Do I need an amp?

What’s up guys, my first post here. I have a 21 SR5 dbl cab with the stock audio system and I’ve already upgraded the speakers to these: Subaru tweeters, Kicker Q class 44QSC694 with crossovers, and the rear doors are kicker cs series 6-1/2”. I’ll be honest I didn’t know too much about what I was doing but I’ve been having this issue that when I have the fader balance in the middle around 55 vol it begins to get distorted on louder songs. Is my head unit not putting enough power, do I need an amp? Or is there something else wrong. I’m all new to the car audio world and I want loud clear quality. Thanks!

 

Yes you need an amp.

You removed the paper thin OEM speakers that took very little power to get moving and replaced them with bigger, heavier, power hungry speakers. The OEM headunit can't push them effectively at high volume. You're hearing clipping and that's what kills speakers.

 

My next question would be what amp or specifications would anyone recommend?

 

Planning on adding a sub in the near future?

 

Your OE head unit is most likely clipping at 55 on the vol knob

 

Maybe within the next 12-18 months. My priority right now is trying to get clear audio at high levels. I know once I achieve that I’ll want more though lol

 

kicker key 200.4 if you want to keep the oem radio. You'll get better results from just replacing the radio though.

 

I only have an amp for my sub but I also never go past 45 because it sounds like bad things might happen lol.

 

Correct. The factory radio begins to distort on some channels before this, but at 55 all channels are distorting at the radio output.

 

I would just pull the trigger now then and get a five channel amp, you'll only need to pull panels and run wires once.

https://www.amazon.com/Rockford-Fos...02c-909c-531be6d8111f&pd_rd_i=B00BF6HXA8&th=1

 

I just don’t want to spend the money on both at the moment. Is it possible to still buy this 5 channel but not use the sub channel until later?

 

Yup no problem at all. You can run that amp in 2, 4 or 5 channel mode.

 

Sounds great! I appreciate the help.

 

This might be a dumb question but I have 6 speakers in my car 2 tweeters and 4 on each door. Am I dumb or do tweeters not need connection to amp or how does that work?

 

The door speakers are connected together by a crossover. Each side needs only 1 channel.

 

So I have made assumptions and discovered I was wrong, so here's what's really going on:

The stock wiring goes like this: Head Unit Front Channels->Dash Tweeter->Door speaker.

I assumed that there was a crossover in that sequence, but I was wrong. There isn't. The stock tweeters have an inline filter and then they pass the full signal on to the doors. Or in other words, the tweets and the front doors are wired in parallel, and the parallel connection is at the dash tweeters.

So if you amp, it depends entirely how you wire. If you harness back to the stock wires, the dash and doors are amped. If you run your own wires, then the dash is disconnected and you are only powering the doors. Or... If you run components, you will amp to the aftermarket crossovers, which will in turn send power to the individual components.


I really hope that makes sense. Been drinking.

 

I have the Subaru tweeters, but I’m assuming it’s the same as stock because it’s essentially plug and play. What I’m getting from this is harnessing back to the stock wires is the way to go? I’m assuming that it’s best to have all speakers amped, right?

 

Depends on the level of amp. The general rule of thumb I heard was that you can use stock wiring up to 50 watts RMS. Anything beyond and the resistance of the tiny wires becomes too much. And that has been my experience. I'm running the key 200.4 (50w/channel) over stock wiring. The true audio nerds will say to run your own wiring. They are probably right if you want to run any amp that doesn't tuck into the dashboard.



The subaru tweets are wired the same as the stock speakers. They have an inline filter. I tried to find a diagram, and this is the closest one that makes sense:




The white box is the 4 wire plug that connects the tweeter. The tweeter itself creates the parallel connection to push the raw signal back down to the doors, then at the base of the speaker it goes through an internal band pass filter so that it only plays the high notes. (all of that happens inside the gray box, which in reality sits at the receptacle where you connect the 4 wire plug.) The subaru and the stock will both function this way, other tweeters or components will need both a custom wire harness and a crossover to do the same thing.

 

+1. just note that the oem tweeter filter is very cheaply made, and a basic aftermarket head unit will overpower it and cause the tweeter to crackle (indicating the filter is not filtering anymore). i would not recommend the stock tweeters with an amp, as you'll be replacing them either sooner or later.

 

Oh and a note to the OP...

^^^ this guy is one of maybe three sound experts that I have read, followed, and blatantly plagiarized. I'd listen to this guy.