Audio Gurus

[kenc]

As most people do when they buy new car is upgrade their audio equipment to some beast with amps, subs and a new head unit.

Now I'm not old enough to drive yet (16....4 months left before I can start taking them)

But the ICE sure has interested me a lot so I've just been checking some of the stuff that are out now and I'm aware that you need amps to power subs and sometimes Speakers but it's like the specifications are mind boggling e.g. ohms, peak power, rms etc etc.

I just have a few questions:

What is ohms?

When buying a sub, you need an amp, but how do you know if it's enough power? I know that you're suppose to match up the power, but I've seen some websites displaying two types of wattage.

e.g. this site had one for the Alpine 12" Type R sub that had Peak Power 1000w and 600W RMS (can't remember the exact numbers)

So are you suppose to buy an amp that is 600w output? or a 1000w output?

What is a cross over and what do they do?

I probably have some more other questions but I can't really think at the moment, if you know of a website that explains all this then that would be helpful.

I've already read the one on carstereo.com but it doesn't seem to explain it clearly.

[daPyr0x]

I did have a link to a really good site once that explained all of this in farther detail than I cared to read.....but basically...

Ohms, in a general sense is resistance, or as they call it in audio, impedance. It's how much of a load the sub puts into the circuit. I don't fully understand it or I'd explain further and better

Peak power, is the absolute maximum the sub or speaker can take. So, one bass hit in a song can be maximum 1000W, and so long as the rest of the song is no more than 600W, you're fine. However, if you play the entire song at 1000W, it will blow.

Pretty much, just match em up. If a specific website doesn't list the RMS or the Peak power of the amp/sub you're looking at, check the manufacturer's website; or, google it. If you can't match em, your safest bet is to go with a lower powered amp.

A crossover basically limits what frequencies go where. So, the crossover in a mono amp made to power a sub will cut off all of the frequencies above, say, 5000Hz; but will allow anything below that through so the sub can play it.

Hope that helped at least a bit...

[kenc]

I did have a link to a really good site once that explained all of this in farther detail than I cared to read.....but basically...

Ohms, in a general sense is resistance, or as they call it in audio, impedance. It's how much of a load the sub puts into the circuit. I don't fully understand it or I'd explain further and better

Peak power, is the absolute maximum the sub or speaker can take. So, one bass hit in a song can be maximum 1000W, and so long as the rest of the song is no more than 600W, you're fine. However, if you play the entire song at 1000W, it will blow.

Pretty much, just match em up. If a specific website doesn't list the RMS or the Peak power of the amp/sub you're looking at, check the manufacturer's website; or, google it. If you can't match em, your safest bet is to go with a lower powered amp.

A crossover basically limits what frequencies go where. So, the crossover in a mono amp made to power a sub will cut off all of the frequencies above, say, 5000Hz; but will allow anything below that through so the sub can play it.

Hope that helped at least a bit...

Yup that helped explain things a little bit better

So if the sub's peak power is 1000watt, it's best to get a amp that's 1000watt output?

[Hou]

no mate peak and max mean jack all!!!

RMS is the figure to work to and its best to mate amp rms to sub rms although i always aim for a more powerful amp and run it at less gain!

[kenc]

So any audio links that may help me a little to understand these?

I've tried howstuffworks.com and carstereo.com

[Hou]

Yeah this is the best http://www.bcae1.com/

[kenc]

Yeah this is the best http://www.bcae1.com/

thanks