Amplifier or Not

[xr6eta]

Hey you stereo techno's. As I know zip about this shit here is what I have and my question. Panasonic head deck with 4 x 55w, Clarion 6 1/2 splits (250w), Pioneer 6 x 9in (300w). Just finished putting the Pioneers in today in the side wall rear of Exa and the bass is very throbby if that makes sense. Almost cheap sounding bass. Is an amplifier going to make this sound quality better or just louder. Can't spend a lot, this is a very budget build. Am looking at the $189 Sony 4 channel 600w in the latest Autobarn catalogue, comes with wiring kit. Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

Glenn

[shanec86]

Personally i wouldnt bother. You need to make sure you have a super solid mounting point for the speakers and sound deadening other wise feeding more power into them is just going to make them sound worse.

[R1173]

What Shane said.

[ETTRBO]

If it was me i would change the head unit for a start, then what shane has suggested for easy listening, then if still not getting what you want add a 10" slimline sub for the feel of the music but not obnoxiously loud,

if your going to get a new head unit go for a $250+ head unit so you get some good sound out of it, if you need some good priced head units let me know i have a whole show room i can sell you lol

[tassuperkart]

Before getting all funky, play with some EQ settings. You can make some good gains there.
you dont really need huge power to make good sounds. Its all in the setup.
L8r
E

[ET87]

even a simple sub and amp packages r good n cheap thats if u want some bass.. i ran 6x9's and 6inch fronts and it sounded alright.. then i got a sub and amp, the clarity of the sounds goes way up after a sub n monoblock amp get installed.. its pretty easy.. but the HEAD UNIT MUST HAVE AN RCA OUT for the amp to receive the signal..and dont bother running an amp for ur splits as my best mate is not and not worth the $$$..

and also you will be amazed by this.... a sub can be heard if u T into the rear speaker line.. i have done this to prove to my younger brother that it works..it sounds better than no sub at all.. there is a cheap sony xplod sub 12 1000watt 170bucks i think.. if ur cost efficient then this could be a way to go brand new or maybe 2nd hand.

[xr6eta]

Personally i wouldnt bother. You need to make sure you have a super solid mounting point for the speakers and sound deadening other wise feeding more power into them is just going to make them sound worse.

Thanks for the responses, sounds like I'll be leaving it the way it is. Have made good mounting points, take a dozer and chains to pull them off the walls, where does sound deadening go when they are mounted to the side walls. I just want to play things a little bit loud without too much distortion.

[tassuperkart]

Thinking more about this Glenn.
ENSURE and double check that you have all your speaker polarities correct.
+ to + - to - blah blah.

This is a major cause of crap sounding rockboxes for beginners!

Even just a single small driver out of 4, wired out of phase will cancel up to 50% of your bass end response and the bottom end will sound very flat and dull. Its hard to describe but its very lifeless.

Phase problems dont affect high end as much so it will still has plenty of undistorted volume but just lack guts!

Check it out M8.
L8r
E

[xr6eta]

Thanks Tass, I'll go right over it again, bloody novices should not be allowed. ha ha

[tassuperkart]

[xr6eta]

Figured it might just be listening to the radio stations, put in an Iron Maiden disc and pumped it up on the way into work tonight and was suitably impressed with my novice handiwork. More than enough grunt for my poor old ears. Think I might put that AMP idea into the 20yr old's basket and start acting my age. Might put the money to good use with a boost controller or bigger injectors (no offence DAMO, I like the rubber hose and cable tie boost controller, it has character and works like a charm). It's just when I run out of cable ties, where do I go then for my boost fix.

THANKS EVERYONE, FINAL WORD, NO AMP, I'M WAY TO OLD.

[Ash]

ahwell maybe i am also getting old. i am getting sick of trying to fix all the loose shit in my wagon from the subs

[SET23L]

xr6eta, just a bit of advise when it come to stereos mate, ive been doing custom builds for years so i know a bit about them.
what an amp is essentially designed to do is is up the current that travels through to the speaker essentially creating a better and clearer sound. as for the problem that u have with the "throbbing" bass as tass said its all in ur setup.

if u can navigate ur way around ur head unit what u need to do is make sure that none of ur settings in ur EQ are above the zero mark. so nothing should be in the positive region of the EQ it all should be in the negative or at zero.

i dont know what exact unit u have so i dont know what the EQ is like, but if u go into ur audio setup, u will allways have 3 frequncy zones, low: ur bass, mid: ur mid frequency sound (ur speakers), and high: high frequency sound (generally for tweeters if u run them if not goes back to ur speakers)

what u need to do is set ur low range to about negative 3, mid range to negative 1 or 2 depending on the quality of the speakers, and high range to 0.
when u do this u will notice that ur sound level will go down, so if u are listening to it at say vol 15 u will have to go up to prob 18 - 20 to get the same volume but ur sound will be heaps clearer and u wont damage ur speakers or get distortion when u turn it up pretty loud.

if u cant do this ur self mate im more than will to give u my fone number and talk u through the whole process. just pm me mate
i always hate seeing peoples stereo gear blow or get ruined because of something as small as a tune.

Louie

[shanec86]

nah put the bass to 10, it'll pull more chicks

[kid nismo]

nah put the bass to 10, it'll pull more chicks

your not talking about them thailand chics are you?