More amp questions

[fenian672000]

I have asked a simalair question a few days ago, but im gonna ask again as today i had installed 2 sets of pioneer 1703 speakers in my A4 B6 and the improvement was marginal

As stated earlier i have my speakers faded out in favour of the rear doors 70/30

So my thots have gone to getting more power to the rear door speakers via a new amp, and to upgrade the existing sub, which if poss would be driven by new amp.

Can i get an upgraded sub that will fit in the rear parcel shelf where the stock one is, if yes please recommend.

I have learned from a previouse post that a new amp will need a heavier duty power supply than the stock amp, apart from this is wiring it up straight forward enough???is it a case of unplugging stock amp wiring and plugging it onto new model???will a new amp fit in behing the boot panell??

Im looking to spend about £220 max

thanks in advance

 

[AndyMac]

I'd try installing a JL Audio 6.5" sub in the stock position (I'm guessing the stock unit is 6.5"). This will need to be driven with about 150wrms amp bridged. you can pick up the rear pre-outs from the stock rear amp connector along with the remote on feed, but will need to run new power. I'd strongly recommend amping the fronts not the rears, you will never get decent sound from the drivers position with the sound faded to rear, the tweeters face backwards for a start for the rear passengers benefit not the driver. I added a 4ch Alpine V12 F400 in my Avant (rear right cubbyhole) bought off ebay for £80. This drives 180wrms to a JL sub in the left cubbyhole in an MDF enclosure, and the other 2 channels driving Alpine front components. This provided a massive improvement and was well impressed with the mid bass from the fronts as they are mounted to the door not the doorcard and the sub is an absolute must, though not sure if it'll work as well in the parcel shelf (though it might work better).
How did you mount the new speakers? I built some spacer rings from 2 layers of 18mm MDF as the stock units stand about 40mm proud of the door they are screwed to?
If you do a search I did a write up on it all.

 

[fenian672000]

Helo Andy, the speakers were fittted by a local guy, he used autoleads adaptor kits to fit them.

I deffinately see the logic in what you say about amping the fronts, and it makes sense, but for some reason i prefer the sound to come from behind me, which w the rear tweeter facing away seems daft , i know.

Can u advuise on the following.........

1...From a previouse car i have in my posession a kenwwood powered enclosed woofer..ksc-wa82rc.....would this be better than the stock sub?

2...Previously the active sub (which was in a bmw) was connected via the speaker connections, but it shows that it is possible to connect via the line outs in a powered amplifier to the line in in the active sub, so if i was gonna buy a new amplifier to power the rears ( i hear u groan) and use the line out line ins for power to the powered sub, would i need a 2 channel or 4 channel amp.

3...Or do you think that i would be better upgrading the stock sub from where it currently is and getting a 4 channel; amp and powewreing everything as said previouse.....at the end of the day what would sound better and how do you rate powered subs

sorry for prattling on, but i dont have the knowledge...

 

[AndyMac]

Anything would be better than the stock sub, but active bass tubes all suffer from the fact that they are fairly lightweight in a plastic enclosure. So they don't really perform well as they are not part of the car, probably OK in a small hatchback but I'd guess it would struggle in an A4, but still an improvement. You might s well give it a try if you have the unit already.
If you do use the Kenwood unit then you'd only need a 2 ch amp for the rears, but I'd buy a 4ch and amp all speakers. You'd need the Blaupunkt RCA adapter to do this as there are no front line outs wired to the boot.
Amping just the rears is a lot easier as all the wiring is already there, but I would still never recommend it, but each to there own.
Amping the fronts is a bit of a pain as you need to run RCA's from the HU to the amp, then run speaker cable back to the HU to pick up the front speakers.

 

[fenian672000]

thanks again Andy, your time is appreciated.

In an ideal world i would upgrade the sub but keep it in the parcel shelf and amp the rears.

So what would i need to buy, is it along this lines...

1x four channel amp.... each rear speaker will have a channel and the new proposed sub would have 2 channels bridged???( forgive if this sounds daft)

Is it corresct to say that it wouldnt be that hard to wire up as speaker and sub cables are present, just the power supply to run from amp

Is there a chance with the more powe to the sub that it will sound too boomy??

Do you know any decent sites where i could browse some subs that may fit parcell shelf

lol....thats all my concersns for just now, tell u what tho...my head is bursting with all the possibilities..lolol

 

[fenian672000]

Just noticed that the alarm diode on the drivers door doesnt flash now when the car is locked, could this have happened when the door panells were off?

 

[AndyMac]

Never done it myself but speaking to a number of JL Audio suppliers who have and they rave about the results of a parcel shelf install. Just need to be careful when setting up the amp as both the sub & the rears will be running off the same rear pre-out feed from the HU, so if you fade the rears up or down then the sub goes with them. I tend to use a very bassy CD to set it up and run the HU at -4 on the Bass setting. Get that sounding spot on with no real bass going to the cabin speakers and with plenty of headroom on the Bass control for less bassy tracks.
The LED issue is probably just a loose connection to the door card when they refitted it. If you paid someone to do it then take it back.