Video Creator’s Channel CarAudioFabrication

When Upgrading To A Custom Car Audio System, One

of the most important things is picking the right amplifier, but there is more to this task than just picking a certain power level. What advanced features do amplifiers now have that we should look for what amplifier selection mistakes should you avoid what are the do’s and don’ts of picking an amplifier that my friends is coming up so let’s start with the first do and this one’s kind of a no-brainer after all it’s probably the reason you’re here you’re going to want to make sure that you do your research so that’s obvious but the question becomes what is the best way to do your research Amplifiers. Nowadays are more advanced. There’s a lot more to them than just the power rating. There’s a lot of little features and details that we need to know and if we’re.

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Back And Forth Between Two Different

amps from two different manufacturers. It can be hard to compare all those details so that’s why I recommend that you guys check out Crutchfield Now Crutchfield is a monthly channel sponsor but I’ve been using them for long before I ever started the channel and one of the biggest things I like about Crutchfield is their website makes it really easy to compare and contrast the different features of amplifiers as an example, let’s say that we’re looking for a small amplifier and both these manufacturers have an amp that is rated at 300 watts. How can we determine what is different about these amps By using Crutchfield‘s compare tool here. We can quickly check the different features and if we don’t know what a spec is we can hover over it and it will explain what that spec is and why it. is important better yet Crutchfield also scans and uploads the product manuals and you’d be surprised how often we can find small bits of information about an amp by reading the manual that isn’t listed under the normal specs on a manufacturer’s site I mentioned all of this up front because all these things I’m going to tell you to check for and avoid are things that you’re going to want to research and a great way to research is with Crutchfield.

You Can Learn More And Take Advantage

of a special offer for car audio fabrication fans at the link here on screen or down in the video description. So now I don’t we all know that obviously adding an amplifier to our system. The point of that is it increases the power that we are able to send to a speaker or a subwoofer and my first don’t. Here is Don’t think that you only need amplifiers for subwoofers. This is kind of obvious to those of us that have been in car audio for a while, but I do want to emphasize that if you’re upgrading your subwoofer and you’re adding a ton of power.

It Is Definitely Very Beneficial.

To not only have that amplifier for the subwoofer, but to also amplify your speakers next up is a do and that is do consider some of the latest technology that can be built into amplifiers like DsP built-in Amps. If you’re not familiar with what a DsP is. I have a full video that I made about it in the past, but DsP stands for digital signal processor and it basically allows us to completely control all of the tuning for that output that is going out to our speakers or our subwoofer in very basic. It allows us to fully tune our system to make it sound as good as it possibly can.

In The Past, You Used To Always

have to buy a DsP separate, so you would send the signal from your radio into the DsP and then it would go out of the DsP into your separate amplifiers, But now there are more and more amplifiers coming out that have that DsP built in so I wanted to mention that you do want to consider that option because building the DsP into the amp not only makes your full system tunable so that you can fine tune it. It also really decreases the amount of real estate that you need for the system. It decreases all the wiring that you need it makes things a lot more simple definitely something to consider now a don’t Don’t buy amplifiers purely based on their. power output the reason I mentioned this is you might see one amp is 500 watts and it’s only a couple hundred dollars, But then there’s another amplifier that’s also 500 watts, and it’s double the cost that does not make the more expensive amplifier. A rip-off.

There Is More To Amplifiers Than Just The

amount of power that they are able to put out you want to consider the other features. Some of those features might be the DsP. Like I mentioned earlier. It might be more functionality for integrating with a factory system where you can bring the signal directly into the amplifier with a ton of options without really needing something like a line output converter. The electrical components used in the amplifier might be more reliable.

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It Might Be From A Far More

reputable brand. The more expensive amplifier might be far less noisy it might. a lot better signal output there are a ton of different reasons Here one amplifier might be significantly more efficient which means you don’t have to do power upgrades like adding batteries and an alternator in the vehicle. The list goes on my point here is don’t compare amplifiers purely based on their power output. Now we have a do do make sure that the minimum impedance of your amplifier can handle the speakers or subwoofers that you’re connecting to it.

