Speaker question

[mattrsa]

Hey guys, was just wondering if you can help me out with this.

Thinking about sorting out the stero in my van as it was a long trip (4 hours each way) to vanfest and no tunes was rubbish

My question is, I have 4 speakers already which I'm going to install, they are made by Inphase, now i want to get some 6x9's too, I'm I best off getting some from Inphase or will any decent make do,

Also , I will need a amp (I think) do I need one made by Inphase where I get the speakers from or pioneer which is who the stero is made by.

Thanks in advance

Matt

[DiscoDave]

you can use any combination of manufacturer of all your speakers amps and head unit! the important thing is to make sure that the head unit(cd player) you have, has the right out puts, phono sockets on the back! if it doesn't then you can't connect your amp (not easily anyway)

if you are going to buy additional speakers make sure that they can cope with the power the amp is capable ofkicking out! as a general rule of thumb your speakers should be about a quarter to a third more powerful than the amp!

good luck! and if you need any more help just shout!

[lhd]

Mixing top makes wont make much of an Issue, the problem lies when there is something inferior in the system.
To be honest I have never heard of "In Phase" and looking it up quickly on Ebay , they don't seem to be going for much and theres not that much of them.
I run an Alpine head which is about 40-45 rms X4 with a sub out which is probably not a lot different from your Pioneer, this runs two badly positioned alpines in the front doors and a pair of Kenwood 6X9's upside down from the overhead cabinet on a Westy, to be honest I couldn't think of a worse place to put any of these speakers.
The sub Is a 2/4ohm 10" Kicker in a fully inclosed ported box which although cumbersome makes a great extra seat and doubles as a step to get up in the pop top for my daughter.
The sub is run from a 400w RMS @2ohm alpine mono amp which cost me about £40 from ebay.
To behonest If you want to save a bit of cash You don't really need an amp to run your main speakers although it would make a difference due to the head unit not having to do a multi tasking job.
I'm pleased with mine though and so were the people on Porthtowan beach.....
Rob....

[mattrsa]

Thanks for the advice guys.

To be honest I did not know much about Inphase either but when I did originally order the speakers I order pioneer but the place i order from said that they did not have them in stock but would send me the Inphase one which were more expensive for the same price.
http://www.inphaseaudio.co.uk/

I only asked about the amp as these speakers and head unit were in my girlfriends car before she sold it and they sounded a bit rubbish as I don't think the head unit could distribute enough power, its a 4x50w but the speakers are 240w speakers, could this be the prob, I'm sorry but i really know very little about audio.

Will the pioneer head unit be able to handle six speakers(two 6x9's, two 17 cm speakers and two 13cm speakers)

What sort of price am I looking at for a decent amp? and what sort of spec will I need?

Thanks again

Matt

[Syncro G]

Wouldn't try running more than 1 speaker from each channel - run them in matched left/right pairs (front and rear pairs can be different).

I think your best bet is to run the round speakers from the headunit and get a twin channel amp for the 6x9's as these will most likely have the highest power capacity. Many speakers have a bollox power rateing writen all aver the box thats stupidly high, somewhere in smaller print they'll have the more usefull RMS or rated power and I think thats more what you'd want to match the amp to (though many amps also proudly state a silly peak watts figue too). You shouldn't need anything massive to run some 6x9's off. Get an amp with some sort of ajustments on it so you can match them up with your existing speakers volume/treb/base wise, decent amps should be able to do this.

As far as I've found, big amps are only needed for subs and many modern headunits (~50W) have enough power to drive most speakers up to 6x9 with decent results, people only tend to add amps aswell if they want more than 4 speakers (which can be usefull in a large space like a van) or want to really impress people with how loud they can make their stereo, you can tell they often have no taiste though by the car they fit such kit too.

[mattrsa]

thanks for all the info guys, can you recommend an amp which would be good for me.

Have thought about adding a sub but that would prob be something which I added in later. would that be possible,
been trying to remember the model number of the head unit so I can check the spec online but can't remember.

does anyone know of any resources online which help show how to wire a head unit and speakers?