Okay, deal with me on this one guys. I have NO knowledge when it comes to this subject. I recently bought some new and used sound equipment for my MY2001.

I bough the following:

Sony CDX-M750 head-unit (used)
Rockford Fosgate 4 channel 400 Watt Amp (used)
Kewnood Excelon KFC-X178 front speakers with 260 watts max (new)
Kenwood Excelon XR501 5.25" Rear Speakers with 160 watts max (new)

Now here is where I get confusing. The total max power of all 4 speakers add up to 800 watts. My amp is only capable of 400 watts. My head unit is advertised as having 50 watts per channel. Would it be possible to have the speakers hooked up to the amp AND the head-unit so I can get the extra 50 watts per speaker (200 watts total?) so I can be somewhat closer to the max power level of the speakers? What bad about not giving speakers the full power that it's capable of? I hope that makes sense.

 

Hmmm.. Would you suggest just going with a lower wattage speaker? LIke 160Watts for the fronts? Whats RMS by the way? And when do max watts actually come into affect where I would have to worry about not having enough power?

 

get someone who can help you - seriously. You have to wire, install and tune the system.

RMS is the constant power it puts out (in simple terms) the #s you mention are PEAK at bursts.

You want the amp power to drive the speakers not the deck. RFs are good strong amps, so they do deliever what they say in power.

HOWEVER, you could add a *ahem* 10" sub enclosure for around $100 from oneone... Anyway your sub would take the deep bass allowing your speakers to work at a higher freq. range say 120 hz+ and play them louder.

Those speakers would actually sound fine with just deck power BTW no amp.

for example, my rear speakers work at 150 RMS per channel (same as yours) gain adjusted and play at 125hz+. If I went all pass on these they'd blow.

 

What does that mean?

I'm not going to be installing it myself, BTW.

Lucid, I ordered the speakers from you. Judging from the head-unit and amp I have, do you think I should switch to a lower model front speaker? What would be the point of me having a 260 watt speaker if I can't even power it? I'm not gonna spend money on a new amp either cause I don't have any.

With the Amp and head-unit that I have, can you tell me the best front and rear speakers that you think I should get? I already place on order with you but might have to change it and pay the 10% cause I think I made a mistake What speakers should I get? I do nt want to get powerfull ones if I cant power them to there max potential.

Thanks.

 

You're fine with what you have, I'm saying you need it tuned correctly to avoid problems.

 

Vtech Racer - please don't be offended, but it is fairly obvious that you feel out of and are out of your element.

i'm hoping that a little research and reading will answer a lot of your questions. since you're struggling, i did that research for you and i found this site to be a great place to send beginners to in order to help them better understand basic audio as well as the car audio beast. please, take a few minutes or hours to read up on some of the topics you've asked about. there is a lot of good information here for everyone from beginners to more advanced folk.

i think you'll be far happier in the end when you're more comfortable regarding the bigger picture.

be sure to check out the sections regarding power, speaker ratings, too little power, system diagrams, and also check out the general topics of electron, voltage, current, resistance, etc.

 

Connecting the outputs of two amps (head unit's internal amp and the Rockford external) is a big no-no...at best you'll drag one amp down to the specs of the lowest common denominator...at worst you'll blow the output stage of one of the amps.

As mentioned, you need to be looking at RMS power on each channel. If you plan on listening to the speakers as loud as they can go, you want an amp that has an RMS rating about 25% higher than the speaker is rated for (and then the amp must be adjusted so that it's output maximum is lower than it's rated maximum)...this is to avoid clipping of the amp.

It's OK to run a speaker with less than its rated RMS (up to a point), you just will not receive the maximum benefit from that particular speaker. The disadvantage to this is if a speaker is rated as high power and you run it with a low power amp, the speaker may sound a bit muddled. The situation becomes worse as the speaker rating goes up and the available amp power goes down. In most scenarios, you'll never be able to tell a difference, especiall with midrange and tweeter setups. With bass modules, the story starts to become a little more clear (and the sound more muddled). What you have listed is fine, so don't fret.

 

Still don't know what this means.

Thanks for the help guys. Sorry for being such a drama queen.

Anyways, my friend is going to be doing the install. How do I get the system Tuned?

 

lucid is running his rear speakers with a high-pass crossover set at 125 Hz. So he his sending his speakers a signal that is 125 Hz and greater. If he were to run it at all-pass (meaning: no crossovers) then he would not cut out any frequencies. He is running the high-pass crossover because his rear speakers cannot handle 150 Watts RMS at low frequencies and would probably blow.

 

I dont get it.

So are my speakers gonna blow considering the stuff I have?