This Especially Comes Into Play When Youre

using a subwoofer amplifier and i’ve seen it all too often. Somebody might get an amplifier that only can handle a minimum load of 2 ohms, but then they’ll get something like a dual voice coil subwoofer that each coil is 2 ohms which means in parallel it’s going to be wired down to 1 ohm and in series it’s going to. be wired to 4 ohms or you would be forced to choose 1 ohm, which the amplifier is not designed to handle If all this discussion of 1 ohm 2 ohm 4 ohm is foreign to you. It’s really important to learn how to correctly wire your subwoofers and crutchfield actually has a really good article for this that you can kind of click through and tell them what the impedance of your subwoofers are and what your amplifier is and you can kind of figure out the right match I’ll link that for you guys as well down in the video description now for our next don’t Don’t think that you have to upgrade to an amplifier that has an absolute ton of power. An amplifier for your speakers that has an output of 75 to 100 watts is pretty substantial.

You Can Definitely Make Your Speakers

sing quite. A bit with that power and as far as the subwoofer goes Once you start getting above 500 watts again, it’s a pretty substantial upgrade. Now. I definitely understand that there’s a lot of guys out there that would absolutely laugh at the idea of 500 watts, but for most people in most systems even a small 500 watt upgrade is pretty substantial. Another thing you want to consider depending on your vehicle.

If You Start Getting Above That

threshold of 500 watts or so, you’re gonna start to potentially get into the area where you might need to be making electrical upgrades to your vehicle. You might need a bigger alternator you might need more battery capacity. These things can really add up and it’s something to definitely consider Don’t just go out and buy a 10 000 watt amplifier thinking that you’re not going to have to also. make additional upgrades to the power system and that kind of leads me into the next do When it comes to picking out an amplifier. You do want to make sure that you leave some budget for the proper wiring quality.

Power Wire Does Make A Noticeable

difference in the performance of your amplifier once installed, so you don’t want to get a really nice amp and then not have any money left over for the wire kind of going along with that same theme. Don’t forget that you’re also going to need a way to adapt the signal from your source unit to the amplifier. Now if you’ve installed an aftermarket head unit into your vehicle. This isn’t a big deal because you’re just going to run an RCa connection from the aftermarket head unit to your amplifier, but if you’re using the oem head unit which you have. to do in a lot of vehicles nowadays because the climate controls and so many different features are built into the head unit.

You Need A Way To Adapt That Signal

into your amplifier. Adapting that signal might need to be in the form of a line output converter or again. Like I mentioned earlier, a lot of the better amplifiers will have features built in like having a line output converter built in so you can connect straight to that speaker level signal now a do do make sure that you get enough channels of output on the amplifiers that you’re picking as a total example. Let’s say that we want to run an active configuration, which means that we’re going to have an amplifier signal going to every single speaker, including the two separate speakers for a component build let’s say we’re gonna have two tweeters up front. We’re gonna have two whiffers up front and then We’re gonna have two speakers in the back that’s a total of six speakers, so you wouldn’t want to only get a four-channel amplifier.

You Would Wanna Look At Getting A

six-channel amplifier to run those active now. If you were using the passive crossover that comes with the components in the front for those front sets of speakers. Then in that case, you would need four channels channels one and two going to the front pairs of that tweeter and woofer and then channels three and four going to the back speakers which would be as an example a coaxial now Another do do consider the amplifier topology. The two major topologies that you’re gonna see nowadays are class D and class A B now typically class A B can be beneficial for running the speakers in your.

System It Can Lead To A

much better sound quality, but it does come at an expense, and that expense is usually that class A B amps are a lot less efficient, which means that you’re likely needing to do power upgrades to the system in order to be able to handle that class A B amplifier with that said that doesn’t mean that class D amps that are used for the mids and highs are bad Because class D topology has come a long way in design, and class D can be very very efficient so my point here is not that you should necessarily do one or the other, but you do want to consider it and you want to consider it in the overall planning of your system and what you’re going to upgrade so hopefully these do’s and don’ts help you pick out your next amplifier. Don’t forget the next time You’re planning out a car audio system. You can check out show sponsor Crutchfield to compare and contrast those different features you can learn more about them at the link here on screen or down in the video description a special thanks.

Summary

When upgrading to a custom car audio system, one of the most important things is picking the right amplifier, but there is more to this task than just picking a certain power level . Nowadays are more advanced. There’s a lot of little features and details that we need to know and if we’re.& back and forth between two different amps from two different manufacturers, it can be hard to compare all those details . Crutchfield is a monthly channel sponsor but I’ve been using them for long before I ever started the channel . One of the biggest things I like to say is their website makes it really easy to . compare and contrast the different features of amplifiers as an example, let’s say that we’re looking for a small amplifier and both these manufacturers have an amp that is rated at 300 watts. By using CrutchField’s compare tool here. You’d be surprised how often we can find small bits of information about an amp by reading the manual that isn’t listed under the…. Click here to read more and watch the full video