Okay guys so over the sumer I'm looking to do a whole sound system in my car, rightnos I have a crappy aftermarket car deck (will be buying higher wattage one) and I'm also running 2 "12" Kenwood exelons in a box ran by a Kenwood 1000 watt amp, Inneed help on whay kind if speakers to get, 2 ,3, or 4 way speakers and if so where to out them? I heard people running4way in frontand 2 in the back I'm looking for the most powerful setup I wanna be heard crisp clean and are gunna amp the speakers whenever I get the money for an amp,any help is appericTed
Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall,,,,,Torque is how far you take the wall with you
Ok, a few issues here.. Most importantly(and misunderstood), almost ALL aftermarket decks put out between 12-14 watts rms. I understand that they all boast 50 x4 channels on the box; that value is max wattage and is way less useful to you than the rms(nominal) wattage. The issue here is people will go out and buy a pair of 300 watt speakers (50-100 watts rms), hook them up, and wonder why there's no bass and they're not loud. It's because a deck putting out 14 watts rms on a good day will NEVER be able to push a speaker that's meant for three or 4 times the wattage and get the most out of it. Typically, having more drivers on the speaker (3-way, 4-way) not only adds more wattage requirements but they honestly don't sound any better in my opinion.
To get the most out of aftermarket speakers you have two options. First, buy a nice, high wattage pair and run them with an a/b class amplifier. This will obviously give you the best results in both loudness and sound quality but costs more and is a lot more work to set up properly. Second, you can buy speakers that are meant to be driven by a head unit. I haven't done research on brands in a long time but from what I remember, Pioneer was the best readily available option. The secret to their good sound and loud decibels is their LOW rms wattage numbers, typically in the 15-25 watt range. That allows your headunit to actually be able to push them and make them sing.
Last thing I'll mention is that your front speakers should always be louder than the rears, especially if you're running subs to cover the bass. Hell, most guys who compete for sound quality don't even run rear speakers. It's all about front imaging. Bass, if tuned correctly, isn't directional so it doesn't matter if the drivers are behind you or not. But if you're running high frequencies like full range speakers behind you, it's not going to sound right. It may be loud but it won't be right. I mention this because if you do plan to go with option 1 and amplify your full range speakers I STRONGLY suggest you amplify the fronts if you only plan on buying a 2 channel amp and/or one set of speakers.
"In Oldskool we trust"
The "way" is just the size of speaker you want + how many tweeters(drivers) it has added onto it. So if you're really into music with a lot of highs then you would probably like 3 way and up. For bass it doesn't really matter because you probably don't want high notes.
