Car Audio Question

Hello,
Okay, two Christmas's ago I got a Pioneer head with two polk speakers in the doors and two Kicker 6"x9" in the back dash. So, my head says it gives out 50w x 4.

Now to the question. My brother-in-law gave me a 35w 4 channel amp and told me I could get it installed and it would sound better. When I went to Circuit City however, the guy working there told me that if I installed that amp it would override the 50w's the stereo head was giving out. So now my question, if I get that amp installed will it really override the 50w from my stereo and be underpowered, or will it add to it? I don't know if the guy was right or just trying to screw me into buying a new amp. Thanks for any help you can give!

you will get more "fidelity" from having a seperate amplifier for your sounds. it will be louder and cleaner.. your head unit is NOT putting out 50w per channel.. its probually more like 15

well it also depends on if u want to run all ur speakers off that amp which probably isn't the best idea anyway. if you connect the 6x9's to the amp and let the front speakers run from the head then you'll be better for sure. I've personally never heard of the amp overridding the head. if that were true, how would any amps ever work... just my two cents tho

I'm just assuming here, but Your head is more then likely putting out 50w peak, and Im thinking the amp is putting out 35w countinuous, in which case the amp would be more powerful.

Ok, well I believe your right about the 50w peak thing. I looked up the name of the amp, and I found an old post online about someone trying to sell one, and it had this:

"4-Channel High Power Amplifier 35w x 4 @ 4ohm 50w x 4 @ 2ohm 100w x 2 @ 4ohm"

Would that mean that if I ran the amp to all the speakers it would be 50w continuiously, and if to the back 6x9s only, that it would be 100w continuiously? Thanks for your help.

I'd say to let the deck power the front speakers, and then use to amp for the rear 6x9s to utilize all the power you have where its needed. You won't be disappointed.

Ok. Thanks for your help. I'll try to find online how to do that... prolly just have Circuit City do it.. hopefully they won't charge too much.

dont take it to a shop to do it... its really not too hard at all... you need some speaker wire, the ground wire, and the power wire. Take the power wire and disconnect it at the fuse area. Then connect the fuse side to the battery (leaving the fuse out this entire process). Connect the longer side of the power wire to the amp in the labeled spot. For the ground wire connect it to the amp in labeled spot, and find a piece of metal as close to the amp as possible and connect the other end to that. Next, simply splice the speaker wire for each speaker to run between them and the amp. Finally, put the fuse back in the holder and reconnect the two pieces of the power wire and you should be up and running. PM me if you have any clarrifying questions if you decide to use this.

What's the brand of the amp? Also BabycaviZ forgot to mention that you have to run RCA cables from the deck to the amp.

good catch Jac.
o yea and if u haven't already taken it in to get it done, they will charge u an arm and a leg to do it when u could use that money for other things or to better ur system

I wanna do it myself. It should be interesting.
But, I cannot find a hole through the firewall for the power cable.. I havent gotten under the car, as I am chubby and I don't have enough jacks for the whole car (or the front for that matter), but I'll figure out something soon. If you know of any moderately medium level holes to run it through to the cab please let me know so I don't have to jack it up lol.. I was told I could run it from the fuse box, but I have a feeling that wouldn't be the most intelligent thing to do. If its safe though, maybe thats the way to go. Any advice on that would be great.

The amp itself is a Crossfire 35.4w amp.. I think I read it can be run like 100w x2, so yeah. Two back speakers.. or I might get like two 10" Pioneer subs. I heard their okay. Any information on the fusebox thing or a good location to run that powerwire would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

When I ran the power cable for my amp I found a hole with a rubber plug in it down near the clutch pedal on the fire wall, so i cut a small slit in it and ran the wire through. I then ran the power wire and the remote turn in wire under the door sill trim (just tuck it under with a screwdriver) and ran it this way clear to the trunk. to get power for remote turn on wire I used a fuse tap (clips onto fuse then reinstall in panel) to a keyed circuit. You can run the rca's to the trunk in the same manner but you should run them in the pass side to eliminate static interference. If I were you I'd get the subwoofers and run the amp to them and mount it all in the trunk. I think you would get the most sound improvement out of this set up. This is the same as I did but I mounted two JL Audio 8w3's in mine (I had them laying around from my ranger because thats all that would fit in it, othewise I would have used 10's). anyway good luck if you have any Q's let me know.:grinyes: