Since i know NOTHING about car audio!!! i need some help. What type of amp should i get, something not too expensive, but that would be the best for my empeg in my ford explorer. Like what brand, size, watts, multi-channel? etc. Any input on a sub -woofer and or box (whats the difference besides the box enclosure?) would be nice too. Thanks :)

This topic is covered daily in rec.audio.car.

The usual answer is: how much are you willing to spend?

I suggest browsing that newsgroup for answers.

One thing you do NOT need to do is "go off the deep end" on equipment. If you are looking for sound quality (not how many decibels you can boom and how far away you can annoy the neighbors) stay away from boxes full of subwoofers and kilowatts of amps.

A good quality 100--200 watt amplifier is plenty. You'll pay $250-$300 for that. Remember you get what you pay for, but talk to several different shops because each shop will be convinced that the brands they carry are the best. Talk to the installers about the percentage of amps of different brands that come back with problems.

At the IASCA state championships (for Alaska) held this past weekend, it is interesting to note that the three best sound quality cars were all under 300 watts; two of them were running single 10" subwoofers, and the third was running a pair of 10" subwoofers. No mega-wattages, no 12" or 15" woofers. There were plenty of those kinds of cars in the competition (there was a Honda Accord with nine 15" subwoofers and well over 10,000 watts of power) but all they were was loud. You wouldn't actually listen to those stereos. To be fair, thats all those folks wanted - to see who had the loudest stereo. They didn't care at all about the sound quality portion of the contest. Different strokes, and all that...

The important aspects of setting up your system are: Vehicle acoustics (you have a good place to start with that Explorer!); Speaker types and quantities (you need at least a pair of tweeters or co-axials for treble, a pair of 6" for mid-bass, and one or two 10" for bass/sub-bass); and most important of all, speaker location (which is a subject far too complex to delve into here). There are other combinations that will work - I just happen to know from personal experience that this setup sounds pretty good. Tattoo this on the inside of your eyelids (so you can close your eyes and look up at any bright light and read it): When it comes to car audio, BIGGER IS NOT NECESSARILY BETTER. In fact, its usually worse.

Good luck with your empeg and let us know how you like it.

tanstaafl.



"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Do I need those "tweeters" if im keeping my existing speakers? Their JBL so i figured i wouldnt replace them. I saw some amps priced around $150 and under and i think they some of them were like 100 watts (and some were like 75-50). They were brand names like Jenson and Kenwood so that seemed like a good deal. But they were 2-channel. What does this mean. Do I need, for purely quality and not amazing quality, a 2-channel or multi-channel? Is their a big difference between a 75 watt and 100 watt (enough where ill spend an extra $50-$100 bucks on it?)

Duranike --

Whether you need tweeters or not depends on two things: what speakers are already in the car; and what you'll settle for quality wise.

Speakers come in different sizes not because bigger speakers are better, but because different sizes play different frequency ranges. You need small speakers ("tweeters") for high end response. You need big speakers ("sub-woofers") for low end response. And you need medium size speakers (usually 5"--6") for your mid-range. You probably knew this already, but I like to hear myself talk, so put up with it! ;-)

If you are happy with the sound from the system you currently have in your Explorer, then don't change anything in the speakers. The empeg isn't likely to sound any better than your current CD or tape player. But do yourself a favor before you make the decision to upgrade (or not) your speakers: play your favorite CD a few times in your Explorer and get really familiar with all the nuances of sound, then take that CD and listen to it in another car (or a good home stereo system) and see if you are missing out on anything.

If I understand you correctly about the two channel vs multi-channel amplifiers, two channel would be left/right only; multi-channel would have a separate sub-woofer channel and/or front-rear fade capability? I guess a lot would depend on whether your explorer has (or will have?) any subwoofers or rear speakers and whether you feel the need to control them separately. Your decision.

I don't feel qualified to recommend any particular brand of amplifier over another. As a general rule, you get what you pay for. Better quality takes better money. But you're going to be paying somewhere around $1200--$1500 (or more) for your empeg plus installation - don't wimp out on me now and try to save $50 by getting a cheap amp you'll be unhappy with later -- or worse yet, a cheap amp you won't be unhappy with because you won't know what you're missing.

I do feel qualified to recommend at least one brand of speaker, however: MB Quart. Their 4" co-axials are nothing short of miraculous. Something like 80% of the cars that competed at the IASCA world finals were MB Quart equipped.

Total wattage required depends on how many and how big your speakers are. As an example, if I were running a pair of 10" subs, a couple of 6" mids, and maybe a pair of 4" co-axials (combination high-midrange with built in tweeters) I would be looking for about 150-200 watts. Even 300 wouldn't be excessive. The quality gains with higher wattage are subtle, audible mostly in the "transients", that is how quickly the stereo responds, particularly in the lower frequencies. You want "punchy" bass response, "pom pom pom", not "boooommm boooommm boooommm", and that takes enough power to drive all the speakers you have. Unless you have a really unusual system, I think anything over 300 watts is overkill. The quality differences between a 300 watt system and, say, a 600 watt system, are so subtle as to be undetectable by the average person. Speaker location and vehicle acoustics are much more important than what brand names and what wattages of amplifier you have.

As a final word, don't go cheap. You don't have to do everything at once - I built the stereo in my car over a two year period, adding one thing at a time, staying pretty high quality but not the absolute top of the line gold plated mega-dollar stuff. I have a total of $1350 in it now, and I have only heard a few systems that I think sound better than mine.

tanstaafl.







"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

You can also check out http://www.soundddomain.com

they have a nice bulletin board dedicated to talking about the different amps and speakers and reviewing them. There are soooo many diffferent companies making amps and speakers.



I trade it all for a EMPEG.
http://www.iretro.com