I have searched the forums and can't seem to come up with an answer. When it comes to car audio knowledge I give myself a 2 out of 10. So please bear with me.
My components:
JVC Arsenal KD-AR560 CD/MP3 Receiver Infinity Kappa 693.1i 3-Way Speakers (2- 6x9) (100W rms, 300W peak) Infinity Kappa 52.1i 2-Way Speakers (2- 5 1/4) (RMS 50 Peak 160) Kickpanel Lexon Tweeters (2 Top Front)(RMS 80 Peak 120) Infinity 12" 1230w Subwoofer (1) (RMS 300 Peak 1200) ------------------------------------------------ My question is basically what amp(s) do you recommend for this system. What set of speakers do I hook up to what amp and such? I listen to mainly rock and am not looking to rattle the screws out of my car with crazy bass. I am also looking for more of a surround-sound kind of deal, not just bass and get all my treble from just my front speakers. What else do you recommend (ie. capacitors and such)? Thanks for all the help guys
If you want a balanced sound rather than best sound imaging, then get a 4 channel amp. Then hook up your Kappa 52.1i and tweeters to channels 1 & 2, and your Kappa 693.1i to channels 3 & 4. Set the front high pass crossover to 80hz-100hz,rear high pass crossover to 80Hz.. You didn't mention sub amp so I'm assuming you don't have one. Get PPI PC or PCX series amp, Orion/Zapco/JL. If your budget is tight, try Audiobahn A8000T, costs around $130. Also look at MTX, they have low priced amps. Once you have sub amp, set the low pass crossover to 80Hz. This setup will give you low, "soft" bass from the sub,mid bass from the rears, and mid - highs from the front. Very good configuration for rock music. If you find the bass a little to soft, then raise the low pass to 120hz on the sub amp.
For your sub, any amp that's 500W rms and 2 ohms stable. If you have balanced sound between front and rear, the rear speakers tend to kill or distort sound imaging. What this means is that, instead of being able to know exactly where a drum or trumpet is located in a stage, it'll sound like it's all around you. To minimize that affect, people tend to mono out the rears or have just mid bass and leave mids and highs to the front. Of course doing that won't help rear passengers. If you're into surround sound, then you want balanced sound.
If your sub is 4ohms DVC, you can wire each voice coil in parallel (pos to pos and neg to neg). This will turn 4ohms into 2ohms. If it's SVC, then it'll just be 4ohms, which is still fine.