Originally posted by Ben:
So you are saying that unless I get new speakers, an amp is pointless?




First, ignore any power rating that is not RMS. 200w for your speakers - ignore it. 50w for your head unit, it doesn't mean anything. Your HU puts out 20-25w rms.

Let me put it this way. Using an amplifier on any Pioeenr 6x8 speaker will not gain you much in terms of sound, either quality or output. It is help a little, but it will not be very noticable, or as much as if you had components or better plate speakers. Your speakers are inteded to improve the sound over stock with easy installation and are realitively efficient to work well with stock and aftermarket HU's. I would personally not consider going through the effort to add an amp to them. Just IMHO.

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So does that mean getting an AMP that puts out more than 60W RMS per channel is pointless? So what is the point of listing peak power handling then?




It is not useless to have an amp that puts out a little more power than the speakers can handle.

The point of listing mas wattage is advertising and nothing more. For subwoofers that some people may want to burp in SPL contests, it is improtant, but for any speaker that you lsiten to music, the max is worthless.

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And also, I just checked the bose and jbl amps again (both as listed on sounddomain.com).

The Bose is listed with an RMS power of 220W x 4
The JBL is listed with an RMS power of 40W x 4




Bose makes amps now? I tihnk you meant Boss Audio. Anyway, I am sure the Boss is rated at 220w RMSand it may put that out at a certain frequency, but I suspect it would only put out half that in scientific testing.

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So I am thinking that the 220W is the RMS. So it sounds like it does put out more power than the JBL (ad more than the USX-4065). If I am still reading this wrong, please let me know. I just don't want to buy something with out doing all the research I can, and get ripped off.
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220w rms is way too much for any speaker you'll probably put in your car if it actually did that. And it is a pretty big (physical size) amp so finding a place to put it could be a problem. The US Acoustics amps are good. They put out their rated power. A few people on here use them (I am usng one right now). Another option is the Bazooka EL460 from Return Buy. Not much pwoer for bridging the channels, though.

One indicator of how much real power an amplifier can produce is to check the 2-ohm rms rating and the bridged power rating. Ideally, an amplifier will provide twice the power at 2-ohms than 4-ohms, and bridged into a 4-ohm mono load it will put out 4-times the power as each channel into 4-ohms.

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What about the back speakers?



I would let them run off the head unit or disable/remove them completely. Or, find an amplifier that has 5 or 6 channels, 4 for the 4 doors and 1 or 2 (bridged into 1) for the subwoofer when you get one).

If I were in your shoes, this is what I would do. Sell all 4 of your Pioneers on eBay. Compose some components, get an amp and sub. Selecting the right parts, this would sound better than anything you'll get out of 4 Pioneer palte speakers. Again, IMHO.