amp question for SR6500

bizza

Greetings!
Im new to this forum, and got here from my latest purchase...

Anyways, a little backgroud here.. My car is a Rav4, with 1 speaker on each of the 4 doors... my first speaker "upgrade" was getting 4 infinity reference coaxials... I still have them in my car, but they lack what I was looking for...

so I started my research, read on many forums and whatnot... first thing I did was to deaden all of my doors and trunk (using mostly raamat and then some damplifier pro), and a layer of ensolite... now my ride is much quieter!!
but the infinities still sucked... so I got convinced to try a diy active setup up front...

So I bought an aura (www.aurasound.com) 4x50 channel amp. I bought a pair of Aurum Cantus G2 ribbons, 2 carbon Audax midranges and a pair of Dayton rs180 midbasses... but, when I finally got all these speakers, well, the dayton didnt fit without heavy modification, the ribbons were faaaaar too large, and I never built the kickpanels for the midranges... so needless to say this was pretty much a waste of money... by now, they are just taking shelf space...

I then noticed that I was severly lacking bass, so I got a phoenix gold rsd10, for a nice price... i'll put this in a small sealed box in the trunk...

So finally (if anyone is still readining lol) I settled on the Polk SR6500. After tons of research, I decided to buy this as opposed to the MB Quart QSD and JL Audio ZRs, based on my preference for a smooth tweet and overall great sq. I hope I made a good decision....

My question here is geared as to how I should power these speakers compared to the rest of my system. I have the following options:

1. Run 150x2 rms from my Aura 2300 amp to the SR6500, infinity rear off HU and 150x1 to the rsd10 sub (bridged channels from my Aura 4200)

2. Run 150x2 rms to the sr6500, 50x2 to infinity rearfill, and 150x1 to rsd10 sub (2ch bridged from 4 ch amp)

2. Bi-amp the sr6500 with my 4 channel Aura (4x50rms), infinity rear fill off HU, and 450x1 rms to my rsd10 sub from the 2300 2 ch amp bridged

3. Go back to stock speakers and kill myself

Thanks for reading my loooong post and helping me out!

killerb

i say bi-amp 4x50 and lose the rear fill. you will love it!

bizza

killerb wrote: »

i say bi-amp 4x50 and lose the rear fill. you will love it!

Thanks for the answer...
About the rear fill, well I often have passengers and I would like them to hear something, so Im not going to ditch them...

Now if I biamp the sr6500 like you suggest, will they get loud enough without distorting with only 50 watts?

killerb

i used to have an arc audio amp with 4x50w and i needed more power. i now run a us amp tuber with 75x4, but i think its highly under rated. i also ran a carver m-4120 rated at 120x4 trimming the gains for the tweets and that sounded great as well. try it for yourself and see what you think.

MacLeod

I understand the need for rear speakers to give your passengers some tunes but try this - sit in the back seat with the fader all the way to the front. You still get pretty good sound with the front speakers only.

Getting rid of the rear speakers will (A) save you money and (B) give you a lot better overall sound quality.

As for amp configuration, Im not sure what youve got already. However assuming youre going to buy some new amps, Id suggest 150x2 for the SR's and then whatever is needed to properly power your sub.

If youre wanting to stick with the rear fill, I suggest not using the hu as they are horrible power sources so youd be better off with a dedicated amp for them. But if you dont want to buy and install 3 amps, then Id get as big a 4 channel amp as you can afford and use it for all 4 speakers. That way you can turn down the rear speakers as needed.

Installer4life

Run the 4200 bridged to the SR6500 through the crossover. Do not run them active. That will be 150X2. Run the 2300 bridged to the subwoofer. 450X1. lose the rear speakers. After a break-in period the SR's will give you plenty of sound. IF you have to have rear speakers by a small amp liike MacLeod said and put a switch on it so you can turn it off when there are no passengers in the rear seats.

killerb

why not run them active? way more flexability for tuning.

bizza

MacLeod wrote: »

I understand the need for rear speakers to give your passengers some tunes but try this - sit in the back seat with the fader all the way to the front. You still get pretty good sound with the front speakers only.

Getting rid of the rear speakers will (A) save you money and (B) give you a lot better overall sound quality.

As for amp configuration, Im not sure what youve got already. However assuming youre going to buy some new amps, Id suggest 150x2 for the SR's and then whatever is needed to properly power your sub.

If youre wanting to stick with the rear fill, I suggest not using the hu as they are horrible power sources so youd be better off with a dedicated amp for them. But if you dont want to buy and install 3 amps, then Id get as big a 4 channel amp as you can afford and use it for all 4 speakers. That way you can turn down the rear speakers as needed.

Thanks for the reply sir!
I've noticed that you are quite the Guru around here
I already have the amps, these are the specs:

Aura RPM 4200: 4 Channel Amplifier, 4 x 75 watts into 2 ohms, 4 x 50 watts into 4 ohms, 2 x 150 watts bridged mono into 4 ohms, 0.1% THD from 20 to 20kHz. 85 dB signal-to-noise ratio. 20 Hz - 20 kHz frequency response. Number of channels: 2/3/4/5/6. 150 mV - 4V input sensitivity, 10 k ohms input impedance

Aura 2300: 2 Channel Amplifier2 x 225 watts into 2 ohms, 2 x 150 watts into 4 ohms, 1 x 450 watts bridged mono into 4 ohms, 0.1% THD from 20 to 20kHz. 85 dB signal-to-noise ratio. 20 Hz - 20 kHz frequency response. Number of channels: 1/2/3. 150 mV - 4V input sensitivity, 10 k ohms input impedance

bizza

Installer4life wrote: »

Run the 4200 bridged to the SR6500 through the crossover. Do not run them active. That will be 150X2. Run the 2300 bridged to the subwoofer. 450X1. lose the rear speakers. After a break-in period the SR's will give you plenty of sound. IF you have to have rear speakers by a small amp liike MacLeod said and put a switch on it so you can turn it off when there are no passengers in the rear seats.

Not sure if I can do that with the 4 channel amp.... from the specs above, it says 2 x 150 watts bridged mono into 4 ohms , so I guess I cant do stereo???

MacLeod

Nah, I just dont have a life so Im able to hang out on forums a lot.

If those are your amps then Id suggest just using the 4 channel for the fronts and rears and turn down the rears, then bridge the 2 channel for the sub.