4ch Amps

[Rick]

OK, I want to use 1 amp to power my sub and my components. I keep seeing that you should ideally match the RMS of the speakers to the amp. Well, my speakers are 50W RMS and the sub is 125W RMS. Im not looking to spend too much more than £150, certainly not over £200.

Anyone got any suggestions on which to buy? Also, will I be able to run a Low Pass Filter on the bridged channel to the amp and keep the speakers on a normal channel? And finally, do I need two sets of RCA leads running from the head unit to the amp, or is this just dependant upon the manufacturer?

Thanks for any help.

Rick

 

[Frosty]

Hi Rick

If the amp is 4 channel (4 sets of + and - outputs) then you will only need 1 RCA lead. However, the only way you can power your components from the same amp is by the following:


The amp must have a low pass filter that can control only 2 of these channels (the one that the sub is running off), otherwise the components will be creating just bass too.
You leave the filter alone, but fit a passive crossover to the sub so that the components receive the full sound range whereas the sub will filter out frequencies above, say 85 Hz.
My advice to you would be to buy 2 smaller 2 channel amps - 1 for the sub and 1 for the components. It will probably work out the same price as the 4 channel by the time you have purchased all the crossovers as well.

Hope this helps you.

Laurence.

 

[CS_Matt]

agree with frosty
also u will ahve more control over the gain levels of each output be it speakers or subs

ive got one amp runnin my 2 15s and another runnin the 6x9s and fronts, unfortunatly the other 4 speakers go off the head unit

 

[Rick]

The problem is my current head unit only has one pre-out on it. I know Im going to get a new Head Unit in the future but I dont know when exactly. Would I be able to get away with using some RCA splitters if I wanted to use two separate amps?

Rick

 

[Frosty]

Many amps will let you daisy-chain the RCA leads, meaning you can go from head unit to AMP1 with the first set of leads, then connect AMP1 to AMP2 using a second set of RCA leads.

The easy way to tell if an amp can do this is to look at how many RCA terminals there are. If there are only 2 (left and right) then you will have to split the leads (which isnt a problem). Otherwise the amp will have 4 RCA terminals to accomodate for daisy-chaining.

Let us know how it goes - Laurence

 

[Magnet]

RT owner

I have an Alpine MRVF 407 V12 4 channel amp for sale. (see for sale section)

I was using it to run my front door speakers (JLs - 2 channels) with the other 2 channels bridged to run my JL 12W0 sub. Loads of power, lots of adjustabilty filters etc.

£330 new, £230 mail order. Sell for £150 boxed as new with manuals.