get too much bass.
Is a mono 1ch block better than bridging a 2ch amp?

thats all for now. If anyone has any other ways of setting up car audio systems.. post them here!

PEACE

[twilightprotege]

i am in the process of setting up option 4, but option 1 running the front speakers and the headunit to run the rear speakers is enough for msot ppl.

if you're going to do option 2 or 3, why not just get a 4 channel amp instead and make into an option 4 (less wiring to install it etc)

in terms of a mono 1 ch or bridged 2 channel - i was under the impression they are the same, just the amp converts the 2 channels into 1 for you. can anyone clarify this?

also, like i've mentions around here before, spend some time researching subs. like my sub, it's a 10" Infinity Beta. it's about 6 years old, but has never been used. It works perfectly with my box that i'm building (vented 25.9L box) where most other 10" subs will sound sh!t in a 25.9L vented box (sealed would be ok for a lot). but anyway my point, work out what size box you can fit, then look at speakers. dont do it the other way around or you'll be dissapointed with the results.

[Dogo]

i'd say option 1 or 2. my preference would be a 2ch for the front or rears, and a mono for the sub.

a mono amp and 2 channels bridged will give u the same result, but u want the same signal going into both of those channels from the HU ( ie dont bridge a channel recieving the L input with a channel recieving a R input )

i recently did an install for a friend that was just 2 amped rears and an amped sub. no fronts at all. The sound was very very good, much better than I had expected. I put it down to 2 things: 1) 2 speakers only means less messy sound as u dont get 2 versions of the same sound hitting your ears one after the other = nice clean sound. 2) because they were mounted on the back shelf and angled forward, the sound was directed pretty much right at ur ears. Whereas front speakers tend to project the sound into your feet or knees.

i recommend trying the same thing, 2 rear speakers and sub, no front at all. I started this install with the intention of adding front speakers later, and now I'm not going to as it would ruin the sound.

worth a try !! it makes installing the system a breeze too :D

[Pernod]

I run a 2ch amp, with all four speakers running of one channel, and the amp running off the other one.

It means I loose front/rear direction, but it adds alot to the clarity... Running one set of the headunit normally drops quality considerably.

It comes down to user preferance a lot.

Personally if I was running only one set, I'd run fronts (as normally the rears are only there for 'fill').

[mrpayner]

My brother had option 4.. 4 channel amp running 4 speakers, then a monoblock running 2 10" type-r subs.. Sounded freaking amazing!

AP

[Dogo]

Personally if I was running only one set, I'd run fronts (as normally the rears are only there for 'fill').


thats what every1 says, but u can angle rear speakers a lot easier & better than fronts. which is much more important in getting good sound than the distance to ur head.

in small hatches like ours i the rear speakers are fairly close anyway.

[technofreak]

I would imagine that having two 2ch amps to run the front and rear speakers seperately would give you a lot more control over the sound unles your amp has controls for each channel seperately. AM I right? If I run all 4 speakers off one 4ch amp.. Isn't it possible that you will get an uneven balance of lower and higher frequencies? In my system I would be aiming to achieve the best balance of low and high frequencies for the best quality output. Power and loudness isn't a priority.

[twilightprotege]

dogo - but your ears open forwards facing not back. in my car i can hardly hear the rear door speakers, but when they arent there you can tell the sound is a little empty.

techno - you just adjust the rear-front balance on the head unit. that's what i do with my 4 channel amp.

[Dogo]

dogo - but your ears open forwards facing not back. in my car i can hardly hear the rear door speakers, but when they arent there you can tell the sound is a little empty.


true, and a good point. however speakers on the rear shelf have better projection to ur ears than speakers facing ur legs. Ideally i would have speakers on my dash facing right at me, but thats obviously not possible.

I had never expected running just rear shelf speakers to sound as good as this setup does. Its not going to win any comps obviously, but for a low budget system it really does sound good.
i guess i never would have known unless i'd tried it.

[twilightprotege]

yeah totally agreed it's not going to win comps, but for a low budget it's great. a friend of mine had it in his evil car (excel) and sounded pretty good. then he put in front speakers and it was like a new system. the difference was amazing

[andrewgrazier]

Id probably buy that new alpine head unit and not bother with an amp for the speakers at all
just get the head unit to power all the speakers
so then youll only need to have the one amp for the sub
a mono one :D

[Pernod]

In my system I would be aiming to achieve the best balance of low and high frequencies for the best quality output. Power and loudness isn't a priority.

Its a risk, but I haven't had any problems with my set up (but then again, when I stop and think about it I am onto my 3rd pair of speakers in order to get the sound right).
The difference wasn't really a prob and most people never noticed - but being a trained Sound tech, I tend to be a little pedantic about quality. I mean volume is nice, but quality is something that can really be enjoyed ;-)

If your after quality then I'd try and go for a ported sub if you have the room/budget. Depending on what sort of techno your into you will have to take varing amounts of care when sizing/tuning the box...

[Gold-BJ-Astina]

4 channel amp running 2 sets of 6" comp splits and a mono block running 2 15" single voice coils cant go wrong have the control for fronts off the amp and separate controls for rear.

[Pernod]

Thats a nice set up :-)

[Gavsta]

I reckon your best bet is to use a 2ch amp for your front speakers and a monoblock for your sub/s.

If you want rear speakers just run them off the headunit as you dont want them too loud otherwise they'll bring the sound stage back.

Imaging for the front speakers can be done a number of ways. You can put the midbass driver and the tweets straight into the door (and into your legs).

You can angle the tweets towards the opposite headrest (A very popular method) or you can mount your tweets in the A-pillar although some ppl find that the sound gets seperated between the two drivers.

A monoblock is used for the sub as they are more efficient than other amps which will give you less strain on your battery.

[technofreak]

thanks heaps for all the advice.. what i think i might do is buy my head unit and run all 4 speakers off it until i get an amp (maybe 2 or 3) to try out the options i got written up on post #1. I might get a 4ch amp with my HU and run the speakers through that.. we'll see how I go with cash. Thanks again guys.. keep posting.. we'd all like to hear about certain setups and the performance you get.

peace