building my system but kinda confused. need help picking out things

[DGoldcoupe]

so pretty soon im gonna be buying all the parts for my audio system. i ahve picked out the subs im gonna get. they are kicker 07CVR104 or 07CVR102. they are the same sub but one is 4 ohm and the other is 2 ohm. im gonna buy two of them. the head unit i am purchasing is the Panasonic CQ-VW100U. thats all i have so far. i need to buy an amp for the subs and i also need upgraded speakers. but not sure of what kind of amp i need and speakers to buy.

so any help would be appreciated because i have no idea what im getting myself in to

[shortmag]

if you buy the 2 ohm subs, make sure whatever amp you get will run @ 2ohms.

I've had good luck with my Poweracoustik gear. i've got two 4-way 6x9s and two 2-way 5 1/4s in my Ram with NB-1 tweets on all 4. they sound great. i've got the 6x9s running off an Alpine 500Watt 2ch amp, and the 5 1/4s off the deck. then i have two Rockford Fosgate HE2 12"s in custom (designed and built by me) boxes running off a Poweracoustik 1440 Watt amp. it all sounds very good.

Panasonic makes great decks IMO. that's what's i run my Ram and i'll be putting an 800u in my Z soon.

also, depending on how much power you're going to be running, make sure the car can handle the draw. make sure you use big enough power/ground wires. maybe even look into doing "the big 3" and upgrading your battery.

check out http://www.sonicelectronix.com for some good deals.

SM

[DGoldcoupe]

see i dont know what type of amps to get for my car or wether or not i should buy an amp for the speakers as well. the kicker CVR104 says its an 800 watt component sub and 400 watt rms. i plan on getting two of these. so what kind of amp should i get for them?

[shortmag]

for the subs:http://www.sonicelectronix.com....html

the speakers will sound a lot better amped. even if it's only like 40-50 watts a channel, it will sound better then running off the head unit.http://www.sonicelectronix.com....html

SM

[DGoldcoupe]

thanks man for the info. i also have another questin about amps.

if im going to buy 2 subwoofers that run at 2 ohms( also what exactly are ohms) would i need a two channel amp that runs at two ohms or only just a one channel amp. and for the rear speakers, do all i need is a two channel amp?

thanks

[Looneybomber]

OHM's: The DC resistance of the voice coil. That number also changes dramatically depending on the enclosure and frequency(ies) being reproduced due to the voice coil (actually the motor) acting as an inductor. That is why, it's refered to as impedence. It has both, resistance and inductance, along with a little (marginal) capacitance.

The bad news, as the cone moves in (towards the enclosure) the VC moves down the pole piece causing it to act like an iron core inductor. As it moves out, the VC is no longer around the pole piece, and thus acts as an air core inductor. This (among many other factors) introduces a non-linearities, which is what distortion is.

Sorry, I got a little wordy.

Rear speakers: Don't worry about buying 2-4way speakers. Just get some nice midbass's and a means to time align them. Everything above 150hz should be coming from the front. The rear is just there to support the front soundstage by means of reproducing the bottom 3 octaves (150hz-18hz). Unless you can get midbass's to work up front, then the rear is only for the bottom 2 octaves.

And actually, midbass is not only more important, but also more difficult to correctly attain than is bass. Good luck.

[DGoldcoupe]

also when buying a head unit do i need one with one subwoofer input even though i have to subs or does it matter

[Looneybomber]

also when buying a head unit do i need one with one subwoofer input even though i have to subs or does it matter

You don't need a headunit with any subwoofer inputs. You do however need one with a subwoofer OUTput.

You don't have to sub anything if you don't want to. Or if you mean "two" subs, then it won't matter. One output will suffice.

[shortmag]

ok, here is what i would do with your setup. it seems that you are new to car audio and probably want to keep things rather simple to start with.

buy your head unit, the two subs and box, an amp for the subs and the wiring kit for the amp. that's plenty to get you started. then later (or now if you really want to) get an amp for the door speakers.

the head unit you have listed will have pre-amp out puts for the Front, rear, and subwoofer. the front and rear preamp outs will hook into an amp for the door speakers. then the preamp out for the subwoofer will run to your amp for the subs.

you can use either a 1 or 2 channel amp, it doesn't matter. most who have 2 channel amps, run them bridged (meaning they combine the two channels ( Left+ and Right-) to push the most power to the subs.

SM

[DGoldcoupe]

yep iam new to car audio and thats the best advice ive gotten so far. thanks alot you have no idea how much u just helped me

[Looneybomber]

they are kicker 07CVR104 or 07CVR102. they are the same sub but one is 4 ohm and the other is 2 ohm. im gonna buy two of them.

you can use either a 1 or 2 channel amp, it doesn't matter. most who have 2 channel amps, run them bridged (meaning they combine the two channels ( Left+ and Right-) to push the most power to the subs.

yep iam new to car audio and thats the best advice ive gotten so far. thanks alot you have no idea how much u just helped me

...Or did he?

With that advice, you may toast your amp.

I'm finding mixed info on those woofers, are they single or dual VC? (I'm finding both, though Kicker.com only lists them as dual VC, so let's assume that.)

BACK TO OHMSDual 2ohm VC's wired in parallel=1 ohm.Dual 2ohm VC wired in series = 4 ohmDual 4ohm in parallel = 2ohmsDual 4ohm in series = 8ohms.

Dual 1ohm (2 subs) loads in parallel = 0.5ohms.Dual 8ohm loads in seriese = 16ohms.

Single channel amp, wired to a 2 ohm load = each channel sees a 2 ohm load.2 channel amp, bridged to a 2 ohm load = each channel sees a 1 ohm load.

So you can see depending on what woofers you buy and how you wire them, you can ultimately have one .5ohm load all the way to one 16 ohm load. Quite the difference.

Bridging your amp to a .5ohm load will either shut it down quick or make it release the magic smoke that makes it work.

Pick the amp you want, see how low it's rated to (4, 2, or 1 ohm) and make each channel operate at it's lowest rated impedence for the most power. Too high of an impedence and you wont produce as much power as you could, though that's not a big deal. Too low and your amp wont work by either shutting down or burning up.

[shortmag]

from my earlier post:

if you buy the 2 ohm subs, make sure whatever amp you get will run @ 2ohms.

SM

I told him this so he would know to check the specs of the equipment he was looking at and make sure they would work together. I think he got that part.

i stated that he could use either use a 1 or 2 channel amp. this is true.

i didn't tell him how to hook up HIS equipment, i was just stating that a lot of OTHER people (like me) who have 2 channel amps often run them bridged to get more power.

nothing i told him has anything to do with his specific application or how to hook it up. he hasn't got that far yet, he's still looking at equipment.

SM

[Looneybomber]

from my earlier post:

Must'a missed that post. Although 2ohm subs (meaning dual 2ohm VC's) will mean a 2 channel amp will operate at 1 ohm, or 4 ohms per channel.The dual 2's would be better for a mono amp, where-as the dual 4's will be better for a 2chan amp.

[shortmag]

Must'a missed that post. Although 2ohm subs (meaning dual 2ohm VC's) will mean a 2 channel amp will operate at 1 ohm, or 4 ohms per channel.The dual 2's would be better for a mono amp, where-as the dual 4's will be better for a 2chan amp.

exactly.

i was trying to think of way to explain that, but i don't think i could've done it that simply.

SM