FAQ
- Head unit:
Many manufacturers state that there head unit is 50 watts x 4, which is true at peak only. The true wattage is between 20 to 25 watts. When buying a head unit, check the specification of rms.
- RMS Power vs. Peak Power:The total amount of continuous power, measured in watts, that an amplifier produces is called RMS power. The higher the RMS figure, the louder and cleaner your music sounds. When choosing an amplifier, the RMS rating is the power rating you should pay most attention to.
- Speaker wire: Bigger speaker wire doesn’t mean better sound or more wattage. Most speakers that are rated at 25-100 watt rms can use 16g to 12g.
- Dual Voice Coil Woofers: Dual Voice Coil (DVC) woofers subwoofers with two voice coils. This allows the speaker to be connected in 2 different ways: series and parallel. With the individual coils wired in series, the resulting impedance will be 2x the impedance of each individual coil. Wiring the coils in parallel will make the impedance 1/2 the impedance of each individual coil. This means that a speaker with dual 4 ohm coils can be wired to 2 ohms or 8 ohms.
- Cables: they have much different type of wires. Some got for 2 dollar while others at 50 dollar. Good quality wire are stiffer and are shield, they might be a bit more expensive but are good for less outside distortion. Only buy what’s in your limit.
- Capacitors: Capacitors are use for a peak in volume in low notes. They don’t help too much but are good for when the amplifier need a lot of current within a short period
- Gains on amplifier: Use to adjust how much boost is send to an amplifier. It’s always good to raise the volume to ¾ then raise the gain up until the speaker/subwoofer start to clip. Then drop it down a bit until distortion stop.
- Volume Control Position: most volume control can go up to 40 or more but it doesn’t mean it should be up at 40 or even 35 all the time. Most deck starts to distort just a bit over 50%.
- Mono Amplifiers: all class d amplifiers are mono. They are more efficiently at almost 70-80%. These amplifiers are used for subwoofer only.
- Speaker Magnet Size: just because a speaker have a larger magnet and rated at 500 watts rms doesn’t mean it any better than a speaker with a small magnet and rated at 200 watts rms. Speakers like Pyle, pyramid and boss are cheap and over power rated. A good speak is well built and play clear such as pioneer, Rockford , kicker and JL. They are many more manufacture but this should give you an idea at watt to look for when purchasing your first set of speakers.
- Speaker Power Ratings: Competition speakers that have huge magnets and can truly handle thousands of watts of power may not be the best choice. Speakers that are designed to handle 1000 watts of power probably will not be a good choice for those with only 200 watts of. Having speakers that are rated to handle about the same power as your amplifier's rated power output will perform good.
- Equalizers: An equalizer is NOT designed to make a system louder. Its design to clear up or correct the band for your speakers. If you have it all the way up that means you don’t know what you’re doing. Most equalizers should be within 30% percent range. If it’s set too high, maybe your amplifier is set right or
- Main Power Line Fuse: ALWAYS HAVE A MAIN FUSE NEAR YOUR BATTERY WITHIN 16 INCHES. This is there for a reason
- so if your amplifier is overheated or overpower it won’t damage in other device in your vehicle
- When working with electricity, it’s always good to have some sort of safety net.
- Amplifiers:
- Head Units:
- Speakers:
- Subwoofer:
They are many manufacture out there, but too lazy to list them all. If you have any question or comment contact me at: [email protected]