Thread: School me on amp knowledge

You would bypass the internal amp of the hu.

How is that done internally? The HU senses an input on the pre-amp and bypasses the internal HU amp when it sends the signal to the speakers?

Maybe I'm not understanding how all this works...the HU generates electrical signal, sends this OUT the pre-amp port? Then the amp amplifies the signal sends it BACK via RCA pre-amp to the HU and the HU sends it out to the speakers using original wiring? Also, I guess you can't amplify a signal more than once? Otherwise idk why the HU wouldn't also put some more power to the signal or amp it BEFORE it sends it to the external amp to boost it higher.

I would run dedicated, larger gauge speaker wire to each of the front speakers and to the left/right speaker wire inputs on the 2 channel amp. To get the signal you will also need a set of rca's from your head unit's FRONT set of pre-outs to the amp and leave the rear speakers like they are. You will need to play with the gain on the amp to make it sound right though. You're really not even going to hear the rears without turning the gain down on the amp, which kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion. You'd be just fine disconnecting/removing the rear speakers entirely or just getting a 4 channel amp and doing this on all 4 corners.

You can only have the speakers connected to one source. Either the speaker outputs from the head unit, or the outputs from the amp. You can only have one or the other. I'm not sure why this is difficult to understand.

You are overthinking this.
The speaker wires put out 22 watts or whatever..probably realistically like 12-15watts rms per channel.
That will not change .
If you dont hook up the fronts to the speaker wires make sure to cap them off. They are carrying POWER(watts) to drive the speakers .

The rca jacks on the HU only send a pre-amp signal NOT POWER(watts)...the amp you are adding takes the signal and ADDS POWER(watts)to it.

They are separate and always will be ...there is no bypassing going on.
Ones a raw signal(rca) and better quality.....the other is a signal AND power(watts) through the HU built in amp(speaker wires)
doesnt get much easier from here.

Like I said you are just overthinking it.

NOW if your HU does not have RCA jacks....then you need a converter that attaches to the speaker wires on the HU and converts to RCA to feed an amp.
Hope this helps clear this up for you. If not I would suggest just reading up on basic car audio.....This truly is BASIC car audio so it

This is good advice ,too. You wont hear the rears much with an amp on the front speakers.You can actually run all 4 off the 2 channel amp if its stable to 2 ohm stereo......but I didnt go there as to keep this within the realm of someone new to car audio setup

Ok I understand now how it's all wired and why, but why would the rears be so cancelled out after the amp install? Just because the gain/volume will be so much higher to the fronts? Can't I equalize it where they are putting out the same volume, but the fronts are pushing the full frequency range at that volume and clearer? I don't understand this part of what you're saying. I was assuming both the front and rears would be throwing the same db's, it's just the fronts would be so much clearer and able to re-produce the entire frequency range, especially the lower range where bass lives.

I can already turn the rear speakers up to an uncomfortable volume level. They are very low RMS speakers with high sensitivity.

Thanks
-G

But you don't understand at all. There is rarely even a need to add an amp to front speakers, as they are typically smaller, and hold less power, therefore not able to produce as much sound as the rears. Bass and front speakers are a negative.

I didn't want to add a sub as I don't need a lot of bass, but I need enough to satisfy a clean sound. I've been wearing varius studio/reference quality headphones for over 6 years so I know what good music is supposed to sound like. Car stereos I have no idea on The speakers I chose are 100w RMS peak and have a frequency range down to 35hz. It's also a component. I was hoping this would be enough for a high quality sounding system.

It would be very hard to get similar sound comparing nice headphones to car audio.