Amplifier and Stereo Sound

Mav2005 said:

I have a 98 Tacoma extended cab with four speakers. I replaced the head unit this past summer and that helped out the sound quality quite a bit. Now I'm looking to replace both the front and rear speakers. While doing so, I'm also thinking about adding an amplifier to the mix. Will the amplifier provide a significant change in sound quality? If so, can I get some recommendations on which ones to purchase? I may add a sub later on, but as of right now I have no plans to. Also Crutchfield is in my hometown, so I'll pretty much buy everything from them.

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An amp will change the sound. External ampifiers tend to have much greater headroom and therefore usually sound better (very broad generalization there).

How many RCA preamp outputs do you have with your current head unit?

atwinda said:

If you want to amp the new speakers, you'll need to get speakers that crave wattage..

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Why??? Efficient speakers (in other words, ones that don't "crave wattage") work just as well.

Breathegood said:

What good is having a speaker that "craves" 400 watts if your amplifier's peak output is only 50 watts (200w by 4 channel amp for example)? The highest quality sound will come from matching the speaker's power handling with the amplifier's peak power output.

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I somewhat agree. But matching the speaker's power handling to the amp's peak output is not as big a consideration as one might think. Especially since power output/handling ratings are rather imprecise in car audio. The highest quality sound will come from having quality components and a quality install. A high-quality 50 watt amp on "200 watt speakers" can sound much better than a low-quality 200 watt (per channel) amp on the same speakers. $50 200 watt speakers can sound like ass next to a set of $300 100 watt speakers. Signal-to-noise ratio, signal damping and distortion specs, the quality of components, and quality of installation will be much greater determinants of sound quality.

Breathegood said:

Well said, but you left out another scenario. A $300 set of 200 watt speakers can sound like ass when underpowered compaired to a $50 set of 80 watt speakers properly powered. Just because you spend more doesn't mean you are getting better sound quality, but if you're doing it all at once why not match the speakers you will be using to the amplifier. You are absolutely right though, proper installation and quality parts make all the difference.

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Very true. I meant to say something along those lines too, but got distracted. LOL Matching sensitivity to output, and making sure you have quality components (not necessarily expensive) installed well will usually give the best results, regardless of outright wattage.

Mav2005 said:

Thanks everyone for responding. My receiver has one pair of preamp outputs. From looking around, I'd say I would be adding speakers that are rated up to 50 watts of power each. As for my current receiver on power, it's putting out 22 watts RMS and 45 watts peak. Any general recommendations on amplifiers?

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So you only have one pair of RCA's? As in one for left and one for right? What brand and model head unit do you have? As far as amps, I would look at Rockford, MTX, Alpine, PPI... there's so many. A good idea would be to check sounddomain.com and check out some of the amps they sell, because they have customer reviews to give you a good idea of what others' tend to like or dislike from particular models. One thing you may want to consider, to help save money, is using the head unit to run the rear speakers and use a 2-channel amp to run the fronts. Rear speakers aren't as critical for good sound and do fine with the head unit's power. Additionally, a 2-channel amp is usually much cheaper than a 4-channel unit with the same wattage per channel.

Breathegood said:

Sounds like you're looking for roughly a 200 watt by four channel setup.

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You mean 50 watts by four (50 x 4), for a total of 200 watts.