so the power and RMS ratings are fine?
still confused on the negitive side of things. from the amp to the floor pan. from the floor pan to the frame needs a larger wire. and where the negitive post of the battery connects to the frame needs a bigger wire?
i have to look at my grounds aswell, i have noise at low RPM you cna hear it whine in the speaker.
the 18 gauge "turn on lead" is the remote power. the wire that turns on and off the amp depending if the CD player has power?
the specs of that amp said it has gain controls, but i know what you mean about sensitivity.
i live in a town of 3000 in montana, its hard to find people to help out with out paying 60 an hour for labor!
so, lets say my speakers are 50 w RMS and the amp puts out 75 W RMS (both values being continuis). as long as the sentivity does nto go from 40W to 90W to the speakers, it should get SO loud at 50W that to blow a speaker my ears would also be blown. i mean the Db level would be so high you could not stand it and if i still cranked the sound up THEN i rish blowing crap up?
i really dont have room in it for a TRUE woofer. just behind hte seat and under it. both usualy have a mixture of crap, 90 weight and 30 weaght oil and other fluids to keep the old girl alive all over it. not the best place for a nice woofer. if i can get enough bass out of the 6x9s i dont care. not to extream as they are not ment to be bass-y, but you get the idea.
The output power is fine and as Nestor posted, low power kills far more speakers than high power. The sensitivity controls can be set so that you don't use the amp's maximum power and that will not only save your speakers, it will save your ears.
Look at the floor pan as a conductor- the current won't go in a narrow, straight path from the amp's ground wire to the battery connection- it has the ability to travel wherever possible and that means it could carry a lot more current than your amp will draw. Also, any electrical noise that is inside or outside of the vehicle will reach the body and go straight to the battery ground. You want this to happen, trust me. If you run a separate ground wire from the amp to the battery, it will act as an antenna, picking up any noise that's nearby and it won't necessarily be filtered out by the battery (the battery us a really good filter as long as it's in good condition).
The floor pan is a big conductor but that little ground wire from the body to the battery is only sized to handle the lights and other accessories and if you add an amplifier, it's immediately too small.
The turn-on lead connects to the head unit's blue wire and all head units have one.
If you have whine, is it all the time, or just when you play a tape? If it's only when playing a tape, it's likely that moving the head unit away from the dash will affect the volume of the noise and that means it's from a wire that's passing close to the tape head. Look in the area of the head unit for a heavy pink wire and if you see it, move it away from the head unit and listen fro changes in the noise level. You shouldn't have the noise if you install a CD player but if you buy one with an AUX input, it may be an issue when you use that.
They're called 'gain control' but it's not necessarily the correct term- it's just more common and because of that, they just let it go to avoid confusion.
The speakers will produce a certain amount of sound with 1 Watt of input and they'll handle a certain amount of power, assuming it's not distorted and the bass hasn't been cranked to the limit. Your truck's cab isn't very big and if you close the windows, it will be plenty loud. Open the windows and add a loud exhaust and you'll need more power just to hear the music over the noise. 60 W of clean power won't be a problem for the speakers unless you crank the bass up too high for the speakers to handle. If you use the filters on the amp (setting these to 60Hz will definitely add to the speakers' life span), you won't hear a difference because your truck doesn't have a trunk to create deep bass but it will also keep the bass from damaging the speakers. One speaker with 1W will be audible but adding three more will be appreciably louder. Add 60W/ch and it's now a lot louder.
Your ears get one chance- once they're damaged, it doesn't come back completely, if at all. If you turn it up to about 75% (the head unit will distort at a certain point, too- it should never be turned all the way up), and think it's too loud you'll know that you have more power than you'll use and that's far better than turning it all the way up and not having enough power.
