Picking the Perfect Car Amplifiers
Car amplifiers were specifically built to boost the sound coming out on your car speakers. As the name suggests, they amplify the sound not just in volume but also in quality. Car amplifiers could come on mono, two-channel or four-channel amplifiers. The channel refers to the capacity of the amplifier of boosting the sound to more speakers. Two-channel amplifiers are only geared for two speakers while the four-channel is perfect for four speakers and below. Sub-woofers could even be added when there’s an amplifier so you can experience better bass sounds in your music.
RMS and Peak Sound
Aside from the channel options, you should also consider pairing the speakers with the amplifier. If possible, purchase the speakers along with the amplifier as the shop that sells them sets up the amplifiers to properly complement the speakers and subwoofers.
In case you don’t have amplifiers yet, there are two numbers that you need to know in your speaker before you buy an amplifier: the RMS and the Peak power. RMS or Root Mean Square power refers to the power that could be absorbed by the subwoofer and speakers from the amplifiers. They have to match or else the amplifier will not do its job. If it’s higher than the speaker then you will end up with an overloaded speaker and the sound is jeopardized. If it’s lower then the sound will not be amplified enough. The peak power on the other hand refers to the ability of the amplifier to boost sudden sounds to the speakers. They should be higher compared to RMS as they would need more power to handle sudden burst of sound.
Things to Look for in a Car Amplifier
Low and High Pass Filter – this is a very important feature you should look for in an amplifier especially if you have a subwoofer and tweeters. The low pass filter is the ability of your car amplifier to prevent high notes to come out of the subwoofer and concentrate on bass so that the sound in your car will blend beautifully. This is also the same with high pass filter but this is geared towards tweeters. Tweeters should only be dedicated to high notes and will not emphasize on low sounds.
Speaker Inputs – most amplifiers are installed with the car stereo but they don’t allow extra configuration such as extra speakers. Look for an amplifier that will allow you for additional inputs especially when you are transitioning from two-channel sound to four-channel sound.
Slot for Extra Amplifiers – This is probably pushing it too far but you’ll never know when you want to have more speakers with the same quality. A good car amplifier should have a preamp output. This enables you to connect to another amplifier and properly distribute the sound to different speakers and subwoofers.
These features in car amplifiers are common in brand new car amplifiers, double check the used car amplifiers as they might not have the features you are looking for. The perfect car amplifier should not only boost sound but also boost its quality.