What are you installing?

 

amp for the civic...
i'm picking up (whenever i get there), an alpine head unit (with no built-in amp), so i need a 4 channel amp to power the civic... (which has inifiniti 6x9s in the back, oem 5 1/4's up front (which are changing once i pick up components).
i want to power everything with a decent 4 channel amp..
then, i'll move the alpine in the civic to the S..

 

I guess they are trying to eek out more power with such a low rating.

 

DIY

 

have you ever seen me do anything DIY?



(errr...that doesn't sound right does it.. )

 

 

well if I run the amp at 4 and the speakers are already at 2 they are going to get pushed really hard. I could always run it both ways and see how it goes.

and I'm sold on the RF- thats the one I'm getting

 

I don't know what the reason is that Infinity is going that route. I thought it was odd too, but some of the reading of done lately suggests that technology might be getting to the point where there isn't so much noise and poop with the lower resistance, that's my impression, but I don't know. I'm just a dummy.

And every single piece of info I can find on those 6x9's suggest that they are the best ones going, and those are going to be the best and most powerful speaker I can get into the car without adding an enclosure, so I want them. and they are at 2 with throws everthing else out of whack.

What I'm wondering, and I've never done this, if I run the amp at 4 and its pushing this current into those speakers which can't resist it, are they just going to get freaky loud or just burn up?

lets find out !

 

You don't really run the amp at 4. It takes a signal (analog or digital) and converts it to more powerful analog output. The ratings are at 4 ohms because that's what 99.9999% of car stuff is rated at, and what most amps/speakers are designed for. When you hook up lower impedance (essentially resistence) speakers, the amp will simply push more current due to Ohm's law (E=IR) - voltage is constant at ~13 Volts, R has dropped so current must increase. Where this becomes a problem is if the amp can't regulate and cool itself. At low volume, any amp can drive a 2 or even 1 amp load, but as the volume goes up, the current increases exponentially (remember, double the volume is a tenfold current increase) and lesser amps will add distortion and eventually overheat.

With what you're trying to do, you should not have problems, unless you regularly run the amp hard (i.e. listen to loud bass intensive music). If it has sufficient air space around it, the cooling is a non issue.

 

<--not an electrical engineer (my disclaimer for possibly frying your system) but I was always lead to believe speaker and amp impedance SHOULD match. And the lower the impedance the less resistance wanted (which acts as impedance)> hence the want for higher gauge wire.