How "clean" are the factory amps?

[creophus]

I just installed new Alpine Speakers in my S14. It has the factory amp and head unit in it right now. I will be removing the factory HU and will put in an Eclipse 3403. Should I be worried about blowing my speakers with the factory amps? I am aware that they don't put out much power, but blowing speakers usually happens when the power is not clean, not when there's too much power.

Is it ok, to crank the volume or will I blow the speakers? The speakers are Alpine 170AS Type S.

[bigE]

You can turn it up, but once you hear distortion, cut it back, distortion kills speakers.

Eric

[SmithSR]

aka: replace them if you can afford to. factory amps were supplied to the vehicle manufacturer by the lowest bidder.

[Simmsled]

the factory amps provide low power that isnt very clean. so... if you are going to turn it up... i would cut the bass back (bass nob) and make sure not to hear distortion like BigE said

[creophus]

Ok. I know someone asked this before, but is it easy to bypass the amps? I don't want to have to re-wire the speakers that are in the door. It's pretty difficult looking to get wires through the door and back into the cabin. Right now I'm using an Eclipse 3403 with the factory wiring.

[98TURBOKA]

Distortion kills!!

[Simmsled]

Well, the way to do it is to get the lead wires going into the amp and match them with the speaker output wires at the head unit. When you see that they match, you can take those wires and attach new wire to them leading to your new speakers. Hope that helps, I bet one of the 240 guys might actually know the colors. If somebody has these, I will have them put into the install guide.

[hibrid180]

you can give me the amp ur not gonna use tho

[creophus]

Sure thing, make me an offer.

[Demonic240]

Factory Amplifiers don't generate enough head room to create distortion free signals at full volume ... and as everyone has mention, distortion kills speakers. I haven't looked at the builds on Factory amps, but I am also guessing there not anywhere near a Class A/B weighted amp ... producing a much cleaner signal.

Just my $0.02